HomeMy WebLinkAbout1996-02-15-CAC-min.pdf Minutes of Lexington CATV Advisory Committee Meeting
February 15, 1996
The meeting was held in Room 111, and was called to order by Chairman Jane Gharibian
at 5:40 PM. Members present were Peggy Bateson, Dave Becker, David Buczkowski,
Julian Bussgang, Steve Ellis, David Kanter, Julie Longcope and Martha Stanton. Caleb
Warner, former member, was present as part of the team negotiating the new license with
Cablevision. Gary MacDonald and David Green represented the cable company Raul
Marques, a citizen of Lexington, was present to discuss public access television (see below).
Ms. Gharibian announced that David Buczkowski would coordinate complaints about
cable service in March, and Martha Stanton would do so for April. Dave Becker was asked
to prepare minutes for this meeting.
Mr Warner reported that the Board of Selectmen had approved a request from the
negotiating team to go into "license drafting mode." This is a declaration that the parties
are very close in most areas, and the Selectmen set April 15 as the date by which the
process should be completed. Peter Epstein, Lexington's legal advisor for the licensing
process, is currently preparing a draft based on the Peabody license, and estimates
completion by the end of February All settled issues will be incorporated into the draft,
and an attempt will be made to resolve remaining disagreements by finding language both
parties can agree on.
Ms. Longcope reported on the recent LINK (Lexington Information NetworK) committee
meeting. It was noted that this is not an official town committee but an informal
association of senior administrative, school and library information processing managers,
cooperating to make the town's data processing and networking facilities more effective.
Mr Ellis will fill the school position vacated by Bill Spencer Mr Ellis and Ron
Halley will jointly manage data processing/networking services for the schools.
Mr Warner reported on the status of negotiations with Cablevision.
The LINK committee is concerned about possible increases in the preferential rate
currently given the town by BBN for high-speed Internet connection. This
possibility, coupled with uncertainty in Lincoln Laboratories'plans for physically
connecting to the Internet, raise troubling questions about the town's connecting to
the Internet at reasonable cost. BBN has agreed to offer the town alternative
solutions, with pricing, as soon as possible.
Mr Warner noted that we are entering a period of increased instability in our relations
with Cablevision:
Under rate deregulation in three years (part of the recently signed
Telecommunications bill), Cablevision may not be required to support the
Institutional Network. The I-Net is a critical resource in the town's information
processing operations, and is becoming even more critical as more use is made of
Internet-based services.
In the event of competition coming to Lexington without being required to invest in
supplying ancillary services to the town, Cablevision will have the right to reopen
negotiations to establish a"level playing field." (Ancillary services includes
community, government, educational and I-Net support provided by Cablevision as
part of their license agreement with the town.) This is another potential threat to
the I-Net. Ancillary services account for about 7% of Cablevision's gross revenues.
Ms. Stanton suggested at the LINK committee meeting, and repeated at tonight's meeting,
that, given the threats to the current I-Net, the town should use the next couple of years to
look for alternatives to the current institutional network with better performance and
reliability, and less dependence on forces not under our control. She thinks the LINK
committee is the right forum to pursue this investigation, but Sandy Guryan (Chairman)
is concerned about committing the town to any course of action.
Mr Green made the following points:
Deregulation means prices will no longer be controlled.
Cablevision's response to deregulation may well be to increase revenues by offering
additional services, such as high speed access to the Internet.
Cablevision has a concept for upgrading its existing franchises (including
Lexington) to a system with a 550 megahertz analog/200 megahertz digital
backbone with nodes serving 500 subscribers each. However, no implementation
schedule for the new system has been announced.
It was noted that service response time (not necessarily including completion of repairs)
has improved dramatically under a new arrangement between the town and Cablevision.
Status of condominium requests:
Potter Pond (Mr Green) - Cablevision's new General Manager, Audrey Hall, tried to
reach Gil Garber, who is currently out of town. Cablevision plans to stay with its
offer of last October, subject to any new ideas Mr Garber may have.
Drummer Boy(Mr Kanter) - Cablevision has agreed that the original plan for these
units in unfeasible. They are bringing in technical support personnel from Nashoba
to come up with a new approach.
Mr Marques brought up the subject of public access television, and whether it could be
officially encouraged. He said that studio space and equipment are inadequate, and that
there is limited time available for transmission. Mr Marques distinguished two kinds of
locally-produced programs: Local origination television is produced by the cable company
(Cablevision), while public access television is citizen-produced. Ms. Gharibian and Mr
Bussgang recalled early attempts to create a healthy public access environment in
Lexington, but there has not been strong citizen support on the past. Ms. Longcope
suggested that Mr Marques provide the committee with a written proposal which we
could discuss at the next meeting. It would be helpful if it were supplied in sufficient time
to be read before the meeting(planned for March 21).
Mr Green reported two rate increases:
Effective today(February 15), the price of Rainbow service has increased by$.40,
from $15.63 to $16.03 per month.
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Effective no sooner than March 15, the price of Basic Broadcast service will increase
by $.32 (from $10.83 to $11.15 per month), and the price of Family service by$.28
($13.49 to $13.77), for a total increase of$.60 ($24.32 to $24.92).
Ms. Bateson asked whether Cablevision will offer ESPN2. Mr Green said it was in
discussion, and would be provided if the parties can come to terms.
Mr Bussgang said that he had understood no channels would be available for a new
service. Mr Green agreed to provide a count of used and available channels for the next
meeting. We are particularly interested in the status of the four "up" channels, which
Cablevision is to provide under the current license.
Mr Kanter asked about the status of the state commission rate hearings. Mr Green said
that the commission was expected to respond within the next 60 days or so. Mr Bussgang
asked whether information requested from Cablevision by the town, and also by the state
as part of the hearings, was now available (assuming it had been provided to the
commission). This question was not answered clearly
Mr Green reported that he has recently spoken with Ms. Gharibian and Jack Cunha
about cold weather"suckouts"of cables from connectors. When this happens, the
connection is lost. There were some outages of more than 24 hours last week, and
customers affected will automatically get refunds. Cablevision software has been
improved, and can now map grids by amplifier
Mr Bussgang gave some initial impressions of the Telecomm bill, which is some 200 pages
long, very complex, and not yet readily available. Apparently, investors consider it very
positive for the cable business, because a local company's rates will be deregulated even if
the company has no competition. One positive note is that local communities will
apparently retain control over rights of way used by communications companies.
Mr Kanter asked about ownership of the town's distribution cables. Mr Green said that
Cablevision owns them. He also said that, to his knowledge, Cablevision has not wired
any houses which did not have cable service. In answer to another question, Mr Green
said that FCC rules require their technicians to enter a house when service is restored
after disconnection, to ensure that the cable is properly terminated.
For the next meeting, the committee voted to add a discussion of Mr Marques' proposal to
the agenda(assuming he provides it for us). As background information, Mr Bussgang
said that communities can collect money from cable users to support public access
television as part of the monthly cable bill, if authorized by home rule petition to the
Legislature or if specified in the license.
A motion to adjourn was made and seconded. The motion was passed and the meeting was
adjourned at 7:20 PM.
Respectfully s bmitted,
64AntIDavid 3ec er, acti g s• e ary
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