Shutesbury-Leverett Broadband Commmittee

 Minutes of 11/4/03 Meeting at the Shutesbury Town Hall

 Attendance: Aron Goldman, Steve Bannasch, Michael DeChiara, Glen Ayers,

 Bill Irvine, Louise Dunphy, Mark Bucciarelli, Martin (?), Charles

 Strader

 1. The minutes on the October meeting were approved without opposition,

 and Aron committed to sending them to the Shutes and Lev Town Clerks.

 2. Aron and Steve B (speakerphone) met with Steve Fitzgibbons (Gov

 relations?) and Mark Smith of Comcast. Their message was that,

 according to their interpretation, the results of the mail-in survey

 were not sufficient to justify build out. They said that they usually

 have about a 35-70% response rates for their surveys and likewise,

 Shutesbury was about 50%. 399 of 800 surveys were mailed back. Of the

 399, 284 said they would want cable TV, and 264 said they would want

 cable internet. 96 people said they had satellite (TV I suppose), and

 are satisfied with it. Aron said he would follow up to see if they

 could get the raw data.

 3. Skytech/Choiceone T1 promotion: 3 business lines and 768K data for

 $200/month. No start up fees, 3 year contract $500 for concellling

 contract. Eventually, they say, 900 mhz access points will be built

 from the T1s. It was acknowledged that this was a solution for only

 some poeple, and that we should figure out what we can do, and what

 skytech can do, to make this a true community solution. Charles Strader

 said that Sirius signed up and are going to be testing the 900 mhz

 technology for serving others on Baker Rd. There was a consensus that

 this would be a good test case. Steve Bannasch agreed to acquire copy

 of Shutes wireless bylaw. Glen said he would check Lev zoning.

 4. Mark reported on conversation with Tom Hubbard at Mass Tech Collab

 (MTC). MTC is a quasi-pub agency, which has funded FRCOG in the past,

 and hopes to again. The Rosenberg bill came out of senate today,

 already passed house. was reduced to $500K, and is going to conference

 committee. People to contact: peter larkin, knowledgable about

 broadband; barbara burke, dir. business and technology in Romney admin.

 Consensus to arrange in=person meeting with MTC.

 5. Aron agreed to ask Archie (Merton) and Steve McKenzie (USDA) for

 examples of successful proposals.

 6. Values document approved.

 7. Next Mtg: Dec. 2 7pm Lev Town Hall.