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Broadband hearings in St. Paul

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By Sheldon Mains, TC Daily Planet
December 30, 2008
On Monday, Senator Amy Klobuchar held a hearing at the Minnesota State Capital on access to high-speed data networks (referred to as broadband) yesterday. It was standing room only in one of the smaller hearing rooms. The audience included representatives from a number of industry groups, a couple members of the Minnesota Ultra High-Speed Broadband Taskforce, at least one librarian and a few people who work on the Blandin Foundation Rural Broadband Initiative.



Blog post from BLANDIN ON BROADBAND

Economic Stimulus Fiber
by Ann Treacy • There are growing calls for the economic stimulus package to include funds for telecommunications infrastructure. I think that this is a great idea. Unfortunately, the calls for this funding always include the phrase “underserved areas.” I do not know of many areas in the United States that are “over-served.” MORE AND Senator Klobuchar Broadband Roundtable Notes Dec 29 from Ann Treacy

Senator Klobuchar started the hearing with a statement outlining why broadband access is important for economic development in rural Minnesota and providing some rankings (e.g. Minnesota ranks 44th out of 50 states in average download speed for the Internet.) She made that case that the economic stimulus package must include funding for improved access to the Internet as a way of improving the economy of rural America.

The panel of people providing testimony included a rural senator, the technology coordinator for a primarily rural school district, an executive from a rural hospital, the manager of a rural telephone cooperative and a few other with similar backgrounds. Most talked about the need for better Internet access--for students, for hospitals, for small businesses.

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©2008 Sheldon Mains
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It is an urban problem too!

Submitted by Alec (not verified) on Tue, 2008-12-30 21:08.
The insidious thing is that the underprivileged in the urban core lack broadband as much as rural citizens. It seems counter intuitive, but it is not profitable to get broadband to inner city residents either. In the Twin Cities, if you do not have a home phone (rely on cell phones) your only real choice of broadband seems to be Comcast for $50 a month as their cheapest package. There is no competition. The last governmental survey on broadband penetration showed that the rural areas and the urban core are pretty much equal in broadband penetration despite the geographic challenges of rural areas!

Qwest has broadband

Submitted by Nachman (not verified) on Wed, 2008-12-31 21:18.
Qwest offers broadband ADSL. Depending on your location you can get anything from 256/256Kbps to 896Kbps/20Mbps. There are also other transport technologies from SDSL to T1. You just have to look for them.

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