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Ten Myths About A Publicly Owned Information Network in Minneapolis, and the Facts

David Morris and Becca Vargo Daggett on municipal broadband - December 6, 2005, Wendy Wilde Show, Air America Minnesota (Part 1 and Part 2)

Ownership Matters With Wireless Systems - published November 15, 2005 in the Pioneer Press

Publicly Owned Broadband Would Serve Minneapolis Best - published August 1, 2005 in the Star-Tribune

Who Will Own Minneapolis' Information Highways? a fact sheet - August 2005

Who Will Own Minnesota's Information Highways? - a white paper from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, June 2005


Wireless (and Wired) Minneapolis

FREE AMERICAN BROADBAND - Response to Star-Tribune's take on the state of broadband in the U.S.

Today's Star Tribune business section takes a look at the sorry state of broadband in the U.S. ("Broadband's terrific, but take a broader view")

The article takes the kind of “U.S. is the best” view that has contributed to our complacency while other countries have surged ahead. Sure, the U.S. has more broadband users than South Korea, but it also has six times South Korea’s population (297 million to South Korea’s 48 million). The fact remains that less than one-third of U.S. households have broadband, compared to three-quarters of South Korean households.
 
While it is true that South Korea and Japan are more densely populated than the U.S., this does not explain why the U.S. lags behind sparsely populated Canada, where 42 percent of households have broadband connections.
 
The article doesn’t mention speed, perhaps because broadband subscribers in other countries routinely connect at speeds that are 10 times faster than typical cable modem service in the U.S., and almost 20 times faster than DSL. French consumers pay $38 per month for a super-fast broadband connection that provides a connection 10 times faster than the typical U.S. DSL, as well as phone and 100 channels of digital TV.
 
Relying on the profit motives of the cable and phone duopoly, as the U.S. has done in broadband, is no substitute for policies that promote science and technology. And, as one commentator in the article points out, "What helped the rollout of broadband in Korea and Japan were not massive government subsidies, as some believe, but policies that allowed vigorous competition."

Perhaps Americans will begin to realize the extent to which we have been left in the technological dust when South Korea Telecom starts offering ultra-fast wireless broadband – in the U.S.

For a better understanding of why the U.S. has fallen behind in broadband, why it really matters, and what can be done about it, we recommend "Free American Broadband", by S. Derek Turner, a Free Press policy fellow. An excerpt is below. The entire article can be read at Salon.com:

or MuniWireless.com, which has republished the article with Salon's permission:

Provided by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, www.newrules.org
Contact: Becca Vargo Daggett, 612.379.3815 x209, becca@ilsr.org

FREE AMERICAN BROADBAND!
In France, you can get super-fast DSL, unlimited phone service and 100 TV channels for a mere $38 a month. Why does the same thing cost so much more in the U.S.?
By S. Derek Turner

Next time you sit down to pay your cable-modem or DSL bill, consider this: Most Japanese consumers can get an Internet connection that’s 16 times faster than the typical American DSL line for a mere $22 per month.

Across the globe, it’s the same story. In France, DSL service that is 10 times faster than the typical United States connection; 100 TV channels and unlimited telephone service cost only $38 per month. In South Korea, super-fast connections are common for less than $30 per month. Places as diverse as Finland, Canada and Hong Kong all have much faster Internet connections at a lower cost than what is available here. In fact, since 2001, the U.S. has slipped from fourth to 16th in the world in broadband use per capita. While other countries are taking advantage of the technological, business and education opportunities of the broadband era, America remains lost in transition.

How did this happen? Why has the U.S. fallen so far behind the rest of its economic peers? The answer is simple. These nations all have something the U.S. lacks: a national broadband policy, one that actively encourages competition among providers, leading to lower consumer prices and better service.

Broadband's terrific, but take broader view
Steve Alexander, Star-Tribune staff writer
October 20, 2005

When it comes to high-speed Internet access, South Korea leads the world in per-capita use, while the United States lags behind at No. 12. But experts say that may mean less than you think.

Broadband, or high-speed Internet access, has become one of the newest ways to rank nations as being technologically "with it" - or not.
But what does it mean to be a world leader in broadband when South Korea ranks No. 1 in broadband use as a percentage of population, according to a Paris-based research group, while the United States ranks 12th?
The ranking by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development may mean less than you think when it comes to technological innovation, economic development and education, some experts say. And the ratings are easily viewed in different ways. When total broadband users are counted, the United States leaps to No. 1 in the world, while South Korea is No. 3.
Broadband is known in the United States as cable modem service from the cable TV company or DSL (digital subscriber line) service from the phone company. It costs anywhere from $20 to $45 a month for most Twin Cities consumers.
People with broadband can more rapidly download music, movies or Web pages, play online games or share digital pictures than consumers who have slower dial-up Internet connections, which download at less than 56,000 bits per second.
(Cell phone networks enable users to browse the Web or watch video, but are slower than wired broadband networks.)
In addition, the "always on" nature of a broadband Internet connection encourages casual Internet use.
The United States lags in broadband use as a percentage of the population largely because of a lack of government support for improving networks and the difficulty of building networks to serve rural populations, said Mike Paxton, an analyst with the research firm In-Stat, based in Scottsdale, Ariz.
South Korea and Japan (ranked No. 8) both have governments that have emphasized and subsidized broadband networks to improve their economic futures, while the U.S. relies on private companies to offer service to consumers.
"What helped the rollout of broadband in Korea and Japan were not massive government subsidies, as some believe, but policies that allowed vigorous competition. In particular, those countries forced the incumbent phone companies to let startups use their networks at reasonable, government-set prices," Business Week reported last year.
Also, the United States has vast rural areas where broadband service is hard to justify economically. South Korea, Japan and several European countries have large populations squeezed into relatively small areas that can be served cost-effectively, say Paxton and other experts.
"Although the United States is clearly in the middling range in broadband lines per 100 people, many U.S. officials question the ranking, observing that the geography of our sprawling nation is a reason the U.S. doesn't stack up very well," said John Horrigan, research director for the Pew Internet & American Life Project, in a September speech.
Some analysts say a top broadband ranking does not mean a country has technological, economic or educational advantages. Instead, it may mean that nation is betting that broadband will be important in the future, they say.
"Broadband happens where economic development has already happened," Paxton said. And just because a country such as Finland has a high broadband penetration doesn't mean the world supply of investment capital is rushing to Finland."
Despite the relatively low broadband rank of the United States, the number of subscribers here continues to grow, although at a slower rate than between 1996 and 2001, Horrigan said.
Broadband could get a boost from new city networks, such as one planned by the city of Minneapolis (but run by an outside company) that would provide broadband wireless Internet access to consumers, businesses, visitors and city workers.

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