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FiberNet Advisory Board Agenda Packet 02-10-2015AGENDA FIBERNET MONTICELLO ADVISORY BOARD MEETING Tuesday, February 10, 2015 — 6 p.m. North Bridge Room, Monticello Community Center Members: Brian Stumpf, Charlotte Gabler, Jon Morphew, Dennis Sullivan, Jacob Kramer Others: Jeff O'Neill, Dan Olsen, Rachel Leonard, Bryan Rabe 1. Call to Order 2. Additions to Agenda 3. Approval of Meeting Minutes 4. Network update. • E7 Migration • Paragon • Golden West • Minerva Payment 5. Business Office Update • Television Price Increase • Latest Subscriber Data • Staffing Update 6. Annandale Update 7. Minnesota Public Broadband Alliance Update 8. Recommendation to amend customer service evening hours after Golden West goes live 9. Consideration of providing updated equipment in customer homes 10. Consideration of joining the Next Century Cities Organization 11. Next Meeting — Tuesday, March 10, 2015 12. Adjourn About Next Century Cities Next Century Cities: Connecting Communities Next Century Cities supports community leaders across the country as they seek to ensure that all have access to fast, affordable, and reliable Internet. Across the country, innovative municipalities are already recognizing the importance of leveraging gigabit level Internet to attract new businesses and create jobs, improve health care and education, and connect residents to new opportunities. Next Century Cities is committed to celebrating these successes, demonstrating their value, and helping other cities to realize the full power of truly high-speed, affordable, and accessible broadband. Our Principles Next Century Cities believes that there is no single pathway to a smart, effective approach to next- generation broadband. What matters is meaningful choice, dedicated leadership, and smart collaboration. Our participating leaders and communities are committed to the following principles: • High -Speed Internet Is Necessary Infrastructure: fast, reliable, and affordable Internet – at globally competitive speeds – is no longer optional. Residents, schools, libraries, and businesses require next -generation connectivity to succeed. • The Internet Is Nonpartisan: because the Internet is an essential resource for residents and businesses in all communities, the provision of fast, reliable, and affordable Internet transcends partisanship. This collaboration welcomes leaders of all affiliations and beliefs who believe fast, reliable, and affordable high-speed Internet access is essential to secure America's Internet future. • Communities Must Enjoy Self -Determination: broadband solutions must align with community needs—there is no perfect model that is universally appropriate. Towns and cities should have the right to consider all options – whether public, nonprofit, corporate, or some other hybrid – free from interference. • High -Speed Internet Is a Community -Wide Endeavor: building effective next - generation networks requires cooperation across communities. It is critical to involve and include multiple stakeholders and perspectives to succeed, including businesses, community organizations, residents, anchor institutions, and others. Everyone in a community should be able to access the Internet on reasonable terms. • Meaningful Competition Drives Progress: a vibrant, diverse marketplace, with transparency in offerings, pricings, and policies will spur innovation, increase investment, and lower prices. Communities, residents, and businesses should have a meaningful choice in providers. • Collaboration Benefits All: innovative approaches to broadband deployment present diverse challenges and opportunities to communities and regions. Working together, cities can learn from the experiences of others, lower costs, and make the best use of next -generation networks. A 21st Century Partnership We invite cities to join Next Century Cities and strengthen the ability of communities nationwide to prosper and compete in the 21st century. Next Century Cities supports communities and their elected leaders, including mayors and other officials, as they seek to ensure that all have access to fast, affordable, and reliable hiteinet. Elevating the Conversation: cities that have or would like to develop truly next - generation networks are visionary cities, and their leaders recognize what it takes to be competitive in the 21st century. Next Century Cities will work with these leaders and their cities to make the case nationally and within communities that next -generation Internet is essential infrastructure that can deliver transformative benefits to communities today. Supporting Cities: communities stepping into the 21 st century through next -generation networks face myriad challenges. It is essential to provide crucial support to facilitate these innovative projects. Next Century Cities and its partners will work to assist each other in overcoming obstacles to success. Providing Tools for Success: developing a next -generation network is a daunting task for a city of any size. It is important that communities have access to resources, advice, and tools to develop effective broadband Internet networks. Next Century Cities is committed to developing and aggregating resources to guide incipient projects, as well as tools to help those already equipped with this infrastructure better leverage their networks to yield community benefits. We are excited to begin this initiative, and we look forward to working with diverse towns and cities across the country to lead a new conversation on what it will take to compete and thrive in the 21st century. Next Century Cities welcomes partnership with any organization that shares ourprinciples. Our work is currently supported by a group ofdonors, including the Ford Foundation, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the Open Society Foundations, and Google. Next Century Cities is a project of New Venture Fund, a 501(c)(3) public charity. New Venture Fund hosts and incubates a wide range ofconservation, education, global health, and other charitable projects. Next Century Cities supports communities and their elected leaders, including mayors and other officials, as they seek to ensure that all have access to fast, affordable, and reliable Internet. Join Us Leadership Socia Prior to her new role as the Executive Director of Next Century Cities, Deb Socia was the Executive Director of the Tech Goes Home program whose mission is to ensure digital equity. The program was selected as a ComputerWorld 2011 Laureate, was awarded the Public Technology Institute's 2011 Solutions Award and the 2009 Verizon Tech Savvy Award as well as being mentioned as an exemplary program in several national publications. Before her more recent positions, Deb spent 32 years as an educator, director, and administrator. She was the founding principal of the Lilla G. Frederick Middle School, a Boston Public School in the Grove Hall neighborhood of Dorchester. She led the one-to-one laptop initiative at the Frederick and the school won several awards for its efforts at technology integration, including designation as an Apple Distinguished School in 2009 and 2010. The Frederick was named a "trauma sensitive school" by the state, was highlighted in case studies by Intel, Apple, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and was designated as a community "safe haven". Other positions Deb has held include — district level Curriculum Coordinator, Program Director for the Coalition of Essential Schools, and middle school mathematics and science teacher. Deb was named the NATOA Community Broadband Hero in 2013, received the 2013 Pathfinder Award from MassCUE, the 2010 "Leadership and Vision" award from CRSTE (Capitol Region Society for Technology in Education), the Quincy/Geneva Community Advocate award in 2009, and the Lilla G. Frederick Award in 2008. She has written several pieces on technology in education, including a piece on digital citizenship for the Publius Project at Harvard's Berkman Center, several articles in MASCD Perspectives, AALF's on-line publication, Mass Literacy, and several guest blog posts for iKeepSafe and Wheelock University. Deb is an avid user of social media, particularly Twitter dsocia). Chris Mitchell Christopher Mitchell is the Policy Director at Next Century Cities as well as the Director of the Community Broadband Networks Initiative with the Institute for Local Self -Reliance in Minneapolis. Mitchell is a leading national expert on community networks and speaks at conferences across the United States on telecommunications policy. On a day-to-day basis, Mitchell runs MuniNetworks.org, the comprehensive online clearinghouse of information about community broadband. His research and reports are available online. In 2012, he published three in-depth case studies of citywide publicly owned gigabit networks, called "Broadband at the Speed of Light." In 2011, Mitchell released the Community Broadband Map, a comprehensive map of community owned networks. He was honored as one of the 2012 Top 25 in Public Sector Technology by Government Technology, which honors the top "Doers, Drivers, and Dreamers" in the nation each year. That same year, the National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors named ILSR the Broadband Organization of the Year. His Twitter identity is Ca,communitvnets He earned a Master's degree in Public Policy from the Hubert Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota and a Bachelor's degree in Political Science from Macalester College. ex FCC Defines "Advanced Broadband" to be 25 Mbps down/3 Mbps up A Connected Nation Policy Brief January 29, 2015 CONNECTED NATION. In a 3-2 vote today, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) determined that broadband deployment at speeds of 25 Mbps down/3 Mbps up in the United States is not developing on a "reasonable and timely basis," a move that signals both a shift in the FCC's definition of "broadband" and foreshadows further actions by the agency in the coming months. In doing so, the FCC defined "advanced broadband" as 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload. The FCC stated that prior definitions of broadband were "dated and inadequate" based on "advances in technology, market offerings by broadband providers and consumer demand." The FCC found that 17 percent of the U.S. population does not have access to 25 Mbps/3 Mbps broadband, and that half of rural Americans do not have such access. The FCC also found that this gap is persisting, with broadband access at 25 Mbps down/3 Mbps up increasing by only 3 percentage points last year. This Policy Brief summarizes why the FCC took this action today, what the impact will be on states, and how the change in the broadband threshold will affect various FCC policies. Why does the FCC define broadband? Section 706 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, 47 U.S.C. 1302 requires that the FCC report to Congress every year on whether "advanced telecommunications capability is being deployed to all Americans in a reasonable and timely fashion." This report is often called the Broadband Progress Report, and copies are posted on the FCC website. The FCC has typically interpreted "advanced telecommunications capability" to include residential broadband service and has periodically defined broadband at specific speed thresholds in this report. The FCC originally defined "advanced telecommunications capability" in 1999 to be 200 Kbps down/200 Kbps up, and in 2010, the FCC increased that definition to 4 Mbps down/1 Mbps up. Today, citing the increased demand for web -streamed video and other services, the FCC upgraded its definition of "advanced telecommunications capability" to 25 Mbps down/3 Mbps up. As discussed below, at these speeds, broadband availability and competition nationwide is substantially lower than at lower speed thresholds. How is this different than the 10 Mbps down/1 Mbps up target used for the Connect America Fund? In 2011, when it established the $4 billion per year Connect America Fund (CAF), the FCC chose to provide subsidies to companies willing to expand broadband access by building networks capable of providing 4 Mbps down/1 Mbps up service. In December 2014, the FCC uneraded that Connect America Fund target to 10 Mbps down/1 Mbps up. Yet, only fifty days later, networks subsidized through the Conned America Fund program now no longer qualify as "advanced broadband" under the FCC's new definition. www.connectednation.org i t While on their face these actions seem inconsistent, it appears that the new Ik CONNECTEDNAT 11563 N. broadband definition will have no immediate impact on the implementation of the Connect America Fund. As it promotes the deployment of broadband access, the FCC will be applying three ` different conceptions of "broadband." To identify areas eligible for Connect America Fund subsidies, FCC will target areas where there is no broadband service that meets the speed threshold of 3 Mbps down/768 Kbps up. In those eligible areas, the FCC will subsidize networks that support at least 10 Mbps down/1 Mbps up. However, the FCC will not regard an area as having access to "advanced telecommunications capability" until it has access to broadband at speeds of 25 Mbps down/3 Mbps up. While not formally acknowledging this staggered approach, the FCC's Public Notice today refers to the new 25/3 Mbps threshold as "advanced broadband," potentially to distinguish it from the Connect America Fund 10/1 Mbps minimum speed target. Once released, the final text of the Broadband Progress Report may contain further information on the interaction between the FCC's new definition of "broadband" and the Connect America Fund. What do all these different speed tiers mean in my state? Connected Nation has prepared a group of maps that show and compare fixed broadband availability at specific speed tiers in selected states. Readers can see the number of households with access to 3 Mbps down/768 Kbps up and compare that to availability and number of providers at 25 Mbps down/3 Mbps up. These maps are available at www. connected nation.ore/fcc-maos. The table below shows that over one in four households in states mapped by Connected Nation do not have access to 25 Mbps/3 Mbps fixed broadband service. Michigan 3,872,508 456,452 3,416,056 I 88.21% Minnesota 2,087,227 265,950 1,821,277 I 87.26% Nevada 1,006,250 66,463 939,787 I 93.40% Ohio I 4,603,435 I 713,081 3,890,354 I 84.51% Puerto Rico I 1,376,531 I 609,767 I 766,764 I 55.70% South Carolina I 1,801,181 I 337,168 I 1,464,013 I 81.28% Tennessee I 2,493,552 I 422,440 I 2,071,112 83.06% Texas I 8,922,933 I 3,952,413 I 4,970,520 I 55.70% CN Total I 27,643,251 I 7,247,415 I 20,395,836 I 73.78% www.connectednation.org 1 c CONNECTED What is the impact of the new definition for other policy NAT M NK initiatives? The FCC's Broadband Progress Report has important legal significance since Congress has given the Commission a broad mandate to encourage deployment of "advanced telecommunications capability." If the FCC finds, as it has today, that deployment of advanced broadband is not occurring on a "reasonable and timely basis," Section 706 of the Act gives the FCC wide authority to "take immediate action to accelerate deployment of such capability by removing barriers to infrastructure investment and by promoting competition in the telecommunications market." This could potentially result in a significant and broad source of authority for the FCC to promulgate a wide range of rules and initiatives. In January 2014, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals (in Verizon Communications Inc. v. FCC, 740 F.3d 623 (D.C. Cir. 2014)) ruled that if the FCC makes a finding that advanced telecommunications capability is not being deployed on a reasonable and timely basis, the Commission has "affirmative authority to promulgate rules governing broadband providers," as long as those rules are not otherwise prohibited bylaw. The FCC's vote today signals that the FCC may rely upon the Report's findings as soon as its February 26, 2015 open meeting, when it is scheduled to vote on strong network neutralitv rules and to preempt state restrictions on the construction and operation of municipal broadband networks. For more information about broadband policy developments please contact Connected Nation at oolicvC@connected nation.ore. www.conDectednation.org