01-20-2015 EDC Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

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times the teacher learns more than the student.The presenter encouraged cities to partner with the — school to provide this type of education to the seniors of the area. The government is trying to help. Broadband is now defined a "necessary" by the FCC. Funding has increased in most categories. There is$8B for Universal Fund, $4.5B for High Cost areas (rural) $159M for rural Health, $3.9B for e-rate up from $2.2 last year, and $1.8B for lifeline. The FCC is working on a program to fund lifeline so low income can obtain broadband. 18M people do not have access to broadband in America today. E-rate is now supporting 100Mb speeds for schools of 1000+students. E-rate will ultimately support 1GB speeds. E-rate will fund internal Wi-Fi networks within the school and libraries if the current bill passes in the legislature. USDA has$20M in grants for Distance Learning/telemedicine. Some Cooperatives such as Paul Bunyan in Bemidji and CTC in Brainerd are building fiber to the home in the rural areas using the high cost fund program. Paul Bunyan has spent$150M to provide fiber optics service to 25,000 customers on 5,000 square miles of territory. The real estate agents inform us that they can get$5 to $6K more for a house if it is served with Fiber to the Home (FTTH). There was some discussion of a "Launch Pad" incubator building for startup companies that need broadband. Some cities are considering developing such a building. In summary, my opinion is that Pequot Lakes is in much better position than many rural Minnesota cities in that Broadband is available, the Industrial Park is wired with fiber optics and the rural area around Pequot is served with some type of broadband service. I believe that Pequot Lakes can represent the city as being able to support broadband company's needs. However, I also believe that we need a better relationship with TDS to educate us all on what is available and where Fiber optics is located. Randy Lakota joining the Pequot Lakes City Council will surely help with the relationship with TDS and the education we need. Bill Stroot