We are in the midst of busy times with all of the broadband projects in the region.
Arrowhead Electric and Pulse Broadband are finishing up their fieldwork in preparation for a spring construction season. They are also busy identifying who their service partners will be and working on the details of those agreements. Joe Buttweiler and the rest of the Arrowhead team are working to keep us informed through their cooperative website at http://aecimn.com, and their blog at http://arrowelec.wordpress.com/. They also recently visited WTIP's First Thursday Radio Program to talk with Jay Anderson about some of the things going on with their project. Here is the link: http://wtip.org/drupal/content/first-thursday-dec-2-moving-broadband-cook-county-update
North East Service Cooperative (NESC) held a regional update meeting on December 1st. Their project is proceeding as scheduled. They have released the construction Request for Proposal (RFP) for 2011. The closing date is December 15th. Here is a link to more details: http://www.nesc.k12.mn.us/broadband/rfp . The Cook County portion of the NESC project is not slated to be built until 2012.
The Minnesota Intelligent Rural Communities (MIRC) Program is underway. Nine proposals were received by community organizations for projects that demonstrate the use of broadband. The MIRC steering committee is currently working with all nine proposers to fund portions of their proposals. We hope to start seeing those projects get underway in January. Each organization will have two years to complete the projects. We will publish updates throughout the project period on progress and lessons learned.
Another set of components of the MIRC project focus on training opportunities. Cook County Higher Education and the MIRC steering committee are working together to coordinate a series of training events over the course of the next two years that will range from the very basics on how to use computers and the internet, all the way to advanced on-line video production techniques. These events will be co-sponsored by a number of MIRC partners, including UMN Extension, MNSCU, MN DEED, and others. Watch for more details in the coming weeks.
More details on the individual projects coming soon!