HomeMy WebLinkAboutCommittee of the Whole March 9 19992
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WHATCOM COUNTY COUNCIL
Committee Of The Whole
March 9, 1999
The meeting was called to order at 5:45 p.m. by Council Chair Marlene Dawson in the
Council Committee Room, 311 Grand Avenue, Bellingham, Washington.
Also Present: Absent:
Kathy Sutter Robert Imhof
L. Ward Nelson
Connie Hoag
Barbara Brenner (10 minutes late)
Tom Brown
Nelson moved to go into executive session for 30 minutes to discuss the first item on the
agenda.
Motion carried 5 -0 with Imhof and Brenner absent.
DISCUSSION REGARDING THE MASTER COLLECTIVE BARGAINING
AGREEMENT NEGOTIATIONS (AB99 -101) (30 MINUTES)
2. PRESENTATION BY DAN CROCKER OF TCI REGARDING CABLE UPGRADES
TAKING PLACE THROUGHOUT WHATCOM COUNTY (AB99 -109)
Dan Crocker, TCI Cablevision, stated that he would give his presentation, then open up
to questions. He provided an update on the upgrade of the cable system. Their merger with
AT &T was completed today. They are officially now AT &T, and not TCI. In October 1995,
TCI signed a new franchise with Whatcom County. They committed to begin upgrading the
cable system within 36 months. They committed to have it done by October 2000. They began
the upgrade in May of 1998 doing design. They began construction in August 1998 in the
Bellingham area and the County area around Bellingham. They have been concentrating on the
Bellingham area. They are now moving crews into the County. They are installing a lot of fiber
optic lines, new electronics, and increased the channel capacity of the system so that they can
offer new services. They currently have 180 construction crew members. The Whatcom County
project is budgeted at a little over $18 million dollars. They are going to a phased construction
schedule. The first phase happened late last year with the walk -out of the cable system. The
crews physically walked out all of the cable line, looked at where the cables were attached to
power poles or were underground, and identified the current electronics. The second phase was
the design phase. They took the maps and the walk -out information and designed the new cable
system off of that. Now they are moving into phase three, which is the actual construction phase.
Committee of the Whole, 3/9/99, Page 1
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They are not replacing the lines that are going into the customers' homes. They are only
replacing the lines in the residential neighborhood. The coaxial cable that runs from the street
and into the customer's home has the capacity to handle all the new services.
Brenner questioned who pays for the new services. Crocker stated that they do. There is
no cost to the customer for any of this upgrade, even if it is from the road to their house. The
next phase of construction will be the actual certification phase. Once the new equipment is
installed, they will test it to ensure the signal quality is good. If there are any problems, a
construction crew will fix the problems before they launch the new services.
Imhof questioned whether all of this has the old system and the new system in place.
Crocker stated that they are working in node locations, which are residential neighborhood of
approximately 4,600 homes. They take the old line and splice in the new electronics. The
customer will see a 3 -4 day interruption while they splice in the new lines. When they are done,
the customer will still see the old channel line -up. They haven't switched to the new channel
line -up. They will switch when everything is tested. They are currently working at Samish
Lake.
Crocker continued to state that, after the crews have certified the cable lines to be
working properly, they will go to an interim channel line -up. That line -up has the new digital
cable services and premium services on it. The premium services at that time will be put into
every home. The reason for that is that they are changing the technology by delivering the
digital and premium signals. The equipment will be inside the home instead of outside of the
home. They are now delivering 160 channels, and all of that equipment would clutter the outside
of a house. An electronic box will be put in the home instead. After they go to the interim
channel line -up, they will send a door -to -door sales crew around to the neighborhoods to explain
the new services to the customer. Lastly, they will go to the final channel alignment. 30 days
after that, there could be a rate increase. In January, they took some of the communities on the
annual January increase, and some were done in June. The ones that they didn't take in January,
they will take now as they do the upgrade in their areas. It is the annual rate increase for
0"TIRG MIJ
Brown questioned whether there is a schedule of the various phases for all of the
locations. Crocker stated that he will distribute that information.
Sutter questioned whether they are finished in Bellingham. Crocker stated that they are
not finished with Bellingham.
Sutter questioned whether this will have any affect on the quality of services. Crocker
stated that it will have a strong affect on the quality of services and on outage. The system they
are building is backed up by standby power supplies by Alpha Technology. If power is lost, then
the system will run for up to eight hours, without power. If people have generators, they will
still be able to see the cable system. They are not dependent on commercial power.
Brenner questioned why the cable sometimes goes out when the power is still on.
Crocker stated that they start at a main location, and everything goes out from there. If there is a
break anywhere along the line, then it affects everyone on that line. Power may be fed in the
community in a different way.
Committee of the Whole, 3/9/99, Page 2
I Crocker continued to state that Bellingham was divided into six areas in which they have
2 been working. Certain areas are the node areas. The fiber goes into a central location, a node
3 area, and then fingers out and down the individual streets. He displayed a map of the areas. The
4 main hub is on Port property. They start out at the extremity, and work back towards the hub. In
5 the next few weeks, they are going to start crews in Blaine. Crews will begin in Deming and
6 Glacier in four weeks.
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8 Brenner questioned whether the quality will improve for everyone or just digital
9 customers. Crocker stated that the quality will improve for everyone. Every 2,000 feet there is
10 an amplifier that amplifies the signal. Every time they amplify the signal, there is noise and
I I distortion added to the signal. With fiber optics, they put the fiber optic line that goes all of the
12 way out to Glacier that does not have any electronic devices in it at all. That signal is the same
13 as in the originating location. This will also clean up the older lines close in that have been
14 problems. They are going to go through a full certification process. If it doesn't test out, they
15 will replace it.
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17 Nelson questioned whether this is also preparing for computer access. Crocker stated that
18 this system is capable of high -speed internet access, which they will be launching in May.
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20 Brenner questioned whether some channels would be clearer than others would. Crocker
21 stated that this would help with that. The fiber optic line goes all the way to Seattle.
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23 Nelson questioned how much of Whatcom County is serviced by TCL Crocker stated
24 that Lummi Island is Island Telcom. Point Roberts is one of the Canadian operators.
25 Gooseberry Point is another operator. There is an area on the Mt. Baker Highway that includes
26 the Everson - Goshen Road that is Cable Plus. Sumas has its own cable system. They have
27 everything else. They have 900 miles of lines.
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29 Nelson questioned whether consumers in those areas cannot get access. Crocker stated
30 that was correct.
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32 Crocker stated that the contact phone numbers for the upgrade is included in the packet
33 he distributed. The 800 phone number goes to a special team of TCI employees in the
34 Bellingham office that will respond to any questions and concerns.
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36 Brenner questioned whether the phone numbers will still be available after the project is
37 done. Crocker stated that they have built a new call center in Fife and Everett. After 7:00 p.m.,
38 calls get transferred to those two call centers. They have just increased the amount of capacity
39 for the regular phone traffic for night answering. Soon, they will be able to take orders, book
40 service calls, and do anything that the local office can do. It will not be discontinued after the
41 project is done.
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43 Crocker continued to state that he distributed information on all of their contractors that
44 they have working in the area. There are about 180 employees in town at this time.
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46 Brenner questioned whether most of the companies are from out -of -town. Crocker stated
47 that, for fiber optics deployment, a lot of the contractors are not local. He listed the local
48 contractors in the northwest.
49
Committee of the Whole, 3/9/99, Page 3
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Imhof stated that very few companies in Whatcom County deal with fiber optics.
Crocker stated that contractors do subcontracting to local companies. He also provided a
construction schedule for the City of Bellingham and for Whatcom County.
Sutter questioned when her reception would be interrupted, according to the handout.
Crocker described the handout. Door hangers will be left three to five days in advance to notify
neighbors that they will be working in the neighborhood.
Crocker continued to state that there are two direct mailings. One shows the new line -up,
rates, and explains the upcoming changes. The direct sales crew will hang door hangers.
Hoag questioned whether the customers will have to pay for the converter box. Crocker
stated that it depends. It rents for $3.40 per month, but they have packaged it into several
different packages. Most customers will not see a change in their overall bill.
Hoag questioned the voting survey. Crocker stated that was done last summer and was
mailed to all customers in Whatcom County. The survey was divided into north County and
south County. They looked at what customers wanted. They are building a consistent channel
line -up from the Canadian border to Olympia. When customers look for channels in those
locations, they are going to see the channels in the same location on the dial. The reason they are
doing that is because they are transporting signals between communities on their fiber network.
They have to have consistency between the communities. They included the responses from the
survey into the channel line -up for each community. There might be things that one community
wanted that another didn't. They added it into the line -up. Building consistency in the channel
line -ups is the key to future for deploying all of the services. They are offering equipment to trap
out certain services on an individual basis. That does not cost the customer. It can be done for
any channel. The addressable converter box and the digital converter box are pre - programmable.
One can also program out any PG -17 or other rated programs.
Brenner questioned whether expanded basic requires digital service to get the new
services. Crocker stated that the expanded channel line -up is the expanded basic.
Brenner questioned whether there will be more public access on channel 10. Crocker
stated that channel 10 is now a combination of public access, governmental access, local
origination, lease access, and advertising. Everything will be taken off except for public access.
It will truly be public access. The other accesses will move to other locations.
Crocker provided the rate cards by community. Depending on the community, rates have
gone up from $ .50 to $1.50. Because of the merger with AT &T, they will start packaging long
distance, cellular, and paging service.
Sutter questioned the price structure. Crocker stated that the digital service is an
additional service one would subscribe to.
Committee of the Whole, 3/9/99, Page 4
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ADJOURN
The meeting adjourned at approximately 7:00 p.m.
Jill Nixon, Minutes Transcription
These minutes were approved by Council on April 20 .1 1999.
ATTEST:
Dana Brown - Davis, Council Clerk
WHATCOM COUNTY COUNCIL
WHATCOM COUNTY, WASHINGTON
Marlene Dawson, Council Chair
Committee of the Whole, 3/9/99, Page 5