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HomeMy WebLinkAboutA003 - Telecommunication Task Force recommendations TELECOMMUNICATION TASK FORCE Mission Statement The Ames Telecommunications Task Force is investigating the City's information technology infrastructure and its current information technology providers to determine if the information technology needs of residents, businesses, and Iowa State University are currently satisfied and if incumbent carriers have adequate plans for provisioning services in the future. The results of this investigation will form the basis for recommendations to the Ames City Council regarding the city's role as a telecommunications right-of-way provider, regulator, service provider, and facilitator of competitive providers. Summary of Meetings U S West ■ Hired external marketing firm to do additional, more comprehensive analysis for Ames to evaluate service needs. ■ ISDN primary rate has been deployed in Ames. ■ New voice messaging services became available in March 1998. ■ ADSL service available in Ames West C.O. at the end of the second quarter of 1998. Ames was one of 40 cities selected. U S West is installing NetSpeed's LoopRunner technology in its central offices and is utilizing switching equipment from Cisco Systems to carry the data traffic. Services include: MegaHome $40/mo. + installation 256 Kbps MegaOffice $65/mo. +installation 512 Kbps MegaBusiness $80/mo. +installation 768 Kbps MegaBit 1 Mbps bi-directional access 4 Mbps downstream access and 1 Mbps upstream access 4 Mbps downstream access and 1 Mbps upstream access ■ U S West is limited by distance from central office in providing ADSL service. ■ U S West will be offering internet service called U S West.net at a cost of$19.95 per month. TCI ■ Current system is 300 megahertz. It was built for 38 channels. ■ The plan a few years ago was to increase everything to 750 megahertz. But now, they are looking at digital compression which gives them a 12 to 1 compression ratio. ■ They introduced the new digital compression channels in January. The additional digital channels will cost approximately$10 per month. A digital set top is needed for each TV to convert back to analog. ■ The future is to upgrade to 450 megahertz in the next two years. This will allow them to add to analog channels, reserve more spots for digital (144 digital channels) and TCI's new internet service(two-way service). When the upgrade occurs, TCI will be installing fiber optics in some locations. ■ @Home service will provide speeds up to 10 Mbps. No need for an additional phone line. Installation cost will be $150 which includes network interface card, modem, software and data port if need. Cost for @Home will be$39.95 per month. Estimated time for new service is mid-1999. McLeod ■ McLeod has arranged for$600 million of debt financing for network expansion. ■ McLeod believes their best long-term solution is to build directly to the customer. It is difficult handling customer complaints when they can not control all of the elements of the service. In Cedar Rapids, they will be providing voice, video and data services. The data for now is the internet. Eventually, the data services will include a virtual LAN. ■ In Cedar Rapids, they will bring fiber to within 750 feet of every home. They will bring coax and twisted pair to homes. They will use coax cable for data. They are evaluating cable modems, some of which have speeds up to 27 megabits per second. It will take 2 years to lay the infrastructure. In Cedar Rapids, they now have 70 miles of fiber. They do not pay to use the right-of-way. They will be paying a 5% franchise fee for cable just like TCI. ■ McLeod will provide internet by cable modems. ■ McLeod would love to be in Ames. It is the right size community to install infrastructure. It has a stable and growing economic base. It has a growing high tech segment. ■ The following factors will be analyzed in selecting the 20 cities: 1. Market size. 2. They do not want to be in markets served by an independent local telephone company. 3. Over built. They do not want to be in markets with too many providers, such as 3 or 4 providers in each group. 4. Are they wanted? They want to be treated like TCI for cable and U S West for phone services. Recommendations Our Telecommunications Task Force is recommending to the City Council that the City of Ames provide a competitive environment for private firms. The Task Force believes that the Cedar Falls' model of public competition is not appropriate for Ames. The rapid change in technology and the future competition between cable and telephone companies means a public investment would have to be very substantial and very risky. With a growing community, we believe Ames is an attractive market for private companies. Our task force came to the consensus that the best direction for Ames was to create a competitive environment for development by private providers.