Author Archives: Bill Coleman

NTIA/RUS Broadband Workshop Notes

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Bill ColemanIt was a long day of powerpoints at the St. Paul ARRA Broadband Workshop this week. Overall, very little new or definitive information was provided. We did receive a folder with a flood of powerpoints (all online). Attendees who have spent significant time examining the NOFAs learned even less than I did.

The following are some of the items that I wrote in my notes…

During the opening general session, attendees were told to stop fussing over the policy and to worry about incorporating plenty of partnering and long-term sustainability into quality applications.

The RUS funds will not be gone after the first round – their ability to make loans allows them to actually triple the amount that RUS has to fund projects.

Applications made to both RUS and NTIA will be considered simultaneously in the first round.

The “remote” definition is in flux. Watch the web site for updates.

A COMPLETE APPLICATION IS REQUIRED! Incomplete applications will suffer immediate rejection. Applications rejected in round 1 can be resubmitted in later rounds. Applications making it through Step 1 will proceed to Step 2 where information will need to be verified.

Use the self-help scoring sheets as a strategic tool for designing competitive applications.

Make sure that all elements are consistent – budgets, timelines, executive summary. Ask others to read for clarity and consistency.

Community anchor institutions are key targets for involvement. Public safety agencies too.

Project must be substantially complete within 2 years. That is now defined around 70%.

Pay attention to the “but, for” requirements.

Many attendees had negative comments about the amount of data, unavailable from any secondary source that is required to document unserved and underserved. These concerns were met with a shrug and a “do the best you can and document your process”.

Sustainable Use workshop
Increased subscription rates are a significant desired outcome. Pay attention to target demographic groups – elderly, poor, children. An audience member asked about people with disabilities and that would also be included.

Link to other stimulus projects – both broadband and other agencies – HUD was strongly noted. You can check this out at recovery.gov. Section 8a businesses used to deliver services would also be seen as a plus.

Public Computer Center workshop
Must be open to the public or a subset of the public.
Broadband must be available. Equally important is outreach and training. Address risk factors of target demographics – language, disabilities, transportation, poverty. Have a strategy to address these factors.

Sustainability is important. They defined this as using leverage and continuing effort.

Applications by independent groups can be linked to document collaboration. No need for one organization to be the sole applicant.

Closing note – After attempting to answer all the questions at one afternoon session, the NTIA staff person opened the floor for comments for the last several minutes. She talked about their staff betting pool on dollars requested, number of applications and so on. One audience member responded that there are going to be fewer than expected due to the NOFA rules. Somewhat taken aback by this opinion, she asked why. Audience members made it clear that they believe that the rules significantly deter community overbuilds and set too low a standard for broadband speeds.

Overall, the complexity of the application process and the difficulty in developing projects was made very clear throughout the day. Many questions from the audience were answered with “we will have to get back to you” or watch the web site. They are developing a FAQ which will go online after the last workshop next week.

On a bit of a grumbling close, the “reception” held Tuesday night featured a cash bar (to be expected), no food (a bit of a disappointment) and no national staff to informally answer questions (lame). State program staff were present but had as many questions as the attendees. It was fund to get together with folks from around MN and the rest of the country to discuss projects and approaches.

Updates from ICF: Eindhoven & shared visions

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Bill Coleman is currently at the Building the Broadband Economy 2009 Intelligent Community Forum conference in NY this week. He is sending back quick reactions and news from the conference…

Eindhoven in the Netherlands has a FTTP open access network. Speeds to the home are 100 Mb.

What are they using it for? Good question! Eindhoven has announced plans to position their region as a bandwidth intensive laboratory with an invitation to application developers to use the Eindhoven as their place to identify, create and deploy new applications. New services for residents – attraction of skilled and creative talent and new jobs. That’s intelligent!

According to all of the people on the ICF agenda, a community with a shared vision and a culture of inter-sector collaboration has tremendous advantages for competing in the global marketplaces. They can move faster, overcome more barriers and achieve more.

Blandin Broadband Strategy Board working on stimulus funding

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Blandin FoundationYesterday’s Blandin Broadband Strategy Board meeting focused on the federal stimulus dollars for broadband. We all had lots more questions than answers as the federal agencies seem to be more focused on gathering information than dispersing it at this point. The consensus around the table is that announcements of Notice of Funds Available (NOFA) will be probably happen in May, possibly sooner, maybe later. It is expected that there will be three funding rounds at both NTIA and USDA.

The other consensus thought is that states and communities all around the country are getting prepared to apply for these funds, even in advance of the announcement of program rules. Partnerships between private sector providers and governments and between health, education and government are all being explored and developed.

Some of our board members explained how their organizations are preparing to compete for these funds. Our health care representative, Jon Linnell in Warren, talked about working with his 24 member hospitals. DEED Commissioner McElroy noted state government efforts and how Governor Pawlenty has tasked DEED and Commerce with the broadband areas of funding.

Eric Lampland of Lookout Point Communications talked about the evolving services that his firm is offering to help communities get ready to apply for stimulus funds for FTTP networks. The emphasis is on a quick process that positions communities with information on needs, competitive environment, preliminary engineering and finance.

Wait and see or move forward somewhat blindly. That is the question. Our board advises getting moving so that if your first applications are rejected, you will have additional opportunities to apply. Stand by for more information.

Extending broadband the extra mile in Chisago County

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Blandin Foundation gets some interesting inquiries through the Blandin on Broadband blog and through our Toolkit web sites. A recent submission gave us reasons to celebrate and to ponder.

A family in rural Chisago County told us that they have not been able to get broadband services due to their rural location. DSL was not available at their remote location according to Frontier Communication’s customer service center. A similar situation exists for a significant numbers of Minnesota households as documented by the Center for Rural Policy, Connect Minnesota and as observed by my regular rural Minnesota travels.

Broadband is especially important to this particular family. One household member is seeking additional education and employment. Another is recovering from serious injuries suffered in an accident. Education, employment and health care-the trifecta of broadband killer applications!

When we received this email, I took a look at my telephone exchange map, confirming that Frontier was the provider. I also took a look at the Genesis Wireless coverage maps as they provide fixed wireless services in east central Minnesota, but they do not provide service in the area. Then I sent an email and made a call to JoAnne Johnson at Frontier. JoAnne is a friend, former colleague at Onvoy and briefly at Community Technology Advisors, and a member of the MN Ultra High Speed Internet Task Force.

JoAnne made some calls, Frontier’s staff did some investigation, and some new technologies were deployed to extend DSL the extra distance to our emailer’s home. At Blandin, we got some great satisfaction from helping this one family. Frontier got a new customer. And our emailer and family have enhanced Internet access. If we checked back in six months or a year, we might find a household that has been able to address some or all of its critical issues through the use of broadband.

While our little intervention was successful, this is no way to ensure broadband access to all Minnesotans. Blandin Broadband Principles call for ubiquitous, affordable broadband that enable our citizens to do what needs to be done over the Internet. We will continue our work to promote this concept across the state as the state broadband task force considers policies and federal and state officials invest broadband stimulus monies.

Make your own and your community voices heard directly to elected and appointed officials and through the MN Broadband Coalition! Now is the time.

Federal Broadband Stimulus Webcast

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Today, there was a webcast of federal officials discussing the broadband stimulus funding programs. The USDA, NTIA and FCC participated in this joint meeting. Over 2300 people were online viewing this meeting in real time.

The officials provided an update of program details and timing while launching the public comment period. The 90 minute program is available on demand if you would like to take in this full discussion. If you want to understand the details of the broadband stimulus legislation, I suggest that you take a look here.

Here are some of the details:

NTIA: Their goals are to: 1) Close the broadband gap; 2) Stimulate investment; 3) Create jobs; 4) Serve public entities; and 5) Increase public understanding of broadband applications. They stressed a connection to the other stimulus goals of transportation, smart grid, e-health, etc. There is a focus on the undefined terms of “unserved” and “underserved”.

NTIA has over $4 billion dollars for broadband. Of that amount, up to $350 million will be used specifically for broadband mapping (no details on how that will be done), $200 million for public computer centers; $250 million for innovative broadband projects. The balance of over $3 billion will be available for available for telecommunications infrastructure. Applicants can include state governments, other political subdivisions, non-profits and foundations. NTIA can award funds directly to private sector providers if they choose.

The timing on NTIA funding is tentative, but they anticipate three funding rounds. Their first funding announcement (NOFA – Notice of Funds Available) will be sometime between April and June, 2009, with the other cycles in the fall 2009 and spring 2010. All grants will be competitive; each state must receive one grant. Key criteria: Affordability, Speed of Service, Service for health care, education and small business.

The USDA funds are on about the same timetable. They have $2 billion dollars to allocate through loans and grants. Their priorities are rural (areas with 75% rural) without adequate broadband to support job creation. They also have a priority to increase competition by supporting projects that enable multiple providers and serve areas with high percentages of people with no access to broadband.

Both programs call for high levels of monitoring to ensure program standards. Applicants can apply to both NTIA and USDA. Collaborative projects are encouraged.

The FCC is responsible for developing a national broadband plan and they are beginning to get that organized. Their first report to Congress is due in May 2009.

TISP meeting on Municipal Telecom Regulation

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TISP meeting on municpal referendum on telecommunications:

A statutory provision (237.19) in Minnesota requires a municipality to hold a public referendum which passes by 65% if it wants to construct a new telephone exchange to offer telephone service and a local exchange already exists. That provision has a checkered history in Minnesota where some referenda have failed, some have first failed and then succeeded while others have succeeded at first attempt. Critics argue a referendum requirement and especially the 65% approval level creates an unjustifiable barrier to entry and has a chilling effect on the emergence of competitive new broadband services, especially since telephone service has become part of a larger package of broadband services from most providers. Supporters argue it is useful to require specific community approval.

The panelists included Ann Higgins, Wally Wyspol, Steve Downer, Dan Olson.

Here are the notes:

Ann – hoped to eliminate voting requirement, now focusing on broadband.

Wally – NSP was the electric utility. They had telephone prior to 1915! Their goal was to make NSP unique. Lost election not war. Year ago, survey support was 70 percent.

Steve – Early adopters communities were members of MMUA. They found that even joint ventures difficult to pass legislatively.

Dan Olson from Windomnet. Reports of demise are incorrect. Right now tey’re so busy there’s a week wait for new installations.

Dennis nelson from Windomnet. They had two referendums; the first one got 50 percent vote. After Qwest bypassed Windom again, the second one passed with x percent.

Windom used revenue bonds only. Initial bookings exceeded finances. Business plan called for negative cash for 7 years.

The law – permission to put in a switch. Does it matter? In NSP’s case, this was not the issue. In Windom the attorneys said that vote must follow language. Legal definition has expanded beyond the switch to include the plant and service. Clear legal authority makes financing possible.

Windom noted that recruiting voters equals willing customers.

Unequal requirements for issuance of public sector debt. Business community does not vote locally.

There was discussion about linkages between referendum and marketing and presale.

There was discussion of incumbent and outside forces expenditures. Local advocates outspent at least 10 to 1. Opposition funded buses to the polling places.

NSP thought that they did a good job of community education and awareness. The first community meeting was 2003.

There are no current efforts to remove the 65 percent benchmark to pass a referendum. MMUA says change in law brings legal uncertainty. Predatory pricing needs to be restricted via law to protect start up operations.

Communities need to be aware of anti forces and plan for it.

Fear of GO bond issue by residents and its impact on property taxes even though GO cheaper than revenue bonds.

Minnesota Broadband Scenarios

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There is much discussion about the accuracy of the Connected Nation maps and the legitimacy of the speed tests. When the legislature passed the funding for the mapping project, some of us joked that with 10 minutes and a napkin we could produce a pretty darn accurate map. We’d even share all of our data!

I also have doubts that the maps will spur providers to fill the broadband gaps. After all, the existing providers know exactly where they provide service and any competitor thinking about providing service can go to the city hall and hang around the coffee shop and get a pretty good idea where the gaps are.

I think that most of Minnesota can be categorized into a handful of scenarios based on location and their incumbent providers. I have taken an initial shot at outlining these scenarios herematrix. If you have comments, suggestions and additions, I would love to hear them and might incorporate them into the grid. If I was more graphically inclined, these scenarios could be easily illustrated using real communities or composite creations of our own naming. I would be very interested in working with anyone who is a mapping guru on this. Could be lots of fun and we could name these composite towns after our favorite children, politicians, pets or rock bands.

PolarNet vote on FTTH in North St Paul

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Today, the citizens of North St. Paul are voting on PolarNet, a municipal fiber to the home network. The results will be interesting and will generate significant discussion in the coming days about why it passed or did not, the role of groups like the Coalition for Broadband Choice and the MN Free Market Institute, and the future of similar municipal fiber to the home initiatives.

In my work with communities on broadband and economic development, I seek pragmatic, problem solving solutions. In communities where the discussion begins “If only we had a fiber network, people would come here and start businesses”, I emphasize the need for current users to adopt technologies that make use of robust telecommunications networks as a first step in increasing community technological vitality. I also see the significant value of local control of networks so as to more easily and flexibly enable economic development and other community goals. Leaders recognize that the community balance sheet can include a much wider variety of assets than a publicly or privately held company. Plus, I have seen that whenever a third network operator, public or private, enters the market, prices drop and services improve.

My work brings me into close contact with telecommunications providers as well. I appreciate their focus on the bottom line and ROI. But unfortunately, providers consistently engage in two destructive behaviors. First is the incumbent providers’ widespread, but not universal, inability to work in a straight forward manner with communities seeking enhanced telecommunications services. This is best illustrated by the situation in Monticello where there may soon be two FTTH networks in place. Adjacent communities can only observe that the only way to stimulate private sector investment is to threaten public sector investment. Another practice is the denial of critical information to community leaders about facilities and capabilities. The Coalition for Broadband Choice’s web site cites multiple existing fiber networks; my own experience is that community leaders’ requests for documentation have not been met.

The other common destructive behavior by incumbents is the observation that communities cannot successfully operate a municipal telecommunications network. This assumption is proven false every day in a growing number of FTTH municipal utilities across the country with a variety of operating models.

Thanks to the Internet, we will be able to log on tonight and see the North St. Paul election results. It is critical that communities have the right to ensure their own economic success. Telecommunications infrastructure and services are now a critical ingredient to that success.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt, whose leadership ensured that all Americans would have access to telephone and electricity, said,

“I therefore lay down the following principle: That where a community–a city or county or a district–is not satisfied with the service rendered or the rates charged by the private utility, it has the undeniable basic right, as one of its functions of Government, one of its functions of home rule, to set up, after a fair referendum to its voters has been had, its own governmentally owned and operated service.

“That right has been recognized in a good many of the States of the Union. Its general recognition by every State will hasten the day of better service and lower rates. It is perfectly clear to me, and to every thinking citizen, that no community which is sure that it is now being served well, and at reasonable rates by a private utility company, will seek to build or operate its own plant. But on the other hand the very fact that a community can, by vote of the electorate, create a yardstick of its own, will, in most cases, guarantee good service and low rates to its population. I might call the right of the people to own and operate their own utility something like this: a “birch rod” in the cupboard to be taken out and used only when the “child” gets beyond the point where a mere scolding does no good.”

Amy Klobuchar in Pine City

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amykI was able to attend the meeting with Senator Klobuchar at Pine Technical College thanks to an invitation granted by former state Senator Becky Lourey. It was very interesting. Senator Klobuchar showed off her sense of humor by crediting my input at her St. Paul hearing with getting $9 billion for broadband in the stimulus package. 😉

Pine City and Pine Technical College should get some credit for working hard to improve broadband accessibility in the area. Pine City Schools are connected to the ECMECC school collaborative that has a robust network connecting school districts across the region; this network was done in collaboration with US Cable and possibly other providers. The community has an interesting partnership with Pine Technical College where the college serves as a hub for telecommunications. I am not sure of all the arrangements, but I think that it is unique. The City was smart to place conduit in the ground when it redid its main street and now they have fiber that connects the city, county and industrial park that connects back to the college. The community’s main concerns are affordability and access to Main Street businesses and accessibility into the rural areas of the region.

Becky Lourey has a great reputation as an entrepreneur and she runs a growing electronic medical records company in Askov and Bruno employing many local residents and serving clients across the country. Her business networks have great need for connectivity and security. While that connectivity is a challenge, they are making a go of it stretching the capabilities of the incumbent providers. As the only power user in that community, it is a challenge with today’s marketplace for get a provider to invest in the network and for the provider to then sell the service at an affordable price. This may be a great place for a DEED infrastructure grant to be used for telecommunications. Or maybe some stimulus money! In addition, Becky Lourey also cited the need for people in that area to be able to use broadband for distance learning. She said that for many, the connectivity price is not affordable.

On a separate note, I was reviewing the list of shovel ready projects that were submitted to the MN Ultra High Speed Task Force. One of those requests was from Qwest. Their proposal was to provide ubiquitous DSL coverage in their rural exchanges. There was no price tag on the Qwest proposal. I was also disappointed to see that the White Bear Lake Central Office was not on the list; my home in Mahtomedi is just a few blocks from White Bear Lake and there is no DSL service here. Pine City and other regional communities were on that list. Minnesota will have to determine what it wants for its future in statewide broadband. While a 1 Mb DSL connection would be a great improvement for those areas that now rely on satellite or dial-up, is this a big enough leap forward with yesterday’s technology to justify the investment?

Broadband video: Exponential Generation

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Dave Russell of Calix has shared several copies of the company’s two new videos titled “Exponential Generation” that promote the need for and the value of high bandwidth networks.

Calix is a broadband equipment manufacturer specializing in FTTH technology and has facilities in Plymouth, MN. Dave Russell is a very active member of the Fiber to the Home Council.

The videos show how people are using the Internet, especially by people in the younger age groups. The videos are short, fun and informative. Dave has provided me with several copies so that I can share. Unfortunately, they are too big for most people to effectively download, so they will have to be distributed via snail mail. Send an email to broadband@blandinfoundation.org if you are interested.

Economic Stimulus Fiber

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There are growing calls for the economic stimulus package to include funds for telecommunications infrastructure. I think that this is a great idea. Unfortunately, the calls for this funding always include the phrase “underserved areas”. I do not know of many areas in the United States that are “over-served.” By most definitions of high-speed broadband, most locations – urban, suburban and rural – are underserved. In my suburban Twin Cities home, I have only one choice for broadband. I know that the stimulus package has job creation as a primary goal, but we should also be strategic in our investments so that maximum competitive advantage is gained with these expenditures with borrowed money. The benefit has to extend to the life of the bonds used to pay for the investment, not just pump money into the economy. These funds should be available to all providers – incumbents, CLECs, cable companies, community networks, wireless companies, to whoever can demonstrate that their plan is sound, financially and technically. I do agree with the ideas that these networks should be open to competitors, once again, as a way to increase the value that the public derives from these investments. It is truly unfortunate, that the federal government has zero policies on the importance of broadband, the definition of broadband, open access networks, urban-suburban-rural investment priorities. If we did, this funding would be guaranteed to have a positive impact. I worry now that we will be hearing many stories of “fiber to nowhere.”

Who’s online in MN for Gov IT Symposium

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The RiverCentre in St. Paul was buzzing with around 1,000 government IT staff and IT vendors this week. By the looks of the agenda, network security and cost-effective network management were two critical topics on the agenda. The goal of my presentation was to let these IT staff understand details about who is online and who is not. One question that came up was something that I know very little about – the online presence and habit of people with disabilities; sight, hearing and mobility. Government services, whether online or otherwise, have to be available to all citizens. That must be a real challenge!

More on Monticello…

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Many Minnesotans engaged in promoting broadband as an essential infrastructure for economic vitality have been watching the Monticello community and their progress towards construction of a city-owned fiber optic network for the past two years or more. Regular readers of this blog would have seen many postings about Monticello about its community process, referendum and lawsuits.

This week, a letter from TDS, Monticello’s incumbent telephone company, was printed in the local paper providing their perspective in response to a letter submitted recently by the Monticello mayor.  A small part of this letter refers to the Blandin Foundation’s involvement in Monticello through the Get Broadband grant program and that certainly caught our attention. Monticello did receive funding approval for this program and then subsequently withdrew their application.

Get Broadband was one of the first programs to be launched through the Blandin Broadband Initiative and its purpose was to boost demand for broadband services in rural communities across Minnesota. It was an early consensus of the Blandin Broadband Strategy Board that residents and businesses needed an education about the uses of broadband and that people who saw value in the service would be more willing to subscribe, thus improving the business case for whatever current or prospective providers were in the local marketplace. More than 25 communities actively participated in this program and the results, as measured by an independent evaluation, were very positive.

Blandin Foundation and its Strategy Board insisted that communities receiving these grants include all Internet providers in these market development efforts. Large or small, local or international, wired or wireless – we knew that different providers have certain advantages and disadvantages, whether that is based on technology, network coverage, pricing and/or customer service. In many of our participating communities, providers who were at first hesitant to sit at the same table with their competitors soon found that it was more profitable to compete over a larger pie as the community’s market development efforts paid off. The “meetings after the meeting” and the exchange of business cards hints that they may have also found opportunities to collaborate both within the community and in efforts to link customers across a broader region.

In its broadband principles, Blandin Broadband Strategy Board believes that competition, collaboration, public-private partnerships and a variety of technologies will be necessary to achieve our vision. Blandin Foundation Initiative supports private sector, public sector and joint venture investments in broadband infrastructure and services as we encourage creation of a world class environment for community and economic development in rural Minnesota.

Observers, especially the citizens of Monticello, will have to make their own judgments about the perspectives expressed in these articles by the incumbent provider and the Mayor. It is ironic that while many communities struggle to obtain FTTP-based advanced services, Monticello residents may have their choice of two fiber-based providers.

Advice for the Broadband Task Force

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I’ve been asking folks in rural areas if they have any advice for the Minnesota Broadband Task Force. I started at the Blandin Broadband Strategy Board retreat. These are people who have been working with the Blandin Foundation on our broadband initiatives so they spend time thinking about broadband.

Next I went to Minnesota Development Conference. I spoke to people who live in or work with rural areas; they had some good advice too.

Leveraging Broadband for CED in Swift County

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Swift County is the latest community to take advantage of Community Broadband Resources available through the Blandin Foundation. Jennifer Gruis of the Swift County RDA invited me to deliver my presentation “Leveraging Broadband for Community and Economic Development” to a group of around 30 attendees in Benson on Thursday. We had representatives from county government, Federated Telephone and TDS Telecom, the school district and the hospital. We had a good blend of city leaders, chamber and EDA board members and some home-based business representation.

Swift County is similar to many rural counties in the following ways:

a) they have multiple telephone companies serving parts of the county with a mix of broadband coverage with cable/Internet providers in the larger communities. They also have several fixed wireless providers whose coverage depends on location.

b) Their school districts, county and some city government locations and major health care providers have pretty good networks and connectivity.

c) Many home based businesses have very limited Internet access with satellite as their only choice.

By the end of the meeting, two action items emerged for the Swift County RDA. The first priority was for RDA to get together with the chamber leaders to launch some e-commerce training for the local business community. I recommended Minnesota Technology Inc., the MN Extension Service and the local community college as good sources of low-cost training resource. I also recommended including their local tech support companies in any market development efforts. The second action item was to develop a strategy for creating some downtown area hot spots where small businesses, youth, business travelers and others could easily access the Internet. The hot spot could be a local restaurant or other community location. I did learn that the regional library collaborative places daily limits on how long people can use the Internet, even if they are using their own laptops and that this is an issue for some small business owners who rely on the library for broadband services that are unavailable at their home locations.