07-25-2012 Council Agenda - Laserfiche WebLink

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NSCC Executive Summary cEG Communications, Inc. for its users. It was made clear that the services and applications enabled by this fiber optic 1- -Net need to remain in place going forward with the ability to expand and enhance these services as needs dictate. NSCC will need to plan on upgrading the equipment utilized to activate the fiber I -Net over the course of a renewed franchise as bandwidth needs increase and as the existing equipment hits its end -of -life. • HFC I -Net The HFC I -Net offers (utilized full time or part time) services to approximately 18 institutions and 10 remote locations such as the Roseville bandshell and along parade routes in Roseville, Shoreview, Little Canada, New Brighton, etc. The HFC I -Net is used for data communications at approximately 8 of these locations and is utilized for video applications at the remaining locations. The HFC 1 -Net fills a significant need for sites generally having lower bandwidth needs than the sites connected via fiber on the fiber optic I -Net. Furthermore, the HFC I -Net allows for connections at virtually any location along the coaxial cable portion of the system. This provides significant flexibility for live productions to be transported back to the CTV Master Control facility for insertion on the subscriber network in one or more of the 10 member cities. 1 -Net Concerns and Recommendations The NSCC requested documentation from Comcast showing historical records of maintenance and testing of the I -Net over the period from January 1, 2006 to December 31, 2010. Comcast's response was that it has no report, records, data or documents responsive to this request. In addition Comcast indicated that no testing was performed during this period. Based on the lack of testing of the HFC I -Net and lack of documentation, it is not possible to determine whether the I -Net has performed in accordance with the agreed upon technical standards defined in the franchise. Comcast did provide outage data for the I -Net. The data provided shows numbers of outages and service degradation to be at a level that would be expected from an HFC based network. The current HFC I -Net was last upgraded over twelve years ago. However, the 26