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Home My WebLink AboutICTC Agenda and Packet 2019-12-16 Agenda Iowa City Telecommunications Commission City Cable TV Office, 10 S. Linn St., Tower Place Parking Facility, Level 3A Monday, December 16, 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 11/25/2019 Meeting Minutes Page 1 of 3 Minutes Iowa City Telecommunications Commission November 25, 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, Matthew Brenton Members Absent:Andrew Austin, Kyla Paterson Staff Present:Ty Coleman Others Present: Recommendations to Council: None Approval of minutes: Stockman moved and Reyes seconded a motion to approve the October 28, 2019 minutes as presented. The motion passed unanimously. Announcements of Commissioners: None. Short public announcements: None. Municipal broadband research: Stockman said he was unsuccessful in finding a comprehensive list of municipal broadband systems in Iowa. He said he had recently sent an inquiry to the Iowa Association of Municipal Utilities (IAMU) and would hope they could provide a list and contacts. Reyes said the research she had been conducting focused on identifying how Internet service providers (ISPs) access the Internet, looking into the Iowa Communications Network (ICN), and investigating opportunities for grant funding. She said there are tier one networks that can have peer sharing or transit agreements and that local service providers pay the companies who own the networks to access the Internet and offer it to subscribers. She said companies such as AT&T, CenturyLink, and Verizon provide the infrastructure and service providers such as Mediacom and ImOn are distributors. Reyes said the ICN system is a 100 Gigabit system that is upgradeable to 200 Gigabits/second. She said it was started in 1989 as a way to connect entities such as schools, libraries, telemedicine, and the National Guard. She said the ICN hub in Camp Dodge, Iowa is spread out to all 99 counties. She noted that the ICN doesn’t provide commercial services. Reyes said the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has a grants page on its website. She said the State of Iowa’s Chief Information Officer administers broadband programs designed to help underserved populations. She said that five million dollars were given out in the last year to help with infrastructure. She said there were grants available at the federal level as well. Reyes said she would continue to do research grant opportunities. Brenton said he knows the University of Iowa is on the ICN system and that he could ask questions about it to people he knows there that work with it, such as what is or isn’t allowed on the network. He said that PRELIMINARY Iowa City Telecommunications Commission 11/25/2019 Meeting Minutes Page 2 of 3 municipal broadband would not likely be able to run on the ICN. Brenton noted that Commission member Austin had been researching wireless mesh networking. Brenton said that the higher the frequency used, the faster the speed, but there is increased susceptibility to interference. Brenton said he would look into whether municipal broadband is able to get licenses to utilize other frequencies beyond 2.5Ghz and 5Ghz. Coleman asked if one of the next steps for the group was to get the contact information for Iowa municipalities with their own broadband networks and to send them the survey that was discussed at the October 28, 2019 meeting. Stockman said he would follow up with the IAMU if he has not heard from them in a week. Brenton asked if he and Reyes could form a subcommittee to work on further research between meetings. All members present were in agreement. Brenton noted that 5G technology is on the horizon, but is not yet in full swing. He wondered if when 5G does roll out, would that result in a lesser interest in municipal WiFi. Brenton said that existing wireless companies would deploy 5G, but that it is probable that other ISPs would also be offering 5G service. Consumer issues: Coleman noted that all of the issues found in the October 2019 Cable Complaints Report had been resolved. City Cable TV Office report: Coleman said he received a letter from Mediacom to provide notification regarding the removal of MCPlay channel 227 and MusicChoice channel 700 from the channel lineup. Coleman said he received another letter from Mediacom’s Lee Grassley, which acknowledged the local cable TV access channels that were no longer cablecasting on the Iowa City Mediacom channel lineup, including Public Access channel 18, The Library Channel, and the Iowa City School District’s channel. Coleman said he had confirmed this information with Grassley a while back and Grassley had indicated that Mediacom would be able to reclaim the bandwidth occupied by these channels and use it to support Iowa City internet service subscribers. Coleman asked about the Commission’s next meeting, noting that the next regularly-scheduled meeting in December would fall on Monday, December 23. He asked if the Commission would want to meet earlier in the month. The group agreed to change the meeting date to Monday, December 16. Adjournment: Stockman moved and Reyes seconded a motion to adjourn. The motion passed unanimously. Adjournment was at 6:05 p.m. PRELIMINARY Iowa City Telecommunications Commission 11/25/2019 Meeting Minutes Page 3 of 3 TELECOMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION 12-MONTH ATTENDANCE RECORD Gowder Paterson Brenton Pierce 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 11/25/2019 o/c x x x o (x) = Present (o) = Absent (o/c) = Absent/Called (Excused) Fw: Municipal telecommunications From: Adam Stockman <iowaadamstockman@gmail.com> Sent: Thursday, December 5, 2019 9:48 AM To: Ty Coleman Subject: Fwd: Municipal telecommunicaons Ty, Here is the information I was provided by Curtis Dean with IAMU. Can you provide this to the rest of the commission when the next agenda goes out? Thanks a bunch. On Thu, Dec 5, 2019 at 8:58 AM Curtis Dean <curtis@smartsourceconsulting.com> wrote: Adam; Great chatting with you yesterday! I have attached some resources to get you started. When I get a few minutes I will try to "feed" you some more information. In addition to the communities shown on the map below, there is plenty of other activity in Iowa right now. I'm involved in all of these projects under my SmartSource Consulting hat: Pella is in the design/engineering phase for their planned fiber network New Hampton is expected to award contracts this winter for construction starting in spring 2020. Charles City is finishing up its design/engineering. They will go to bids this winter with construction beginning in summer 2020. Adair is finishing up its design/engineering. They hope to build in 2020. Adair will be in a partnership with Casey Mutal Telephone Company for operations on their network. Fort Dodge, which had its election last month, is just starting work on a high-level business model showing how a municipal system might perform. They are also going to issue a Request for Information to seek private companies interested in partnering with the city. We just finished up a broadband study for Red Oak, which is hoping to convince the neighboring telephone cooperative to build fiber in the city limits. That company was just awarded federal grants/loans to build fiber in the rural areas around Red Oak. Federal funding is not available inside the city due to Mediacom's presence. I mentioned another organization that you might want to engage with. The Community Broadband Action Network (CBAN) was founded by yours truly and two others in 2018 to help communities trying to improve broadband services by providing networking and other resources. Check out the website, www.broadbandaction.com. We'd welcome Iowa City as a Community Member of CBAN. That membership is free of charge. Let me know if you have any questions. Again, I will try to get some additional resources to you. On Thu, Dec 5, 2019 at 8:43 AM Adam Stockman <iowaadamstockman@gmail.com> wrote: I wanted to thank you again for taking the time to speak with me yesterday. It sounds like the info you'll be able to provide is exactly what I'm looking for and should be extremely helpful for the group. -Adam On Tue, Dec 3, 2019 at 4:55 PM Curtis Dean <curtis@smartsourceconsulting.com> wrote: How about tomorrow at 4:30pm? If that works let me know and a number to call you on. Ty Coleman Thu 12/12/2019 2:26 PM To:Ty Coleman <Ty-Coleman@iowa-city.org>; On Tue, Dec 3, 2019 at 4:43 PM <iowaadamstockman@gmail.com> wrote: I am generally free any day after 4PM with the exception og this Thursday. If other times work better for you, let me know and I’ll see if I can juggle my schedule a bit. Sent from Mail for Windows 10 From: Curtis Dean Sent: Tuesday, December 3, 2019 4:28 PM To: iowaadamstockman@gmail.com Subject: Municipal telecommunications Adam; My name is Curtis Dean and I serve as the Broadband Services Coordinator for the Iowa Association of Municipal Utilities. Josh Trout with IAMU forwarded me your email looking for information about other municipal telecommunications utilities in Iowa. I'm your guy! Would you have time for a phone call later this week? I'd like to learn a bit more about what you are looking at so I can steer you in the right direction. You'll see by my signature below that I also operate a telecom consulting firm, but for purposes of this conversation I will be wearing my IAMU hat. -- Curtis Dean SmartSource Consulting 517 SE 17th Street Grimes, IA 50111 515-650-0251 www.smartsourceconsulting.com Plant Technology Iowa Municipal Broadband Utilities updated December 2019 Laurens Alta Sanborn Hartley Primghar Paullina Hawarden Mapleton Harlan Manning Coon Rapids Bellevue Grundy Center Reinbeck Osage Hybrid Fiber-Coax (HFC) Spencer Cedar Falls Muscatine TCA Indianola Algona Fiber-To-The-Premise Voice, Video, & Data Video & Data Video Only Data Only Services Key Wireless Fostoria Shared services Rowley Lenox Waverly Traer Independence Vinton (under construction) Iowa Municipal Telecommunications Referenda All Elections City Pop. (2010 Census) Year Yes % Governance Type Electric Utility? Notes Ackley (1,756) 2005 77 Adair 781 2017 100 Council Adair received an Iowa Broadband Grant to cover 15% of the cost of a FTTP network. The city will own the network and Casey Mutual Telephone will operate it under a partnership agreement Akron (1,489) 1994 91 Y Algona (5,741) 1997 74 Board HFC; FTTP Y Alta (1,865) 1997 88 Board HFC Y Anamosa (5,494) 2005 62 Arnolds Park (1,162) 2003 77 See Note 1 Asbury (2,450) 2005 61 Bancroft (808) 1994 85 Y Bedford 1,440 2008 100 Carroll (12,288) 1998 83 Although Carroll never built a network, Western Iowa Networks built FTTP in the mid-2010's Cedar Falls (36,145) 1994 70 Board FTTP Y Charles City (7,812) 2005 62 Coon Rapids (1,305) 1996 87 Board FTTP Y Danbury (384) 1997 90 Decorah (8,127) 2015 93 Denison (7,339) 1997 54 Y Dubuque (57,504) 2005 64 Emmetsburg (3,958) 1998 63 Fort Dodge (25,206) 2019 72 Council Grundy Center (2,596) 1996 93 HFC Y Hamburg (1,240) 2005 84 Hampton (4,218) 2005 70 Harlan (5,282) 1995 71 Board FTTP Y Hartley (1,733) 1997 86 Council HFC Y See Note 2 Hawarden (2,478) 1994 96 HFC Y Hudson (2,117) 2005 65 Y Hull (1,960) 1994 97 Independence (6,014) 1997 57 Board FTTP Y Iowa Municipal Telecommunications Referenda All Elections City Pop. (2010 Census) Year Yes % Governance Type Electric Utility? Notes Indianola (14,156) 1997 58 Board FTTP Y Iowa Falls (5,193) 2005 60 Lake View (1,278) 1997 84 Y Lansing (1,012) 2005 66 Laurens (1,476) 1997 99 HFC Y Lenox (1,401) 2005 89 Board FTTP Y Maharishi Vedic City (1,305) 2002 100 Manning (1,490) 1996 86 Board HFC Y Manning is planning to begin rebuilding their network to FTTP in the next 2 years. Mapleton (1,416) 1998 72 Board HFC Y The City of Mapleton built a cable system in the 1980's. After their referendum they entered into a partnership with Long Lines to upgrade the network and deploy internet and phone service. That network, Mapleton Communications, is still jointly owned by the city and Long Lines under a 28E agreement. Maquoketa (6,112) 2005 60 Y Mason City (28,177) 2005 69 Milford (2,898) 1999 94 Y See Note 1 Mount Pleasant (8,770) 1997 64 Y Muscatine (22,697) 1997 94 Board FTTP Y New Hampton (3,692) 1999 84 Y New Hampton conducted a feasibility study following their referendum, but utility leadership decided not proceed with network construction. A change in leadership and Board led to the concept to be resurrected in 2015 with a new feasibility study for a FTTP network. Construction is expected in 2020. New London (1,937) 1996 77 Y Okoboji (820) 2003 65 See Note 1 Onawa (3,091) 2002 74 Y Orange City (5,582) 1997 84 Y The City of Orange City and Long Lines Communications formed a 28E entity, Orange City Communications, to build an operate an HFC network. When the city became dissatisfied with the relationship they offered to purchase Long Lines' half of the partnership. Long Lines refused. As a result of no longer wanting to work with Long Lines, the City held a referendum in 2017 to sell their half to to Long Lines. The referendum was approved and Orange City is no longer involved with the telecom project. Orleans (581) 2003 66 See note at end Iowa Municipal Telecommunications Referenda All Elections City Pop. (2010 Census) Year Yes % Governance Type Electric Utility? Notes Osage (3,451) 1999 85 Board HFC; FTTP Y Parkersburg (1,877) 2005 70 Paullina (1,124) 1998 86 Council FTTP Y See Note 2 Pella (10,322) 2018 94 Council Y Pella conducted a feasibility study following their referendum. With the feasibility study providing positive results, Pella moved forward with design and engineering. Network construction will begin in 2020 and be completed in 2021. Pocahontas (1,970) 1999 95 Y After their election Pocahontas conduced a feasibility study for an HFC network. Rather than moving forward with the project, the city instead partnered with Evertek to provide fixed wireless internet. In the mid 2010's another independent company nearby decided to build FTTP in Pocahontas Primghar (891) 1997 90 Council FTTP Y See Note 2 Reinbeck (1,751) 2000 81 Board HFC Rock Rapids (2,573) 1994 83 Y Sac City (2,368) 1997 77 Sanborn (1,353) 1997 92 HFC Y See Note 2 Sibley (2,796) 1994 91 Spencer (11,317) 1997 91 Board FTTP Y Spirit Lake (4,493) 2003 61 See Note 1 Storm Lake (10,076) 1998 67 While Storm Lake did not build a municipal telecom utility, a private company built an HFC network in the early 2000's. The network is now owned and operated by Long Lines Tipton (3,155) 1997 86 Council Y Traer (1,594) 1998 81 Board Wireless; FTTP Y After operating a fixed wireless service for a number of years, Traer built FTTP in its central business district in the mid 2010's Vinton (5,257) 2015 88 Board FTTP Y Referendum rejected in 1997 (48%) and 2005 (47%) Wahpeton (462) 2003 79 See Note 1 Waterloo (68,747) 2005 53 Waterloo is preparing to conduct a feasibility study for a FTTP network Waukon (4,131) 2005 56 Waverly (8,968) 2000 86 Board FTTP Y Webster City (8,176) 1998 84 Y Webster City built a fiber ring that it uses for city/utility purposes and leases excess capacity to providers that use it to serve businesses. West Union (2,549) 2005 57 Iowa Municipal Telecommunications Referenda All Elections City Pop. (2010 Census) Year Yes % Governance Type Electric Utility? Notes Westfield (189) 1997 65 Y Woodbine (1,564) 1998 80 Y Lake Park (1,023) 2003 47 Y See Note 1 Sidney (1,300) 2005 47 Dunlap (1,139) 2005 44 Windsor Heights (4,636) 2005 44 Greenfield (2,129) 1997 42 Y Carlisle (3,497) 2005 36 Y Cresco (3,905) 2005 36 Manchester (5,257) 2005 33 Altoona (10,345) 2005 28 Norwalk (6,884) 2005 28 Nevada (6,658) 2005 25 Marion (26,294) 2005 23 Glenwood (5,358) 2005 16 Hiawatha (6,480) 2005 11 Clarinda 5,572 2005 ??? Tabor 978 2005 ??? Communities in BOLD have built (or are building) community broadband networks Note 1 Several communities in Dickinson County, Iowa voted on a referendum in 2003. The communities that approved the vote (all but Lake Park) plus Milford (which had approved the referendum earlier) then jointly funded a feasibility study for an HFC network. The study found that, while a system was viable in the communities, the high percentage of seasonal population in two of the communities would make the project payback longer than desired. No project was ever built. Iowa Municipal Telecommunications Referenda All Elections City Pop. (2010 Census) Year Yes % Governance Type Electric Utility? Notes Note 2 These communities in O'Brien County created a 28E entity, The Community Agency, to provide services in all 4 towns. Each city owns its own delivery network. Iowa Municipal Telecommunications Referenda Operational City Pop. (2010 Census) Year Yes % Board?Electric ? Notes Notes Hawarden (2,478) 1994 96 Y Cedar Falls (36,145) 1994 70 Y Harlan (5,282) 1995 71 Y Grundy Center (2,596) 1996 93 Y Coon Rapids (1,305) 1996 87 Y Manning (1,490) 1996 86 Y Laurens (1,476) 1997 99 Y Muscatine (22,697) 1997 94 Yes Y Sanborn (1,353) 1997 92 Y Spencer (11,317) 1997 91 Yes Y Primghar (891) 1997 90 Y Alta (1,865) 1997 88 Y Hartley (1,733) 1997 86 Y Algona (5,741) 1997 74 Y Indianola (14,156) 1997 58 Y Independence (6,014) 1997 57 Y Paullina (1,124) 1998 86 Y Traer (1,594) 1998 81 Y Mapleton (1,416) 1998 72 YES Y Osage (3,451) 1999 85 Y Waverly (8,968) 2000 86 Y Reinbeck (1,751) 2000 81 N Lenox (1,401) 2005 89 Y Vinton (5,257) 2015 88 Y Mapleton n/a n/a N 50-50 with Long Lines Bellevue n/a n/a Y Communities in BOLD have built community broadband networks December 10, 2019 To: Iowa City Telecommunications Commission From: Ty Coleman, Media Production Services Coordinator (MPSC) Re: Cable Complaints November 2019 1.) Date: 11/25/19 Method of contact: Phone call to MPSC Complaint/Comment Summary: Resident said he had been trying to get Mediacom to extend service to his property, located on the northern side of Iowa City. He noted that there was cable running past his house and back to a small neighborhood of approximately 15 homes, all of which had access to Mediacom services. He said he had asked Mediacom about getting cable buried when a trench was open, but was not successful in getting anything to move forward. Resolution Summary: MPSC inquired about the property with Mediacom’s Darwin Driscoll. Driscoll said he would contact the resident directly. MPSC later followed up with the resident, who reported that Driscoll had called and said he would come out to see the site in order to prepare a project estimate. Driscoll recently noted he was waiting to receive the design back to create an accurate estimate and anticipated he would be getting it soon. Driscoll said once he has an estimate put together, it will be up to the customer to decide whether he wants to pay for construction costs. Date of Resolution: not yet resolved Date: December 9, 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 December 2019 meeting Media Production Services Submitted by Jack Brooks, Special Projects Assistant, and Lillie Ostwinkle, Media Production Assistant Recent production activities: ●Produced an episode of Iowa City Update with topics that included Small Business Saturday, Holiday Art Market, and recycling holiday lights. ●Completed a new episode of Iowa City In Focus. Topics included the transit study, completion of the Ped Mall project, snow emergency procedures, and flushable wipes. ●Released PSA videos on the IC Climate Expo, the Iowa City Area Transit Study, and how the City treats our salt supply with beet juice. ●Completed a short video on Summer of the Arts’ first Holiday Art Market. ●Shot and produced a video highlighting the Iowa City Bike Library’s Winter Celebration. ●Created a video about how to recycle glass in Iowa City. Upcoming productions: ●Working on a holiday lights drone video. ●Completing a Rental Guide video for first-time renters. ●Recording a budget overview at an upcoming City Council work budget session. ●Live coverage of the annual Preucil String concert at Hancher. Programming and Interactive Services Submitted by Kevin Crawley, Communications Technician Recent and Upcoming Projects: I've been working on an updated version of our schedule check and file loader app to make it a little more user-friendly, and processed and added some safety videos on the City's intranet page. I also did a cool sunset drone photo session that was very well received on the City's Facebook page. Website: In November, there were 3,815 users accessing 7,061 pages in 5,246 sessions. Our most popular pages were Mediacom's channel lineup page, our home page, Megan Alter's Meet the Candidates video, Laura Bergus’ Meet the Candidates video, our watch-online page, the consolidated Meet the Candidates video, our program schedule, Mediacom's rates, and Janice Weiner's Meet the Candidates page. On YouTube, we had 6,545 video views account for 370 hours of watch time. We added 21 more subscribers and our current total is 733. Our most-watched videos by views were the Iowa City Update episode on South District Rezoning, the Prison Dog Training Program, Your Best Lawn and the Transit Study, followed by the IC Update episode on the IC Climate Expo and Small Business Saturday. The most-watched by total viewing time was the City Council Meeting of November 19, the Deer Population Management forum, the Strong America Tour, and the Iowa City City Council Work Session of November 4. Programming: In November, we cablecast 134 programs produced in-house 795 times for 504 hours of programming, 44 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 121 times for 104 hours of programming, and 42 imported programs 139 times for 77 hours of programming. We also showed 124 PSAs 1,238 times for 30 hours of programming. On the next page of this report, find a list of the programs completed by the Cable TV Office in November 2019. Programs Completed by the Cable TV Office in November 2019 ●36th Annual Human Rights Awards Breakfast ●Completion of the Pedestrian Mall Improvements Project ●Fall in Iowa City: Northside ●Fire Prevention Week 2019 Performance ●Geneva Lecture Series: Understanding and Responding to Our Polarized Politics ●History for Lunch / Iowa Stories ○Black Thunder - The Story of a Mosquito ○Why in the World Study Diaries? ●Inside Out Homecoming Reentry Summit ○Beth Skinner and Sean Pica ○Coming Home to No Home - Combating Discrimination in Housing for Returning Citizens ○Felon Disenfranchisement in Iowa - An Overview and Vision for a Better Future ○Healing Lives and Communities - Restorative Justice, Behavioral Health, and More ○Higher Ed in Prison - Victories, Challenges, and Hope for the Future ○Mitchell S. Jackson ○Reentry is Not Equal - Racial and Gender Based Inequities that Individuals Face When Returning to the Community ●Iowa City City Council Meetings ○November 4, 2019 ○November 19, 2019 ●Iowa City City Council Work Sessions ○November 4, 2019 ○November 19, 2019 ●Upcoming Council Meeting Agenda Highlights ●Iowa City Climate Expo 2019 ●Iowa City Climate Expo - Recap #1 ●Iowa City Foreign Relations Council Presents ○An Australian's Perspective on U.S. Politics ○Bread and Circuses: The Female Patrons of Ancient Pompeii ○China's Foreign Policy in Northeast Asia: Interests and Challenges ●Iowa City Update ○Civil Rights Signs ○IC Climate Expo ○Small Business Saturday ○South District Zoning ●MPOJC Urbanized Area Policy Board of 11/13/19 ●Pat Meyer Vision Award Ceremony 2019 ●The Arc of Southeast Iowa’s 62nd Annual Awards Banquet Program ●The Strong America Tour ●Transit Study Online Survey