HomeMy WebLinkAboutTelecommunications Board - Minutes - 05/17/2006TELECOMMUNICATIONS BOARD
MEETING MINUTES
May 15,2006
6:00 PM
Council Liaison:
David Roy
Staff Liaison:
Liz Stroh, Communications and Technology Services; 221-6522
Board Chair:
Curt Cramer
Vice Chair:
Herb Saperstone
Present: Curt Cramer, Herb Saperstone, Ted Funk, David Heiberg
Absent: Larry Bontempo, Chip Cushman, Robert Reichenberger,
Guest: Tom Vosburg, CIO, City of Fort Collins
Staff: Eric Dahigren, Liz Stroh
Chair Curt Cramer called the meeting to order at 6: 05 PM.
Public Input: None
Minutes:
Herb Saperstone moved to approve minutes, seconded by David Heiberg.
Minutes were unanimously approved as corrected.
City of Fort Collins Wireless Discussion
Tom Vosburg, the City's Chief Information Officer, spoke to the Board about City
and community interest in wireless communication. The City has looked at
Broadband over power line, as well as other options. There is a broad spectrum
of opportunities related to wireless. Tacoma, Washington has built their own
cable TV system, Boulder intends to put up a wireless "hotspot" in their mall.
Tom explained that the initial study was to assess the feasibility of implementing
a telecommunications utility in Fort Collins, but given the current revenue
situation, the City has scaled back and will be looking at how the emerging
technology can better serve city government. Examples would be to provide
wireless service to field workers to improve their productivity and streamline
processes. For the short term, the City will use a pilot project approach, noting
that there is a need to understand signal strength, develop a business model,
understand capital costs, on -going costs, etc. With the budget concerns the City
continues to deal with, City management needs to understand how this type of
technology fits in with other City needs. Tom explained that the City is in the very
early stages of the project, and a formal team has not yet been formed. He
suggested that the Board would be a good group to use as a sounding board.
The City currently has wireless building to building access for some of the City's
facilities. There are some efforts underway to work with downtown groups to
implement a wireless "hot spot" in Fort Collins. Later efforts might be used for
larger scale things like meter reading.
David asked about interest from the DBA. Tom responded that the DDA Director
(Downtown Development Association) has approached the City to use wireless
access as a way to stimulate downtown, and is looking for ways to get fiber to
that down town area that can be used for this type of service. Ted wondered
about the 800 mhz project. Tom explained that is a common frequency for law
enforcement that can be dedicated to law enforcement. Some of the agencies
are on that frequency, but the County has mountains to deal with that would
require additional towers.
Ted suggested with fiber to schools, that those facilities could have antennas on
them, and make it possible to put wireless on line for the whole city. He agreed
that a cost analysis would need to be done to verify the cost/benefit.
Ted talked about information that a vendor had donated equipment in Boulder to
put the hot spot in place. Tom's understanding is that the mall association is the
entity that is sponsoring the project, and that there was currently no information
as to the maintenance costs, internet access costs, etc..
Tom explained that in the current economic climate, there needs to be a clear
business case. David asked of any plans to survey businesses to see if they are
using it now, and also wondered what CSU is doing. Herb asked about
businesses and whether the providers would consider a City owned wireless
utility to be unfair competition. Tom explained that those types of questions
would have to be factored into the analysis, and would also depend on what the
needs were and the availability of vendors to provide the services.
Curt asked about the composition of project group working on. Tom replied that
the staff team is the process of being formed, and since the scope of the project
has been scaled back, that he is currently looking at an internal team. Curt
suggested that even if the current project is smaller, that it would be better to
include others so as not to limit a long term plan
also exploring possibilities of getting programming from surrounding
communities, including Wyoming.
Election:
The Chair asked for nominations for Board Chair. Chip Cushman nominated
Curt Cramer, seconded by Herb. The vote was unanimous. For Vice -Chair,
Herb was nominated by Chip, seconded by Curt Cramer with another unanimous
vote.
Other Business:
Curt showed the Board members a copy of Pathways, a publication for seniors
distributed by the City's Recreation Department. Pathways had an article in the
most recent edition about the low cost tier of cable television that was now
available to the Fort Collins community. Since this was the top priority for the
Board in the recent franchise negotiations, Curt wanted to recognize the Board's
efforts in getting this choice of service available to seniors and others in the
community.
Curt asked that copies of the Franchise be sent to the Board. Because of the
length, Liz will print copies and bring them to the next meeting
Curt also asked that the next meeting include a discussion of the quarterly
reports that are sent to the City by Comcast. Robert also asked for information
on complaints.
Herb mentioned that he would like to have Qwest visit with the Board at the next
meeting. He's interested in information on municipal WiFi, and has several
questions related to impacts, phone number publication, etc.
Adjourn:
Chip moved to adjourn the meeting, seconded by Robert. Meeting was
adjourned at 7 PM.
Chair Date