Happy Thanksgiving! Right this moment I’m thankful for my mobile hotspot, my dad who loves to drive and my sister in Chicago who is cooking everything! And I’m thankful that broadband is making the dailies. There were two articles (one in the Pioneer Press and one in the Star Tribune) that spoke about the disparity in broadband access in Minnesota.
The Minneapolis Star Tribune highlighted the Minnesota Broadband Fund and the 40 applications – noting that the applicants’ total request came to $42.2 million. They highlight the investment from private and public resources and hint at some industry issues…
To help build speedy Internet service, the state created a new, $20 million grant fund. This fall, dozens of counties, companies and cooperatives applied — seeking $44.2 million.
“As we suspected, the demand is great,” said Katie Clark Sieben, commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development, or DEED.
The money, approved by lawmakers this year, is meant to bring broadband to areas that have slow or no service. About 22 percent of Minnesota households still lack access to high-speed Internet, not counting mobile service, according to new numbers from Connect Minnesota, a nonprofit that works with DEED to detail broadband coverage. …
The projects “represent a wonderful range of both applicant type and proposal type,” Clark Sieben said. “And they also cover every region in the state, as well.” …
Big Internet providers, including CenturyLink, applied as well. Mediacom, a New York-based cable TV and Internet provider, put forward four proposals totaling almost $1.2 million — in Medina, Orono, Maple Plain and Hibbing. If funded, the projects would bring broadband to 600 more homes, said Tom Larsen, Mediacom Communications Corp.’s vice president of legal and public affairs.
State money would offset the great cost of building fiber networks in these areas, some of which sit far from existing networks, which might involve cutting through rock or going under a highway, he said. “These areas would have already been built if there was an economic justification to build them,” Larsen said. “With a matching grant from the state, your costs come down.”
While Mediacom fought Lake County’s use of federal funds to build its own network, the company doesn’t have an issue with public funding for areas that are unserved, Larsen added.
It’s an interesting article if you want a glimpse at the details. The comments are equally interesting – some happy to see the state support infrastructure in rural areas; some much less supportive. The comments often speak more to how someone feels about taxes than broadband – but it demonstrates that many people still see broadband as a luxury item, not a necessity. (Although I daresay the negative commentators are not electing themselves to live without it.)
The Pioneer Press article seemed to address some of the naysayers by focusing on the disparity and the economic impact of that disparity as well as taking a look at Minnesota as a whole – not just the Twin Cities or just rural areas…
Minnesotans only need to look at the first two counties on an alphabetical list to understand the Internet disparity between rural areas and those in big cities.
Recently released figures show that just 0.06 percent of the rural northern Minnesota Aitkin County households are served by high-speed Internet service, also known as broadband, that meets the state speed goal. Not too far away to the south,, 97 percent of northern Twin Cities suburban Anoka County homes are served by fast Internet.
The report by Connect Minnesota shows greater Minnesota-large city disparities as well as differences among the state’s mostly rural counties.
While such disparities may just frustrate an online gamer, they can cost rural businesses money.
The article pulled a number of statistics from the recently released Connect MN report and focused on the lost revenue for local business and the need to improve broadband for the sake of the whole state. The quote two members of the Broadband Task Force…
Minnesota ranks 23rd in overall Internet speed, although many with faster speeds are much more compact states, such as Delaware. One of Minnesota’s goals is to be in the top five of broadband speed and access.
Speeding up the Internet is only fair for Minnesotans, Chairwoman Margaret Anderson Kelliher of the Governor’s Broadband Task force said in a report to lawmakers earlier this year.
“Access to high-speed connections across Minnesota is a matter of economic justice, fairness, and opportunity for all Minnesotans,” the former state House speaker said.
Broadband advocates such as Public Policy Director Bernadine Joselyn of the Blandin Foundation, which provides rural Minnesota needs with a variety of financial assistance, say they are optimistic.
“We’re getting closer, and we’re more inspired than ever,” Joselyn said. “We see some amazing leadership coming from communities and the state, and we’ll need that as Minnesota works to achieve its broadband goals.”
