Agenda - 10-16-2018 8-a - Minutes

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7 1 Jim Northrup 2 Orange County Information Technologies 3 September 4, 2018 4 5 Service Area Map (map) 6 7 • One of the goals of this effort was to offer an incentive for internet service providers to 8 invest in broadband infrastructure and provide a model that can scale to encompass the 9 entire county 10 • The term of 3 years for the pilot, speaks to how long the vendor must be able to sustain 11 this project not how long it will take to get the infrastructure installed for customer 12 signups. 13 • Much of the infrastructure should be up and running within the first 12 months. 14 • If the initial pilot is successful, additional investments could be made prior to the end of 15 the 3 year term. 16 • There are about 5,000 addresses in the underserved areas of the county 17 • 2,700 of addresses are addressed in this contract 18 • The test sites on the map are to ensure 90% coverage. 19 • 90% of the areas covered in the contract will be able to sign up for 25 down and 3 up 20 broadband service 21 • The first customer will be signed up within 6 months of contract execution 22 • Other speed and pricing offerings will also be available 23 24 This is a public private partnership where both the County AND Open Broadband, LLC are 25 making infrastructure investments. Beyond the initial investment, Open Broadband will be 26 continuing to invest in maintaining and adding to the initial infrastructure investment in order to 27 guarantee the service levels defined in the contract. More importantly, Open Broadband may 28 even expand the service areas based on adoption rate and on the success of these pilots. 29 30 Commissioner Jacobs said the public has raised questions, and asked Jim Northrup if 31 his presentation addressed these questions. 32 Jim Northup said yes, he answered the questions that he has received. He said 33 concerns were raised over the dots not included in the red circles, and he said the largest 34 concentration of unserved dots is in the western part of the County, and this will be address in 35 phase 2. He said there is no tower, or tall structure, in this area at this time. He said it is hoped 36 that vertical assets can be identified, and he will be working with a vendor to solve this issue. 37 Commissioner Jacobs asked if one will have to stop paying Century Link for DSL 38 services, and switch to this vendor once available. 39 Jim Northup said that would most likely be the case, and there will be a sign up page on 40 the vendor's webpage. 41 Commissioner Jacobs said this is predicted to be 90% effective, and asked if there is a 42 way that one can know if one is part of the 10% that are not covered. 43 Jim Northup said it will clear where the 10% is within the circle, and at that point, 44 perhaps the County could work with open broadband and make sure the public knows where 45 those areas are. 46 Commissioner Jacobs said one would be well advised to not drop one's current provider 47 until one knows one can be serviced by broadband. 48 Jim Northup said yes, and as this service starts taking off then this would be an 49 alternative choice.