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Before and After the Internet: What’s everyday joy got to do with it?
This document discusses broadband access in rural Minnesota from 2003 to the present. It notes that in 2002, 77% of rural Minnesota households had access to dial-up internet while only 21% had broadband access. As of 2019, broadband access has increased significantly with 84% having access to 25/3 Mbps speeds, 68% having access to 100/20 Mbps, and 22% having access to gigabit speeds. The document outlines Minnesota's strategies to expand rural broadband access, including setting state goals, creating a broadband task force and grant program, and increasing digital inclusion projects. It also provides data on the counties that have the best and worst broadband access and infrastructure in the state.
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Before and After the Internet: What’s everyday joy got to do with it?
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- 3. Table Introductions 1. Yourname 2. Your community 3. Something you are looking forward to about being here at the conference.
- 7. Access denied =Opportunity denied.
- 8. Everything is betterwith broadband.
- 12. 2003 Broadband Objectives •Generate awareness among leaders about the need for action. • Increase rural business and residential use of broadband. • Increase public and private investment in broadband. “The ultimate measure of success will be greater investment in rural broadband and increased use of the technology to compete effectively in the global marketplace.”
- 21. Then and Nowin Rural Minnesota In 2002 dial-up access was the norm: • 77% reported access to dial-up • only 21% has access to broadband. In 2019: • 84% of rural households have access to 25/3 broadband; • 68% have access to 100/20 and • 22% have access to gigabit speeds.
- 22. Rankings Wisconsin Minnesota Overall infrastructure 37th 9th Broadband access 23rd12th Ultra-fast access 36th 21st Source: US News and World Report 2019
- 23. Rural/Urban Gap Persists Only1.7% of Americans in urban areas lack access to broadband …. … compared to over 26% of rural Americans and 35% of people living on tribal lands.
- 26. The Minnesota Model • State broadband goals •Governor’s Broadband Task Force • Office of Broadband Development • State grant program • Mapping • Community engagement
- 27. Everyone in Minnesotawill be able to use convenient, affordable world-class broadband networks that enable us to survive and thrive in our communities and across the globe.
- 28. More Opportunity Today • Increased Access •Increased Adoption • Increased Use
- 29. Project Examples • Wi-Fiaccess • Libraries • Parks • Public housing • School Busses • Spur business use • Assessments • Training • One on one consulting • Co-working/incubators • Community web • Portals • Community calendars • Social media • Workforce • Online job skills • Youth technology training • Digital inclusion • Inter-generational training • PC refurbishment
- 32. MN Broadband CountyProfiles 2019 County profiles Ann Treacy
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- 34. Random Facts • 4 arein top household density ranking (Ramsey, Hennepin, Anoka, Dakota) • The remaining 6 have cooperatives in the county • 7 have benefitted from MN broadband grants • 2 counties have moved ranking 30 spaces in the last year (Swift and Dakota) • 5 (out of possible 8) have worked with the Blandin Foundation
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- 36. Random Facts • 2 arein lowest 10 rank for household density ranking (Norman and Mahnomen) • 9 have ten or fewer households per square mile (Otter Tail has 10.8) • 9 have received MN broadband grants (Norman hasn’t) • 6 have applied for MN broadband grants in 2019 • 6 have worked with the Blandin Foundation
- 37. Competition Matters Red countiesare bottom 10 counties
- 38. 2022 Success Doesn’tMatter 2022 Goals 2026 Goals Counties in yellow are in top 10 for 25/3 and 100/20)
- 39. Any Questions? Ann Treacy TreacyInformation Services [email protected] blandinonbroadband.org
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Editor's Notes
- #6 I was born in 1956 – I’m a “Baby Boomer.” Maybe like some of you. I remember life before the Internet. I typed my Master’s thesis on a selectric typewriter with an autocorrect button – boy I loved that auto correct button, because before that we were using white out. I remember with acute clarity the day in the fall of 1999, a decade or so after graduate school, I was walking in Moscow down Tverskaya street, with my friend Ann Olson. We were then both working on “building “civil society” in post-Soviet Russia. - she in independent media, and me in philanthropy. That was before the days when the words “tech savvy” even existed – but Ann was that, too. Anyway, I clearly remember hearing from Ann’s mouth that day for the first time the word “Google.” “I googled that,” she said, as we discussed some latest twist or turn in Russian politics. “What’s a google,” I said? Since then, the internet and the world wide web that rides on it have transformed how humans work, play, learn, interact, imagine, share and create - and we’re just getting started. Among the people alive today are the last humans to have lived experience from before the dawn of the digital age. We have crossed a technological Rubicon, and there is no going back. The challenge of our time is to ensure that technology is a positive and democratizing force – one that enables inclusive prosperity – rather than deepening disparities.
- #7 And from a rural perspective – think of the possibilities! Place used to be a limitation in rural; now it’s an asset – as long as you have a good connection to the internet.
- #8 Access denied = Opportunity denied. We are not the Broadband Foundation. Our mission is to strengthen healthy rural communities. Yet, because we understand that broadband is critical to everything we care about as a foundation, for the past fifteen years we have focused on helping communities get and use broadband. We see that broadband has become the indispensable infrastructure of our age. Today, access to broadband and the skills to use it are required to fully participate in society. Even McDonald’s requires an online application. Communities that don’t have adequate broadband are forced to spend their efforts getting it; falling further and further behind those with good networks where economic developers can work on using it. Broadband access and adoption for everyone enables inclusive prosperity; without it, people and communities are left behind. And while Access denied is Opportunity Denied, the inverse is equally powerful:
- #9 Everything is better with broadband. Evidence abounds that high-speed Internet access has loads of economic and social benefits. We’ll be hearing a lot about those throughout the conference. For now, as a teaser - here’s what some community broadband leaders have to say about what difference broadband makes in their lives:
- #10 Broadband helps me to reach out to potential customers.
- #11 Broadband helps me with computer coding. Broadband helps me complete my homework.
- #12 Broadband helps patients connect to remote healthcare resources. Broadband is needed for economic growth. Broadband connects me to the rest of the world.
- #13 We will assess the change we observe against the program objectives we originally developed in 2003. Our original 2003 BROADABAND Program Objectives: 1. Generate awareness among local, state and federal leaders about the need for action. Rural broadband deployment must be able to compete for attention and resources with other public needs. 2. Increase rural business and residential utilization of broadband capacity. Efforts must be undertaken that address the cost, value, and customer education challenges associated with broadband marketing. 3. Increase public and private investment in rural broadband capacity.
- #21 From SIAM News, Volume 37, Number 4, May 2004 The Origins of the Internet Map By Bill Cheswick
- #22 WHAT change have we seen in terms of broadband ACCESS/Adoption in MN? Well – lots of change: IN 2002, dialup access was the norm; 77 percent reported access to dialup while only 21 percent has access to broadband In 2019 in rural: 84 percent of rural households have access to 25/3 wireline broadband; 68 percent have access to 100/20 and 22 percent have access to gig access.
- #23 That may all be very well and good, but, as my father used to say, compared to what? How’s MN doing today compared to WI? And to other states, in terms of broadband access: ? Wisconsin: Overall infrastructure ranking: 37 Broadband access: 23 Ultra-fast access: 36 Minnesota: Overall infrastructure ranking: 9 Broadband access: 12 Ultra-fast access: 21 SOURCE: Us News and World Report 2019
- #24 Big picture, Today, some communities in America have access to decent broadband. Many don’t. According to the FCC, as of year-end 2017, the rural-urban gap in broadband access remained concerning: [READ SLIDE}: Only 1.7% of Americans in urban areas lack access to broadband …. (at FCC definition of 25/3) … compared to over 26% of rural Americans and 35.4% of people living on tribal lands, up from 32% in 2017. That means, the share of rural population without access to broadband is almost 20 times larger than the urban share. On top of that, according to a new Purdue Univ study): urban areas have access to higher median advertised speeds than do rural areas
- #25 Here in MN, Blandin Foundation has been working away at those three goals we set in 2003: increased public attention and urgency, increased broadband use, and increased investment in broadband infrastructure? Since 2003, Blandin has worked on broadband with 135 communities in 58 (out of 86) MN counties. We have had 71 community partners - The foundation has invested nearly $4.4 million dollars in grants to fund 373 community projects
- #26 Team from Hibbing
- #27 The change we’ve seen in Minnesota since 2003 when our work began is well illustrated by this list of the elements of the “civic infrastructure” now in place to ensure ongoing investment in BB adoption and use. These mutually reinforcing elements of MN’s “civic infrastructure for broadband access and adoption has been dubbed the “Minnesota Model” - its elements include: State broadband goals: 25/3 by 2022; 100/20 by 2026 Gov’s BB TF OBD in DEED Grant program – Mapping Blandin Foundation - building demand and community will and skill Using all the tools I described, Blandin helped to catalyze – and with others -- to envision and then to create -- these elements. Now with the model in place, our ongoing role is to ensure there is public benefit to the use of public funds – that community benefit is at the heart of these projects. (one of our public policy advocacy goals)
- #28 The articulation and adoption, in 2015, of a broadband vision for the state was also an important ingredient the creation of the Minnesota model. Everyone in Minnesota will be able to use convenient, affordable world-class broadband networks that enable us to survive and thrive in our communities and across the globe. This vision has been endorsed and adopted by local governments and other entities across the state. It became the organizing motivation and glue behind the now robust MN Rural Broadband Coalition
- #29 Now – let’s dig in a little deeper into the changes we’ve seen in rural Minnesota in terms of the goals Blandin set around broadband access, adoption and use: Internet access Of the 45 network feasibility studies funded to date: 14 have been built out fully, three networks have been built covering a part of the area studied, one is under imminent construction, and four of the communities who received a grant to conduct a feasibility study are submitting an application this year to the state’s broadband grant fund to actually build the network they envision. That’s 22 out of 45 studies that resulted in actual built networks. In addition, many communities have increased broadband access by making free public wifi available in public parks, laundromats, on school buses, and in local businesses and coffee shops. Adoption Our 71 community partners have collaborated with computer refurbishers to distribute over 2,300 computers to income-qualifying families and launched collaborative digital literacy training programs for residents and businesses. Also through this program, many of our community partners have come to better appreciate the important role that LIBRARIES play, and have increased financial support for libraries and their staffs, and increased library hours. Use Our partnering communities have spurred more sophisticated use of technology through education, training, community events, learning circles and innovative partnerships – a total of 292 projects that address community technology goals.
- #31 What has happened in terms of our goal of “increased investment” in broadband infrastructure? The over $4.4 million dollars of Blandin’s grant dollars have leveraged $65. million in community match, and $5.8 million in investments by funding partners – for a total of $16.7 million in direct investments. The MN Border to Border Grant program, has to date invested $85.6M , matched with $110.6M in private and local matching funds, in the form of 110 broadband expansion projects across the state. Of the 110 grants made by DEED, 43 or just under 40% of the awarded communities received technical assistance from Blandin in gathering data, ensuring the project reflected community input, and gathering community support. IN WISCONSIN: (if asked?) Public service commission houses the state broadband office. Relatively small team: do mapping work in-house. They administer a grant program – “Broadband Expansion Grants” (historically much smaller than MN – but $49 mil over the biennium) 24 million per fiscal for 2000 and for 2021…. ---- that office administers the grant program and a couple of certification programs: “telecommuter forward” and “broadband forward.” Like MN, these are infrastructure grants. Doesn’t have a formal challenge process, but otherwise very similar. the decision about the awards is made formally by the commissioners in a public meeting….. they can go on line – all public….. all staff memos…. All public.
- #32 What has happened in terms of our goal of … increased public attention and urgency to the issue of rural broadband? Today, the MN Rural Broadband Coalition is a 141 member strong organization representing tens of thousands of rural Minnesotans . for the past three years the coalition has hosted a “Broadband Day at the Capitol” event that brings rural broadband advocates to St. Paul to support public investment in broadband infrastructure. The coalition’s support for the state broadband grant program has been important to the funds creation and continued support.