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Ground Level Blog
Dave Peters

Sibley’s broadband spearhead: We’d welcome a private sector project

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Check out the good discussion about rural broadband in the comments section of a Ground Level post from last week.

Can government do a good job in creating a high-speed service network? Why not let the market dictate? Isn't the service we have good enough? Can we afford this? What about wireless? Sibley County in southern Minnesota was the instigation of the debate but as one community after another takes up the issue these are the questions in the air.

Mark Erickson, city adminstrator in Winthrop and the person spearheading a drive to install a fiber network to eight towns and all the farms in Sibley County, weighed in this morning with an articulate statement of how he sees the need:

If Frontier, Qwest, CenturyLink, Mediacom or the local independent phone company want to come to Sibley County and deploy a county-wide fiber network we will welcome them with open arms and help them develop a business case.

Cities and Counties don't WANT to build these network but the private sector doesn't want to either. We live here, they don't. Saying that 20 megs is too much is like saying the upgrade from two lane highways to the Interstate system was unnecessary 50 years ago.