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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTelecommunications Board - Minutes - 01/13/1998a TELECOMMUNICATIONS BOARD MEETING MINUTES January 13,1998 7:00 pm Council Liaison: Chris Kneeland Staff Liaison: Liz Stroh, Michael Gitter Members Present: Members Absent: City Staff Present: Greg Smith Barbara Hain Ernie Powell Howard Lowell Tim Tillson Phil Wadas Tom Maher Liz Smith, Telecommunications Manager, IT Department Eric Dahlgren, Water Utilities Approval of December Meeting Minutes Greg Smith made a motion to approve the minutes of the December meeting minutes as submitted. Tom seconded the motion which passed unanimously. By -Laws Liz answered questions that had been raised at past meetings regarding ex-officio language and how that relates to TCI's status at the meetings. Concerns had also been expressed about the majority of a quorum (3) is less than a majority vote from the full board. Liz explained that any member can make a motion at a future meeting to reconsider the item. Tom made a motion to approve the by-laws as submitted. Tim Tillson seconded the motion. Motion passes unanimously. Annual Report Howard asked what the City's intent was regarding entering the market as a local exchange carrier. Eric explained that the intent was to be an infrastructure provider. Light & Power is continuing with the fiber infrastructure build out. How that will be used by or allocated to other providers is yet unknown. Eric reported that they are hoping to be finished with 25 miles of fiber and nodes on system by end of 1998. Longmont is in place and Loveland is beginning. Kathy asked if Comcast Cable was involved. Eric didn't know the status of that project. Telecommunications Board Meeting Minutes Page 1 January 1998 Greg made the motion that the annual report be approved as written. Tom seconded. Tom made a friendly amendment that we include the summary of minutes. Howard seconded the amendment. Amendment and original motion was unanimously approved. IV. TCI Franchise Compliance Tom asked Kathy Stewart for information about TCI partnerships with Microsoft and Sun. Kathy reported the "At Home" service will be launched during first quarter 1998 and the service would be available in Fort Collins in late 1998 or early 1999. Microsoft will have set top boxes available the end of 1998. Phil asked about two-way capacity of cable modems. Kathy reported that the modems are two-way capable and that TCI is still planning an upgrade to fiber in 1998 that will facilitate improvements and make additional services available. The type of upgrade has not yet been determined. TCI is aware of what Light & Power is doing with their fiber project and thought has been given to whether or not the two efforts could coincide or benefit either party. Tom asked about speed both ways. TCI reported that bandwidth is the same, but not sure about speed. Kathy suggested that as it gets closer she will bring an "At Home" representative to the meeting to answer the Board's questions. Liz supplied the Board with copies of a letter from TCI that reaffirmed their position that the digital compression system met the franchise agreement for the upgrade. Kathy explained that TCI believes the upgrade meets those terms and the inquiry has moved from a business question to a legal question. Kathy indicated that TCI would know by the end of January what type of upgrade will be pursued and a timeframe would be attached to that. Tim mentioned that the PRPA sonet ring might affect the project because it has a lot of possibilities. Tim asked if there were any legal complexities involved in working with TCI and Light & Power. Eric explained that the four PRPA cities have formed a limited corporation to work with the gas business and suggested a similar arrangement would probably be pursued with TCI working with PRPA instead of just the City of Fort Collins. Eric indicated that there were legal questions to be answered. KA map showing the proposed route of the PRPA/L&P project has been given to TCI. Les Larson, the Light & Power consultant indicated recently that TCI is very interested in this proposal and a budget has been approved to look at whether or not this could work. Tom asked about the actual compression rate for the digital system. Kathy said she would bring that information back to the Board. A 6:1 ratio is what is being implemented. Tom is asking for the mb per second rate on a per channel basis and is interested in it relative to the quality of the signal. Tim asked for an explanation regarding the Board's involvement in the Franchise compliance matter at this point. Liz answered that at this juncture the Board needed to keep informed of the issues and discussions. At some point, when the City has made a decision about whether or not to invoke remedies related to non-compliance, then the Board's advisory role to City Council would come into play. Telecommunications Board Meeting Minutes Page 2 January 1998 Kathy reported a projected increase in cable rates from $3.00 to $4.00 per subscriber per month to pay for the fiber project. Phil asked about plans to carry WGN. Kathy reported that the cost per subscriber was $80 because WGN is considering Fort Collins as a "small market" instead a Denver ADI (Area of Dominant Influence). If Fort Collins were considered to be in the Denver ADI the system would be allowed to have 2 superstation channels. Kathy reported on the annual increases related to subscriber rates, installation, and equipment. The increase will take affect in March. Customers will be notified of the change prior to implementation. The annual upgrade coupled with the cost associated with the fiber upgrade will bring the monthly bill for basic cable to approximately $30 per month. Tim asked about plans to carry HDTV (high definition television) channel. Kathy said there would not be a firm plan until there is a channel available. Customers are asking about stereo service for some channels like TNT. TCI of Fort Collins is including this request in budget proposals. Phil mentioned that this will start concerns about additional towers that would be required for these services. Kathy reported that the Denver shopping channel would be on channel A-2 beginning March 1. This is a must -carry channel. Tom mentioned problems with audio on the digital system. Kathy indicated that the problems have now been resolved. TCI has hired more installers. Kathy will be giving an update on the 1998 construction schedule. Currently TCI is doing about 9 digital installs a day. Kathy reported that they would be getting a new phone system to track their response to comply with the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Kathy reported that more Fort Collins local news would be available on KUSA. V. Other Business: A. Kathy introduced TCI's customer service manager and guests from Japan. Howard moved to adjourn. The motion was seconded by Tom and passes unanimously. Meeting adjourned at 8:05 pm. Telecommunications Board Meeting Minutes Page 3 January 1998