Minnesota: An Internet backwater soon?

Minnesotans expect the following to be nearly infinite: the universe around us, the amount of spam crowding our e-mail inboxes, Starbucks locations -- and the growth of the Internet. But the release of a November study by the Nemertes Research Group predicting "the end of the Internet" has generated countless articles and blog chatter.

Unless Internet providers invest up to $55 billion in new infrastructure, the report warns, consumer and corporate use of the Internet could exceed capacity in as little as two years, potentially leading to brownouts and slowing the pace of e-commerce.

This report is not the harbinger of digital doom that many in the Twin Cities technology community fear. The Internet will not crash, and your employees still will be able to waste time watching Will Ferrell videos on YouTube. But our ability to profit from future Internet innovations could suffer, and that's why Minnesotans need to be aware of this impending crisis -- and demand concrete solutions from Internet carriers like Qwest and Comcast, and the legislators who can ensure that all Minnesotans enjoy the benefits of high-speed Internet access.

Copper wire is old hat

It's true that the infrastructure of the Internet is starting to show its age. The copper-wire phone lines that carry data across the Internet have been around for more than a century -- Minneapolis' Northwestern Telephone Exchange Co. began operations in 1879. The core of the Internet is sound; it's the connections on the periphery of the network -- those that link your home and office to the Web -- that are faltering. These connections were not built to handle the large amounts of data that future Internet applications, such as Internet high definition television, will demand. And when your network can't handle demand, you experience slower service and annoying outages.

But across Asia and Europe, consumers don't have to worry about slowdowns. In fact, what we call "high-speed Internet" in Minnesota is quite pokey compared with the rest of the world.

A recent column in Computerworld magazine noted that the average bandwidth in Japan is just under a blazing 61 megabits per second, and in Korea and France it's more than 40 megabits.

In the Twin Cities, by contrast, a molasses-like 6 megabits is typically the fastest service available, and not all users -- certainly not those living in rural areas -- can count on that speed.

What does this disparity mean for our businesses? Without the increased Internet capacity, the next generation of Google or the development of IP-TV (Internet Protocol Television) will not come from the brilliant minds in Silicon Valley or the Twin Cities.

Instead, entrepreneurs in Japan, India and Ireland will reap the benefits of the truly high-speed Internet service available to them and bring new applications to market long before a Twin Cities company does.

The jobs -- and the bragging rights -- will relocate to hot spots in Bangalore and Dublin rather than Eden Prairie, and our businesses will struggle to keep up rather than lead the pack.

Yet with a significant investment in network upgrades, like swapping out copper wires for fiber-optic connections, we can use the Internet to its full potential and enable the next Amazon.com and Digital River. The question is, who will pay for the necessary infrastructure?

Who will pay?

Incredibly, Americans have already paid for these upgrades -- in the 1990s, Congress gave telecommunications companies an estimated $70 billion in tax breaks and subsidies that were intended to fund the necessary network improvements. But the 2001 dot-com bust and bankruptcies of telecommunications companies like WorldCom swallowed up the cash. Is it right to ask the American public to shoulder the brunt of the investment once again?

Some communities, such as Monticello, are tackling the problem by laying down a metropolitan fiber-optics system on their own dime. Called FiberNet Monticello, this network will be run as a separate business entity and allow residents to enjoy high-speed Internet access, as well as cable HDTV and telephone service.

St. Paul is exploring the feasibility of a partnership among schools, Ramsey County and the state government to build a high-speed network that would serve those institutions. The network would then be rolled out to all homes and businesses in St. Paul.

What can we do to make sure all Minnesotans get the Internet service they are owed?

The public can demonstrate its political will at the grass-roots level by writing to legislators and telecommunications providers. Minnesotans can show they value the potential that broadband Internet access offers to all users, from entrepreneurs who are developing the next killer application to the rural farmer who uses e-mail to communicate with his customers.

The Internet is a vital utility, just like water, electricity and gas. But since it has no physical address or single owner, legislators avoid taking responsibility for it.

Regardless of the Nemertes Research Group's warnings, our way of online life and work won't halt in a screech of smoking copper wire and flaming modems come 2010.

Surely, the state that developed the first supercomputer and one of the first Internet browsers can demand that the Internet carriers invest in the long-overdue upgrades. Otherwise, the only thing that will be infinite in Minnesota will be how far we lag behind the rest of the world in technological innovation.