HomeMy WebLinkAboutTelecommunications Board - Minutes - 11/02/1999TELECOMMUNICATIONS BOARD
MEETING MINUTES
****November 2, 1999 ****
*** 6:00 PM ***
Council Liaison: Kurt Kastein Staff Liaison: Liz Stroh
Members Present: Larry Bontempo, Tim Tillson, Greg Smith, Bill Murray, Howard Lowell,
Braun Minchner
Members Absent: Tom Maher
City Staff Present: Gary Gordier, Eric Dahlgren, Liz Stroh
Guests: Kathy Steward, AT&T Cable Services
The meeting was called to order at 6:40 PM, after a demonstration of @Home at the AT&T
Cable Services office at 1201 University Ave.
Approval of Minutes: Larry Bontempo noted that the October Minutes had not included
his name in the "members present" section. Larry Bontempo moved to accept the minutes as
corrected, Howard Lowell seconded the motion, which carried unanimously.
2000 WorkPlan
In addition to the items identified at the October meeting, Larry Bontempo suggested adding a
field trip to Aurora when the telephony project is ready; Greg suggested adding quarterly
meetings with Kurt Kastein. Larry moved to adopt the expanded workplan, Braun Minchner
seconded the motion. The Board approved the motion unanimously. The completed workplan is
listed below:
• Public right of way management
• Tower siting and FCC involvement in local zoning.
• Franchising issues, Review SB10
• Equity and access issues — deal with issues of "cream skimming"
• Cable modem access for other ISP's.
• Grants to build out fiber network.
• Monitor State and Federal legislation related to Telecommunications.
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• Fixed wireless
• Investigate ITFS frequency.
800 MHz
• City's use of 24 MHz Cable TV bandwidth
• Items related to IT Strategic plan.
• Ask for use of some of the funds for board field trip.
• Monitor other services offered by AT&T Cable services.
• Microwave- Research use of microwave for last mile access.
• Review other community's issues.
• Plana field trip to Aurora for a site visit on their telephony approach.
• Schedule quarterly meetings with the City Council Liaison.
AT&T Update:
Kathy Stewart mentioned they had tripled the number of contractors working on the
upgrade. The goal is to have the system installed by November 30, which will give 30
days to get all the other details of the upgrade worked out before the December 31st
deadline. The system is a 550 MHz system spaced to 750 MHz, as required by the
franchise.
Kathy mentioned that all channels will be available by December 1999. The next step
will be to certify the @Home service in the various nodes.
Calls to AT&T cable services have increased about 50%, mostly related to system
unavailability due to the upgrade. Kathy mentioned that a system is being installed that
transfers calls to a call center in Denver for after hours (between 6 PM and 8 AM), and
details are being worked out to ensure that customers get prompt, accurate responses
to calls. Because of the age of the existing system, when the construction is going on,
much of the system is down, thus resulting in the high number of calls. The new
system is designed so that fewer people will be impacted at one time should work need
to be done on the various nodes.
A Must Carry request was received by AT&T Cable Services. PAXNET (Channel 98) is
requesting a lower channel and AT&T is required to make a channel available. Kathy
indicated that STARZ, a premium channel, will probably be moved. About 6000
customers currently subscribe to STARZ. Kathy is trying to negotiate with PAXNET to
help pay for the cost of removing the trap for the STARZ customers. Braun commented
that these types of things end up increasing costs for customers.
Kathy reported that AT&T is still in negotiations with CSU regarding easements. CSU
wants to limit the access to the tunnels currently in use for telecommunications; AT&T
is interested in negotiating a different right of way. AT&T is trying to negotiate a new
contract for service to the CSU dormitories.
AT&T will be adding staff in 2000, increasing number of employees to 86.
Larry Bontempo moved to adjourn the meeting; Bill Murray seconded. The motion
passed unanimously. Meeting adjourned at 7:15 PM.
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