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Why Is Our Internet So Slow?
That was one of WCCO’s Good Question of the Days this week. It’s a sign of how prominent broadband had become that such a question would make the network news. It’s one of the issues Dakota Future has been working on – especially with the Intelligent Community Forum, where Dakota County competed with communities all over the world based on local technology and innovation.
The other day, Jason DeRusha asked Christ Mitchell (from Institute for Local Self Reliance) about it this week, “Why Is Our Internet So Slow?” Chris gave a concise description that touched on the difference in policies, monopolies, adoption and cost.
Here’s a quick excerpt from the show:
In Europe, it’s a different set-up.
“They have greater competition in the broadband market and that all comes from government policies,” said Mitchell.
In Europe, there’s often one company that builds the network (often a non-profit cooperative or a government-run agency), and separate competing companies that are allowed to pay for the right to sell service to customers.
That creates a market for innovation and lower prices.
Dakota Future Annual Meeting
Dakota Future held its annual meeting and welcomed several new board members to the group. Ruthe Batulis of Dakota County Regional Chamber of Commerce returns to the board after a two year absence. Chuck Cappellin of HGA Architects and Engineers, Mark Tupper of CenturyLink and Dakota County Commissioner Liz Workman also joined the board. New ideas and energy are always a great addition.
We have now published our 2009 Dakota Future Annual Report.
We would like to thank Patti Neuman, formerly of HGA, and Dakota County Commissioner Will Branning for their service on the Dakota Future. Commissioner Branning was a founding member and strong supporter of Dakota Future and countywide economic development.
For a brief time, we mourned the fact that we did not make the Top Seven Intelligent Communities list, kind of like getting the bronze medal at the Olympics. Then we got over it and are back at work aiming for next year. Our Intelligent Community Initiative work groups around broadband, knowledge workers, innovation, digital inclusion and marketing/advocacy are in full swing to reach their May 7 deadline for developing goals, objectives, leadership and resources in their topic area. It is exciting to hear about their progress and creative thinking.
Today is our IT Entrepreneurs networking event in Apple Valley. We have a great group of business owners on our panel discussion. We are going to take a look at the Dakota County broadband video and do some socializing, enjoying some food and beverages. We hope that some college students to participate as we have marketed to our area colleges. It is a beautiful day for networking!
Broadband
Dakota County is fortunate in that they have a wide range of broadband choices: DSL, cable, fiber optics, wireless and satellite. The numbers below indicate broadband is important to Dakota County residents.
|
% with access to broadband
|
% connected to broadband
|
|
| households |
98.6
|
74
|
| Government |
100
|
95
|
| Education |
100
|
100
|
Broadband Costs to Residential Customers
Minimum
| 768k Frontier | $39 |
| 1.5 Mb Comcast | $24 |
| 1 Mb Charter | $19 |
| 1.5 Mb Qwest | $19 |
Maximum
| 50 Mb Comcast | $150 |
| 3 Mb Frontier | $49 |
| 5 Mb Charter | $54 |
| 20 Mb Qwest | $59 |
For more information, check out the Dakota Future Telecommunications Inventory and Policy Alternatives
Updates from ICF: Eindhoven & shared visions
Bill Coleman is currently at the Building the Broadband Economy 2009 Intelligent Community Forum conference in NY this week. As many readers know, he has been working in Dakota County on a future application to the Intelligent Community Forum Intelligent Communities’ contest. He is sending back quick reactions and news from the conference…
Eindhoven in the Netherlands has a FTTP open access network. Speeds to the home are 100 Mb.
What are they using it for? Good question! Eindhoven has announced plans to position their region as a bandwidth intensive laboratory with an invitation to application developers to use the Eindhoven as their place to identify, create and deploy new applications. New services for residents - attraction of skilled and creative talent and new jobs. That’s intelligent!
According to all of the people on the ICF agenda, a community with a shared vision and a culture of inter-sector collaboration has tremendous advantages for competing in the global marketplaces. They can move faster, overcome more barriers and achieve more.
