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Home My WebLink AboutICTC Agenda and Packet 2019-11-25 Agenda Iowa City Telecommunications Commission City Cable TV Office, 10 S. Linn St., Tower Place Parking Facility, Level 3A Monday, November 25, 2019, 5:30PM 1. Call to order 2. Approval of minutes 3. Announcements of Commissioners 4. Short public announcements 5. Municipal broadband research 6. REPORTS Consumer Issues City Cable TV Office Report 7. Adjournment If you will need disability-related accommodations in order to participate in this program/event, please contact Ty Coleman at 319-356-5454 or ty-coleman@iowa-city.org. Early requests are strongly encouraged to allow sufficient time to meet your access needs. PRELIMINARY Iowa City Telecommunications Commission 10/28/2019 Meeting Minutes Page 1 of 4 Minutes Iowa City Telecommunications Commission October 28, 2019 – 5:30 P.M. City of Iowa City Cable TV Office, 10 S. Linn St. - Tower Place, Level 3A Call to Order:Meeting called to order at 5:32 P.M. Members Present:Adam Stockman, Gina Reyes, Andrew Austin Members Absent:Matthew Brenton, Kyla Paterson Staff Present:Ty Coleman Others Present: Recommendations to Council: None Approval of minutes: Reyes moved and Austin seconded a motion to approve the September 23, 2019 minutes as presented. The motion passed unanimously. Announcements of Commissioners: None. Short public announcements: None. Municipal broadband research: Stockman said each Commission member had been conducting his/her own research since the last meeting. He said his own research focused on what you need to do to get the ball rolling for municipal broadband. He said Waterloo was currently looking into municipal broadband and that an article cited Iowa Code 388.10, which specifies that new public utilities must be approved by voter referendums of 51% and that if a referendum fails, another vote cannot occur until four years later. Stockman said that if a city chooses to use bonds, a minimum 60% vote is needed. Stockman said Waterloo was considering funding a feasibility study through Magellan Advisors out of Denver, Colorado at a cost of $84,500. He noted Iowa City City Council had expressed some concern over the potential high cost for a feasibility study and that having a ballpark estimate of what it could cost is helpful. Stockman said every state is different with regards to regulations for a municipality to be able to build its own broadband network. Austin said he looked into technology that might offer a much cheaper price tag than other projects in the past. He reported he found some community-owned mesh network projects where volunteers donate their money, time, and property to set up antennas and other devices on rooftops, buildings, and poles in order to spread a mesh network across an area. Austin said one network, NYC Mesh, has created a guide on how to start a community mesh network. He said that Iowa City could choose to lead the development of a mesh network rather than having it be community-owned. Austin explained that by using lots of smaller nodes and access points, the Internet connections can be spread from a couple of “super nodes” in main areas around a city. He said the mesh technology is very PRELIMINARY Iowa City Telecommunications Commission 10/28/2019 Meeting Minutes Page 2 of 4 new and constantly developing. He said the group should consider this technology as a way to make improved access to broadband more feasible, as the technology is much less expensive than traditional broadband infrastructure. Austin said he identified twelve community-owned mesh networks in the United States with a publicly-available website. He said he didn’t see any that were managed by the local government, which could provide an opportunity to do something new. Coleman asked where the Internet signal would come from to feed a mesh network. Austin said that companies exist that have large fiber networks running across the country and that some of them even provide the signal to Internet service providers. He said the University of Iowa directly pairs to one of the large network owners. Reyes suggested that the company might be ICN (Iowa Communications Network). Austin said there would be a monthly fee associated with a direct connection from a provider of this sort. He said that NYC Mesh has a couple of pairing agreements for the sake of redundancy and that they have a suggested donation of $20 per month from its members. Reyes reported she had explored the use of 5G technologies to support a local network. She said she had been considering the fiber backbone necessary for feeding nodes. She said that such infrastructure could be purchased or leased by the City or that the City could work with all of the existing providers in order to implement new nodes across town in phases. Reyes said it would be interesting to learn what kinds of devices are available to enable successful mesh networks. Austin said that he had looked at Ubiquiti equipment that is impacted differently by elements such as rain, distance, line-of-sight, and going through walls and buildings. He said NYC Mesh uses Ubiquiti equipment exclusively and that each connection point uses the product that best suits the specific environment in which it resides. Stockman asked about the group’s next steps. He referred to a link Coleman had sent the group to a municipal broadband questionnaire that had been started earlier this year. Stockman listed the primary questions posed, including: the name of the municipality and contact information, population, number of pre-existing high-speed broadband Internet providers, primary factors leading to the municipality considering building its own broadband network, approximate cost to build, approximate project duration, factors working in favor of making a municipal network more feasible, biggest hurdles to overcome to get the project moving forward, monthly cost of 100mbps residential service, who manages the operation and customer service, is operating the network profitable or is it also supported by funding outside of customer payments, and approximate cost of the feasibility study conducted prior to deciding to build a network. Stockman said he couldn’t think of any additional questions that should be asked of municipalities who have already built their own broadband networks. He asked if anyone had found how many communities in Iowa had municipal broadband networks. Stockman looked online for the information at the meeting and found on the Iowa Association of Municipal Utilities website a statement that Iowa has more municipal broadband providers than any other state and that 28 cities in Iowa had municipal broadband systems. Andrew said that many of the mesh networks he found had started out of rural communities connecting to each other. Stockman said that 28 cities could provide a good opportunity for gathering data through a survey. Andrew said that learning the cost of feasibility studies from these Iowa cities would be helpful and that finding out why some may have been higher or lower than others could help to find ways to lower the potential cost for Iowa City to conduct a study. Stockman said one to-do item is to determine who the 28 cities with municipal broadband are and then to figure out to whom the survey should be sent. He said he would take on this task. Austin said he would look for contacts related to mesh networks he found outside of Iowa in order to gain resources for questions about the technology. Reyes said she would like to investigate more about the ICN and a fiber backbone as well as opportunities for partnering with providers or obtaining grants. Austin said he knew of some grants available for community internet projects for purchasing startup equipment, but wasn’t sure where a municipally-owned mesh network project would fall. PRELIMINARY Iowa City Telecommunications Commission 10/28/2019 Meeting Minutes Page 3 of 4 Austin said another item to consider is that some mobile provider networks, such as T-Mobile and Verizon, are looking at fixed 5G wireless solutions where a box is set up in a customer’s home that connects to a cellular tower to provide the Internet signal for home WiFi. He said the technology isn’t here yet, but that it may be important to consider whether it would compete with or help with a City-owned network. Consumer issues: Stockman referred to the issues reported in the September 2019 Cable Issues report, contained within the meeting packet, and noted that they had all been resolved. City Cable TV Office report: Coleman referred to the report the Cable TV Office had submitted in the meeting packet. He added that the Cable TV Office’s new Media Production Assistant, Lillie Ostwinkle, had completed her first day with the City and that she would be producing everything from council meetings to concerts to public service announcements and promotional materials for the City’s Communications Office. Adjournment: Reyes moved and Austin seconded a motion to adjourn. The motion passed unanimously. Adjournment was at 5:58 p.m. PRELIMINARY Iowa City Telecommunications Commission 10/28/2019 Meeting Minutes Page 4 of 4 TELECOMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION 12-MONTH ATTENDANCE RECORD Gowder Paterson Brenton Pierce 11/26/2018 Meeting not held due to lack of quorum. - - - vacant - 12/17/2018 x o x vacant x 01/22/2019 Meeting not held due to inclement weather and lack of quorum. - - - vacant - resignation Stockman 02/25/2019 x vacant x x o/c Reyes 03/25/2019 resignation o/c x x x 04/22/2019 vacant x x x o/c 06/03/2019 Meeting not held due to lack of quorum. vacant - - - - 06/24/2019 vacant x x x o Andrews 07/22/2019 x x x x resignation 08/26/2019 o/c x x x vacant Paterson 09/23/2019 x x x x o 10/28/2019 x x o/c x o (x) = Present (o) = Absent (o/c) = Absent/Called (Excused) November 18, 2019 To: Iowa City Telecommunications Commission From: Ty Coleman, Media Production Services Coordinator (MPSC) Re: Cable Complaints October 2019 1.) Date: 10/25/19 Method of contact: Email to MPSC Complaint/Comment Summary: Resident complained that his cable TV signal had been spotty recently, with dropouts occurring off and on, and reported one instance where his cable was out all night. Resolution Summary: MPSC checked with Mediacom’s Rick Karnes to see if there had been any known outages or periods of service maintenance in the area. Karnes said there were no known outages, but asked Heath Piercy from the local Mediacom team to reach out. Piercy reported that a technician completed a trouble call at the residence and that he had not heard anything further from the customer. Date of Resolution: 11/11/19 2.) Date: 10/28/19 Method of contact: Email to MPSC Issue/Comment Summary: Resident in a newer subdivision at the south end of Iowa City said she had been told by Mediacom and CenturyLink that she was outside of their service areas. Resident asked when Internet service would be available for her residence. Resolution Summary: MPSC inquired about the area with Mediacom’s Rick Karnes and CenturyLink’s Tabitha Byrd. Byrd responded that the resident was a little over 2,000 feet away from CenturyLink’s nearest fiber splice and that the company was not currently building out to existing owner-occupied homes. Karnes reported that the residence was now serviceable and had been added into the billing system and that the customer can call in or stop by the local office to set up an installation appointment. The resident later reported that her next-door neighbor had CenturyLink and that she was able to arrange for service. The next day, the resident followed-up with the MPSC to say that CenturyLink somehow mistakenly had her address as being in South Dakota and that she was again being told that service was not available for her Iowa City residence. About a week later, the resident reported that Mediacom had been out to install service and that her WiFi was up and running. She further commented that the Mediacom technician did a great job and was very efficient. Date of Resolution: 11/06/19 3.) Date: 10/31/19 Method of contact: Email to Communications Office Issue/Comment Summary: Customer said he had seen an upgrade offer for Mediacom Internet customers online that would nearly double the speed and data allowance for an extra ten dollars per month. The customer said he clicked on the offer and completed the request and was told he would be contacted by Mediacom within the next 72-hours to confirm the details. The customer spoke to two different Mediacom representatives who provided differing stories and that neither agreed with what the online offer was. Resolution Summary: MPSC noted to the customer that the offer was one he had seen before and inquired about the issue with Mediacom’s Stephanie Poole from the Iowa City customer service office. Poole said the promo was valid and that she would contact the customer by phone to assist him with obtaining the upgrade. Poole later reported that the customer had been operating from an older Internet package that had for some reason made it more difficult to get the speed increase on his account. Poole said she was working directly with the customer to get things set. Date of Resolution: 11/08/19 Date: November 18, 2019 To: The Iowa City Telecommunications Commission From: Ty Coleman, Media Production Services Coordinator, City of Iowa City Cable TV Office Re: City of Iowa City Cable TV Office report for the November 2019 meeting Media Production Services Submitted by Jack Brooks, Special Projects Assistant, and Lillie Ostwinkle, Media Production Assistant Recent production activities: ●Produced episode of Iowa City Update with topics that included Civil Rights Signs, South District Zoning, and the IC Climate Expo. ●Created PSA on a Transit Study Open House and the Citizens Police Academy. ●Released a new episode of the Iowa City Matters podcast on the variety of Housing Rehab programs and funds offered through the City. ●Live streaming the City’s recent press conference highlighting its perfect score on the Municipal Equality Index for its efforts towards LGBTQ inclusion. ●Live coverage of the City’s Climate Expo event at Big Grove, featuring speakers from the City and other community organizations discussing how they’re combating climate change. Upcoming productions: ●Working on a longer version overview of the Iowa City Area Transit Study. ●Completing a video about the completion of the Pedestrian Mall Improvements Project. ●Video of the Iowa City Bike Library’s holiday fundraising event at which bikes will be fixed up to be donated to the Domestic Violence Intervention Program. ●Coverage of some of the City Council budget work sessions. Programming and Interactive Services Submitted by Kevin Crawley, Communications Technician Recent and Upcoming Projects Mostly, I've been busy just keeping up with day to day tasks, with some attention to our Meet The Candidates project. During our short-staff period, I doubled as a videographer, doing a City Council meeting night and a field shoot for the Greta Thuneberg visit, and demonstrating that old dogs can learn new tricks. Website: In September, there were 5,068 users accessing 8,804 pages in 6,970 sessions. Our most popular pages were Mediacom's channel lineup page, our home page, Mediacom's channel rates, our watch-online page, our live-video page, and the individual video pages of all three candidates for the contested City election of our Meet The Candidates feature. On YouTube, we had 6,617 video views account for 323 hours of watch time. We added 18 more subscribers, and our current total is 720. Our most watched videos by views were Iowa City Update episodes on Your Best Lawn and the Transit Study and the Prison Dog Training Program video, and the most watched by total viewing time were the live feeds of the City Council meetings of 10/15, the CARTHA video of Hindustani music, the Prison Dog Training program, a History for Lunch program, and the City Coucil Meetings of October 1. Programming: In October, we cablecast 147 programs produced in-house 785 times for 510 hours of programming, 53 locally-produced (DITV, Senior Center, Hoover Library, Task Force on Aging, Education Exchange and meetings of the JC Board of Supervisors, Coralville, North Liberty, University Heights, and ICCSD School Board) programs 140 times for 128 hours of programming, and 46 imported programs 140 times for 74 hours of programming. We also showed 127 PSAs 1169 times for 27 hours of programming. Programs Completed by the Cable TV Office in October 2019 ●Economic Development Committee Meeting of 10/28/19 ●Fall in Iowa City ○Eastside ○Southside ○Westside ●Greta Thunberg joins the Iowa City Student Climate Strike ●Growing Our Future ●Iowa City City Council Meetings ○October 1, 2019 ○October 15, 2019 ●Iowa City City Council Work Sessions ○October 1, 2019 ○October 15, 2019 ●Iowa City Foreign Relations Council Presents ○Immigration and Asylum: A View from the Border ○The Crowd-Chinese Contemporary Theater ○The United Nations and Human Rights ○What Should We Know About Russia and Its Foreign Policy? ●Iowa City Update ○Halloween Happenings ○Leaf Vacuum Program ○Transit Study ○Your Best Lawn ●Iowa Women's Foundation Annual Luncheon 2019 ●LWV Candidate Forum: 2019 City Council Election ●Market Music 2019 - Mike and Brian ●Meet the Candidates 2019 ○Statements from Candidates for the Iowa City City Council Election ○Responses to Citizen Questions ○Individual candidate statements: ■Janice Weiner ■John Thomas ■Laura Bergus ■Megan Alter ■Pauline Taylor ●Register for the Citizens Police Academy ●Transit Study - Public Input Needed