Wireless (and Wired) Minneapolis

Minneapolis should learn from Moorhead, where the prices of cable and DSL Internet connections went down even before the municipally owned, citywide WiFi network went fully live today. “After [Moorhead] announced its plans, prices of cable and DSL in the city dropped from highs of $40 to $60 a month to under $30,” reports Leslie Brooks Suzukamo in the Saint Paul Pioneer Press.

GoMoorhead! subscribers pay $20 per month for a 1 Mbps symmetrical (both download and upload) Internet connection, which can be used anywhere in Moorhead. The upload speed is three to four times faster than is typical for Internet connections sold by cable and phone companies. This is particularly important for small businesses and others who use the Internet professionally.

The Pioneer Press article also notes that a similar municipal WiFi network in Chaska has increased the number of broadband subscribers in the city:

“In Chaska, 2,300 households out of the city's 7,500, or 30 percent, use its Wi-Fi system called Chaska.net, said Brad Mayer, the city's information systems manager.

Anecdotally, it appears most users of Chaska's network are former dial-up subscribers who wouldn't or couldn't pay the $40 to $50 monthly fees for DSL or cable in the Twin Cities metro area as opposed to people who switched from conventional broadband. ‘I think it's gotten more people on a high-speed connection,’ City Manager Dave Porkorney said.”

Better prices and faster connections – one more reason we need a publicly owned information network in Minneapolis.

Contact: Becca Vargo Daggett, 612.379.3815 x209, becca@ilsr.org

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