BOOMTOWNUSA: Rural Broadband

Below, in my opinion, is one of the most pressing issues that small cities and rural areas MUST deal with if they are interested in economic development and sustainability. It should be on the front burner of every county and city in Minnesota. The technology changes fast and a city's competitive advantage can become obsolete or quickly behind the curve if we do not consistently asses our technological position.

A smart public relations strategy with the right service equals a brighter future than has been possible in the past for rural Minnesota.

Rural Broadband

Wednesday’s blog on info from the National Lieutenant Governor’s Winter Meetings drew an interesting email from Roger Hahn, Executive Director of the Nebraska Information Network. He sent me statistics and info on the broadband penetration in his state, telling me, “In Nebraska 81% (instead of 31%) of rural residents have access to broadband. In Nebraska 99.98% (instead of 52%) of the urban residents have access available for broadband.

And we have been at near these levels for three or four years….and most if not all of the rest of the States are catching up..look at the big push in Kentucky to catch-up.”He provided me with data on availability by population center and competition within each of those centers, showing that any town over 300 in population had 100% coverage and 98.35% of those under 300 had the same broadband coverage.

Fremont, Grand Island and North Platte (populations of from 23,000 to 43,000) each had 15 broadband suppliers, the same as Omaha and one more than Lincoln. Even tiny Raymond (population 186) had 9 suppliers.Hahn also pointed out to me that while Japan and the EU might have faster bandwidth, their usage per unit of population is much lower than here in the USA.I’m convinced that broadband is a necessity for economic development, as important as water, sewer and electricity.

I’ve yet to have an industrial client show up on a site visit and ask me, “Do they have electricity here?” Broadband is already as important as the three other infrastructures and most rural communities that I know have the type of coverage that Roger Hahn emailed me.Roger: Thanks for sending me the information on NE’s broadband coverage.