The East Central Regional Library and all 14 of its branch libraries across six counties are encouraging community members to sign their support for equal Internet access to all.
By putting th
eir name to the Minnesota Broadband Vision, residents of all generations and backgrounds are letting their local legislators know that access to affordable, high-quality broadband needs to be available in rural areas, too, for new opportunities in education, health care and the economy of tomorrow. Already supporting the initiative have been cities, counties and stakeholders including the East Central Regional Library, which is encouraging the Minnesota Legislature and governor to provide sufficient leadership, resources and legal framework to ensure the state of Minnesota achieves this vision by 2020.
In addition, ECRL encourages local residents to share their “broadband story” in terms of how limited Internet access has affected their quality of life and livelihood. Perhaps you or your child is unable to do homework. Or maybe your home business is struggling to provide a service, even as simple as printing a single document. We want to hear your stories.
Sheets designated for signatures and “broadband stories” can be found at your local ECRL library or take the online survey here until March 26.
The Blandin Foundation, Minnesota Office of Broadband Development and many other stakeholders across the state developed the Minnesota Broadband Vision at last year’s Border to Border Broadband: Better Together conference. The mission: “Everyone in Minnesota will be able to use convenient, affordable world-class broadband networks that enable us to survive and thrive in our communities and across the globe.”
Sign your support and share your “broadband story” today. For more information on this initiative, contact your local ECRL library or visit https://staging.ecrlib.org.
I would so love to have a high speed internet. There are times it just comes and goes.
It would be wonderful if everyone had access to high speed Internet in their rural homes!
Having access to affordable high speed internet service would change the quality of my life. Currently, internet service with my AT&T hot spot is VERY slow, and I am currently searching for work. With my current internet service I’m unable to utilize skype for interviewing. After working in the Twin Cities for 30+ years, I had hoped to telecommute when we moved to Harris, MN (Sunrise Township), but as it stands – I don’t see that happening any time soon.
I contacted Frontier Communications on three separate times before purchasing the house we currently own in Carlton County because it was vital that I have high speed internet because I work from home. After closing on the home, the Frontier Communications technician informed us that, though DSL cable had been buried on our road, they had pulled all of the boxes due to “lack of interest”. I profoundly doubt the truth of that statement since all of the neighbors that I have met would love and would use high speed internet. In the meantime, I am able to continue working from home, but the cost of the service for me is over $150 a month for the premium satellite service I need. And, though the service I receive is excellent, because it is a satellite service, it is fundamentally inadequate in some ways. For example, I often find myself apologizing to co-workers when attempting to do screen sharing because satellite upload speeds are slow. And satellite service is far more easily knocked out by weather than are other technologies. I believe that rural areas require adequate high speed internet services in order to be economically sound. My income is, in effect, the import of money into the region. Adequate internet service for all would allow for the influx of additional money and a more robust rural economy.
High speed internet seems so important today. We have Wild Blue which only gives us 1.5 MB service with very limited total amount of download. and it’s $39.95 per month for that little bit. And we are only a few miles from Pine City. Tried to get Century with no luck. I am thankful for what I have, but we should all have much better access. And it isn’t going to happen unless the government helps and demands it.
I live between Cambridge and North Branch. We have satellite with very limited download. We would love to have phone service through internet but can’t because of the delay. We can’t use our cell phones because there is no coverage even though the carriers think there is. Our grandkids live outside of Grantsburg WI. They can’t believe how limited our access is!