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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTelecommunications Board - Minutes - 06/05/2001TELECOMMUNICATIONS BOARD MEETING MINUTES ****June 5, 3,2001 **** *** 6:00 PM *** Council Liaison: Kurt Kastein Staff Liaison: Liz Stroh Chairperson: Greg Smith Phone: 686-4755 (W) Members Present: Tim Tillson, Bill Murray, Greg Smith, Curt Cramer, Larry Bontempo Members Absent: Braun Mincher, Tom Maher City Staff Present: Gary Gordier, Liz Stroh Guests: Margaret LeJuste, AT&T Broadband Meeting called to order at 6:00 PM by Chair Greg Smith Minutes aooroval: Members voiced no opposition to minutes; Chair Greg Smith declared minutes approved as submitted. AT&T update Margaret LeJuste, AT&T Director of Government Affairs, provided the Board with the requested information on @Work. She explained that this product was directed toward small businesses, while @Home focuses on home entertainment services. Up to 4 devices could be networked using the @Work product. The flyer distributed by Margaret mentioned a 'consumption limit". Board members asked Margaret to bring back some information about what that means. Tim asked about support for @Work; Margaret replied that business services have a different call center. Margaret also provided information about an inquiry from the previous board meeting about levels of service available with @Home. She explained that there was a marketing test in Michigan that allowed subscribers to choose between bandwidth 07/10/01 0 speeds, and pay more for the higher speed. There are no plans to offer that in Colorado. Board members were also interested in telephony price information. Margaret explained that since that service was not yet offered in Fort Collins and there is no schedule to bring it to Fort Collins so no pricing is available. AT&T is in the process of going through a new tariff. Capital spending is slowing because of the economy and AT&T is focusing on providing a full range of service to the areas already with upgrades. Margaret reported that the Aurora, CO test of telephony has been relatively successful, with customer's feedback saying service was better than Qwest, that prices are competitive. She reminded the board that this is HFC technology, not IP telephony. In response to a question from Curt Cramer, Margaret indicated that the PUC is supportive of the telephony efforts as they see it as a competition to Qwest, which should result in better service and lower prices. AT&T is offering different types of packages and are working to combine different billing systems. Curt mentioned that there have been no improvements in basic service, and recommended to staff that that issue be included in future franchise negotiations. Council Liaison Meeting The next meeting will be July g'" rather than July 3rd, and will be a meeting with the Council Liaison, Kurt Kastein. Board members brainstormed agenda items for the meeting. Is Councilmember Kastein satisfied with communications? Are there items on the work plan that he would like the Board to focus on? Deployment of DSL technology by Qwest, and issues surrounding the construction. The Capital Improvements project — further recommendation and suggestions by Board. Use and security of Internet, different technologies that the Board is aware of that might be of use to the City. Information on these technologies could come from the Board to Council on a regular basis if desired. Expertise of Board would be beneficial to the City in terms of reviewing technology and plans for infrastructure expansion. Is this something Council would like the board to do? Should the Board's role be expanded from just Telecommunications to include other technologies? Does Council want the Board to take a position on the effort to include Greeley, Windsor, Loveland, and Berthoud in the same calling area? Cable 27 programming policy Greg mentioned that the individual contacting him about the changes in Programming on Cable 27 was more concerned about who was allowed to use the station. Since the Board is a policy board rather than concerned with station content, and the policies 2 07/10/01 governing Cable 27 are approved by the City Manager, the Board agreed that there were other topics of higher priority. When the policies are finalized, Liz will bring them to the Board for information purposes. Other Business: Larry asked Gary if the City planned to deploy Voice over IP Gary responded that a pilot project is being proposed. Larry indicated that, in his opinion, Nortel was a good path to follow in that arena. AT&T Presence At Board Meetings. Greg asked if the Board wanted to continue having AT&T attend every meeting. Tim liked the idea of a report every meeting, and suggested that a conference call might work occasionally as well as in -person attendance by Margaret. Tim also mentioned that he would like to hear more of the local operation information. The Board agreed to continue having Margaret participate monthly, however some meetings could be handled via conference call. Because of the Franchise between AT&T and the City, the relationship is different than between Qwest and the City. . Bill suggested a written report form might be developed that could be distributed to the Board, in addition to the verbal report. Local Calling Area: Gary made the Board aware of discussions currently going on between managers in the Northern Colorado area to apply to the PUC to have the local calling area extended to tie into the Denver area. Discussions are exploratory at this point. The Board decided to add this item to agenda for Councilmember Kastein. In response to an inquiry about timing, Gary explained that a task force is just now being formed. Curt suggested that these calling areas are artificial, and used for price discrimination. Larry mentioned the problem of capacity of the Denver network and its' ability to handle the traffic. Curt mentioned that there is different pricing for cell calls to Greeley than there are landline calls. Larry moved to adjourn, seconded by Bill Murray. The motion was unanimous and meeting adjourned at 7:30 PM 07/10/01