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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTelecommunications Board - Minutes - 01/05/1999E C, TELECOMMUNICATIONS BOARD MEETING MINUTES 6 0 d* January 5, 1999 **** *** 7:00 PM *** Council Liaison: Chris Kneeland Staff Liaison: Liz Stroh Members Present: Lawrence Bontempo, Howard Llowell, Greg Smith, Tom Maher, Tim Tillson Members Absent: Dave Augustine City Staff Present: Liz Stroh, Eric Dahlgren, Gary Gordier Guests: Kathy Stewart, TCI Chair Greg Smith called the meeting to order at 7:00 PM Minutes: Tom Maher made a motion to accept the minutes as written; Larry Bontempo seconded the motion. Vote was unanimous to accept minutes as written. Year 2000 Discussion: Liz Stroh provided the board with an update as to the Y2K readiness assessments being done in the City, specifically for the voice and data communications equipment. Tom Maher asked Eric Dahlgren about Y2K readiness of the Electric and Water Utilities. Eric outlined the efforts, and Gary commented that the City has much of its Y2K information on the City's web site. Platte River has issued a Y2K readiness assessment as well, with existing links from the City's web site. Gary Gordier briefed the Board on the formation and activities of a Community Y2K task force. The City, County, School District and Hospital are coordinating efforts and responses to the community's questions regarding this issue. Larry Bontempo asked for some information regarding the City's PBX software release. Liz Stroh will get the information and follow up with an e-mail message to the board members. She assured the board that the voice communication capabilities of the City 02/04/99 have been tested, and plans are in place to upgrade any equipment or software that may be required to be compliant with requirements. ' Howard Llowell mentioned a list service that has fairly extensive information regarding vendor compliance with Y2K requirements. The service is from the University of Wisconsin; Howard will send information out to the board regarding the address. Annual report: Liz Stroh presented a draft of the annual report required from the Board to City Council. A suggestion was made to expand on the items concerning E911 and the Public Safety 800 MHz efforts. Tom Maher moved to accept the report as amended; Howard Llowell seconded the motion. Board members gave unanimous approval to the report. TCI Update: Kathy Stewart reported that the new phone system is on hold until US West can install a T1 line. The system will have 24 digital lines. TCI wants a system that will allow the use of IVR (Interactive Voice Response) to provide improved customer service in the area of information access. TCI has just completed a Y2K audit. The head end passed; and no problems are anticipated for Fort Collins' system. Tom Maher asked about the digital set top boxes. Those have been included in the testing and have been passed as compliant. TCI will be adding Cspan2, BET, Sci-Fi channel, American Movie Classics and Great American Country to the analog lineup as the system upgrade is completed at the neighborhood node level. The company is adding 2 transponders, and will be putting additional programming, including a digital music service to the digital portion of their system. The system upgrades have begun, with the North part of Fort Collins being targeted for one of the first areas to be upgraded. TCI is advertising on the radio, their system, and in the newspapers to notify citizens of where the work is taking place. Door hangers are also being used to inform people of the work, and to let them know when the work is completed and additional services available. Kathy reported that testing of the @Home service is slated for May 1999. That service will also be offered on a node -by -node basis as the system upgrade is accomplished. Kathy responded to questions about the size of nodes by explaining that they vary from between 800 on the low end to 1200 homes on the high end. This configuration is more resistant to failure - meaning that if one node goes down, the rest of the system is unaffected. Kathy reported that theft of service is very high and TCI will begin addressing this after an amnesty program is initiated. TCI plans to eventually move premium channels to the digital system to help address this issue. 02/04/99 TCI will do a "fly over" to test for signal leakage, using infrared technology. This is part of the system upgrade efforts to determine if there are areas that have leakage that need cable replaced. Other Business: Liz announced that cable staff is beginning the effort to conduct the 51" year review of the franchise. Two surveys are planned, one to address the cable subscriber satisfaction, the other to get information regarding communications between city government and the community, with a section specifically related to Channel 27 programming. The board asked for the survey from the 10" year/ franchise renewal efforts from 1993/1994. Liz will provide that information to the board at the next meeting. After a discussion concerning meeting dates and times, it was determined that the board will conduct its meetings on the first Tuesday of each month beginning at 6 PM. Larry Bontempo suggested that the City begin to investigate the implications of TCl/ATT offering local dial tone, and how that might affect the franchise agreement and franchise fee. Tim Tillson moved to adjourn, seconded by Howard Llowell. The motion was carried unanimously. Meeting was adjourned at 8:15 PM 02/04/99