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Princeton Broadband Committee
Meeting Minutes July 24, 2013 7:00pm Town Hall Office
Meeting called to order at 7:03 PM. Committee Members Present:
Steve Cullen
John Kowaleski
Bill Dino
Ned Utzig
Mike Cote
Petr Spacek
Rich Wagner
Stan Moss
Peter Johnson – rep for Callx – network equipment provider. OLT components in datacenter, ONT customer premise equipment.
Discussion:
- Review of last weeks discussions: in-town ISP, IPTV options.
- Discussion on repeater/caching server if we do IPTV, eg to shift bandwidth to the local network vs. going through the backhaul. Chris from Matrix says we could; will provide writeup/details of what a server does at next meeting. Discussion on legal issues of caching copyrighting material (eg Aereo).
- Discussion with Callx rep. His opinions/statements:
- GPON is an intermediate step, Active Ethernet is “endgame”.
- Cost is 25% delta for active Ethernet.
- Callx ONTs have auto-detect that can switch automatically between GPON and AE.
- IEEE is ratifying next gen GPON, 10-GPON within next 3-4 years.
- Video is in everything, even in web traffic etc. so maximize the bandwidth. AE is exponentially better at video, only incrementally more cost.
- Callx supplied most rural internet grant recipients, most eventually went to AE.
- Is there any advantage GPON vs. AE for the ISP? Chris: yes, for now, because they are used to GPON since it is consumer-oriented where AE is typically used for business.
- Discussion on the risk/value of IPTV. Would subscribers buy it if most of the town has satellite? Could we provide value in a lower-cost service – avg. town subscription rate is $80/month. Could another provider undercut our business model if we did provide it? Risk that aero and other disruptive video providers could reduce the market.
- Steve: Can we have a shared head-end from another town/location? Chris: there is precedent, other states have state-wide shared IPTV.
- Discussion on whether having AE would limit the number of ISPs who would bid if we went that way. Chris felt it would have an impact, Peter felt it would not.
- Discussion on whether our town’s topology (sparse areas and dense areas) causes problems for a GPON design.
- Legal opinion on G4S potential conflict of interest is that there is no conflict in allowing G4S to bid on the installation if they supply the design.
- Stan: called American Tower, currently working to find contact.
- Stan talked to Leverett, going rate for connect to fiber 4-6k per tower per month.
- Non-profits – payment in lieu of of taxes, Businesses in town and how to handle ONTs.
- Discussion on ONT installation inside vs. outside, use of ONTs with wireless routers built in, etc. With Peter and Chris.
- Peter: resource available to ask questions regarding equipment technicalities, and regulatory he will provide a reference.
- Discussion with Princeton resident Kathy Conway about her concerns regarding the previously-provided data on reference towns and survey results.
Action Items:
- Talk to Cell tower customers & tower providers (Brian Allen) about connecting to fiber / getting an ONT, could be a source of revenue. (Stan)
- Mike to talk with G4S about feasibility of splitting feed to town to East Princeton FD after plan is released from G4S.
- John to talk to Westfield about depreciation.
Upcoming Agenda for 7/31:
- AE vs. GPON electronics costs from Peter via Chris
- Chris to give us sample video package / antenna costs
- (possible) G4S Network design review.
- Example of town that built municipal fiber network on taxpayer expense with a bond successfully.
- Meeting adjourned 8:55pm
Respectfully submitted,
Ned Utzig
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