FiberNet Advisory Board Minutes 01-15-2013MINUTES
FIBERNET MONTICELLO ADVISORY BOARD MEETING
Tuesday, January 15, 2013 — 6 p.m.
2"d Floor Conference Room, Prairie Center Building
Present: Clint Herbst, Glen Posusta, Jon Morphew, Wayne Mayer, Dennis Sullivan
Absent: None
Non - voting: Jeff O'Neill, Brett DeMarais
Others: Mark Pultusker (by video conferencing), Tim Hennagir, Lynne Dahl Fleming, C.
George Wallin (& wife)
1. Call to Order
Clint Herbst called the meeting to order at 6:01 p.m.
2. Additions to Agenda
• none
3. Approval of Meeting Minutes — November 20, 2012
JON MORPHEW MOVED TO ACCEPT THE NOVEMBER 22, 2012 MEETING
MINUTES AS PRESENTED. WAYNE MAYER SECONDED THE MOTION.
MOTION CARRIED 4 -0. (Glen Posusta did not vote.)
4. Holding Pattern
a. Bond Restructuring Efforts and Status Report
Friday, January 25th is the next meeting with bondholders. The purpose is to find
out what bondholders are looking for from the City. Mark Pultusker noted that
residents should understand no matter what transpires with the bondholders, the
city will be going forward with FiberNet. This should be made clear to
community.
b. Post HBC -- System stabilization — equipment, procedures, personnel
Mark Pultusker reported that they are continuing on the path they have
established, creating new procedures and processes specific to the Monticello site
but not so centralized. Employees will play a larger role in system. There is no
outside plant manager anymore and that has been taken over by the existing 4
technicians. The phone switch technician position is vacant and duties have been
taken over by other staff. A former CSR has been rehired and will be a good
addition to handle duties between CSR's and technicians.
C. Marketing and PR — Pending upgrades and bondholders
Mark Pultusker reported that FiberNet Monticello has not been heavily marketing
like some of their competitors. They want to make sure the system is running
well. Billing system is being updated and is much more customer friendly and
FiberNet Advisory Board Minutes — January 15, 2013
accessible to all technicians and CSRs than the previous system. Under this
system, everything is automated and doesn't rely on hand written work orders and
printouts. This interactive system is much more efficient and provides quicker
response time. Down the road, additional personnel may be added to match a
larger subscriber base.
Marketing will focus on personalized communications with residents and
businesses. They want to give residents a chance to try the system.
Mark Pultusker is looking at rolling out FiberNet 2.0 which is a series of
enhancements. He is also looking at creating FiberNet Monticello Business,
which would be an internal offering of FiberNet geared strictly for businesses.
The city plans to host a kick -off luncheon and demonstrate to businesses potential
services they could use in their business.
5. Danville Virginia Economic Development Report
a. Co- location — Data Center; VZ and marketing tower space to others
Mark Pultusker has conversed with Verizon and they are going to send a proposal
for use of the FiberNet Monticello data center. If they can close that deal, it will
create a positive situation for the City. Mark Pultusker explained that wireless
vendors look for 4 things: antenna, place to put their equipment (environment,
proximity to tower), backhaul (connection to tower), and security. FiberNet
Monticello can provide all 4 of these things. Mark Pultusker is also talking to
some of the other large wireless providers; FiberNet Monticello could handle up
to 3 carrier antennas on the water tower.
b. IT services — Virtual Ethernet; back -up CLOUD services
Lynne Dahl - Fleming asked if FiberNet Monticello plans to offer cloud -based
video services. Mark Pultusker explained that they will probably make the
conference room available for any business customers that want to hold a video
conference. The current video that he is using to converse for the meeting is
actually cloud -based but is dependent on equipment used at either end for the
presentation to view and speak.
Mark Pultusker is looking into setting up services that could provide server and
data storage for outside sources.
Mark Pultusker noted that they have replaced the UPS as the used one that HBC
had provided had failed. He is impressed with the clean power that comes from
Xcel Energy.
C. Wi Fi to city locations — like parks, downtown, etc.
Mark Pultusker noted they are looking at use of the city water towers to bring wi-
fe to various locations.
FiberNet Advisory Board Minutes — January 15, 2013
6. NCTC Application v.s. New channels and programming agreements
Mark Pultusker noted that, as he has been redoing a number of the contracts with NTTC,
they have lowered their costs for FiberNet. He has also increased the number of channel
offerings through NTTC, which includes a number of highly desired channels. After
Mark Pultusker finishes adding channels, he plans to group certain channels together to
make it easier for the customer to find channels and move around.
Mark Pultusker has held off on the NCTC application because the NTTC rates have been
reduced and are probably more comparable to NCTC. He will be looking at that again in
a few months to see how it stands.
7. Maintenance and upgrade needs
a. Minerva - middleware
FiberNet Monticello will be updating their middleware (software) which will
create the ability to add more services for customers.
b. VOD - adding subscription VOD like Bravo and HBO
Mark Pultusker reported that new enhancements will allow FiberNet Monticello
to add more video on demand (VOD) subscriptions. This will bring FiberNet
Monticello to equal or better footing than offerings from TDS and Charter.
C. MDU - offering service to apartment buildings
FiberNet is continuing to work on service offerings to apartment buildings and it
has been successful so far.
8. Next Meeting — February 12, 2013
9. Other
Mark Pultusker mentioned that they are finding some existing billing errors as
they move to a new billing system. These are errors that came from the old
system and they are just finding these issues now. Mark Pultusker is looking for
suggestions on how to handle situations where people are receiving services but
not being billed for it. Currently they are giving promotional discounts to account
for discrepancies. They will contact customers after the billing system is in place.
Glen Posusta asked why some customers have set -top boxes and some do not
have them. The set -top box allows some advantages for programming such as:
channel guide, better digital picture, better sound, ability to do VOD. Mark
Pultusker plans to educate and explain the value that customers could get from a
set -top box for $4.95 a month. Mark Pultusker also wants to educate customers
on "whole house DVR" which allows recording of programs from any TV. Glen
Posusta asked if FiberNet Monticello knows what percentage of customers have
set -top boxes; Mark Pultusker stated that it is a lower percent compared to the
other providers.
FiberNet Advisory Board Minutes — January 15, 2013
Dennis Sullivan asked about the TV Guide service and who is responsible for
contacting them to upgrade the content. Mark Pultusker said FiberNet will be
responsible for contacting TV Guide and Tribune to add the new channels.
FiberNet Monticello is also planning to add some kind of a signal to their website
and /or Channel 19 to check the status of the system. This will give subscribers
instant updates when there are problems.
10. Adjourn
WAYNE MAYER MOVED TO ADJOURN THE MEETING AT 6:50 P.M. DENNIS
SULLIVAN SECONDED THE MOTION. MOTION CARRIED 5 -0.
Recorder: Catherine M. Shuman
Approved: February 12, 2013
Attest:
Ci istrator
FiberNet Advisory Board Minutes — January 15, 2013