Broadband a Political Issue in Minnesota

Broadband is among a raft of policy issues expected to get time in the relevant Minnesota House and Senate committees this session.

The logjam on high-speed Internet proposals could break in 2010. During the decade just past, advocates of universal broadband access proposed a mandate of 1 gigabyte per second available to all Minnesotans. But that pitch was beaten back by the cable industry, and the issue has lain dormant for the last two sessions while the Minnesota Ultra High-Speed Broadband Task Force prepared a report on the state's Internet needs. That report, released last fall, sets goals in Minnesota for download speeds of 20 megabytes per second and upload speeds of between 5 to 10 megabytes per second by 2015. Rick King, a Thomson Reuters executive and task force chairman, said he hopes lawmakers adopt the goals and recommendations.

Earlier this month, King told Finance & Commerce's Arundhati Parmar that he has received "good support" from the relevant committee chairs in the House and Senate. He added that the task force was working to gain support from legislative leaders and the Pawlenty administration. Because it has such a broad impact on cable companies and other Internet service providers, the broadband standards debate brings out contract and association lobbyists in droves to legislative hearings on the subject. The press conference for the task force report's unveiling was attended by representatives from firms such as Lockridge Gridal Nauen, GSP Consulting, and Winthrop & Weinstine, to name a few.