HomeMy WebLinkAboutTelecommunications Board - Minutes - 01/08/2002TELECOMMUNICATIONS BOARD
MEETING MINUTES
****January 8, 2002 ****
*** 6:00 PM ***
Council Liaison: Kurt Kastein Staff Liaison: Liz Stroh
Members Present: Tim Tillson, Bill Murray, Greg Smith, Braun Mincher, Rob Koellner
Members Absent: Curt Cramer, Larry Bontempo
City Staff Present: Eric Dahlgren, Gary Gordier
Guests: Margaret LeJuste, AT&T Broadband
Chair Greg Smith called the meeting to order at 6:07 PM.
Approval of Minutes:
A motion was made by Braun Mincher to approve the minutes. Bill Murray seconded.
The vote was unanimous.
AT&T Update:
Margaret LeJuste thanked the Board for the valuable questions/input from the last
meeting. She answered the following questions from the Board:
Question: Why were other cable companies able to keep their customers in service
with @Home? Answer: @Home had approached the three cable companies with a
price that the cable companies would have to pay in order to keep @Home in
business and serving their customers. At that time, AT&T was close to having their
own network completed and felt that the amount of funding required by @Home
was excessive and would negatively impact AT&T's customers. (In fact, the
amount that @Home wanted to guarantee their continued existence for 3 months
was roughly equivalent to AT&T's total network costs.) The transition was painful
for AT&T's customers but it was accomplished in a relatively short time frame, even
in outlying areas like Fort Collins. Now it appears that @Home will close its doors
in mid -February and the other cable companies have no backup systems in place.
- Question: Can you explain the lack of communications with Fort Collins
customers? Answer: The press releases had already been prepared by Corporate
03/27/02
and could not be modified. If the migration could not have been accomplished in
the relatively short time frame, AT&T was prepared to send mailings to customers.
(Note: During subsequent discussion, the Board members suggested several
actions that AT&T could have taken to soften the effects on the customers.)
Some Board members expressed disappointment with AT&T's general lack of
preparedness for the transition. Margaret stated that the Qwest fiber line had been on
order for several months. Tim and other Board members thanked Margaret for her
personal involvement and the work that she did to ensure Fort Collins customers were
back on line quickly. Tim mentioned that customers who had purchased their cable
modems from AT&T had greater difficulty reconfiguring for the new system (new MAC
ID needed, couldn't get tech support).
Tim asked Margaret to check on the details of the promised credit for people who pay
for their service on a yearly basis. Tim stated that system performance at his
residence seemed even better than before. Gary stated that initially there were
complaints of slow system response but things seemed to be getting better as the
system was "tweaked."
Braun asked about the fiber connections between cities: there is AT&T -owned fiber
between Fort Collins and Greeley, and a leased (from Qwest) OC-3 fiber connection
between Fort Collins and Denver. Tim believes there are 5-6 "hops" between Denver
and Fort Collins and wondered why so many? Braun asked Margaret if she could
provide a basic network diagram if it's not confidential information. Tim asked if the
pending Comcast acquisition was going to change the domain name. Braun
suggested that AT&T work on a better transition plan and better communications with
the customers.
Margaret discussed the 12/19/01 announcement of the Comcast/AT&T merger. She
stressed that this was not a transfer of the franchise, rather a change at the "parent -
company" level. The cable company's legal department will examine the franchise to
see if approval by the City is needed (they believe that it is in Fort Collins). AT&T
Comcast will then send an FCC Form 394 to the City of Fort Collins. The City will
have 120 days to examine the legal, technical, and financial ability of the new parent
company to fulfill the terms of the franchise and either approve or disapprove the
change. Margaret expects to deliver Form 394 to the City around the end of February,
along with financial information pertaining to the new company. The Board will most
likely not have too much input to this process, rather it will fall to the City's Legal
Department and Director of Finance.
New Board Member:
Greg introduced Rob Koellner who replaces Tom Maher on the Board.
Planning Calendar:
The Board discussed agenda items for upcoming meetings and the desire to tie them
to the Work Plan. The following decisions were made:
February meeting — Update from Qwest. Liz/Gary/Greg will contact Qwest and ask
them to attend the meeting to discuss their ongoing build -out, DSL delivery, and
possibly LATA issues.
03/27/02
March meeting — several options were discussed: (1) bring in an alternate ISP
(microwave, satellite, other wireless). (2) bring in a telecom services provider (ICG,
McLeod). (3) bring in Dish Network, Idirect, or DIRECTV. Board members are
requested to forward contact information to Liz/Gary. Screening of possible visitors
is desirable.
Request a visit by PUC staff (March?).
Continue to work on prioritizing the Work Plan items and tie these to future meeting
agendas.
Other Business:
Gary mentioned a concern that CSU had with Qwest subdividing telephone dial
connections so V.90 modem connection cannot achieve 56K performance. This
restricts the bandwidth to about half of the 56K modems' capacity. CSU is planning to
provide a link on their website so students can directly send complaints to the PUC if
Qwest does not stop this practice without informing the public.
Admiourn:
The meeting was adjourned at 7:20 on a motion by Tim Tillson
03/27/02