Three separate educational fiber forums were held for the general public on
Oct. 18, 25 and Nov. 8 at the Monticello Community Center. These forums
provided the community an opportunity for updates on the project, to provide
feedback and ask questions. A similar meeting was also conducted at the
Senior Center. Printed communications occurred as an insert in the City of
Monticello utility bills, the City newsletter including reply cards that
could be returned as well as press releases that were sent to the Monticello
Times newspaper to educate and inform the community about he city-wide fiber
optics project. In addition, a separate phone calling survey took place with
Monticello residents to see if they would agree to support the fiber
project.
During the month of November 3,259 phone calls were made with these results
which were very much in inline with the feasibility study survey. However,
this second phone survey provided a confidence level of plus or minus 2.2%
providing a great assurance that over 65% of the households would be
interested in taking service from the City for phone, Internet and cable TV.
This community phone survey in addition to the return of the reply cards
from the printed mailing we received back in support of the project provided
additional confidence that the City of Monticello has the potential
penetration or take rate required for a City fiber business. These results
show community ownership in a project that will have enough customers to be
successful.
At the December 11, 2006 Council Meeting, the Fiber Optics Task Force
provided a report to the City Council.
READ MORE >> [downloadable PDF file of Dec. 11 City Council report]
This report provided an update from the community education efforts and
phone survey results as well as the next steps for the project. A motion was
made as follows: "That the Task Force and consultants move forward with the
next steps involving a number of items including completion of preliminary
work to prepare an engineering and design RFP for release in early 2007;
specify requirements for revenue bonding; clarify options for voice services
and supply of video content; and clarify next steps for the City as a
utility operator.
The Task Force also made a presentation to the IDC (Industrial Development
Committee) on the findings from the community survey. One of the IDC members
informed the group of a program he viewed on Public Television Ch. 17
titled, "The Net At Risk" which included discussion about how the major
telcoms promised to build a fiber backbone across our nation in the really
1990s but never did.
READ MORE >> [PDF download summary of "The Net At Risk" televised in October
18, 2006.]
The IDC passed a motion to draft a letter of support for the city-wide fiber
project and presented it to the City Council for consideration.
READ MORE >> [Letter of support from IDC dated December 6, 2006.]
On December 8, a Monticello Fiber Task Force member, gave a short
presentation at a Regional Broadband Task Force Conference as an update on
the Monticello Fiber Project.
Additionally, two members also provided testimony before the Minnesota House
of Representatives Telecommunications Committee as an update on fiber optic
network projects and municipalities.
READ MORE >> Summary of MN House of Representatives Testimony before the
Telecommunications Committee on January 26, 2007
[Downloadable PDF file. Requires Adobe Acrobat to view.]
Click on this web link to LISTEN to the testimony held on
January 26, 2007
at the State Capitol.
The Fiber Task Force has continued meeting on a regular basis to complete
the tasks required to move forward with pre-engineering and development of
an RFP for the design/build and selection of a voice/video providers for
telephone and cable TV services. The Council approved retaining a law firm
to act as bond counsel for the city-wide fiber project. An RFP will soon be
released for underwriting of the bonds with interviews to occur and
selection of an underwriter by early April. An update of all of these tasks
will be presented at the March 22 special workshop held for the City
Council. The general public is welcome to attend.
READ MORE >>
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