More, Better Broadband for Minnesota
Our Broadband Stories
We have asked members to submit their broadband stories. If you’d like to submit yours, please join the Coalition!
U-reka Broadband helps enable Broadband through business planning, engineering, construction, project management and operations. We continue to look for unserved/underserved opportunities
John Schultz
I use broadband to work from home. It is wonderful.
Rick Birmingham.
I have lived just north of Braham for eight years. We quickly realized we were not able to get local dial-up service, DSL, or cable internet at our home. We originally purchased Starband (a former satellite service) which worked fairly well for some members of my family. However, the high latency issues made the service nearly impossible for me to perform my employment duties. We were fortunate to learn about Genesis Wireless based out of Braham. Their high-speed wireless service is excellent and their service is second-to-none. The only issue is the cost. I would love to see a service like this made more affordable for other users in our area.
Chris McDonald
Forced to rely on satellite, which is NOT true broadband. No VPN, no VOIP, no Skype, pesky FAP, way expensive, temperamental. I volunteer with the Cook County Broadband Initiative, led by the awesome Danna MacKenzie, trying to bring true broadband to Cook County. I'm worried about what I hear indirectly about the broadband task force and rural Minnesota, namely that the former isn't paying much attention to the latter.
Jim Boyd
We have been building networks in rural America since 1997 and we are delighted that the new connectivity has brought a new vibrancy to our markets.
Gary Evans
The Lac qui Parle Broadband Initiative is located in a rural county in west central Minnesota. This group is interested in pursuing all avenues to improve the quality of broadband service and usage in our area.
Pamela Lehmann
I'm a flex worker because of my broadband access. I work from home, from client sites, from the coffee shop down the street. I clog roads, I'm keeping an eye on my neighborhood and my kids, and I'm in touch with clients. Everyone - regardless of geography - should have the same opportunities to work where they live with broadband.
Steve Boland
MVTV Wireless is a Broadband Internet Service Provider covering 10,000 square miles of West Central Minnesota.
Daniel L Richter
OK in broadband in Minneapolis. Customer of the Minneapolis Municipal wifi system run by US Internet. Speed about 5 meg. Much lower cost than Qwest or Comcast. Better service too. It's nice to have a third player in the market.
Sheldon Mains
For a small city of 268, we are fortunate to have DSL at a 6 MGB rate, but only for downloading - 560 KB for uploading. Any business growth will not consider this speed. Support for the Staples, MN, FTTP fiber loop is critical for any high-speed growth in this part of rural Minnesota. This coalition can very well provide an conduit to accomplish this need infrastructure.
Alex Weego
Northern Lights Library Network works with nearly 300 libraries of all types in west central/northwest Minnesota (23 counties). Broadband access is critical to all libraries (school, public, academic, special), but not yet available to all. Additionally, public libraries serve as an important access point for the general public to computers and the internet. Broadband is essential to these libraries to address the digital divide.
Ruth Solie
The eFolio Minnesota project at Mesabi Range Community & Technical College is piloting a systematic way of collecting valuable work force data through the region-wide use of electronic portfolios. In order to be successful and included, people in all areas of the region need access to high-speed internet in order to build their personal eFolios efficiently and effectively. In our case, broadband access will lead to an increase in the number of individual eFolios created which impacts labor market data and ultimately economic development in our region.
Lisa Kvas
I have interested in high speed internet and active in promoting it in the rural area of Iowa and Minnesota for over 20 years.
Martin Souhrada
I pay more than most for a faster connection in St. Paul. Recently I found out my parents pay even more to get a much slower connection (but the fastest available to them) in Dakota County.
Christopher Mitchell
We can see over the next mountain. We know this will be important infrastructure for our community. We are trying to make it happen.
Danna MacKenzie
I have access to broadband, and it enables me to live my life online. I have access to do a lot of my work from home, run a personal website (blog), connect with friends and family easily through social media, and more. My partner was recently laid off from his job as a printer, and he is now using online training to develop his design skills via online learning. We couldn't do most of this without a very robust connection.
High speed internet is an equalizing force only if all people have access. Our democracy, and our economy, needs universal access for all citizens.
Kathy Ahlers
Access to information in a democratic society is as important as access to food, education, shelter, health, the arts and a way to make a living in a sustainable environment.
Rosa Maria de la Cueva Peterson
Completed Feasibility study for FTTP November 2008. Completed an engineering study to build a fiber loop connecting our schools and government facilities in 2007. Preparing to complete a financial business plan in early 2009
Laura Blair
Even in the Twin Cities Metro, I have very limited choices for broadband, two, and both are slow and expensive.
Jeff Goldy
Interest in fiber to the home deployment in Red Wing
Myron White
I live in rural Spring Valley and have literally zero options for broadband. I guess there is an option for dial-up internet but why bother? I work remotely for a company in NYC and since I cannot get internet at home I have to rent an office in town. I have to be connected to a secured network (VPN) so satellite is not an option for me. I tried wireless and we're too far out and too low in a valley to get a signal. Our local telephone company is absolutely no help (CenturyTel) either. I get the same run-around every time I inquire with them, "Your area is on a waiting list." Rural Minnesotan's NEED access to high-speed, quality internet services.
Janet Kappers
As a Twin Cities media and public-affairs activist for over 40 years, as a longtime former staffer at Twin Cities Public Television, and as an ongoing board member of Citizens for Global Solutions-Minnesota (CGS-MN), I clearly understand how essential broadband access is not only for the citizens of our state but for the citizens of the world. And in 2006 I presented a CGS-MN Third Thursday Global Issues Forum on bridging the digital divide between our world's have and have not citizens. With the recent passage of President Obama's "stimulus package" and the passage of Minnesota legislation to create an Ultra-High Speed Broadband Task Force and a broadband mapping process, the future of a Minnesota Broadband Coalition looks even more promising.
Richard Lee Dechert
As a writer and online college instructor I have come to realize the tremendous economic power that universal high-speed broadband access could bring to Northern Minnesota and places like it.
Aaron Brown
I live in rural Minnesota and my work requires the use of computer and it is drudgery
working on dial up modem.
I have asked the Winona County Commissioners to address the importance of Broadband
without any results.
Presently I am working with HBC in Winona, Mn. and it sounds very hopeful to get connected.
I have even offered to let a provider to run cable through my property to my neighbors who are over 1/4 mile away.
The other issue is the 7 neighbors up the road that have school age children and some make trips to town
so they can use another's computer on DSL.
John Bronk
Wi-fi, 1000Mbit download, about 400Mbit upload
Denys A Goychuk
116kbps download 79kbps upload att wifi intenet; unhappy user
Ross Jordan
SISU is a leased line service provider for rural hospitals in this area. We aggregate applications and connectivity for our sites at our datacenter in Duluth. We are the lead entity for the FCC Pilot Project for MN and ND and are in the process of creating a statewide "network of networks" with interconnections to state agencies for video conferencing, distance learning and telemedicine.
Jeff Plunkett
One on the founding members of http://boreal.org . Currently working on bring ultra-broadband to all the residents and businesses of Cook County, MN. http://cookcountybroadband.com
Jack McDonnell
I have broadband, can't live without it and I feel horrible that some people CANNOT have it. Or, I should say it is far to expensive for some rural people to have broadband and that's a shame. I handle nearly ALL my communications via the Internet. Without it, I'd personally be lost as I've come to depend on the Internet for nearly everything I do--learning, news, entertainment, research, communicating, complaining, whatever.
Kathryn Gritzmache
High-speed, accessible and affordable broadband service is the communication tool of the future, and we have only begun tapping its potential. Neither providers, as a business strategy, nor government, as a matter of public policy, have exerted effective leadership to assure this potential is available to all citizens.
David Fisher
I work from home in North Minneapolis. Municipal Wireless hardly reaches the house, even though we have a router near the house. We pay a ton for DSL service--hardly real broadband, and actually got LAUGHED at when we called to have it installed. "Really, they said, "You want high speed internet on the Northside?"
Broadband policies of the US must embrace the principle that communication is a fundamental right, not a privilege. As adopted in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 19: "Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers."
Amalia Deloney
I've been a supporter of true ultra high-speed broadband over a 100% fiber optics network beginning with the City of Monticello when it started its fiber task force back in 2005 to pursue their city wide network. As a graphic designer and website developer my business is in need of ultra high-speed access to the Internet. I believe in networking with others who believe in the benefits of true fiber networks and want to assist where possible to keep the public educated so that 100% fiber networks are accessible and that these types of projects keep moving forward.
Lynne Dahl-Fleming
I am the Managing Director of a new national initiative called the Rural Mobile Broadband Alliance (RuMBA USA, www.rumbausa.com). I am passionate about the countryside, rural communities and the potential that rural America offers as an engine of growth for our society. I believe that our country’s rural areas have long been neglected in many ways, in terms of people’s access to state-of-the art communications such as wireless telephony coverage, high-speed, broadband Internet services and, more recently, 3G Infrastructure. I believe, that anomaly needs to be addressed right away to allow for more growth in rural jobs creation, support for rural entrepreneurial ventures, access to emergency and severe weather alerting services. I believe that rural mobile broadband offers the prospect of a more robust and rapidly deployable infrastructure in rural areas. In light of the new administrations's stimulus package allocation of funds for broadband expansion in rural and underserved areas, RuMBA is actively seeking to grow its membership of carriers, equipment makers, non-profit and rural citizens to help realize the goals of the Recovery Act of 2009 and to help shape the FCC's national broadband policy for America.
Luisa Handem
I founded Saint Paul's first advocacy group for broadband access and served on the city's broadband taskforce.
John Kerr
deployed a rural wireless internet service to areas of Central Minnesota not served by cable, dsl, or other affordable broadband types.
Michael Cramer
We're pioneering the development of a new breed of community-based, digital information cooperative the is predicated on citizens' access to broadband internet.
Ben Damman
I live in rural Fisher MN and have been connected with wireless rural broadband through Invisimax http://www.invisimax.com/ out of nearby Warren MN. Invisimax serves a large area of NW MN and NE ND. I have the higher speeds of 2 Mb up and 1 Mb down. We regularly watch Netflix movies on demand and the responsiveness is wonderful. I work at the University of Minnesota in Crookston and without broadband my job would be very difficult. I often take care of business from home, without any noticeable difference in performance from being on campus. Small, privately owned companies like Invisimax are an invaluable resource for rural areas, they bend over backwards to get customers connected. Unfortunately, with line of sight requirements for wireless, there are some locations that simply cannot connect. We are strangled by Qwest, who will consider providing fiber service to our rural area when h*** freezes over. Thank goodness for Invisimax or I wo uld still be on satellite or dialup.
Steve Hannah
Transition Networks has built a portfolio of Network Interface Devices (NIDs) and demarcation devices to help rural Telco’s decrease their operation expenditure through the use of our multiple classes of remote management—while also increasing rural access, backhaul and bandwidth.
Whether you are an Independent Operating Carrier (IOC), Competitive Local Exchange Carrier (CLEC), or Incumbent Local Exchange Carriers (ILEC), pursuing a RUS project or seeking NTIA funding to support economic development initiatives, Transition Networks has the fiber access products to serve your needs.
Jacob Pomplun
I live in south central Minnesota about 6 ½ miles northwest of Owatonna, MN in Deerfield Township. My internet connection is limited to on-again, off-again dial-up. My download speed averages 1.4 kps (no that’s not a typo… 1.4 kps). Not only are all popular internet services beyond my grasp but even ordinary “surfing” is virtually impossible. About all I can do is send and receive email and even email will choke is someone sends me a photo file larger than 1 mb. DSL, fiberoptic, and even Clearwave wireless are not options because of where I live. Satellite is expensive, capped, and not all that much better than dial-up. I’m a professional programmer by trade and am all too aware of what I’m missing. I’m the only person in my office who can’t work from home and if there’s a problem I have to drive into town to go online. I just ordered a new computer for home and hopefully I can boost my download speed to as much as blistering 14 kps. Help!
Cliff Tresidder