Businesses absolutely depend on fast broadband at affordable prices. Due to limited competition, the broadband landscape in much of greater Minnesota is not pretty. The exception is Monticello, where the publicly owned fiber network offers commercial 30Mbps symmetrical connections for $99/month, which has spurred the local telco to improve their offerings.
Any hope of duplicating these amazing connections elsewhere in Minnesota may be permanently setback as a result of recent action in the Minnesota Legislature, where incumbents are flexing their muscles to limit broadband competition from the public sector. The following article, which discusses the situation in detail, originally appeared at http://muninetworks.org and is re-posted in entirety with permission from the author.
ID Insight, a Minnesota-based startup providing enterprise-level identity fraud solutions, today released a "Fastest 25" broadband list. Minnesota’s Ramsey County is #23 of 25 on the list of counties with the country’s 25 fastest Internet connections. The "Fastest 25" list was generated using BroadBand Scout, a new national broadband connectivity and usage database. The top county, Nassau County, N.Y., boasts a median download speed of 15.0 megabits per second and a median upload speed of 4.4 megabits per second.
The counties on ID Insight’s Fastest 25 list include:
- Nassau County, N.Y.
- Kent County, R.I.
- Putnam County, N.Y.
- Benton County, Ore.
- Mercer County, N.J.
- Richmond County, N.Y.
- Delaware County, Ind.
- Snohomish County, Wash.
- Thurston County, Wash.
- Frederick County, Va.
- Washington County, R.I.
- Arlington County, Va.
- Yamhill County, Ore.
- Providence County, R.I.
- Calvert County, Md.
- Bristol County, R.I.
- Multnomah County, Ore.
- Chester County, Pa.
- Washington County, Ore.
- Salem County, N.J.
- Allen County, Ind.
- Suffolk County, N.Y.
- Ramsey County, Minn.
- Island County, Wash.
- Howard County, Md.
by Bob Kelleher, Minnesota Public Radio
“Duluth, Minn. — Just days after Google pitched its nationwide offer to bring super-fast broadband to a winning community, Duluth Mayor Don Ness was elbowing for his city to be first in line.
The youthful Ness quickly formed a core team, and on Feb. 18 threw a community organizational meeting. About 50 of the city’s leading business people mingled with an equal number of largely unshaven geeks to hear the mayor’s pitch. ” (emphasis added)
By Chris Newmarker, MSP Bizjournal
“Minnesota is one of the top states in the country for Internet access, according to numbers released from the U.S. Census Bureau.
The North Star State was No. 4 for individuals with access to the Internet from some location, with 76.1 percent of Minnesotans having access somewhere. Nearly 78 percent of the state’s population lives in a home with Internet access, ranking Minnesota No. 12″
“Southwest Minnesota Broadband Group (SWMBG) has been selected by the federal government to receive a $6.4 million loan and a $6.4 million grant to provide broadband services to eight rural communities in southwest Minnesota.
The SWMBG is one of 11 groups or projects that received funding through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the grants and loans, which were distributed to nines states, on Wednesday.”
Last Wednesday, State Senators Prettner, Solon, Doll, Scheid and Rosen introduced S.F. No. 2254 which sets state goals for the deployment and speed of high-speed broadband. The bill has been referred to Energy, Utilities, Technology and Communications Committee for a hearing scheduled tomorrow, Feb 11th at 3pm (stay tuned).
The bill sets a statewide goal that by 2015:
Sheldon Johnson is a Minnesota Representative (DFL) for district 67B, which spans South East St. Paul, including the neighborhoods of: Battle Creek, Mounds Park, Dayton’s Bluff, Highwood and Eastview. He was first elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives in 2000 and is currently in his fifth term. He serves on committees that deal with issues such as energy policy, public safety and civil justice, preserving Minnesota’s heritage, and commerce and labor. He is also the Chair of the Telecommunications Regulations and Infrastructure Division, which addresses issues such as cable TV, telephone, and the internet.
Join TECHdotMN as we chat with Mr. Johnson about his role as the Chair of the Telecommunications Regulations and Infrastructure Division, and what he see’s for the future of Minnesota Broadband from a policy perspective.
In other Broadband news…
Grant proposal laid out for greater connectivity – 1/27/10
via Minnesota House of Represenatives
“State law could be one barrier standing in the way of an $80 million request to bring broadband connectivity to most schools in the state.
Rep. Denise Dittrich (DFL-Champlin) presented the request to the House K-12 Education Finance Division. The goal of the proposal is to establish a way to fund the necessary fiber optic infrastructure “to give students a global education.”
The Net has a few holes in Minnesota – 1/25/10
byJean Hopfensperger, Star Tribune
“Imagine a world without online videos or telecommuting. It’s real for the many Minnesotans with limited access to high-speed Internet service.”
Need for redundancy seen in Northern MN – 1/29/10
By Anne Treacy, Blandin on Broadband
“I got the following email from Chris Swanson, CEO of PureDriven. With his permission I am posting here. I wanted to help him spread the word and get feedback – but I also thought it might serve as a lesson or reminder to us all about the importance of redundancy…”
Steam plant refutes Qwest’s explanation of phone outage -1/30/10
“Qwest Communications’ explanation that a steam pipe rupture caused a fiber-optic line break that knocked out North Shore phone and Internet service this week doesn’t hold water, the manager of the plant that tends the pipes said Friday.”
Two critical pieces of the startup puzzle are healthcare and internet data connection/broadband. For the most part, both issues are currently in the hands of our government (and quasi private industry). I won’t talk healthcare except to say that no matter how entrepreneurial one is (or aspires to be) and no matter how creative one’s ideas, the necessity to provide adequate (family) healthcare coverage can easily keep even the most promising entrepreneur chained to the 9-5 “corporate” environment – thus stifling the ability to venture out, assume risk and ultimately innovate.
TECHdotMN has launched. It’s my latest blogging gig, and I’m honored to be asked to participate! I’m excited to see what we can produce as a team. Jeff Pesek and Mike Bollinger will be leading this project, alongside: Tom Basquill (Social Correspondent), Paul Godfread (Legal Correspondent), Zach Robins (Capital/Financial correspondent), and myself as the Network Correspondent.
My objective is to cover local networks, infrastructure and governing policies. Not your LAN networks, your VPN, or your physical networking gear, but World Wide Web and Internet at large and how they play out in the local business/startup community.
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Peter Fleck, aka "pfhyper" is a web developer and Internet Activist seeking highspeed, neutral broadband for all. Also the editor of a hyperlocal news blog for the Minneapolis Seward Neighborhood.
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