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FiberNet Advisory Board Minutes 08-15-2012MINUTES
FIBERNET MONTICELLO ADVISORY BOARD MEETING
2 °d Wednesday, August 15, 2012 — 6 p.m.
Floor Conference Room, Prairie Center Building
Present: Clint Herbst, Glen Posusta, Wayne Mayer, Dennis Sullivan
Absent: Jon Morphew
Others: Jeff O'Neill, Mark Pultusker, Paul Ruffin, Lynn Dahl Fleming, Justin Miller, Ken
Booth
1. Call to Order
Clint Herbst called the Advisory Board Meeting to order at 6:02 p.m.
2. Additions to Agenda
None
3. Consideration of Approval of Meeting Minutes — July 10, 2012
WAYNE MAYER MOVED TO APPROVE THE REGULAR MEETING MINUTES
FROM JULY 10, 2012 AS PRESENTED. GLEN POSUSTA SECONDED THE
MOTION. MOTION CARRIED 4 -0.
4. FiberNet Operations
• Update on policy changes related to Customer Service
• Change of hours
• Weekend coverage results and possible PT CSR for nights /weekends
• One phone number on billings
Officially changed hours to 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. by phone /internet with reduced office
hours; this information will be included in next billing. Dispatch system in place
and well received; covers night and weekend hours. Looking to hire a PT
position for a CSR for night and weekend service calls; may hire someone in
another location. Have switched to one number for all calls: 314 -0100.
• Channel 6 policy for commercial accounts — wireless wifi for businesses for $25 a
month on top of internet service; they can offer added service to their customers.
Set up policy to limit to non - profit and government with no commercial
advertising. Want to set up new channel to offer time to businesses to provide
information, such as hospital program, state of the city address.
• Technical challenges — had a 2 hour outage the other day when they were trying
to correct a problem with video by rebooting a device about 5 p.m., which created
a number of customer phone calls.
• Video conferencing system — today's meeting is a trial with Mark from the Head -
end Building; it is working but needs some fine tuning.
• Approve billing rate for special services — Mark Pultusker talked about how they
are handling calls where the problem is due to customer neglect. Customers are
notified in advance that there may be charges with the rate at $70 /hour plus
materials.
FiberNet Advisory Board Minutes —August 15, 2012
5. Update on Gigabit Squared /FNM Outreach Efforts
• Management Contract with FiberConnect — Jeff O'Neill mentioned that the
contract will be brought to Council on August 27th for approval. Jeff O'Neill is
working with Attorney Joel Jamnick to work out the details of the contract.
FiberConnect would serve as the management company and work together with
Gigabit Squared on the overall project. Glen Posusta asked Mark Pultusker if
FiberConnect is his company, which he confirmed.
Mark Pultusker noted that HBC is working on filing a tariff with the PUC related
to late fee charges. This is required as phone service is part of the service
offering. First time would waive late fee and then after that they would be
charged. If customer does not pay late fees, they will be included in next billing.
• "Meet Your Headend" event — looking at hosting this event around the 3rd
weekend of September. This will follow some upgrades to take care of a number
of issues. Each week, they are holding conference calls with the vendors involved
and this includes HBC.
• Marketing and PR Campaign
• TDS Video initiative — now offering IP TV (video)
• Charter Phone initiative — offering phone service as of July 31St
• Subscriber Advisory Committee — Mark Pultusker suggests implementing a group
made up of customers that can address concerns and recommendations that come
from the FiberNet system.
• Local programming — Mark Pultusker talked about plans for an initiative to put
together a studio with video equipment. They would like to create videos that
feature local events and activities. Gigabit Squared is working on this and would
secure the necessary equipment.
• Questions:
• Jeff O'Neill asked Mark Pultusker to talk about current status of system
and whether there are upcoming needs to purchase equipment or perform
diagnostics on the system to continue to overcome problems. Mark
Pultusker said he would continue to bring in needed equipment to use for
tracking problems with the system
• Glen Posusta asked about customer numbers. Mark Pultusker said he does
need to bring the group up to date. He noted that there have been slight
increases in customers the last 2 months.
• Glen Posusta asked Mark Pultusker about charges billed from HBC and
wondered if that was continuing. Mark Pultusker that is no longer in
effect when the contract with HBC ends.
• Mark Pultusker commented that they plan to implement a new billing
system in November. It appears the charges would be similar to the
current contract when the City moves to FiberConnect.
FiberNet Advisory Board Minutes — August 15, 2012
6. Bond Restructuring Efforts and Status Report
Jeff O'Neill explained that the City is still working through the process. At a recent
meeting, they met with bond attorneys to review options that could be offered for
restructuring debt. The goal is to meet in mid September and begin discussions. The
trustee representative feels that the system is operating as well as it can right now and is a
solid operation.
7. Other
• NCTC Application — Mark Pultusker said they are working on new application
and it is looking pretty positive to be accepted this time. NCTC has indicated
they would have an answer by September 15tH
Danville, VA Broadband Conference (Nov 8 -9t) — Jeff O'Neill noted that this
conference would probably be a good conference to consider attending. Good
opportunities for networking at a cost of $95 (early bird) plus travel costs. Jeff
O'Neill suggested that some of the board members might find it a good one to
attend.
8. Next Meeting — September 11, 2012
9. Adjourn
WAYNE MAYER MOVED TO ADJOURN THE MEETING AT 6:44 P.M. DENNIS
SULLIVAN SECONDED THE MOTION. MOTION CARRIED 4 -0.
Recorder: Catherine M. Shuman L
Approved: November 20, 2012
Attest:
y ministrator
FiberNet Advisory Board Minutes — August 15, 2012