Off the grid in Cook County and still wanting the Internet
Posted at 7:30 AM on September 15, 2010
by Dave Peters
(7 Comments)
Filed under: Broadband
The electrons were still wet on the announcement Monday afternoon that Cook County was getting federal stimulus money for high-speed Internet access when Joe Buttweiler got another reminder of how much some people in the northeastern corner of Minnesota want it.
Buttweiler is the director of member services for Arrowhead Electric, the small, member-owned cooperative that delivers electricity to most of Cook County. Arrowhead landed the $16.1 million federal award to provide fiber optic cable in the next three years to every home on its electrical grid (plus in Grand Marais, the county seat, which gets electricity from another provider.)
It was the electrical grid that came into play for the resident who called Buttweiler Monday. He wasn't on it.
Craggy, wooded, lake-filled Cook County is home to fewer than 6,000 people. Its remoteness and small population make it tough for industry to make money providing Internet service and as a result it's the least served county in the state. It also is probably safe to say it has more residents living off the utility grid than a lot of other places.
So, Buttweiler's caller wanted to say, even though he was off the grid, he was close and he wanted Internet access. Buttweiler said he wasn't sure immediately how close "close" meant but he assured the person Arrowhead would figure out a way to provide service if it could.
The federal award is a huge step for Arrowhead, and getting the service to Buttweiler's caller and everybody else in the county in a way that people can afford won't be easy. Arrowhead is the latest small cooperative to venture into providing broadband access. Some rural telephone companies around Minnesota also have been pulling in federal stimulus money for the purpose.
Arrowhead has a partnership with a Missouri company, Pulse Broadband, to provide a fiber technology it says uses fewer lines of fiber for similar service and thus can save money.
There had been some confusion over Pulse's involvement in recent weeks, Buttweiler said. Arrowhead pulled its application when it thought Pulse has shifted position and could no longer promise it would line up service providers. Pulse assured Arrowhead and the U.S. Department of Agriculture it will have providers for the phone service involved and will provide Internet service itself, Buttweiler said.
That got the application back on the burner, he said.
The award means local government won't be playing the central role, as it does in, say Monticello and Windom. That's a contrast with the Lake County award the same day, $66 million for service throughout that county and part of St. Louis County. Lake County will own that operation and hire a non-profit to run it.
Howard Hedstrom, owner of Hedstrom Lumber and a member of the Cook County-appointed group trying to corral better Internet access, was ecstatic Monday. He said the lack of a strong local government role will only add to popular support for Arrowhead's project.
"Everyone I talked to so far is extremely excited," Hedstrom said. "It was scary for them. They deserve a pat on the back."
Comments (7)
Great news on all the activity going on in the Northeast corner of the state. It is interesting to see the different models and partnerships that are being developed to bring broadband to our most rural areas. I guess it proves one thing, there is not a single model that will get everyone broadband. We are lucky in Minnesota to have so many complimentary partners in the marketplace.
It will be interesting to watch the projects in Lake and Cook counties play out. What will we learn by comparing the two, one run by a member co-op in partnership with a private company and the other owned by the county and operated by a non-profit?
I don't think we will learn much by comparing the two to each other (at least not for many years) but we will get a better sense of how broadband changes these rural counties as compared to counties who do not have it.
Both will undoubtedly actually serve the community in ways that Qwest never would as Qwest exists to generate profit for sharedholders, something difficult to do in such rural areas.
I don't think we will learn much by comparing the two to each other (at least not for many years) but we will get a better sense of how broadband changes these rural counties as compared to counties who do not have it.
Both will undoubtedly actually serve the community in ways that Qwest never would as Qwest exists to generate profit for sharedholders, something difficult to do in such rural areas.
Why don't these articles mention the fact that high speed internet IS available up there through satellite and in some areas through cell phone providers? The argument should be that they want the internet to be faster and cheaper, not that they don't have access to it. I'll go out on a limb and say that their taxes (and cost of living) are a lot lower compared to metro areas than the $20 per month they are trying to save in internet charges...
Regarding dial-up and satellite, here's what blogger Aaron Brown wrote last month. He's not in Cook or Lake County but close enough.
I live in the woods about a half hour northwest of Hibbing in Itasca County. We subscribe to a satellite internet service for two reasons: 1) my day job and my sideline gigs both depend on fast, reliable internet access, and 2) dial up is so slow out here it’s a joke, even by 1998 standards. Satellite providers deliver fast download times (except when it’s raining). However, upload times are much slower – a lot more like dialup. For us, other methods of connecting to the internet are not an option, even though DSL hubs and other infrastructure lie just a few tantalizing miles away. Furthermore, our service is expensive, justified only by my specific vocation. Most families prioritize more basic needs ahead of this.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-11337759
Pigeons faster than the internet?!
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