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Minutes 12/2/03 7:00 COMMITTEE MEMBERS PRESENT Aron Goldman, chair Glen Ayers Steven Bannasch Fred Bashour Rob Brooks Marc Buciarelli Michael DeChiara Dan Mishkind David Powicki ATTENDEES PRESENT Tim Hibert, Leverett Beth Brainerd, Leverett Opening: Welcome Aron reported that 139 households signed up on web site to stay in touch or help, or have contacted us by any number of means. Includes people who have filled out the web survey. APPROVAL OF NOVEMBER MINUTES Add Comcast notes, add Mass Collaborative notes Approve at next meeting. In future, submit amendments to minutes by email so they can be approved at next meeting. COMMITTEE BUSINESS Motion: Adopt a policy that in between meetings that members may attend outside meetings, as needed, based on availability and expertise. Chair gets to use descretion. Preference to have more than one person attend a meeting, when possible. Motion passed.
Mentioned that conference calls could be made available as mp3 or other archival file Motion: One of us talk to DA to get feedback from Steven’s draft guidelines for online communication. Motion passed. Discussion: Assign one of us to be an internal arbiter? Get info from Aron on discussion board guideline changes. FTTH Mark and Aron presented their Fiber to the Home business model components Make sure numbers include future support of telephony Add mention of open network concept, Steve will write for next meeting. Fred will work with Steve and Aron on values/rational update. MERTON GROUP REPORT 1. Who funds feasibility study? Merton or Town? Archie said that the town is asked to do the basic market research; Merton provides the questions and town does survey. Once they get that info, and it qualifies the Town for their model, Merton funds actual feasibility study. 2. Time frame (hypothetical) Jan 2004 Submit RUS application March – April RUS approval April-May Line up vendors June Start construction/infastructure June - Sept 2005 First customers receive service Feb 2006 Final customers receive service (based on 17-20 month build-out) 3. Who sets pricing structure/contracts? Merton does not bill the end user. They become a wholesaler to the ISPs and other service providers including video providers. The service providers who come on the open network bill the end user, so the end user may have multiple checks to cut each month, although a third party could come in and consolidate the billing into one statement (but not Merton). Merton gets a negotiated cut of the service providers' revenues. Merton will negotiate with some of the bigger players like MSN and AOL to come on to the network. Any one can come on as long as they agree to the revenue sharing with Merton. Merton services any capital equipment that they own, like the fiber network and end user boxes. No charge for any of that servicing. They contract to local service providers for that. Merton maintains the NOC (network operations center), and all the headends. 4. Next steps. They would come to meet with select boards, outline there proposal. They are looking for towns that are 100% receptive to their model, no discussion, no "We need to think about it". They will only expend their time, energy, money on towns that are behind their model. The advantage to the town is no bonds, obligation, exposure. Note: We should look at what exposure there would be with the RUS loans if we set up a third party non-profit. I believe the liens are on the network itself. 5. RUS experience Merton has submitted 1 RUS application, waiting for approval any day. They have 20 more ready to submit. Louis has contact info for this first applicant, the town of Hanover, NH (Julia Griffin, Town Manager). To Dos: Dan: get copy of merton contract? Get hanover, nh contract, talk with town manger? What kind of agreements did they make with Merton, esp because of Merton. Get survey questions from Merton? Steve: research already approved towns Aron: will get approved RUS from Steve Mackenzie (Merton and non-merton), set up meeting with RUS Dan: will get approved RUS from Tom Moylan Status report to the two towns, report on Verizon, Comcast, Merton, Wireless Get support for moving forward with FTTH project Get select board approval Aron will write summary, will send out draft for comments Will approve at January meeting. Michael will get on Shutes select board schedule Robert will get on Lev select board schedule How to get the 20% funding? Have towns float bonds for 20%? Sell shares? Low interest loans from banks? Loan guarantees from public or private entity? After our research, business case, we’ll have convincing model for fundraising. VERIZON UPDATE Aron. No new news. HARRY’S 548 PROJECT UPDATE Aron: Harry has aggregated demand of neighbors near the DSLAM. Aron will give new Verizon contact to Harry. SKYTECH UPDATE Dan: Skytech is collocated only in the 253/25/259 Prospect Street CO, not the 548/549 Fearing Street CO. So 548/549 folks can NOT get the cheap T1 line. Rosenberg/Olver Meeting Report Aron, things seem stalled Adjourned at 9:10 pm |