Pioneer Editorial: Broadband access to all by 2015

With the way technology is advancing, and the greater role it plays in everyday life, it is no longer adequate just to have a connection to the Internet. That connection must be high-speed broadband.

And that means providing high-speed broadband Internet access across all of Minnesota, according to recommendations issued Friday by Ultra High-Speed Broadband Task Force, created by the 2008 Legislature to make recommendations to lawmakers and Gov. Tim Pawlenty.

“It’s time to start thinking of broadband as a baseline utility accessible to every Minnesota home and business,” Sen. John Doll, DFL-Burnsville, vice chairman of the Senate Energy, Utilities, Technology and Communications Committee, said Friday as the task force released its report. “Today’s competitive global market requires a reliable, high quality communications infrastructure.”

“Minnesota families and businesses shouldn’t be chained to a fossilized dial-up network — no matter where you live. But some areas of the state are still hooked up to Internet connections built nearly two decades ago. Worse, some have no connection at all,” said Rep. Sheldon Johnson, DFL-St. Paul, chairman of the House Telecommunications Regulation and Infrastructure Division.

The report lays down guidelines and standards for Minnesota to reach high-speed broadband capability throughout the state by 2015. Only Washington County in the metro area meets those guidelines right now, with several other metro-area counties nearing 98 or 99 percent broadband coverage. By contrast, just 37 percent of those living in Cook County up the North Shore have access to any broadband service, and what is there is among the slowest in the state.

The task force makes no funding state funding recommendations, although it realizes full broadband capability will cost money. Johnson and Doll note that President Barack Obama has made broadband access in rural America a priority, and that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act includes $7.2 billion to expand access to broadband infrastructure in rural parts of the nation.

But Johnson says the federal aid won’t be enough, that it will take action at the state level as well as working with business and industry to ensure all corners of Minnesota have equal access to high-speed telecommunications infrastructure. A state role could be seen as trying to convince private companies, such as those providing telephone and Internet, to expand and speed up services.

The Bemidji area has been served well locally by Paul Bunyan Telephone Cooperative, which brought innovative Internet service. But even it realizes that processes become outmoded, and it too is considering boosting its Internet speed to all customers after the first of the year.