10/22/2019 CABLE AND ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY COMMITTEE Minutes

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getting another generator.Also,they have seventeen Verizon co-locations. They are constantly re-powering the network.It's just important to talk about.Andy Eliason said they recently allocated funds for UPS in this room. Steve Johnston went on to say dedicated symmetrical internet service never varies, it's redundant. Our circuits go to Providence and Boston. We have five providers feeding us internet,so if one goes down,the other is used-it's unparalleled redundancy. In Falmouth they'll pay$117/month for fiber internet. $80 fee,$27 loan service. We charge$10/month to repopulate(connection)fee. Main Street, Falmouth and Woods Hole. We're building it up now,will be up and running mid- November. 50 businesses signed up so far,only launched one month ago. Andy Eliason asked what if a client uses VOID? Steve Johnston said that's fine. OpenCape outsources to MegaNet in Fall River.It's not a problem. The open architecture of our network allows for that.We can offer cheaper,better service. To get some perspective,towns across MA are frustrated by their providers.We're going to build our own. Towns are realizing if they own fiber,they can dictate the terms. There are roughly 6,279 according to the last census. The national average to connect a house is about$2500/home. Which is expensive. Some towns are driving the costs down by connecting home to home to home. It's very efficient and gets the cost down to about$800-1,000/home. It's about$15.9 million to connect each home in Mashpee,if efficient,that goes down to about$9.4 million.Mass Broadband Institute says they'll pay for half the cost for towns in western MA for towns that have nothing. I've been snaking the case why not have some of that money come to the Cape.They've come back saying the Cape is serviced by Comcast.Dan Riley said one of the main reasons we wanted you to come forward at this point in time is to have you understand what we want to avoid with this new contract with Comcast. Steve Johnston said Comcast typically has 10 year contract lengths,which is ridiculous. I'd be talking about shorter term,release options,thresholds, guarantees of technologies,fees...that's what I'd be focusing on. Your flexibility as a town to respond to your needs is what I would be looking at. Lolita McCray said we'd need a consultant with your type of expertise to look it over line by line. Steve Johnston said to talk to other towns like Yarmouth that have done this.Dan Riley said he's talked with Sandwich. The conversation went on,Lolita McCray commented that Mashpee is always last to be funded. She's proud of our little town, we've done a lot on our own. Steve Johnston said there's a lobbying team in addition to himself that's working really hard on the legislating part of that.Andy Eliason asked which branches of Falmouth government did he have to work with in order to accomplish what you've done there? Steve Johnston answered: none. EPIC and Falmouth Chamber of Commerce supported what we did,we never actually asked permission. In Mashpee and probably every other town,we'd have to put it to a vote.You don't want to lock yourself into anything with Comcast.The question is,is the money they're giving you limiting you? In general,television is dead technology. People are streaming what they want to watch when they want to watch it. They'll be less and less cable. More people are cutting the cord,which eventually Comcast will pay you less. Lolita McCray said it's important to the elderly to be connected. Steve Johnston said absolutely. There's technology out there that's allowing people to age and stay in their own home. It monitors everything from medications being taken to movements in their home. Lolita McCray said that's a great scenario,but that's going to be tough.It's all going to Al,you can't even get your doctor on the phone anymore. It all goes to voicemail. Steve Johnston said he's given a lot to think about,he can send some case studies.