It looks as if progress is steady with the Minnesota broadband bill. Apparently HF 2907 has been cleared by the full Commerce committee. It is likely to head to the Gov Committee this week – with no fiscal note attached, making clear there is no cost to the State. SF 2254 is ready for the floor. It sounds as if that is likely to happen in a couple of weeks (rather than this week).
Not a lot of updates but just a quick note to say that the Minnesota broadband bill will be heard in the Commerce and Labor Committee meeting on Tuesday February 23. The meeting starts at 4:30 in the basement of the State Office Building. It’s one of a number things on the schedule. The next probably step would be a hearing with Gov Ops Committee in the House, although that may not be necessary. After that the bill should go for a vote in both the House and the Senate.
I suspect many folks reading the blog know this – but just in case… You can get details on the bill in the Senate (SF 2254) and House (HF 2907) online.
Apparently the broadband hearing with the House went well on Friday. Rep Johnson introduced the bill and with some amendments; it was passed by his committee. Goals were set as is. Council detailed a bit more than the Senate version but still named by Department of Commerce Commissioner.
The next step will be a full Commerce Committee on Thursday. Then, the Government Ops Committee in the House the following week.
At the House hearing, Rick King, Ultra High-Speed Broadband Task Force Chair led, followed by Commissioner Wilson, and then two other Task Force members, Mary Ellen Wells and JoAnne Johnson. Nearly the same lineup had presented at the Senate, except Craig Taylor replaced Mary Ellen speaking on the healthcare piece.
So we watch and listen for the time that those of us who support the bill will want to call our legislators and let them know how we feel. You can get a few more details from the Session Daily.
Sadly I haven’t been able to find the audio or video archive of the meeting online yet. (Will post when I see it.) But yesterday the Minnesota Senate Committee met and the bill (SF2254) was recommended to pass. Here’s a super summary:
The House has filed a companion bill and will meet this morning to hear both it and the Senate bill. The House version has more detail and instea of saying the commernce comissioner may appoint an advisory committee, the House says comissioner shal appoint and convene.
The Minnesota Ultra High Speed Broadband Task Force is meeting on Friday. As I mentioned last month – they’re really into the actual writing by this point. Last month they worked on materials their colleagues had submitted for the final report. This month they’re going to tackle contentious issues as defined by the members.
Each Task Force member was asked to highlight portions of the work they saw last month that they think represent the most contentious issues. They also pulled out the paragraphs with which they most agreed and disagreed.
On Friday they will discuss three of these issues:
I read the contentious issues and points of agreement and disagreement. Role of Government seemed like the most mentioned issue – and some of the other issues seemed to stem from that basic starting point. I expect that municipal networks will be a hot topic – but Universal Service Funds, creating an ongoing Broadband state entity, government as a customer could come up as well.
I think speed will be a tricky issue. I think speed is on a short list of things that the legislators have requested by name – but I also know that the FCC is working on a new definition of speed. It’s unfortunate that the FCC is not expected to have their work completed before November. I suspect that the Connect Minnesota maps will come up during the discussion. Many people mentioned they work as a potentially contentious issue.
Finally there’s How to Pay for It/affordability. To me those are two issues so I’m interested to see what happens there. Are we talking about affordability for individual customers (business or residential) or affordability at a state level?
If you have strong feelings on these issues, Friday would be a good time to speak up. They entertain public comments at the beginning of the meeting (9:45). (See agenda.) They are meeting at Thomson Reuters in Egan; but there are also remote locations if that’s too far.
Here are the notes from the April 24 Minnesota Ultra High Speed Task Force. They seem short because much of the meeting was spent with task force members hovered over computer actually doing writing. So there wasn’t a ton for me to report there.
It did seem as if people were really working – despite the amazing weather outside- and that they were working well together.
Notes:
Agenda approved
Notes from last month approved
NOTES ON THE STIMULUS FUNDING
There have been 3 public input meetings; Dan McElroy is going to DC soon. They are awaiting guidance. Expect to have some on the 23rd. So really don’t know much more than last month.
They’ve done inquiries with FCC staff. They are writing a national broadband policy; it will be a staff effort and then public can comment. Maybe as soon as June.
Does anyone with industry connection know more? Nope.
The FCC will post their report in Feb 2010 – after 2 of the grant round funds are distributed.
CORRESPONDENCE
The public sent lots of note after the article in MinnPost.
Last month TDS sent a letter; this month Monticello sent a letter. (Jeff O’Neill, Monticello City Admin is here.)
No comments from the public.
UPCOMING MEETINGS
August meeting (in Mankato) – is being finalized. June is ready. Details should be ready in a week or so. Next month we’ll meet at Thomson Reuters again.
The Department of Commerce has resolved the budget for lunches. Looking into whether we can get help from Task Force members and/or their organizations.
Mike O’Connor spoke to Robert Stevens (of Geek Squad) and Vint Cerf about the job of the Task Force. Videos are available online.
I’ve posted my favorite portion below:
BREAK Continue reading
Today’s meeting felt collegial. The healthcare folks did a great job. I think the afternoon speaker (who presented variations on the Connect Minnesota maps) spurred a lot of good conversation relating to the maps. From the outside it seem like people were really in synch and that compromises were being made in an effort to really start working together. Or maybe it’s not right to say that there were compromises – but that everyone was able to rise above their individual concerns to start building a plan together.
Here are the regular notes from the Broadband Task Force meeting… Continue reading
I’ve heard from a few people who plan to attend the Ultra High-Speed Broadband Task Force on Friday, which is great news. The more the merrier!
I’m looking forward to hearing from the health care folks on the agenda. I notice that the task force also plans to talk about their value statements – they have given me permission to share the notes from previous discussions on value statements here. It’s a work in progress.
In my opinion the discussions the task force has had on the value statements have been the most interesting conversations they have had. There are some value statements that everyone can agree to quickly – there are others that are open for greater discussion. There are 2 topics so far that have been particularly sticky:
There are a couple of other issues that seem to be open for greater discussion but from what I’ve heard – these are the potentially hot topics.
I’ve also included the task force’s notes on their criteria for selecting broadband projects for the stimulus funding. (You can get a list of potential projects on the Urban Users’ blog.) This too was an interesting conversation last month; I think because the underlying basis for the criteria relates so directly to the value statements. (This document is also a work in progress.)
The agenda and other details are now available for the Ultra High-Speed Task Force meeting next Friday. Please note a change in the Twin Cities location to Inver Hills Community College. Remote sites are set up in Duluth, Crookston and St Cloud.
These are open meetings. The public are welcome to join and in the past have had an opportunity to offer comments (usually at the opening of the meeting).
There’s a good line up of speakers in the public sector. In the afternoon we’ll hear from Geoff Daily and Andrew Cohill. Both have been speakers at previous Blandin Broadband conferences. (Sorry I just had to fit that in.)
I will be there and taking notes, which I’ll post as soon as I can.
It was tougher to take notes at today’s meeting than it has been at previous Task Force meetings – especially when they discussed the shovel-ready projects because there was a lot of back and forth dialog and I’m a blogger not a stenographer. I’m going to include all of my notes – but I wanted to add a couple of notes.
First – I didn’t take great notes on the Broadband Mapping presentation because it was remarkably similar to the sneak preview I wrote about on Thursday. I just added notes and questions that were new.
Second – I just read an article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune (Broadband task force drops plan to get stimulus funds). I think the tone of the article is misleading. I don’t think the Task Force dropped the list of projects so much as they decided that realistically they couldn’t be the ones to decide which projects should be funded – and if they handed over a list of projects that the powers that be would assume that the Task Force had made some qualitative decisions to create the list.
They couldn’t decide which projects should be funded because (1) they don’t know the rules for funding yet because Congress is still creating rules and (2) they don’t have the time to delve into these projects and create a recommendation for the future of broadband in Minnesota, which is their primary goal. So instead of providing a list, it sounded to me at if the Task Force decided to provide benchmarks or guidelines for Legislators to decide which projects to fund after they gather their own list of potential projects.
Third, the Star Tribune article did pick up on the tension in the room between potentially opposing views on how and where to increase broadband in Minnesota. I think we saw a touch of this last month – I think we’re going to see a lot more as the group moves forward to make recommendations on how and where to increase broadband in Minnesota.
On with the meeting notes… Continue reading
The broadband maps of Minnesota have been unveiled! This afternoon I got a sneak preview of the maps from the folks at Connection Nation (CN) – specifically from Brent Legg, Wes Kerr and Chip Spann. Connected Nation has been hired by the State to map access to broadband across Minnesota. The maps are being created to help the Ultra High-Speed Broadband Task Force make recommendations to the Legislature regarding a vision for broadband access in Minnesota.
I have a brief video clip from our meeting; I tried to catch the introductory key points. (I’m hoping to get the presentation they gave too and will post it when I can.)
According to the data collected (mostly from providers) 92 percent of the state is covered with broadband – as defined by greater than 768 Kbps download speeds. The 8 percent that is not covered comes to about 150,000 households or 418,000 people. Although participation by providers was not mandated by the State, CN heard from 98 providers of the estimated 225 providers in Minnesota, however it sounds as if they had heard from the largest providers. That being said they are working to get more data. Continue reading
The Minnesota Ultra High-Speed Broadband Task Force has just called a special meeting to be held from 11 am to 4 pm on February 6. It’s open to the public. I plan to attend and take notes.
Here’s the agenda:
Date Time Location – Friday, February 6, 2009 11:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. Video Conference Locations See attached for a listing of locations
11:00 – 11:15 Opening comments; review meeting agenda; public comment
11:15 – 12:45 Review State Broadband Mapping Report – Brent Legg, Connected Nation
12:45 – 1:15 Break for Lunch
1:15 – 4:00 Brainstorm and Discuss Potential Projects for Stimulus Funds Identify and discuss potential projects as requested by the Committee Chairs for use of the Obama stimulus funds (American Recovery and Investment Act of 2009*). Project list to be finalized at February 20th Task Force Meeting.
4:00 Adjourn