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FiberNet Advisory Board Minutes 11-20-2012MINUTES FIBERNET MONTICELLO ADVISORY BOARD MEETING Tuesday, November 20, 2012 — 6 p.m. 2 °d Floor Conference Room, Prairie Center Building Present: Clint Herbst, Jon Morphew, Wayne Mayer, Dennis Sullivan Absent: Glen Posusta (voting), Brett DeMarais (non- voting) Others: Jeff O'Neill, Mark Pultusker, Lynn Dahl Fleming 1. Call to Order Clint Herbst called the meeting to order at 6:06 p.m. 2. Additions to Agenda • none 3. Approval of Meeting Minutes — August 15, 2012 WAYNE MAYER MOVED TO ACCEPT THE AUGUST 15, 2012 REGULAR MEETING MINUTES AS PRESENTED. DENNIS SULLIVAN SECONDED THE MOTION. MOTION CARRIED 4 -0. 4. FiberNet Status: Holding Pattern — Jeff O'Neill thanked the group for their patience in receiving informational updates. a. Bond Restructuring Efforts and Status Report o Jeff O'Neill reported that Hilgart and Herbst have been instrumental in working with staff and the bond company to work on bond restructuring efforts. b. Post HBC System stabilization — equipment, procedures, personnel o Jeff O'Neill stated that FiberNet Monticello (FNM) operations are being brought up to date to address issues. Jon Morphew asked what is meant by system stabilization. Mark Pultusker explained that part of his job has been to trouble shoot the entire system and figure out where the issues are and fix them. He has corrected many problems and ran a number of updates on the system to improve phone, internet and TV operation. He has also worked with personnel and procedures to make customer service improvements. Mark Pultusker noted that Matt Henning has left to work with a different company and a part -time person left to pursue her main profession. Neither has been replaced at this time. Mark Pultusker noted that the hours have been changed to have staff available from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. to answer customer inquiries and handle tech support calls. They also answer phones on weekends from 9 a.m. to 9 FiberNet Advisory Board Minutes — November 20, 2012 p.m.; calls are returned within 15 minutes of time that messages are left. Customer Service Representatives (CSR's) have been cross trained to handle some tech support, which they can handle about 25% of the time. All 8 CSR's and techs rotate their schedules with some of their on -call time as unpaid allowing more flexibility and cost savings. Mark Pultusker reported that FNM has wired an apartment building with new technology utilizing a single ONT for the building and individual routers in each apartment, allowing them to hook up to internet and TV and will be testing phone in the near future. They are working on setting up another apartment complex and should be connecting customers soon. Mark Pultusker commented that they continue to test different types of equipment and cables to find the best options for service. C. Marketing and PR — Pending o Jeff O'Neill said that this area has been on hold since HBC is no longer part of the management team. Mark Pultusker noted that the word is getting out to the public that the system has improved and customer support hours have been increased. The next step is concentrate on marketing again to reach customers that have switched to competitors or have never been with FNM. Part of the dilemma is to finish resolving some issues before starting up marketing again. Mark Pultusker talked about a new contract with NBC Universal which gives rights to FNM for TV Anywhere which allows FNM to display TV on any remote device in customer homes. There are some additional upgrades that still need to be done on the system to enable FNM to add some new enhancements. Dennis Sullivan asked about the big picture at the beginning which would use internet as the main driver and phone and TV as add -ons. Dennis Sullivan wanted to know if it's still possible to move TV to internet. Mark Pultusker said it's really too late because TDS has entered the market. The idea might be to provide different areas of TV service that serve a different market. For example, should FNM drop sports channels and offer a basic package, which actually is a better profit. Mark Pultusker talked about the offerings that can be made to different apartment buildings. He can market to the people in the building by customizing the TV packages that match their interests. Mark Pultusker also noted that the basic channel package can also include HD on the basic channels. He is working on how to set it up and incorporate that into the rates. Dennis Sullivan commented that he can't really see the difference between HD and non -HD programming. Mark Pultusker said that Monticello has little penetration in the HD market. He does feel that any FiberNet Advisory Board Minutes - November 20, 2012 screen over 40 inch should show a distinct difference between HD and non -HD. Mark Pultusker stated that they are looking into some VOIP packages that would be a lower cost for customers and run off their internet. He noted that the telephone business is very regulated and even more so for municipalities. There are a number of steps to go through to make changes to the phone system. Mark Pultusker talked about the difference in 911 service with VOIP. 911 from a landline goes to the local Sheriff's Dept (emergency provider) whereas 911 with VOIP (e911) goes to downtown Minneapolis central switch and they have to reroute the call. Jeff O'Neill stated that Gigabit Squared (GB2) company report is close to done and ready for review by Council reps and staff. This will then go to the bond trustee for review. Clint Herbst asked if there would be a date where the report is accepted and released to the public. Jon Morphew asked what the report is about. Jeff O'Neill explained that G132 is studying the FiberNet system and coming up with a report on the status of FNM along with ideas for bringing the system up to where it needs to be for bond holders. Jeff O'Neill noted that the report does not contain anything astounding and will not bring out a lot of new information. 5. Danville Virginia Economic Development Report a. Co- location — Data Center b. IT services — Virtual Ethernet — back -up C. Wi Fi o Jeff O'Neill talked about some ideas that are being looked at to add new revenues for FNM. Some examples are setting up the Head -end with a data center. They could contract with customers that would co- locate with FNM to store their data. FNM should be able to accept any size files of data to be stored. There are a series of requirements to set up a data center, which Mark Pultusker is looking into. Most likely they would target smaller companies and would focus on server support. Mark Pultusker said he would also like to expand to host companies on virtual servers so they would not have to bring their equipment to the Head -end building. o Mark Pultusker has applied for a CUP amendment to be able to put barbed wire around the facility, which is required for external security as part of a data center. o Dennis Sullivan asked about software security. He has been getting some messages related to spam filtering. Mark Pultusker explained those type of things would not be handled by the ISP (FNM). However FNM is working on updating the email filtering system. o Jeff O'Neill mentioned that Danville is looking into a community wi -fi system. At some time, they may be willing to come out and talk about how they implemented their system. Clint Herbst asked about the wi -fi equipment that FiberNet Advisory Board Minutes — November 20, 2012 HBC was proposing. Mark Pultusker said that is not being installed and he is working on getting it returned to HBC, if possible. o Mark Pultusker said they are looking at service plans where they could offer services within businesses to maintain systems such as wireless internet, phones, etc. FNM is now charging for service calls if it is distinctly related to customer error and that is communicated to the customer in advance. 6. NCTC Application Mark Pultusker said he has been negotiating with NTTC, the company that holds the current contract with the City for TV programming. It looks like they are willing to offer better rates to the City, perhaps matching NCTC pricing. The contract is good for approximately another year. Mark Pultusker found out that NTTC has group rates on some of the programming but HBC negotiated some direct contracts which did not always provide the best pricing. Dennis Sullivan noted that he has some problems with program listings on Channel 210. Mark Pultusker explained that cannot be controlled by FNM, but he will look into it. Dennis Sullivan commented about one of the training PDF's he found on the FNM website that he had used for some programming .and it worked very well. He recommended that FNM continue to make those available to their customers. 7. Next Meeting - December 11, 2012 8. Other • none 9. Adjournment WAYNE MAYER MOVED TO ADJOURN AT 7:12 P.M. DENNIS SULLIVAN SECONDED THE MOTION. MOTION CARRIED 4 -0. Recorder: Catherine M. Shuman Approved: January 15, 2013 Attest: Ciiy iWinistrator FiberNet Advisory Board Minutes — November 20, 2012 3