HomeMy WebLinkAbout2024-03-21-CAC-min
TOWN OF LEXINGTON
COMMUNICATIONS ADVISORY COMMITTEE
MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF MARCH 21, 2024
PARKER ROOM, TOWN OFFICE BUILDING
CONDUCTED IN-PERSON AND BY REMOTE PARTICIPATION
1. Call to Order and Roll Call – Ken Pogran
CAC Chair Ken Pogran called the meeting to order in the Parker room of the Town Office
Building at 6:34PM and conducted roll call. The meeting was conducted in hybrid mode, in
person and remote over Zoom.
CAC Members in Person: Ken Pogran, Bob Avallone, Dave Buczkowski, Nick Lauriat
CAC Members Remote: Steve Kaufman, Rita Vachani, Shabbir Bagasrawala, Dorinda
Goodman, Dave Becker
CAC Members Absent: PK Shiu, Smita Desai
Others Attending Remotely: Mark Sandeen - Select Board
Quorum: A quorum of members was present.
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Materials Referenced: Draft minutes of January 18 meeting. Draft minutes of February 29
meeting. FCC Press Release: “FCC INCREASES BROADBAND SPEED BENCHMARK”
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dated March 14, 2024.
2. Review and Approval of Minutes of February Meeting – Rita Vachani
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Minutes of the February 29 meeting were approved unanimously.
3. Review and Approval of Minutes of January Meeting – Dave Becker
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Minutes of the January 18 meeting were approved unanimously.
4. Select Board Report - Mark Sandeen
FCC has changed the definition of broadband to 100 megabits per second (Mb/s) downstream ,
20 Mb/s upstream. Mark asked: “Can CAC find out what percentage of residents have
broadband? What percent of residents have no access at all?”
Ken Pogran asked CAC members to review the FCC documents and be prepared to discuss at the
next meeting.
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Mark confirmed that the CAC was approved on the consent agenda of the March 6, 2024 Select
Board meeting to proceed with Verizon contract renewal negotiation.
5. Service Provider Reports – None present
6. Chair’s Report – Ken Pogran
We will review the new FCC broadband guidelines at our next meeting.
The committee needs to work on the renewal of the LexMedia contract. Rita Vachani stated that
she will set up a meeting with LexMedia’s Florence DelSanto.
Ken reported that, in an email, Florence noted that Astound is offering LexMedia over their “IP
channel” internet streaming service. We will invite the Astound representative to a future meeting
to explain this service. For example, is it considered a “cable television” service?
7. Comcast License Renewal Update – Ken Pogran
Ken Pogran reported that there have been several meetings and emails exchanged with the
Comcast representative, Kerry Morris and with the Town’s attorney, Bill August. For HD PEG
channels, town requested 3 HD PEG channels in addition to 3 SD PEG channels. Comcast said
they would provide a single HD channel as a replacement for, and not in addition to, a single SD
channel. Since some town residents lack HD service, at this time we will propose to convert 3
channels to digital SD (SD-SDI), and include in the license an option to convert SD channels to
HD at a later.
Under the existing license, Comcast has been providing a payment of $17.6K per year as a fee in
lieu of providing the Town with an “institutional network” (I-NET). We asked Comcast to
provide a higher level of support as PEG capital grant. They came back and offered $20K per
year based on the number of subscribers they service.
We expect to have a draft license back from Comcast in early April, and hope to have a review of
the license with the Select Board by early summer.
8. Wireless Services Working Group - Steve Kaufman
Steve Kaufman reviewed discussion from previous meetings where service gaps were confirmed
both from town measurements and anecdotal reports from town departments. The group plans to
gather reports on town service issues and send an accompanying letter to carriers requesting
meetings with them to review data on service issues and to discuss improvement plans. The
group is also investigating a study to measure the quality of cellular service throughout town.
Mark Sandeen suggested the CAC should formally request funding for this study in the fall
through the town’s budgeting process.
9. Town IT Update – Dorinda Goodman
The Town is proceeding with installation of the F-man fiber loop and redundancy. This includes
trying to create separation between public safety infrastructure and school infrastructure. The
project is still on target to begin installation in May, although we are waiting for physical fiber to
be delivered. We expect to have the full fiber core completed by the end of summer.
9. Complaints – Nick Lauriat (February), Steve Kaufman (March)
There were no complaints received.
10. Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned at 7:36 P.M.
Respectfully submitted,
Steve Kaufman
Recording Secretary