Project 4 -- Ubiquitous Broadband
From Mike's working wiki
Action Items
Action - Mike - set up a poll to see if we can find a time to do a call (and GoToMeeting prep) next week -- DONE
Action - JoAnne - forward Illinois language about removing barriers
Action - Mike - come up with a draft PowerPoint for our next call -- IN PROGRESS
Action - Mike - post Diane's material -- DONE
Contents |
Sub-Group "List" (post your ideas here)
Monitoring
Additional dimensions to monitor (beyond the speed, penetration, cost, etc. listed in the draft) --Oconnorstp 12:30, 25 June 2009 (UTC)
(all these would be county level at a minimum, preferably at the municipality or neighborhood level -- updated annually) --Oconnorstp 12:30, 25 June 2009 (UTC)
- Census of local information and knowledge resources --Oconnorstp 12:30, 25 June 2009 (UTC)
- Information/knowledge vision and strategy --Oconnorstp 12:30, 25 June 2009 (UTC)
- Progress measurements (towards locally-defined strategic knowledge goals) --Oconnorstp 12:30, 25 June 2009 (UTC)
Carlos' Thoughts:
- This group should recommend specific policies, even if they don't end up in this section:
- Invite tax expert to TF meeting (or submeeting) to present on current situation and help us elaborate specific and actionable fiscal policy recommendations
- Recommend a set of criteria for future policies to be implemented (grant should be matched, for example, or designate certain areas (penetration/population as higher priority than others)
- Minnesota Ultra High Speed Broadband Monitoring Commission :
- One of its mandates should be not only to facilitate, but also to keep track of progress and update as needed (issue a yearly status report on the expansion of BB tracking against estated goals?)
- Comission will administer a fund. Where will this money come from? Recommend tax or bill surcharge to finance new infrastructure in underserved areas
- Demand-side programs: Critical to make ubiquity meaningful is to establish clear parameters in three areas:
- Computer literacy (promote/fund education programs, specially to low-income, older populations)
- Computer affordability (establish incentives for low-income families. Define what a low income family is)
- Service: it doesn't help if fiber is out there if people can't afford the service (fund a % of service to certain critical populations, schools, etc..)
- Rights of Way
- Make facilitating rights of way a priority of the commission, or establish sub-commission to analyze ROW and assist providers with new implementations.
- From Carlos -- click [HERE] to look at "broadband deployment and adoption programs per State" a report compiled by CWA and TF staff.
From Mary Ellen
One of the ideas that's been posted is to promote/educate people so that use can increase. Specific mention is given to educating people on how to use computers.
Would it be possible to include some incentives with health care providers for home monitoring equipment? That's another big opportunity for residential use of high speed internet. Also, with the internet, how there's more and more medical information available to people; as the federal mandate kicks in where providers have to have electronic records, people will be able to access their health information very quickly and completely.
Finally, can we build in incentives for small business start-ups in rural areas using high speed internet? Or to encourage businesses to promote telecommuting? That would then help support the need (create the demand) for ubiquitous broadband.
From Diane
Here's the results of my specific action item regarding information on rights-of-way in Minnesota. It's quite a bit of information. In sum, I'm not aware of issues with rights of way in Minnesota nor that the requirements act as a barrier to the provision of broadband, but I could stand to be corrected if others see it differently through their practical experience in Minnesota.
At the direction of the legislature by law passed in 1997 (Minn. Stat. 237.162 and 237.163) found at https://www.revisor.leg.state.mn.us/statutes/?id=237.162 and https://www.revisor.leg.state.mn.us/statutes/?id=237.163 and at Session Laws https://www.revisor.leg.state.mn.us/laws/?id=123&doctype=Chapter&year=19 97&type=0
the Public Utilities Commission issued rules in March 1999 regarding rights-of-way standards. The legislature had recognized that with competition developing for telecommunications services, there would be other entities wanting to use the public rights-of-way and the legislature wanted to ensure that such use would be nondiscriminatory. The PUC's rules can be found at Minn. Rules Ch. 7819. https://www.revisor.leg.state.mn.us/rules/?id=7819
The Statement of Need and Reasonableness to support the rules is attached (click [HERE] to download it). (It's a TIFF document which I had a heck of a time opening but didn't want to scan in since it's 82 pages. It can also be found in our edockets system under docket no. 97-902 for people more familiar with efiling and there it has an id# of 908516 and was filed on 10/18/1998.)
The rules were crafted with an advisory taskforce that consisted of both users of the rights-of-way and local governments. The only issues I'm aware of regarding rights-of-way is what the local units of government want the companies to pay for (burying instead of overhead, relocation costs) but the providers may have more information. There have not been any requests that the Commission modify its rules nor have I heard arguments that the rights-of-way requirements as applied by the local units of government per the rules have been discriminatory or a barrier to entry.
Three interesting parts of the rules are:
1. The rules allow a local unit of government to establish a "high density corridor" (see 7819.0200) which is defined as "a designated portion of the public right-of-way within which telecommunications right-of-way users having multiple and competing facilities may be required to build and install facilities in a common conduit system or other common structure."
2. The rules allow a local unit of government to develop a right-of-way mapping system (see 7819.4000) so they know exactly what is in their rights-of-ways.
3. The rules also define "Five-year project plan" to show "projects adopted by the local government unit for construction within the next five years" and "Two-year project plan" as "projects adopted by the local government unit for construction within the next two years" but I don't see those terms actually used anywhere in the rules.
Notes
Ubiquity goal 100% availability across the state (vs "take rate" or "penetration"), including a symmetrical service option (equal upload and download speed) should be available to all consumers who require it, especially small businesses. This need not be mandated for all consumers as it may not be required by everyone. Indeed some consumers might well prefer service offerings that provide slower upload speed in order to deliver faster download speed or a lower price.
These ubiquitous connections should be provided over facilities that offer at least 2 points of redundancy to the Internet backbone
We're saying to the legislature that bb access has to be ubiquitous -- a major tenet -- key message -- right at the top of the report -- in clear language
Current summary, too specific, too quickly -- speak in clear English -- ubiquitous means it goes everywhere, every home every business
Tiering and choice -- everybody gets the same speeds everywhere, the consumer gets to choose what they take.
This is a basic tenet, in the first paragraph of the report
Mention that Stimulus money isn't going to get us to ubiquitous (key message, early often)
Specific ideas
Incentive programs -- with an expiration date -- often drive action -- actionable, implementable -- various options at the end of the report
Stimulate demand -- educational effort aimed opnion leaders and key decision makers at legilators, teacher's groups, etc -- get people up to speed
Stimulate demand -- educate consumers -- get broadband to consumers
Remove barriers/impediments -- permitting -- eliminate artificial and costly barriers (Illinois report -- ACTION JoAnne, forward language to Mikey)(Iowa - standards for crossing a railroad)(fees)(pole attachment)
Establish "right of way" authority (eg Vermont), or maybe the new Council could address that -- ACTION Diane, look into State rules for streamlining right-of-way
Help cell providers with middle connectivity to towers
Question
Is wireless something to include in the ubiquity count? (Mike's view -- if there's a minimum latency -- 30-50 mS)
Who's responsible for ubiquity?
SHOPPING LIST
Here's a link to my summary of other State Reports. Not a bad place to go to get ideas for things we could add to our list.
Report Snippets
The executive summary draft leads off with this sentence "The Minnesota Ultra High Speed Broadband Task Force recommends that the Governor consider the following eight actions to help Minnesota achieve ubiquitous broadband service: "
Satellite broadband provides ubiquitous coverage throughout the United States and is available to anyone with a clear view of the southern sky. There are some challenges to consumers in using satellite services, such as delay for certain services/applications (e.g., voice and video conferencing).
The essence of the Internet is collaboration. The main tenets of Internet development include building and sustaining an open, interoperable, scalable network of networks that robustly supports a variety of applications and devices. As we look forward to a ubiquitous big broadband environment, these basic philosophies still hold true. O'Connor
Ubiquitous - We need to allow for Ultra High-Speed to reach each and every home and business in Minnesota. Some people believe this is too large of an undertaking. I refuse to believe the innovative and sharp minds in Minnesota cannot get ubiquitous Ultra high-speed broadband to every home and business. If the mindset of Minnesotans had been that innovation was not that important then the global leader 3-M would never have survived in Minnesota. Instead the company flourishes because of a can-do attitude. In order for the Internet to be a powerful tool we need the ability for the same connectivity speeds if you are in downtown St. Paul or in Cook County, MN. As Commissioner McElroy stated in our February meeting “a scientist that wanted to use the high-speed internet to develop a thermo-nuclear widget should be able to do this at his cabin anywhere in Minnesota.” If we don’t do anything different than what we do today the digital divide will get larger for outstate communities and especially rural Minnesota. We have too many places in our rural areas that need Ultra High-Speed broadband. Swanson
The State should create an on-going commission to identify issues and solutions for ubiquitous broadband adoption in Minnesota. This commission and its members should be appointed by the governor and have regular meetings, staff support and funding. It would be charged with the implementation of the Task Force’s report and other outcomes from any federal stimulus money. King
Report Draft
Recommendation 2: Policies and actions necessary to achieve ubiquitous broadband
<Summary Begin>
To achieve the speed goal of <insert speed goal>, the task force recommends the policies and actions outlined in this section of the report be enacted by the legislature.
Broadband access in Minnesota should be accomplished first by leveraging the current infrastructure. All types of broadband technology (i.e., fiber, cable) could be extended from their current locations to cover all regions of the state. Because bandwidth requirements for businesses and residences will vary and because increased bandwidth capability may become essential quickly, the network should be designed with a clear plan to the future. A tiered level of service is desired, but these levels should be built for ease of flexibility so that services can be increased quickly and without significant further costs. Ultimately, market competition (including public entities, for telco, cable, and wireless) to each location would be ideal.
Oversight
The task force recommends the creation of a Minnesota Ultra High Speed Broadband Monitoring Council with the following mandates:
- Provide a baseline assessment of broadband development in terms of percentage of households with broadband availability
- Provide updates to this data every six months
- Monitor average speeds across the state on a yearly basis
- Monitor BB use across the state
- Monitor user satisfaction across the state
- Maintain regular public-facing informational tools
- Host an annual/bi-annual conference with similar organizations across the US and the world
- Create a list of all broadband organizations and conferences
- Establish a formal definition of Broadband and Ultra High Speed Broadband for the State of Minnesota. Update as needed.
Mapping
The task force recommends that an accurate delineation of unserved and underserved areas of the state be created. The recently completed Connect Minnesota initiative applied 756kbps as the threshold for determining the broadband availability across Minnesota; if the established threshold is quite a bit higher than 756kbps, a new statewide broadband access map should be generated. If it cannot be accomplished through the current state contract with Connect Minnesota, it needs to be included as a recommendation in the Task Force report to the legislature. In addition to addressing availability of broadband services, there is also a need to address demand. A presentation to the Task Force by Dr. Jack Geller indicated that approximately 30% of Minnesotans do not have a home computer and therefore have no reason to purchase a broadband product. Studies conducted by the Center for Rural Policy Development report that:
- Computer ownership and Internet connectivity throughout Minnesota are relatively flat, or at best modestly increasing.
- Approximately 90% of broadband users are satisfied with the speed of their Internet connection.
To increase demand, we recommend education programs and community computer access points. The recommendations are discussed further in Recommendation <fill in>
Program Funding (Stimulate Demand)
The task force recommends the creation and funding of the following programs:
- Fund $XXX to improve computer literacy in public K-12 education
- Fund $XXX to tele healthcare networks
- Fund $XXX to improve availability of computers in underserved areas
- Refurbished PCs program
- Fund $XXX to improve computer literacy across general public
- Leverage existing low/no cost programs already available (community education)
- Establish e-government program with specific goals: XX% of government transactions made online by DATE.
Technical Recommendations
We make the following technical recommendations:
- Establish a yearly road map to accomplish established goals with specific milestones (in terms of speed, usage, or geographical expansion)
- Define criteria (population density, topology, underserved, unserved) and lay out options/recommendations to determine the best way in which the plan can be met.
To summarize, the task force recommends:
- Require an adoption component for all funded broadband projects.
- Encourage local ownership.
- Coordinate broadband with other aspects of the Federal Stimulus.
- Dig once; coordinate construction projects, such as roads and electrical grid improvements.
- Plan once; develop coordinated broadband, electric grid, and energy retrofit projects.
- Find anchor tenants; community colleges, health care centers, and the like can help justify bigger pipes (power and broadband) for an entire community.
- Stimulate demand by increasing digital literacy.
<Summary End>
Coordination with other sub-groups needed
Mikey here. As I started putting this page together for our phone call, I realized that there are a lot of sub-groups working on things that need to feed into this section. Especially the Project 3 -- Role of Government sub-group. We'll need to update these recommendations with the results of the work of those sub-groups. Do we want to give them requests?
