HomeMy WebLinkAboutTelecommunications Board - Minutes - 05/02/2000r
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TELECOMMUNICATIONS BOARD
MEETING MINUTES
**** May 2, 2000 ****
*** 6:00 PM ***
Council Liaison: Kurt Kastein Staff Liaison: Liz Stroh
Members Present: Larry Bontempo, Howard Lowell, Tom Maher, Braun Mincher, Bill
Murray, Greg Smith, Tim Tillson
Members Absent: None
City Staff Present: Eric Dahlgren, Gary Gordier, Liz Stroh
Guests: Brent Fortney, AT&T Broadband Services
Chair Greg Smith called the meeting to order at 6:00 PM
Minutes: Bill Murray made a motion to approve the minutes of the March meeting
as submitted, Larry Bontempo seconded the motion, which passed unanimously.
AT&T Update: Brent Fortney, @Home supervisor with AT&T Broadband Services
reported that the roll out of @Home is continuing. 36 certified nodes out of 59 have
been certified, 6 are being tested now for certification, and the remainder of the nodes
are projected to be activated by end of June. AT&T is still doing quality checks on the
upgrade to ensure high quality. 29,000 homes out of 50,000 are currently passed, witl-
800 subscribers.
Brent also reported on new programming being added, which includes Biography,
Lifetime, Encore East, Sundance Movie channel, more east coast versions of the
premium channels, more music options. Most of these will be available only on the
digital systems. Brent was asked to check with Kathy Stewart on pricing for digital and
how the added channels might impact the cost.
Board members had a number of questions about the @Home service. Brent was to
check with the @Home corporate office to see if maps might be made available on the
web site of where the service was available. AT&T currently has about 70 pending
installations. Brent reported the company does about 24 installs a day plus handling
trouble calls. Braun Mincher mentioned that he was not able to get information about
installation, when @Home would be available in his area. Because the scheduling
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office is not local, the call takers cannot answer questions. Brent said he and Kathy
Stewart would continue to work on improving the process, and to get more information
available on the Internet.
Brent reported that Fort Collins had been merged into the Denver area organizational
group, which makes the advertising area more in line with the ads of local companies.
Brent reported that the rate of disconnects from @Home service is very low. Tim
Tillson reported that he had recently installed @Home service at his residence and was
very complimentary about the installation service as well as the speeds at which he can
connect to the Internet. Tim suggested that more information be given to subscribers
about security issues related to be on-line all the time. Tim explained that he had
installed a local firewall designed to help protect against hackers. Brent explained that
@Home needs to be aware of the type of product used as it may present support
problems. He mentioned that he uses Zone Alarm; Tim responded that he uses Black
Ice. Brent mentioned that @home needs to approve firewall products to minimize
support problems
Braun asked about putting this type of information on the City's Web page; that this
would be something of service to the community that could be initiated by the Board.
Braun Mincher made a motion asking the City to provide information regarding the
security risks associated with continued Internet access via cable/high speed
connections. The motion was seconded by Tim Tillson and passed unanimously.
Brent also reported that he is working with HP and the business side of the broadband
services to determine if the system is feasible for use as a telecommuting network for
HP's employees.
Franchising Activity
Gary gave an update about the franchise requests received by the City. In addition to
the 3 cable vendors and 2 telecommunications vendors, there has been a request from
an OVS provider. So have a total 6, 2 of which have just telecom. Gary reviewed the
process currently underway. Tom Maher mentioned that Sprint had purchased the
company that provided instruction television bandwidth and would be exploring wireless
video opportunities.
The Board having no other business to discuss, Howard Lowell made a motion to
adjourn, which was seconded by Tom Maher. Motion passed unanimously. Chair Greg
Smith adjourned meeting at 7 PM.
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