Hello
all,
This
is a reminder that the next Shutesbury-Leverett Broadband Group
meeting will be tomorrow night, Thursday, at 7pm at Shutesbury Town
Hall. All are welcome.
A
couple announcements. First, We are now about 85 households,
neighborhood associations, and representatives of community
institutions. Second, the meeting will be facilitated by Dan Mishkind.
(Although it pains me, I will not be able to attend.)
PROPOSED
AGENDA
1.
7pm, Presentation from Tom Moylan, President, Ashby Telecom Group,
LLC. (www.ashbytelecom.com) Tom has experience with rural communities
in
northern NY, northern NH, northern VT as well as Jacksonville, FL.
He
will also tell us about some "traditional and non-traditional
funding
opportunities."
2.
8pm, Presentation from Amy Zuckerman, President, Hidden Tec
(hidden-tec.net). Hidden-Tec represents us home business types,
IT-related and not, who need technology to thrive. Amy organizes lots
of interesting events, one of which Mark Bucciarelli attended recently
and will be reporting on I think.
[the
remaining topics can be taken up at any time, in any order, or not
at all, although I recommend at least uttering all of them]
3.
Comcast. I had a very interesting and positive meeting at Comcast's
office in Springfield attended by FIVE pretty high level Comcast people
from Marketing, Construction, Engineering, and Gov Relations/Legal.
They showed me maps and detailed cost estimates. There is a lot to
tell, and Dan Mishkind will be very well prepared to explain it all.
But
it boils down to demand. If we can show it, they'll come. They offered
to send a survey-type mailing to every Shutesbury resident and consult
us on the content and wording. We would need to mobilize BIG TIME
to get
those filled out, and filled out favorably. Satellite TV competition
is
very concerning to them.
4.
USDA Rural Utility Service financing update (Louise, Mark, others?)
5.
Fiber-to-the-Home Update (Mark)
6.
Harry's 548 community DSL plan, and Leverett
7.
Report on positive meeting with Matthew Crocker
8.
Vivato Wireless tests/demo put off due to rain. Suggestions for
make-up date? Any interest anyway?
9.
Make noise! We now know this makes a big difference.
VERIZON:
Email: more_information@cable.comcast.com, michael.pequignot@verizon.com
Go to www.verizon.net to fill out the "Can I get DSL?" form
Go to http://biz.verizon.net/pands/dsl/availability.asp to fill out
the
DSL for businesses form.
Call residential: (800) 567-6789; business: (877) 483-5793; or mystery
#: (888) 649-9500.
COMCAST:
Go to https://comcast.com/localization/Default.asp and fill out the
form.
Go to http://comcast.com/ContactUs/customerservice.asp and fill out
the
form.
Email: eastern_press@cable.comcast.com,
chq_publicrelations@cable.comcast.com,
corporate_communications@comcast.com, and comcast recipients listed
above if you chose.
Call: 888-633-4266
REPRESENTATIVES:
Congressman John Olver: 202-225-5335, 413-532-7010,
State Representative Stephen Kulik: Rep.StephenKulik@hou.state.ma.us,
413-772-2727, 617-722-2210
State Senator Stanley Rosenberg, 413-484-1649, 617-722-1532,
Sen.StanRosenberg@senate.state.ma.us, srosenb@k12s.phast.umass.edu
Call
and email them to say: you want service, there is no cable provider
or DSL providers--"You'll be the exclusive provider", the
Town is
interested in attracting providers, you represent a group of over
85
households, neighborhood associations, & individuals who are town
officials, please make a record of the overwhelming interest in high
speed internet from you and the entire town of Shutesbury, or to
transfer you to someone who can do so; you have attached a one-page
description of our efforts (attached as word doc here) to your emails.
10.
Get an article or announcement about us in the newsletters and
mailing for Shutesbury and Leverett's Town, Schools, Co-op, local
papers, Boston Globe, and NY Time. Print the survey
(http://deanbrook.org/broadband/survey.html), our one-pager (attached),
announcements of our next meeting, or any kind of discussion of the
group and our various efforts. Pin up the one-pager on any bulletin
board you know of!
11.
IMPORTANT: Next meeting date (approx three weeks from now?), and
location (perhaps Leverett Library or Town Hall this time to mix it
up)?
THANKS!
