Broadening broadband around Minnesota

The fast Internet speeds available to most Twin Cities residents should be made available throughout Minnesota, and the state should help make it happen, a state task force will recommend today.

At stake is the economic future of rural Minnesota, where broadband access is either slower or unavailable, the task force's report says. It calls on the state to turn things around, in part, with tax incentives to encourage broadband companies to expand.

The far-reaching plan for extending the reach of high-speed Internet access will be shown to state legislators today, but already some critics say it lacks specifics about financing and is too timid in setting goals.

The report says high-speed Internet service will be vital for economic development and delivering community services, such as education and medical visits.

The report will be submitted to a joint meeting of the Minnesota House and Senate telecommunications committees at the State Capitol today. The task force hopes the Legislature will accept the report's findings when it returns in February, said Rick King, chairman of the Ultra High Speed Broadband Task Force, created by the Legislature. While the report is expected to influence future state spending, it probably won't affect national distribution of $7.2 billion in federal stimulus money for broadband, he said.

How much of the state lacks broadband is a matter of dispute. A state-sponsored survey said 94 percent of state residents had access to broadband, but King said there are "arguments about the methodology that was used." (Fewer people actually subscribe to broadband. A Pew Internet and American Life Project study quoted in the report says 57 percent of Minnesota urban residents and 39.4 percent of rural residents subscribe.)

The state speed survey also defined broadband as a download speed of 768,000 bits per second, not fast enough for downloading video. King said experts agree that 768,000 bits per second shouldn't be considered broadband.

The report urges the state to set a statewide goal of providing download speeds of 10 million to 20 million bits per second by 2015 -- speeds that today are limited mostly to the Twin Cities metro area. The report also recommends upload speeds of 5 million to 10 million bits per second that are rare today.

In addition, the report says Minnesota should aspire to be in the top five states in the nation for broadband speed and availability. That would be a big jump, because in mid-2008, the state ranked 24th in residential broadband availability, the report said. The task force recommends creating an ongoing Broadband Advisory Council for Minnesota to help meet the goals.

But while the task force report focuses on expanding broadband, the Blandin Foundation of Grand Rapids, Minn., an advocate for rural broadband, says the report doesn't go far enough.

The report doesn't weigh the relative merits of various tax incentive plans, which would be a big help for rural areas, Blandin officials said. In addition, the report places too much emphasis on expanding broadband service by providing state incentives to broadband providers; more emphasis should instead be placed on providing free public broadband access sites for people who can't afford the service, they said. Blandin also favored higher speed goals than the task force recommends.

King said the task force lacked the financial expertise to analyze tax incentive plans, and the group could not reach a consensus about alternatives to tax incentives, such as free public access locations. The task force chose broadband speed goals that would be sufficient for video uses now envisioned, he said.

"The Blandin people say we should go a little farther, and the people on the other end say the goals we've set are enough of a challenge," King said. "If the people on either side are unhappy, then the task force report must be in the right place."

Among the issues the task force report doesn't tackle: affordability of broadband service in Minnesota and whether cities should build their own broadband networks, as Minneapolis and Monticello opted to do.

"We are not recommending that the state get involved in the price of broadband service," King said. "We are recommending only that the state have broadband availability and speed goals."

King said the task force doubted cities are capable of maintaining their networks over time, even though Minneapolis already has a Wi-Fi wireless network built and run under city contract by US Internet of Minnetonka, and Monticello is building its own fiber-optic cable network to be run by Hiawatha Broadband Corp.

"There was great disagreement on the task force about the good and bad of city networks," King said. "Current state law lets municipalities do it under certain rules, and our report doesn't speak to that. We hope it's the option of last resort."

Steve Alexander • 612-673-4553