CC PACKET 05092006 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

City Council Regular Meeting Minutes April 25, 2006 Page 15 1 of including surrounding communities. He stated this is a great idea but the issue is timing and 2 financial feasibility. 3 4 Mayor Faust stated the Council is talking about getting high speed internet to all of the residents, 5 which may or may not be Wi Fi. He noted that currently not all areas, commercial or residential, 6 are served by DSL. 7 8 Councilmember Horst asked if there is a different cost structure for residential versus business. 9 Mr. Asp stated they priced two tiers but are not separating between residential and commercial 10 because this is not like a T-1 business with high usage or functionality. 11 12 Councilmember Horst questioned the projection to create opportunities for new business. Mr. 13 Asp explained that about one-third of the community cannot get DSL service today so it is an 14 option for them to get connection with Wi Fi. 15 16 Councilmember Horst pointed out they could also use satellite. Mr. Asp stated that is correct but 17 it gets into a price issue and what you are competing against. Councilmember Horst asked about 18 second tier pricing for businesses. Mr. Asp stated that is correct and would help with revenues 19 but the majority of the revenue will come from the residential base. 20 21 Councilmember Gray stated the bottom line is that it looks like there is no way to make this work 22 at a break even because the City will probably not get close to 52% market share. Mr. Asp stated 23 that is correct. 24 25 Councilmember Gray asked if other municipalities are looking at it as a group. Ms. Johnson 26 advised that several suburbs in this area are looking at it within the North Suburban 27 Communications (NSC) area as well as south Washington County who will be studying this . 28 shortly. IT n the metro area, some communities are looking at pooling resources to study this 29 issue. 30 31 Councilmember Gray noted that NSC has not yet talked about implementing this as a group. Mr. 32 Asp stated they have not but as communities start moving forward, they may also be looking at 33 how to work jointly with other communities. Ms. Johnson advised that the Lake Minnetonka 34 Communications Commission discussed this issue and is considering whether they should move 35 forward with a study. 36 37 Councilmember Gray noted that would be the way to partner with someone to get it done. Mr. 38 Asp answered in the affirmative. 39 40 Councilmember Horst asked about Minneapolis being a partner with St. Anthony. Mr. Asp 41 stated Minneapolis is pursuing a system and that may be something to entertain because whoever 42 they select as a vendor may be interested in expansion into St. Anthony Village. He explained 43 that Minneapolis is in the process of deploying two pilot areas, one with Earth Link and the other 44 with US Internet. That arrangement looks like a cable franchise model where they are opening 45 certain rights-of-way for other considerations to provide access to certain bandwidths. The weak 46 point is if you want to increase availability of low cost access; what is the definition of low cost 47 and what influence would the City have on pricing. He advised that St. Louis Park had some IV