Former Minnesota House Speaker to Lead Broadband Study

ST. PAUL  (AP) - Former House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher will lead a 15-member state task force examining ways to expand access to broadband Internet across Minnesota.

Gov. Mark Dayton named Kelliher and the others Monday, hoping to advance a campaign promise of fostering border-to-border broadband. Kelliher was one of Dayton's Democratic rivals in the 2010 campaign.

The task force intends to come up with an action plan for making high-speed Internet more common in homes, businesses, hospitals and schools - regardless of geography. The underlying belief is that greater, affordable access will contribute to state economic gains.

Besides Kelliher, who now runs the Minnesota High Tech Association, task force members include executives of cable companies and wireless phone companies. Nonprofit foundations, schools and tribal interests are also represented.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)