July 2, 2008 9:23 AM
Japan Looks To Minnesota For Broadband Leadership
Wow! That's the first thought that came to mind when I read this article, courtesy of the great people at the Blandin Foundation.
It's a story of how a Japanese researcher traveled to rural Minnesota to learn about how they're using broadband to transform communities.
While the article itself doesn't list a ton of specifics as to what these communities are doing, I still find it incredibly impressive that despite the sense they're light years ahead relative to anything related to broadband, Japan looks to us for leadership. Must mean we're not quite as pathetic as some make us out to be.
Also, while I knew Minnesota was doing reasonably well getting fiber deployed, I hadn't realized that in terms of getting it to rural areas they're considered a national and perhaps even international leader. Considering Minnesota's my home state, you can color me proud!
And the final thought that stuck out to me was how despite Japan being way out ahead of everyone, they're not content and through actions like this seem to acknowledge that they still have a lot of work to do in order to take full advantage of all that broadband has to offer. Shouldn't we be doing that here in the US?
I'm going to see if I can track this researcher down to learn more, hopefully even getting her on a VidChat. Until then, enjoying pondering what it means that Japan is looking to us, or more accurately rural Minnesota, for broadband leadership.
Comments (1)
Geoff,
Minnesota's independent telephone companies, especially the cooperatives, have done a fabulous job in extending fiber in rural areas. This includes both FTTP throughout their exchanges (Federated and Farmers Cooperatives), FTTN with 100% DSL coverage by many cooperatives, and FTTP CLEC overbuilds in communities like Grand Rapids, Morris and Brainerd.
Posted by Bill Coleman on July 2, 2008 3:24 PM