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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTelecommunications Board - Minutes - 07/08/1997TELECOMMUNICATIONS BOARD MEETING MINUTES July 8, 1997 7:00 PM II Council Liaison: Chris Kneeland I Staff Liaison: Liz Stroh, Michael II Gitter IIChairperson: Phil Wades Phone: (W) (H) II Presiding Chair: Phil Wadas Phone: (W) (H) Members Present: Barbara Hain, Tim Tillson, Thomas Maher, Greg Smith Members Absent: Phil Wadas, Ernie Powell, Howard Lowell City Staff: Liz Stroh, Eric Dahlgren TCI Staff: Absent Acting Chair Barbara Hain called the meeting to order at 7:15 PM Minutes: Tom Maher moved to accept the minutes as amended. Greg Smith seconded. The motion passed unanimously. Tim Tillson asked for clarification of the minutes regarding the channel lineup. Liz Stroh explained that TCI's program offerings will most likely be very similar to, if not the same as, those in Greeley. TCI Report: None given Platte River Power Authority Project: Eric Dahlgren provided an update on the PRPA project. The City's Electric Utility has been involved in number of meetings since last meeting May 15, and have met with US West, ICG, and will meet with MCI next week. They continue looking for areas of partnership; including vendors who might come into Fort Collins and improve the quality of competition. Light and Power is also interested in the wireless connection that AT&T announced and is pursuing a meeting with them. Meetings have been held with Larimer County and CSU. Information meetings were also sponsored by L&P to discuss legal issues regarding municipal telecommunications efforts, and with Nortel, a telecommunications equipment provider. Tim Tillson asked about partnerships, and how those would work. Eric responded that all the legal questions have not yet been answered. It might be possible to develop some marketing partnerships, with L&P being the contact for people who may want to buy services from ICG or another provider. Eric continued with explanations about the phasing of the project, beginning with the current phase of network design and engineering, followed by implementation for PRPA needs. Commercial and residential would be longer term goals. Tim asked if the implementation would be available for all Public, Educational, and Governmental Groups (PEG). Eric explained how the loop would run, explaining that PRPA needs must be met first. They are looking for locations to house the fiber distribution equipment. A meeting was held with several agencies on July 8th to discuss what things people had in common, rather than thinking how the agencies could be interconnected. Greg Smith asked about strategy. And which agencies would be involved as the project moved forward. Eric explained as the informational meetings turned into implementation meetings, a core group would be identified and would work together on implementation. Today's meeting presenter, Nortel, starts with community issues and figure out what technology would meet the needs. Nortel offers integrated community networks planning and support. Tim asked if there was an advantage to having the linkage to several cities, asking if there were opportunities between the members cities for phone service leverage, etc. Larimer County, particularly the Sheriff s Office, is interested in this capability. The interconnection among Cities will allow the redundant points of presence that several vendors are interested in. MCI and Sprint have approached PRPA to exchange fibers to give a broader link. ICG has already contacted the City as well. Long distance providers will potentially come to L&P to help solve this problem. Tim mentioned thinking about routes to include local Internet Service Providers. Eric mentioned that he had discovered about 6 providers in Fort Collins. Nortel offers Point of Presence (POP) for high speed Internet connection in the community. Then ISPs could be connected to that service. Tom Maher mentioned the Environmental Learning Center and the plan to have Internet Use for the Public at the intersection of I-25 and Prospect Road. TCI update: The Board requested the meeting be held at the TCI office in August so they can see the Digital Compression technology and learn about the status of system upgrade and view the system for quality and reliability. Tim Tillson asked about cable modems. Tom explained that TCI has spun off that business to a separate company. Work plan: Members agreed that the Board's focus for the next few months should be on the TCI Upgrade, and requested that TO representative be present at future board meetings, specifically until the new system is implemented and running for a couple of months. Adjournment: Tom Maher moved to adjourn the meeting and Greg Smith seconded. Motion was passed unanimously. Meeting adjourned at 8:25.