Minnesota can be a broadband leader

June 7, 2010 | sourced Comments

Networks Policy Sourced

By Sheldon Johnson, Bemidji Pioneer

“Take a moment and picture a high school student at his home or local library in rural Minnesota taking online courses from a technical college in the Twin Cities. Imagine a doctor in Rochester advising a patient in Grand Rapids via a video-conference about the best treatment options available for a serious illness or performing tele-surgery from thousands of miles away using robotics. Envision a farmer in southern Minnesota buying his cattle in an online livestock auction.

All these can and will be realized — as long as we have the appropriate broadband speeds and infrastructure.  While Minnesota and the Unites States were once leaders in broadband penetration and speed, we have fallen behind.”

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  • While Rep. Johnson really nails the importance of broadband, the Legislature and Governor have only shown that they do not get it. They refuse to take strong action to improve broadband in Minnesota because they are cowed by the service providers like Qwest that only offer extremely slow broadband. The "goals" passed by the legislature, while a good first step, do nothing to actually solve the problem. It is much like President Bush's call to go to Mars. It was great, but if not accompanied by the necessary funding, is nothing but a waste of all our time.
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