Tag Archives: ARRA

Senator Klobuchar praises broadband in Southwest Minnesota

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According to the Worthington Globe Senator Amy Klobuchar mentioned local broadband success while talking to area residents over the weekend…

Klobuchar praised the efforts of the Southwest Minnesota Broadband Group, which has received federal funding in order to bring fiber optic cables to the area for broadband Internet, telephone and cable television access to local communities. The improved broadband should help the area retain its existing businesses as well as allow for further economic development.

Update on Anoka County Broadband Plan

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Last week I attended the Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition BTOP Summit. As I said last week, it was a great opportunity to hear from folks making policy and see what’s happening, especially with ARRA-funded projects across the country. It was also an opportunity to learn more about Anoka County – as David Minke (from Anoka) and Essam El-Beik (from Zayo) were presenting at the conference.

I captured most of their presentation on video. Most of the presentations from the day were from libraries and schools – folks who seemed unreservedly to want to be part of the local broadband project. Anoka County was a little different. Like other countywide projects, Anoka needs to get support from individual cities as well as the county, which means talking to taxpayers about investment and that can always be a challenge – but I think it helps the project leaders hone the benefits of broadband. (In fact, Lino Lakes was meeting to discuss broadband the night I met the folks from Anoka.)

Update on UMN project at Hmong American Partnership

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The University of Minnesota received about $3 million to address broadband adoption in the Twin Cities through improved computer centers and broadband training and internships. One of their partners is the Hmong American Partnership (HAP). We posted some background info on them last November and mentioned their Open House the following month. Since them I haven’t heard much (although because they are urban, not rural I don’t seek out much info) so I was pleased to see an update in the Twin Cities Daily Planet…

HAP has implemented employment readiness classes where it teaches participants how to interview for jobs, develop skills and habits to become better employees, life skills and financial literacy. They have found that many people don’t have familiarity with computers, so the updated computer center will provide them opportunities to develop additional skills.

HAP’s three centers-two in St Paul and one in Minneapolis-provide programs and services such as economic development and housing, employment services, educational training, youth and family services, and elderly services. The computer center is located at HAP’s main location, 1075 Arcade St., St. Paul. The computer center hours there are Monday, 1-3 p.m.; Wednesday, 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m.; Thursday and Friday, 8:30 a.m.-3 p.m.

The BAP, envisioned as a service to bridge the digital divide for under-resourced sections of the Twin Cities, has created computer centers in four federally-designated poverty zones: north Minneapolis, south Minneapolis, southeast Minneapolis, and St. Paul. The community groups in these areas are typically African American, Latino, Native American, Somali, and Hmong.

The BAP is a $3.6M initiative of the University of Minnesota’s Urban Research and Outreach/Engagement Center (UROC) in partnership with the University of Minnesota’s Office of Business Community and Economic Development, and the community-based Minnesota Multicultural Media Consortium (http://multiculturallife.org/). The initiative established two new computer centers and upgraded nine existing ones

A-Vu: an update on an unfunded ARRA application

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The ARRA funds spurring a lot of ideas. I guess that’s the nature of stimulus funding. Some of those projects were funded; many weren’t. I’ve often wondered what has happened to the good ideas that didn’t get funding. Well thanks to Jeff Pesek at Tech.MN, I got a glimpse of at least one project today.

Jeff reports on A-Vu Media…

A recent SEC notification indicates that Winona-based A-Vu Media has raised $214k in equity financing over the past few months.

A-Vu’s specifics aren’t very clear, but note on the website explains the conceptual goal as one of reducing Internet and communication complexities for senior citizens and persons of special needs.

I remembered the name from old lists of Minnesota ARRA applications. Their round two application describes their project:

A highly simplified user interface facilitates preprogrammed direct access to multiple services delivered through an integrated digital “TV/PC”. All services are remotely programmed and controlled by a 24/7 customer service operator on a secure network. This network creates new high value connections for the users and all those providing healthcare and other broadband based services.

It’s great to see a project move forward.

Connect Minnesota maps tell a story

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Earlier this week the Minneapolis Star Tribune published a story about the Connect Minnesota maps calling out their flaws…

The report acknowledges that “statewide estimates do not necessarily reflect the reality faced by each Minnesota community.” In addition, Commerce Department commissioner Mike Rothman described the report in modest terms: “This data provides a baseline and is a first step in an ongoing process.”

But critics go further and say that the report’s speed claims are way off.

This issue is that the maps indicate that 94 percent of Minnesota households have access to broadband (as defined by 3 Mbps) and folks disagree with that assessment.

Geoff Daily wrote an article earlier this week on the National Broadband Maps ($300 Million And All I Got Was This Lousy Broadband Map). Some of his points are compelling and seem to reflect issues brought up by the Star Tribune. He remarked, “In terms of the data itself, it’s hard not to feel like it’s really incomplete and somewhat inaccurate.”

I don’t really disagree with either accusation on the accuracy. There has been concerns all along with the fact that Connect Minnesota gets its data from the providers – but so far I haven’t heard of a better, realistic way to do it. So for this year, I think we have the best maps we could realistically get and the maps are definitely accurate enough to highlight underserved areas.

Moving forward, I think it’s up to us to help make the maps better by testing the speeds ourselves and reporting in. From what I have seen, Connect Minnesota is very responsive when users have voiced specific issues with the maps.

Perhaps the other issue is the perceived value of the statewide percentage of household availability. Looking at the maps that track household broadband availability by county gives a better picture of the issues in Minnesota. The Twin Cities (which includes a great percentage of households in the state) is covered 95-100 percent according the map (included here). Counties such as Cook, Aitkin, Mahnomen, Redwood, Lincoln, Pipestone and Rock are hovering around 40-60% coverage. That tells the story.

Communities have been able to pick up that story, learn from it and are using it to urge action. Redwood County is one example. In that way, Connect Minnesota has done a great job. Their maps are getting people talking about broadband, understanding the implications of broadband and reacting to improve their standing. That’s valuable.

One caveat is that in Minnesota, these maps should be used to track our progress towards our goal of ubiquity. I think the maps do provide a disservice if there’s a chance that someone is going to say that 94 percent is good enough.

Another turn for Lake County

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Thanks to Stimulating Broadband for the heads up on this one…

Mediacom Asks USDA Inspector General for Federal Probe of Lake County, MN Broadband Award

This afternoon StimulatingBroadband.com published a story disclosing the first public filing of a complaint to the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Agriculture relating to a broadband stimulus awarded project.

The filing was made by Mediacom Communications Corporation (NASDAQ: MCCC) against Lake County, Minnesota, relative to the County’s application for and receipt of a $66.5 million grant / loan package issued in August 2010 by the Rural Utilities Service (RUS) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The plot thickens. The article points to potential Lake County’s issues with National Public Broadband and include a link to the Mediacom complaint.

The road to community broadband networks is not easy. We saw that with Monticello. That’s not to dismiss the charges.

Lake County moves forward with fiber plan

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We got a sneak preview of this news at the TISP meeting last week. After running into a hiccup with the ARRA-funded broadband deployment project, the Duluth News Tribune reports…

The Lake County Board of Commissioners wasted no time in hiring a new management team for its fiber-to-home telecommunications network.

On Tuesday, the board hired Jeff Roiland as the project manager. He is from Willmar, Minn., and ran that city’s En-Tel Communications network. He will be assisted by Gene South, the longtime CEO of Lakedale Communications in Annandale, which covered a wide swath of communities in west central Minnesota south of St. Cloud.

It sounds as if Board heard from a few hopefuls approach them once the need was annouced but that these guys were the best fit. Both attended the TISP meeting last week.

Wisconsin gives back broadband stimulus funds

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According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel…

[Wisconsin] State officials are returning $23 million to the federal government, saying there were too many strings attached to stimulus money that was supposed to be for expanding high-speed Internet service in schools, libraries and government agencies.

I’m not sure what to say – or what not to say here but I wanted to say something if only to say – wasn’t the plan (the National Broadband Plan) to work towards more partnerships? Partnership being public-private, but also maybe better public-public partnerships. It sounds as if AT&T plays into this relationship and decision as well – so it may be fair to call this a public-private partnership.

Some think the issue is that the relationship between the State and AT&T is too close. Some think the hoops required for federal funding are too onerous. I suspect there’s at least a little truth in both camps. Regardless – I have to ask who wins when something like this happens? And who loses? And what’s the price?

I offer a peculiar antidote to the situation in Wisconsin. I watched a great TED talk by Jonathan Zittrain today. He talks about the “Web as Random Acts of Kindness”, starting with the inception of the web. It just seems like if we want to become world leaders again (and again that was a goal of the National Broadband Plan) we have to strive for more than the best business deal.

Lake County Reshuffles the deck

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Last night the Lake County Board of Commissioners met to discuss the Lake County Fiber project. (As you may recall Lake County received almost $70 million for a FTTH project. More recently, the have run into issues with some of the project partners.) According to the Lake County News Chronicle the Board made some big decisions last night…

Lake County could not reach agreement on a permanent contract with National Public Broadband, its consultant firm for nearly two years. The two sides battled for nearly two months and couldn’t resolve differences on bonus payments and the county’s option to fire NPB without cause and without penalty. The negotiations had bogged down work on the actual project, Commissioner Paul Bergman said, and the board wanted a fresh start.

The project is being funded by federal money approved in September and handled by the Rural Utilities Service branch of the Department of Agriculture.

Board members said it was the Rural Utilities Service that forced its hand in making changes in the approach to the fiber project, including the third surprise resolution passed by the County Board on Tuesday — authorization to use $3.5 million in public money for the project.

The decision to use public funding had to have been difficult, given they had been saying that the project would not require public financing. But it sounds as if the RUS required it. I think the public funding will help the project – there’s nothing like a little skin in the game to increase interest and motivation. Christopher Mitchell from Institute for Local Self Reliance seems to agree…

The County had long maintained that no public money would be used. However, most people will likely not care as long as the project keeps its promise to deliver fast, reliable, and affordable broadband to the community. This is the need — and people need to stay focused on achieving this goal.

It will be interesting to see what happens next. The ARRA funding went to the county. So the project is still on, they are just looking to reshuffle the deck a little. Perhaps they will get a hand that better suits them in the next few weeks. This project along with fiber being in stalled in the area by Arrowhead Electric, as well as Duluth’s bid for the Google Gig and Cook County’s ongoing use of technology could really be a game changer for NE Minnesota. So I hope that Lake County will find a solution that works.

Lake County – big meeting today

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I wrote about Lake County right before Christmas. Just to catch anyone up – Lake County received ARRA-funding for a FTTH network. One of the project partners is National Public Broadband (NPB). Tim Nulty is one of the key members of NBP. Years ago Tim worked to get fiber in rural areas in Vermount through a company called Burlington Telcom. Tim left Burlington a while ago. Since he left the company has run into fiancial troubles. So there has been some concern about how Burlington’s situation will relate to or have an impact on Lake County. And there has been some concern that that concern is unwarranted.

This has brought the Lake County project to one of its first barriers. Tonight, January 10 (at 6 pm), the Lake County Commissioners are meeting about this issue at the Grand Superior Lodge. So we’ll know more on Tuesday.

I hope that this is a barrier they will be able to overcome quickly. Sometimes that which doesn’t kill us makes us stronger – maybe this will make them stronger or at least smarter. Chris Mitchell has written a recap of the situation quoting from a recent editorial in the Lake County Chronicle…

The county can use NPB’s disclosure mistake to its advantage, by holding NPB’s feet to the fire on all elements of the fiber rollout plan. If NPB can convince the board that this early communication snafu is the last, members would be right to keep moving forward with the project by permanently partnering with NPB.

MVTV Wireless: a brief funding history

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It’s fun to hear stories of broadband success in Minnesota. It’s instructive to hear how they happened. Thanks to Dan Richter for passing on the story of MVTV Wireless’ success as posted on the Southwest Initiative Foundation web site. The story outlines some of the funding history of MVTV – I thought it might help inspire and motivate other communities and/or businesses.

Based in Granite Falls, MVTV Wireless is a nonprofit, member-owned corporation made up of members/stockholders, who pay a one-time fee of $50.00 per household. According to the SWIF article, they have more than 3,200 subscribers throughout 16,000 square miles of central and southwest Minnesota.

MVTV has received support from SWIF to help them grow…

In 2000 and 2001, MVTV received loans from SWIF’s Revolving Loan Fund to help finance an expansion. These funds helped fill the gap of what was needed for the project and what MVTV’s bank partners could provide. Dan [Richter] credits SWIF for their important role in the project, as well as the Small Business Development Center, for giving him confidence and assistance to successfully move MVTV forward.

SWIF felt it was their mission to support a local, growing business – but also to meet the goals of their Rural Technology and Telecommunications Project, which is no longer an initiative. It seems as if the funding gave MVTV the deepening roots to go for more funding…

MVTV continues to expand to improve service as well. They received a Pilot Broadband Loan from the Rural Utilities Service Broadband Initiative Program in 2002 and were recently awarded funding through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which is supporting updates to the current system, new access points that will nearly double its service area, and the addition of 1,500 new customers.

Last summer I spoke with John Schultz of U-reka Broadband, who is involved with several ARRA-funded projects. MVTV’s story reminded me of much of the advice that John gave. Specifically, if you are a community look local and look to the co-ops and independent providers. I would add – don’t forget to look local for funding too. There are Initiative Foundations in all corners of Minnesota. Blandin Foundation has a couple of programs that offer funding for expanding broadband. Of course there are more traditional means as well and I’m sure your local Economic Development Authority or Small Business Development Center can help with those.

Southwest Minnesota Broadband Group Update

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The Jackson County Pilot recently ran an update from the Southwest Minnesota Broadband Group. As you may recall the SWMBG received an ARRA award to serve eight communities in SW Minnesota. Their project appears to be progressing nicely. According to the Jackson County Pilot…

With staking of the fiber network completed and plans and specifications currently being drawn up, the Southwest Minnesota Broadband Services Board turned its attention to marketing during a meeting last Thursday.

John Schultz, who is working with the SWMBG, provided me with a few more details on the latest meeting

  1. There was a long discussion on what community events and groups we should be targeting
  2. We spoke about both traditional media and on-line media to reach our perspective customer base; SMBS will be utilizing a combination of both
  3. We are on the time to go directly to the customer base-we need to alert them that the incumbents will be starting (and are already) starting to run the typical multiple year contract campaigns to lock customers into their service.
  4. Everything is on target, looking at beginning of spring construction build.

No news in Lake County

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I have actively not been following the news in Burlington Vermont concerning the fincnial troubles of the local broadband provider. The super Reader’s Diggest version is that Burlington Telecom is a community-owned FTTH network. They are currently in financial trouble. One big question is whether the trouble began before or after Tim Nulty left.

I haven’t seen very convincing evidence to prove or disprove either side. Chris Mitchell pointed out to me that Burlington Telecom received $33.5 million in city loans in August 2007. Tim Nulty left about two months later. So it seems like the city would have looked into things before writing a check.

So why am I thinking about Burlington? Because Tim Nulty is part of National Public Broadband, which is involved the effort for Fiber in Lake County. They received $66 million of ARRA funds for te network. There have been articles in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Minnesota Public Radio, Duluth New Tribune and Muninetworks. Some seem worried about the information; others seem worried about the impact of the scandal.

It seems that all municpal networks have had to overcome barriers – either in the courtroom (as was the case in Monticello) or battle for pubic opionion (as appeared to be the case in North St Paul). With any luck this will help the folks in Lake County rally. I also hope that it will encourage transparency for the Lake County project.

Minnesota Broadband Advisory Task Force December 2010 – full notes

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Today the Minnesota Broadband Advisory Task Force met. The notes are quicker to read this month – the devil was really in the detail today. The goal was to walk out of the room with a report that was approved. Many of the conversations focused on editing. I grabbed what I thought would be most meaningful out of context. Why the rush to get done?

The Legislature will see the Task Force report on February 10. The report will come from the Commissioner. By February 2011, we will have a new Commissioner of Commerce. (Glenn Wilson is retiring at the end of the year.) If the report is done before then, he may be able to help move it forward. Otherwise, the hope is that the next Commissioner is either up on broadband issues in Minnesota or is a very quick study.

The goal was accomplished. The report needs only a final proof. Because the report is so close to final version, I won’t publish it this month. Don’t want to dull the thunder for the unveiling. I am delighted to share one of my favorite sections (with thanks to JoAnne Johnson for permission). The Task Force took a chart that we did a while back – and made it much better by adding detail. Actually think it would be fair and accurate to say that John Schultz added the detail: Minnesota ARRA awards, including houses passed, miles of fiber and accordance with MN speed goals.

Here are the notes… Continue reading →

Project Volunteer Coordinator need for Lake County fiber program

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OK this is loosely related to broadband – but it obviously tied into ARRA broadband programs – and I thought maybe someone on this list would either be interested or know someone who is interested in the position.

The Lake County folks have an RFP for a Project Volunteer Coordinator for the Lake County fiber project. They are looking for a person or firm to help develop local grassroots support and public awareness of the Network.

The submission deadline is December 22, 2010 at 3:00 pm.