The Minnesota state legislature passed a bill last month creating the Ultra High-Speed Broadband Task Force, which will develop high speed Internet goals and strategies for the state.

Thanks to our 80,000 Speed Testers, the Speed Matters Campaign has been making waves around the country. On Monday we released a state-by-state report and interactive map on U.S. internet speeds based on the test results.

More than 80,000 people have taken the Speed Matters Speed Test to learn the actual speed of their internet connections. We've used the results of all those speed tests to create the first-ever state-by-state report on internet speeds across America. Our findings were deeply troubling.

In cooperation with Connected Nation, a nonprofit group aimed at expanding high-speed Internet access and other community-based technology improvements, CWA has developed model legislation for state-level Internet policies.

Minnesota is facing a problem not uncommon to states these days. Rural residents are being left in the dust when it comes to access to high speed internet services. Affirming this claim is a report from the Center for Rural Policy and Development, a nonprofit based in St. Peter, Minnesota. The organization, which evaluates issues from a rural perspective, recently published their 2006 Rural Internet Study analyzing internet accessibility in rural versus urban areas.

In response to President Bush's budget, Minnesota's new Senator, Amy Klobuchar, decried cuts to a program providing loans to assist communities in creating Internet infrastructure.