The Willmar City Council on Monday did not take any action on the Connect Willmar Initiative despite being informed April 29 during a work session that it would be asked to consider a number of approvals on May 6 to move the initiative forward.
The City Council was informed by City Operations Director Kyle Box that the operations agreement between Hometown Fiber and the city was not ready for approval, which is the first approval needed before moving forward.
City Attorney Robert Scott noted that the agreement is nearly 99% ready with a couple of blanks to be filled in and given final review by the city and Hometown Fiber. Box informed the council the goal is to have the operations agreement ready for approval within four weeks.
They talk about the project…
“This project is a public-private partnership; the city of Willmar will pay for, build, and be the sole owner of the fiber infrastructure,” Box said. “This model allows internet service providers to operate on the network and provide their services to the residents and businesses of Willmar — the city of Willmar will not be an ISP.”
And the need…
Box reminded the council that survey results reviewed during a work session in January showed that residents of Willmar “understand the importance of bringing this 21st-century infrastructure utility to their homes.”
The Benton Institute for Broadband & Society is sharing a new resources and accompanying webinar (Could It Be Me? Should It Be Me? Understanding What Makes Broadband Champions). I thought many reader would benefit from learning more and/or be interested in where they fit in the spectrum…
As a Marjorie and Charles Benton Opportunity Fund Fellow, Dr. Pierrette Renée Dagg examined the role community champions in community connectivity solutions and the factors that allow these leaders to succeed.
Building on Merit’s work with a number of Michigan communities, she developed in-depth profiles of eight community champions and a taxonomy of the different kinds of broadband champions:
Connectors are adept at creating significant personal connections, acting as the social adhesive in communities.
Multipliers are skilled strategists who leverage relationships, knowledge, and resources to methodically achieve their objectives.
Visionaries stand out for their forward-looking plans, aiming for a clear goal and persistently moving towards it.
By understanding qualities and archetypes of champions, those who want to improve connectivity can understand context-specific strategies and tactics that are effective and adaptable to their local community. They can also, hopefully, see the many ways to be effective broadband champions and realize that yes, it could be them.
On May 22nd at 1 PM ET we will hold a webinar about the crucial role broadband champions play in addressing the connectivity needs in their communities. Dr. Dagg and some of the champions profiled will share their stories and the factors that contributed to their success.
Waseca County wants to continue fulfilling a need in the area by maximizing the opportunity to provide broadband to many individuals and businesses in more rural locations.
The county received funding from the state for broadband as part of Minnesota’s Office of Broadband Development’s ninth round of grant awards in March. And, the county plans on applying for the office’s 10th round of awards with a new resolution passed at the latest commissioners’ meeting.
Waseca County Administrator Michael Johnson brought the resolution to the Board of Commissioners at its special meeting April 30. The resolution states that, if the county is awarded in the round 10 grant awards, the county is committing to up to $165,000 of county match to build a minimum of 165 homes and businesses.
The board agreed on a similar resolution in October for the ninth round of grant awards. The board took action with a motion by Commissioner De Malterer and a second by Commissioner Brad Milbrath. The county will now pass the resolution to Bevcomm Inc. as part of the application process.
The county has been working with Bevcomm to provide rural areas with high-speed internet. It’s considered a huge need locally, as many individuals and businesses do not currently have access.
Areas in the county that will get access to broadband if the county is awarded the new grant include the townships of New Richland and St. Mary.
The area of Waseca County that will receive broadband from the already awarded grant from round nine will include portions of the townships of Alton, Byron, Freedom, Otisco, St. Mary, Vivian, and Wilton.
Carver County remains on track to become the first Minnesota county of more than 10,000 residents and the first Twin Cities metro county to have 100 percent high-speed broadband service availability.
When that occurs by the end of 2024, ironically some rural areas will have higher internet speed service than at least a couple cities in the county.
Randy Lehs, CarverLink fiber manager, shared that information in an April 16 update to county commissioners on the Connect Up Carver initiative. That effort was established in June 2022 to make fiber connectivity available to every location in the county that wants it, with service of no less than 100 megabytes of upload/download speeds. It involved a $10.5 million fiber buildout to 2,200 county locations with $6.5 million provided by the county. It also involved planned build agreements in the following cities: Waconia, Chaska, Cologne, Carver, Watertown, Norwood Young America, Mayer, Hamburg and New Germany.
About 95 percent of 360 miles of fiber network is now ready for service, Lehs said, with the remainder to be accomplished by Dec. 31, 2024 – except for maybe some areas affected by the current Highway 212 expansion.
And up update on plans…
The expansion, approved last Tuesday by the county board as an amendment to Connect Up Carver construction contracts, involves the build of some 80-plus miles of additional fiber to 440-plus underserved locations in those areas. The $14.3 million rural/urban expansion will utilize an additional $2.5 million of county money authorized from its budget stabilization account created earlier from federal COVID-19 funding.
“There’s lot of fiber in the ground already,” Lehs said, and CarverLink staff will continue to act as a facilitator and partner to develop and manage agreements to extend high-speed broadband.
The expansion is based on extensive negotiations with Metronet leadership and intensive fiber network design, Lehs added. He noted that Carver County has high “take rates” or signups for internet expansion, on order of 80-90 percent versus an industry standard of 30-40 percent, which was an incentive for service provider Jaguar Communications, now Metronet to enter the market here.
For more than a year, Willmar city staff, company representatives from Hometown Fiber, experts and consultants have been working together to create the plans and contracts that will mitigate the risk to taxpayers for a city-owned, citywide open-access fiber network — the Connect Willmar Initiative.
The Willmar City Council will be asked during its Monday, May 6, regular meeting to consider approving $9.2 million in funding for the first phase of the construction of the broadband network and an additional $64,000 for Hometown Fiber to continue a community outreach and education campaign. It will also be asked to consider approving an operations agreement between the city and Hometown Fiber.
More info on the project…
Hometown Fiber has completed the architecture plans for phase one and city engineers from Bolton & Menk are preparing construction documents. The details of the operations agreement have been worked through with the city attorney, and a letter of intent has been signed with Hutchinson, Minnesota-based Broadband Corp . to provide service on the network.
The operations agreement solidifies the legalities behind the relationship between Hometown Fiber and the city of Willmar. According to the April 29 presentation, Hometown Fiber will charge a fee to the city to manage and maintain the network for the city, signing up internet service providers to lease the network to provide service to residents. It will not collect a fee from the city until the network has its first customer.
The lease fee paid by internet service providers will be 35% of whatever they are charging the customer for service. For example, if someone’s bill is $100, the city would get $35 of it.
The Willmar City Counsil on Monday May 6, 2024, will consider approval of $9.2 million in funding for phase one the Connect Willmar Initiative, a project to construct a city-owned broadband network throughout the city.
This initiative that will bring directly connected fiber lines to each residence and business in the city of Willmar. The infrastructure will be built and owned by the city of Willmar. This infrastructure will allow and provide multiple ISPS the ability to offer services on this fiber infrastructure, adopting an “open access” system.
The Worthington Globe reports on the Lismore Coop’s MN broadband grant application and Nobles County’s support. It’s an interesting glimpse at all of the moving pieces involved in the application…
The Nobles County Board of Commissioners agreed to financially support Lismore Cooperative Telephone Company’s “Fiber to Home” broadband project and include the community of Bigelow in the project. The project aims to expand broadband access throughout the county.
Project director Chris Koneche of Finley Engineering said the project has seen its share of progress in recent months.
“We really appreciate working with you guys all these years,” he told the board. “We’ve made tremendous strides. The most recent win has been with the USDA Connect Round Four program. I think that’s about a $28 million project that would cover the vast majority of the rural areas in the county with fiber.”
However, Konechne said they were initially unable to include Bigelow in the project due to application restrictions.
“Because of the eligibility restrictions and the sporting criteria in that Round Four application, we didn’t think it would be a wise decision to put the city of Bigelow in that application. That application scores things on rurality … we would have lost or been graded lower in that category with USDA. Additionally, we would’ve had some challenge work with the speeds that Frontier was claiming at the time. For those two reasons and due to the size of it… when you look at this potential project with a budget of somewhere around $675,000, we didn’t think it was really worth the risk to a $28 million project to put that in there.”
Based on a scoring system, Lismore Cooperative Telephone Company Secretary Mark Loosbrock said that in order to obtain a higher level of eligibility for the 30% grant, financial support in addition to a letter of support was recommended.
The Faribault County Register reports on Bevcomm’s plans for the current round of MN State grants. It is an interesting look at how the sausage is funded…
Bill Eckles, president and CEO of Bevcomm, attended the Faribault County Economic Development Board meeting in Frost on Tuesday, April 16 to update the board on the latest broadband grant news.
“First of all, thank you for the last grant you gave us to help us secure the grant to get fiber optic to the Minnesota Lake area,” Eckles said. “Construction should begin soon on that project.”
He also had news regarding the next grant program.
“We were somewhat surprised when the state opened up another round of broadband grants this soon,” Eckles admitted. “Things are changing at the state which will make things more difficult in the future.”
Eckles went on to explain Bevcomm’s plans.
“They have 550 homes in the rural Blue Earth and Wells area that still do not have fiber,” he said. “It is a $7.1 million project to do the work to serve these homes. This is the last round of grants under the current rules and Bevcomm will be applying for a grant which would cover 25 percent of the cost with Bevcomm covering the remainder.”
Eckles told board members the process of seeking the grant is similar to the previous times Bevcomm applied for grants.
“That is why I’m here to see if the EDA would be willing to contribute a $5,000 grant to Bevcomm. We do this because it gives us points on our application when we show the community supporting us,” Eckles commented. “Of course, if we do not get the grant from the state then we do not get the money from the EDA.”
Eckles also informed the board that Bevcomm could have applied for a state broadband grant which would have covered 50 percent of the cost of the $7.1 million project.
“We have a better chance of getting approved by only asking for a 25 percent grant,” he offered. “The grant will not be awarded until later summer or fall and it is a two-year program to get all of the work done to bring fiber to the homes.”
Please join us on Tuesday April 16th, Noon ET, for the first webinar in a series about building public broadband networks.
The American Association for Public Broadband (AAPB), in partnership with the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society, is celebrating the publication of its new community broadband handbook “Own Your Internet: How to Build a Public Broadband Network” with a webinar series that spotlights the experiences of a number of communities building community networks.
Moderated by Bill Coleman, author of the AAPB handbook and longtime leader in community broadband, each webinar will provide expert advice for AAPB members, and feature the experiences of community leaders as they navigated establishing, building or running a public broadband network.
Webinar One: Making the Community Broadband Network Decision
April 16th, 12 pm – 1 pm ET
The first of these webinars will focus on why communities might consider building a publicly owned network, and the steps they would take to embark on this journey. Bill will be joined by
Jeff Reiman, The Broadband Group
Ellie de Villiers, Maple Broadband – Middlebury, Vermont
Cynthia Garza, Director or External Relations, City of Pharr, Texas
Christa Thorpe, Island Institute
In subsequent sessions on May 14th and June 11th, the series will focus on the various possible structures for public broadband networks, and the strategies for building infrastructure and launching services.’
Hoodline reports on support from the Coon Rapids City Council for MN HF 4182, the Equal Access to Broadband bill (I have been following the bill) that would allow local governments to charge franchising fees to wired broadband providers…
Coon Rapids is throwing its weight behind a proposed bill aimed at bringing equitable high-speed Internet to all corners of the state.
The Coon Rapids City Council, in a unanimous decision Tuesday, passed a resolution supporting the call for Equal Access to Broadband at the State Capitol, as reported on the city’s official website.
Amid the push for upgrades to current technological infrastructure, Representative Mike Freiberg of Crystal (43B) underscored the merit of the bill, telling Coon Rapids’ official website that “The equal access to broadband act will level the playing field with broadband ISPs while assuring build out and minimum upload and download speeds to meet the current and future needs of the business and residents statewide.” Broadband providers could be required to pay franchise fees akin to those imposed on cable companies, to utilize city right-of-ways for fiber optic cables.
These fees serve a crucial role beyond revenue – they directly fund public, education, and government (PEG) access programming.
Senator Dziedzic from the Committee on State and Local Government and Veterans, to which was referred
S.F. No. 4874: A bill for an act relating to cybersecurity; requiring reporting of cybersecurity incidents impacting public-sector organizations in Minnesota; proposing coding for new law in Minnesota Statutes, chapter 16E.
Reports the same back with the recommendation that the bill be amended and when so amended the bill do pass and be re-referred to the Committee on Judiciary and Public Safety.
Pursuant to Joint Rule 2.03, the bill was referred to the Committee on Rules and Administration.
CHIEF SENATE AUTHOR: WIKLUND
Pro comments:
Cyber attacks are happening and MN would benefit from a better plan
MNIT will share info with others in real time and what and how but not who
Testifier from MNIT:
This is basics to form relationships
Testifier from Chicago Lakes School:
This would help protect schools, students and families from ALL schools
Better communication helps stop attacks from spreading
The MN House Committee on State and Local Government Finance and Policy discussed HF4182 (Freiberg) Equal Access to Broadband Act established, and broadband services and broadband infrastructure governing provisions modified. (I have written about this bill before.) The bill was finally called after a very long discussion on an earlier agenda item (HF4593). Bill is laid over for possible inclusion.
Notes:
Proposed Amendment A: stacking of franchise fees, is not allowed, impacts only broadband providers, not wireless, caps the franchise fees.
Question:
Why not include wireless providers?
The bill deals with ISP not others.
Wireless providers provide internet access, so do broadband providers. What’s the difference?
They have always been excluded? Because the legislature based rules one small cell and wireless that excludes wireless from franchising.
Amendment A3 is added.
Testifier from CCX Media (cable companies): They produce unique programming with PEG funding. Newspapers are not surviving. We will a need in our programs. They do advocacy for consumers. The provide tech support for cable companies.
Mayor Testifier: local s, broadband franchising should mirror the community service that cable franchising does. Franchise fees pays for regulatory services as well as programming – such as elections, local sports and government meetings.
Testifier from MN Telecom Alliance: broadband providers invested $360M in broadband. But this bill makes it harder to invest. We oppose the bill. No other state has passed this legislation. It opposes ITFA (Internet Tax Freedom Act). Cable franchising is not easily smoothed into broadband franchising. It will increase consumer bills. This will hurt broadband buildout.
Testifier from MCCA (cable association): this bill would stop broadband deployment. It puts an 8 percent tax on broadband. It makes it less affordable. It conflicts with other regulations.
Testifier from Wireless association: some of our concerns have been assuaged with the amendment. We already have lots of regulations. We want more amendments to exempt wireless.
Testifier from center for fiscal excellence: these fees function like taxes, which should go to general revenue. But these taxes are already earmarked for specific things. The question is where the fees will be used. Research shows cable franchise funding doesn’t always go to PEG or other legit cable-related services.
Questions:
I was a mayor and we worked with a provider. Why do we want to tax my residents? Most people get their info online anyways.
It is comparable with what we’ve always done with cable companies. If you have a good experience – you don’t have to charge the fee. It’s opt-in/opt-out.
How would this help offset municipal infrastructure costs? What costs?
Costs to deploying broadband. Or rent for rights-of-way.
It’s how we treat existing utilities this same way – for access to public rights-of-way.
So this is really like a rent to public spaces?
Partially – but also do raise revenue and defray municipal costs.
So this is raised revenue? Don’t we have other ways to pay for public education and information? I get a lot of bills. This is a tax.
I worked in a city. We called this a tax. Who pays this tax.
The tax goes to customers’ bill.
That is confusing to people. I see it on my bill and I think it’s the fault of the provider when really I should be made at the city.
At today’s Iron Range Resources & Rehabilitation Board meeting, an estimated $1.3 million in loans, $750,000 in site ready grants, $3.7 million in infrastructure grants, $157,000 in trails grants and $3.6 million in housing grants were reviewed to advance projects in northeastern Minnesota. Agency investment for all projects combined is over $9.5 million. Total project investment is estimated at $106.6 million. The projects are expected to increase the regional tax base, retain and create jobs, expand broadband, provide essential services, grow the housing inventory and expand outdoor recreation.
One project was broadband-related…
Broadband Infrastructure Grant: $261,184
Agency Investment $261,184 | Total Project Investment $522,369
Bois Forte Band of Chippewa: $261,184 to construct a fiber-to-the-home buildout to bring high speed broadband to 442 homes in the Bois Forte Reservation. The project previously received a grant in 2019 and is nearing completion. Due to ledge rock encountered and higher material costs, the new grant amendment will support 50% of the increased construction costs.
The electrical cooperative MiEnergy hopes to win grant funding for rural broadband expansion projects in Winona County and is pitching the County Board on supporting that effort. MiEnergy President Brian Krambeer gave an initial presentation to the County Board last month on his company’s expansion goals, beginning south of St. Charles. …
According to MiEnergy, over 3,100 Winona County households have no internet service or sub-broadband speeds. These areas are also the hardest to reach. Many of them are very rural, with few households to justify the cost of extending fiber optic lines, and others are located in rocky valleys or ridges that make excavation a challenge. “We average less than four members per mile of line,” Krambeer said.
More on the upcoming request…
MiEnergy has not yet submitted a specific request to the county, County Administrator Maureen Holte said. However, in his presentation, Krambeer suggested two ideas as examples: The county might contribute a $2 million grant toward the project or a $10 million deferred loan.
The county has made significant contributions to other broadband expansions projects by HBC. However, the largest ones came from federal relief funds the county received during the pandemic, which are no longer available. To help leverage a $560,000 state grant, the county gave HBC $100,000 toward a $1.7 million project around Cedar Valley and Whitewater State Park in 2017. In 2020, the county dedicated $982,000 from the federal CARES Act funding toward an HBC expansion effort near Rollingstone, Nodine, and St. Charles. Finally, in 2022, the county used $2.6 million in federal aid to back HBC extending internet around the Arches, Saratoga, Lamoille, and Elba areas.
County Board member Marcia Ward encouraged county staff and her fellow board members to consider what funding the county could dedicate toward MiEnergy’s project. “Many communities have done this years ago, and we’ve fallen behind a lot of communities,” she said.
According to Krambeer, Winona County ranked 15th in the state for broadband access in 2018 but dropped to 39th last year as a result of other counties expanding their networks.
The MN House State and Local Government Finance and Policy Committee learned more about HF3679 Telecommunications; prohibited practices added, missed repair appointments credit provided, and municipal and local telecommunications service governing provisions modified. (I wrote about the bill earlier.) It is re-referred to Commerce.
The goal is to add consumer protections and remove barrier for local governments interested in providing broadband services. The bill proposers are working with industry to refine the bill.
Testifying: Daniel Lightfoot from League of MN Cities. They support the removal of barriers to make it more difficult for local governments to provide broadband. We have seen municipal broadband work well.
Testifying: Brent Christensen from MTA. They oppose the bill, which might undermine their existing businesses. Also is provides regulations on only telecom broadband providers – not cable or wireless. It is discriminatory. The State says we are a utility like roads but we are more than an object and we are in a competitive environment. We are working with the bill author on changes that might work for us.
Questions:
How many cities want to become broadband providers?
18 active municipal networks – some work with providers and some take it all on.
Are there any cities that have failed with municipal networks? I don’t know why we’d like folks to do this?
Some cities have had issues – like Monticello, but now they are successful.
Cities don’t have to do this – but for cities where there is no good access it helps them help their constituents.
Are there reporting requirements? I don’t want the government to grow.
Where did the bill come from?
From the Department of Commerce.
Building broadband is risky. I have cable and DSL and I live in Hennepin County. CenturyLink has invested in my community I don’t want three people to decide that my city should get into providing broadband. Why do we want to remove citizen engagement?
We vote for our representatives.
Do we think the city should be able to raise taxes without vote?
Nope
This is like when a city person wanted a municipal golf course. The cities that might want to do this – should have to get 65 percent vote. Businesses have been providing this service. It’s too much exposure for a city. Carver County put in a fiber ring and the partner walked away. Condemnation is a three to two vote.
This law doesn’t mean a city has to become a broadband provider.
Blandin on Broadband 