The best broadband, it's generally agreed, is an affordable connection that supports the needs of consumers and businesses for many years into the future. It's not unreasonable to achieve because fiber-optic cable, the industry's gold standard, has near-limitless capabilities. Once buried in the ground, it can be upgraded through electronics rather than digging up the cable. Conversely, it's a waste of time and money to rebuild networks over and over because they were based on the needs of the past, not the future, said Shirley Bloomfield, chief executive officer of NTCA - The Rural Broadband Association, which represents about 850 community-based telecommunications companies. Broadband must be able to simultaneously support a family's need for connecting to the office, participating in virtual classrooms, live chats with a doctor or friend group. The internet has become the linchpin for rural businesses as well. Farmers need it to buy equipment and follow crop prices. Factories need it to connect with suppliers and customers. Rural health centers, tourism businesses, shops on Main Street, all need a robust, reliable connection.

Small, for-profit broadband businesses have sometimes been the unsung heroes in rural areas where the bigger companies haven't made many improvements. Extending internet service has been a good fit for some electric cooperatives because they have essential infrastructure such as cable and poles, service crews and customer support. "I think they should be encouraged," said Jonathan Sallet, a senior fellow at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society, and a former general counsel for the Federal Communications Commission. "The rural electric cooperatives and rural telephone companies have been more willing to put in modern networks than some of the larger companies," he said.

The Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) announced $34.6 million in grants to 15 Minnesota cities and counties from the Small Cities Coronavirus Community Development Block Grant Program (CDBG-CV). As part of the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act, Minnesota received a special allocation to address community needs to prevent, prepare for and respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. Most of the funding – nearly $32.2 million – will be used for broadband improvement projects. Projects under CDBG-CV are not associated with the Border-to-Border Broadband Development Grant Program managed by the Minnesota Office of Broadband Development. “The pandemic has made clear how vital broadband is to the lives of Minnesotans and to the economic vitality of our state,” said DEED Commissioner Steve Grove. “These grants will help communities fund broadband and other important projects as we write the next chapter of our economy.”

Rural counties in Minnesota are competing for better broadband, and have seen the shift in how their communities are viewing the necessity for it. About 90 percent of Minnesota households have a computer statewide, according to the Blandin Foundation, and 81 percent have a laptop; 76 percent have a smartphone and 59 percent have a tablet. But, there are many areas in Minnesota where access to high-speed internet is limited, and working remotely and distance learning have run into problems. Rural counties have been working to bring high-speed internet into the area for several years, but small local internet service providers say they can’t afford to invest large amounts of money into areas where there aren’t a lot of people. Money to subsidize rural broadband initiatives has also been limited, but recently the Minnesota Legislature approved $70 million for high-speed internet and the US Senate passed an infrastructure package that would give the state at least $100 million for broadband upgrades.

The second-quarter earnings season has wrapped up for the top publicly traded pay-TV operators in the US, and it's time to break down the numbers. Altice USA, AT&T, Charter Communications, Comcast, Dish Network, and Verizon combined to lose approximately 1.1 million video subscribers during the second quarter across both residential and commercial subscriber bases, down significantly from the 1.6 million combined subscribers lost in the first quarter. Morgan Stanley analyst Benjamin Swinburne estimated that pay-TV subscriber loss rates slowed down substantially. “Pay-TV subscribers declined only 3.9 percent during the quarter…which was ahead of our expectation for a 4.3 percent decline and over 6 percent as we headed into the pandemic last year,” he wrote. “Despite a transforming pay-TV model tethered around app-centric distribution and content consumption through streaming, we think this quarter benefitted from the return to live sports and favorable comps relative to Q2 2020. While the better than feared losses this quarter are encouraging in light of using video to manage broadband churn, we expect the overall pay-TV decline to accelerate to -5.4 percent by year-end.”