Monthly Archives: November 2022

Want to attract and retain broadband customers? Be up front about costs

Posted on by
Reply

Doug Dawson (POTs and PANs) talks about broadband pricing…

There are three billing practices that are routine for the large ISPs that smart competitors avoid. First is offering special low prices to attract new customers. The second is bundling, which means giving a discount to customers buying multiple products. Third is what has become known as hidden fees, where there are routine monthly fees that are not included in the online advertised price offers to customers.

A lot of smaller ISPs wonder if they should match these same tactics. The argument for copying the tactic is that it allows advertising rates that can be compared to what the big companies advertise. The main argument against matching these tactics is that the practices are deceptive, and customers have made it clear that they don’t like these tactics. Fiber overbuilders tell me that the first customers they win in a new market are those who feel deceived and mistreated by the bigger ISPs.

Big ISP online advertising has felt sleazy for many years. I wrote a recent blog where Charter in Los Angeles offers customers drastically different introductory rates depending upon neighborhood – with the highest rates being offered to the neighborhoods with the highest level of poverty. It’s common to see broadband specials advertised for less than half of the list price. A customer has to click through multiple levels of footnotes to find out the rate at the end of the special – if it is online at all. It’s not hard to think that somebody could be attracted to low rates without understanding that big increases will be coming in a year or two.

I have spent much of my career saying, I want to help people understand the Internet in a way in which I’d like to understand my car. I don’t want to rebuild it but I’d like to drive efficiently and know how much it costs to fix or fuel. I have a mechanic who I’m sure is not the cheapest but I trust him to tell me how much it’s going to be, to stick to that and tell me when it’s time to upgrade. That level of customer service buys you a customer for life. Frankly, most customers would rather stay put that ride out change after change to save a few bucks.

Coalition of Greater Minnesota Cities talks up Broadband success

Posted on by
Reply

The Worthington Globe reports…

While bonding-related projects regarding water infrastructure and housing, and grant programs for business and childcare facilities, remain an ongoing priority for CGMC, Seifert said there was success last session with their broadband goals. A total of $210 million was received for broadband funding, more than double the amount the CGMC lobbied for, as a result of federal COVID bills relegating extra funds.

“This was one area where Minnesota came out with $160 million from the feds,” Seifert said. “We had to match it up with $50 million from our budget surplus.”

While Seifert warned that deployment has been slow, it is underway and one of the “good news items” from the last session.

In addition to seeing work start again on matters left over from last year’s legislative session, Mayor Mike Kuhle asked about the state’s budget surplus, which Seifert projected to be north of $7 billion.

Broadband price disparities in Minneapolis are some of the worst

Posted on by
Reply

The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports…

A house in the Audubon Park neighborhood of northeast Minneapolis, once redlined by federal agencies, pays $50 a month to CenturyLink for internet service with speeds up to 80Mbps.

Not far away, in a neighborhood that wasn’t redlined, that same $50 to CenturyLink buys high-speed fiber internet with speeds up to 200Mpbs.

Similar differences have been found in other Minneapolis neighborhoods as well as cities throughout the country, according to data released and analyzed by the tech news nonprofit the Markup. But Minneapolis has “one of the most striking disparities” among 38 U.S. cities examined, the nonprofit found.

“Formerly redlined addresses were offered the worst deals almost eight times as often as formerly better-rated areas” in Minneapolis, the report said. The group’s analysis focused on CenturyLink in Minneapolis, the provider offering the most fiber service in the city, but did not compare service offers among other providers in town.

In cities across the country, people living in homes in redlined areas got worse dollars-per-megabit internet deals, according to the nonprofit, which analyzed more than 800,000 internet service offers from AT&T, Verizon, EarthLink, and CenturyLink. It found that “all four routinely offered fast base speeds at or above 200Mbps in some neighborhoods for the same price as connections below 25Mbps in others.” The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) defines broadband as 25Mpbs or more.

Redlining was a government-backed effort that segregated Black families into particular neighborhoods deemed “undesirable” by the now-defunct Home Owners’ Loan Corp. Though the practice was outlawed in 1968, the impacts remain, affecting homeownership, education and other quality-of-life issues.

This was a hot topic on the Black Broadband Summit last week. Attendees talk about their own experience with high bills and slow speeds and the exacerbated need for broadband during the pandemic and civil unrest following the murder of George Floyd. One solution notes was to treat utility as a utility…

“We allow monopolies for internet service because internet isn’t considered a utility like it should be,” Augustine said. “It should be like water. If you want to be a modern citizen of the world, you need high-speed internet. Otherwise, you’re automatically a second-class citizen.”

According to new FCC map Minnesota has ubiquitous broadband at 25/3 – hmm

Posted on by
Reply

I have good news and bad news. According to new FCC map, Minnesota has ubiquitous broadband at speeds of 25 Mbps down and 3 Mbps up. It’s good news if it’s true. It’s bad news if it’s not true and we lose out on federal broadband funding because the maps were wrong. According to maps from the Office of Broadband Development, the FCC maps are wrong. The areas shown in pink in the map below (on the right) do not have broadband at 25/3.

If you live in one of these areas, check out the map and report a location challenge if you think they FCC map is wrong. Once you look up your address, you’ll see the where to make a location challenge on the website.

If you are a community leader or a (potential?) provider in the area, you might think about how to get your neighbors to report overrepresentation or think about attending the tutorial from the FCC on how to file bulk challenges to the FCC’s broadband map on November 30.

MN Lower Sioux gets almost $2 million for broadband

Posted on by
Reply

National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) announces…

The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) announced today it has awarded 18 grants as part of the Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program (TBCP). These new grants, totaling $224,479,717.83, bring the total of the program to $1.5 billion awarded to 112 Tribal entities. …

The projects funded by these awards will directly connect 21,468 unserved Native American households that previously had no connectivity to high-speed Internet as well as businesses and anchor institutions. Additionally, the 18 grants will create 137 new jobs.

Here’s the award in Minnesota:

  • Lower Sioux Indian Community in the State of Minnesota
  • Broadband Infrastructure Deployment
  •  $1,995,787.00
  • The Broadband Infrastructure Deployment project proposes to install fiber directly connecting 47 unserved Native American households, 3 businesses, and 13 community anchor institutions with fiber to home qualifying broadband service at speeds up to 10 Gbps symmetrical.

RESOURCE: Asset Mapping for Digital Inclusion

Posted on by
Reply

Have you ever had to do asset mapping? I can tell you from experience it’s easier and more efficient to have tools in front of you and the National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA) could not have made it easier. And as folks are creating digital inclusion plans, digital inclusion asset mapping will help make informed decisions. Check it out…

Below, we have made our Asset Inventory Template available as a Google Sheet and as an Excel (xlsm) file, as well as our Survey Template available as a Google Form. Please see NDIA’s Creative Commons policy – you are free to use, replicate, and alter materials, we just ask that you credit NDIA when sharing.

You will find a full explanation of each field in the “Data Dictionary” sheet on the Asset Mapping Inventory Template. Once you have an understanding of what each field is for, feel free to edit, delete, or create fields as you need. These tools are fully customizable. No changes you make will affect the original version, so please make them your own!

Willmar to invest $42,000 in broadband mapping

Posted on by
Reply

West Central Tribune reports…

The city of Willmar will soon have a detailed map of the current internet infrastructure throughout the entire city after the Willmar City Council on Monday approved contracting with Hometown Fiber to conduct an audit of those services.

The cost of the audit is $42,486 and will be paid from the Industrial Park Fund, since the industrial park will also be mapped, according to Willmar Planning and Development Director Justice Walker.

The recommendation to conduct such an audit came from the Broadband RFP Selection Committee after it reviewed three broadband proposals and conducted interviews with the respondents.

The Broadband RFP Selection Committee was established by the Willmar City Council in July to review requests for proposals for internet providers interested in expanding broadband services to Willmar households.

FCC unveils pre-production broadband maps and speed test – try them out!

Posted on by
Reply

According to an FCC press release…

The Federal Communications Commission today released a pre-production draft of its new National Broadband Map.  The map will display specific location-level information about broadband services available throughout the country – a significant step forward from the census block level data previously collected.  This release of the draft map kicks off the public challenge processes that will play a critical role in improving the accuracy of the map.  An accurate map is an important resource for targeting funding and other efforts to bring broadband to unserved and underserved communities.

“Today is an important milestone in our effort to help everyone, everywhere get specific information about what broadband options are available for their homes, and pinpointing places in the country where communities do not have the service they need,” said Chairwoman Rosenworcel.  “Our pre-production draft maps are a first step in a long-term effort to continuously improve our data as consumers, providers and others share information with us.  By painting a more accurate picture of where broadband is and is not, local, state, and federal partners can better work together to ensure no one is left on the wrong side of the digital divide.”

The public will be able to view the maps at broadbandmap.fcc.gov and search for their address to see information about the fixed and mobile services that internet providers report are available there.  If the fixed internet services shown are not available at the user’s location, they may file a challenge with the FCC directly through the map interface to correct the information.  Map users will also be able correct information about their location and add their location to the map if it is missing.  The draft map will also allow users to view the mobile wireless coverage reported by cellular service providers.

The FCC today also announced the launch of an updated version of the FCC Speed Test App that will enable users to quickly compare the performance and coverage of their mobile networks to that reported by their provider.  The app allows users to submit their mobile speed test data in support of a challenge to a wireless service provider’s claimed coverage.  New users can download the FCC Speed Test App in both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.  Existing app users should update the app to gain these new features.

A video tutorial and more information on how to submit challenges is available at fcc.gov/BroadbandData/consumers.

For more information about the BDC, please visit the Broadband Data Collection website at fcc.gov/BroadbandData.

I found an interesting perspective from Christopher Terry, a professor at the University of Minnesota…

“More than 4,600 days after the Federal Communications Commission launched its National Broadband Plan, the agency is finally trying to correct its shortcomings of the last decade by more accurately mapping broadband deployment. The updated data will be used to make grants intended to resolve the digital divide across Minnesota in urban, rural and even Tribal areas. This is the agency’s last chance to achieve universal broadband deployment, and the success or failure of the FCC will have long term impacts on Minnesota’s economy.”

FCC unveils new broadband labels

Posted on by
Reply

According to an FCC press release…

The Federal Communications Commission today unveiled new rules that will for the first time require broadband providers to display easy-to-understand labels to allow consumers to comparison shop for broadband services.  The Report and Order approved by the Commission creates rules that require broadband providers to display, at the point of sale, labels that show key information consumers want−prices, speeds, fees, data allowances, and other critical information.  The labels resemble the well-known nutrition labels that appear on food products. …

“Broadband is an essential service, for everyone, everywhere.  Because of this, consumers need to know what they are paying for, and how it compares with other service offerings,” said Chairwoman Rosenworcel.  “For over 25 years, consumers have enjoyed the convenience of nutrition labels on food products.  We’re now requiring internet service providers to display broadband labels for both wireless and wired services.  Consumers deserve to get accurate information about price, speed, data allowances, and other terms of service up front.”

 

Additionally, the new broadband labels will empower consumers with several features including:

 

  • Prominent Display. The Order ensures that consumers see their actual label when purchasing broadband by requiring providers to display the label – not simply an icon or link to the label – in close proximity to an associated plan advertisement.
  • Account Portals. The Order requires ISPs to make each customer’s label easily accessible to the customer in their online account portal, as well as to provide the label to an existing customer upon request.
  • Machine Readability. To further assist with comparison shopping, the Order requires that providers make the information in the labels machine-readable to enable third parties to more easily collect and aggregate data for the purpose of creating comparison-shopping tools for consumers.
  • Further Refinements. The Commission also adopted a Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on ways that it can further refine and improve its rules in order to ensure that we further our consumer transparency goals.

Update and/or another look at Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA)

Posted on by
Reply

I feel like I just can’t read about IIJA and all the federal broadband funding enough. Benton Institute for Broadband & Society has a nice update on the Digital Equity Act, which in a piece of IIJA. Here are the highlights; you can check out the site for greater detail…

The Digital Equity Act provides $2.75 billion to establish three grant programs at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). The programs focus on increasing broadband adoption and ensuring that all people and communities have the skills, technology, and capacity needed to reap the full benefits of our digital economy. The three programs are:

  • State Digital Equity Planning Grant Program: A $60 million formula grant program for states, territories and Tribal governments to develop digital equity plans.
  • State Digital Equity Capacity Grant Program: A $1.44 billion formula grant program for states, territories, and Tribal governments. It will fund an annual grant program for five years in support of digital equity projects and the implementation of digital equity plans.
  • Digital Equity Competitive Grant Program: A $1.25 billion grant program. It will fund annual grant programs for five years to implement digital equity projects.

Over the past year, the NTIA has focused on the planning grant program, encouraging states, territories and Tribal governments to develop digital equity plans in tandem with universal broadband access plans required for the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program.

MN Broadband Task Force Nov 2022: Workshopping the report draft: reliability and costs

Posted on by
Reply

Today the Task Force went through drafts of their annual report. As much as possible, I have screen shots of the draft (in PPT form), which is really last year’s version with some updates. Then I have the documents they used to discuss the challenges and recommendations made by both sub-groups Affordability and Adoption Sub-Group AND Funding, Mapping and Usage Sub-Group. The screenshots of a Google Docs are really where the beef is.

The was discussion on consumer perception of broadband reliability with a leaning toward making sure that the provider perspective was understood as well. That very the problem isn’t with the connection but with the user and/or user equipment. There was also discussion about trying to come up with a cost to bring broadband to everyone in Minnesota. The average cost per household was penciled in as $9300. That is not far off previous numbers; I suspect it’s hard to anticipate shortages, price increases and natural barriers in reaching the last households. Also folks were wondering if broadband meant wired solutions only.

There was also an update from the Office of Broadband Development. They are currently hiring two grants managers and are looking at hiring more positions soon.

Full notes Continue reading →

Duluth Fiber Lincoln Park Project testing waters for larger municipal roll out

Posted on by
Reply

WDIO reports…

The City of Duluth is taking the first steps to making internet accessible for all with the Duluth Fiber Lincoln Park Project. In the first phase of Duluth Fiber, the pilot project will connect an estimated 1,900 customers, both residential and business, with high-speed internet in the Lincoln Park neighborhood. After a year of success, the City will look to deploy fiber citywide.

“So this is a fiber project, it would be utilizing some connected fiber that is already in this community through other services and then expanding on it. And so what’s really exciting is that council last year passed a policy. This policy would make it that whenever the city is doing road maintenance within the pilot project there could be a potential future fiber build out to somebody’s home or business,” says Emily Nygren, Economic developer for the planning division of Duluth.

City staff and Council have been working towards broadband resolutions for the last year. A recent survey of over 1, 7000 residents, found the vast majority of respondents believed the costs were unaffordable. When considering options for City investment, a substantial 97 percent chose the option to back a City-sponsored broadband resolution.

“So right now we’re doing the network design for what that would look like duplexes, triplexes, multi-family housing development as well as for businesses. It’s an opportunity for the city to own the actual fiber infrastructure, so the fiber optic cable and the network and then allow for other companies to come in and be able to compete for your service to your door. So similar to a cable TV provider of selection of channels, you can decide really what is your menu, what type of service, what types of speeds,” continues Nygren.

To sign up and find out more about the project, click here: https://www.connectingduluth.com/

BBC chat on digital equity projects in Big Stone, Lincoln and Pine Counties, Austin and Warroad

Posted on by
Reply

Last week the BBC (Blandin Broadband Communities) final cohort met to catch up with what was happening in each community.

Here’s a very high level list of what happening:

  • Big Stone has smart rooms and training through PioneerTV. The are trying to get local government folks to join via streaming versus travel unnecessarily.
  • Lincoln is adding hotspots, adding an Internet safety class and an at-home at Lincoln County program and is getting fiber to some of the last areas.
  • Austin has hosted a PCs for People event (refurbished computer distribution), working on privacy internet kiosks so that people can privately get public access to the Internet, working on getting seniors more comfortable with technology with an online trivia event and digital literacy training.
  • Pine County held come “Going Google” classes, working with a provider to build towers for fixed wireless and working in another areas on deploying fiber.
  • Warroad is working on Wi-Fi on sporting fields to aid in livestreaming, completed Wi-Fi on school buses and enhancing backbone coming into Warroad.

 

Frontier is simplifying product and tiered pricing to “un-cable”

Posted on by
Reply

Fierce Telecom reports…

Frontier Communications has grabbed headlines with its plans to build fiber to more than 10 million locations across the country, but another major transformation is underway at the company. Behind the scenes, Consumer EVP John Harrobin said it’s been working to overhaul its product portfolio and customer experience. And, taking a page from T-Mobile, Harrobin said Frontier’s strategy centers on becoming the “un-cable” option in the market.

What does that mean?

According to Harrobin, Frontier’s approach is focused on simplifying its offerings and eliminating customer pain points. Already it has streamlined its portfolio to go from “hundreds of different price plans that resulted in confusing, inconsistent bills” to just three consumer tiers. It also added digital capabilities and beefed up its in-home Wi-Fi delivery by utilizing Amazon eero.

And easier pricing…

He noted a major move for Frontier was the pivot to flat pricing. This refers to a pricing model which maintains a consistent rate over time rather than dramatically increasing a consumer’s bill after a promotional period, usually of 12 or 24 months. Harrobin said Frontier’s research identified this price jump as the number one pain point for customers.

“So, we said we’re not going to do it,” he said. “It doesn’t mean we’re not going to increase prices. We’re going to increase prices for certain. But we’ll do it on a more human, logical, natural progression versus doubling the price after one or two years.”

Senator Smith to support better broadband in next Farm Bill

Posted on by
Reply

Brownfield News reports…

A member of the Senate Agriculture Committee wants to expand rural development opportunities in the next farm bill.

Minnesota Democrat Tina Smith says she’ll be looking for ways USDA can improve the way it meets the needs of rural communities.

“I’m talking about the deep need for reliable high-speed broadband, investing in communities and economic development. Improving access to healthcare and supporting critical access hospitals in rural areas.”