Terman Library in the Terman Community Center, 661 Arastradero Road, Palo Alto, CA
Chairman Imsong Lee introduced City Councilman Richard Rosenbaum to a dialogue on his perceptions of the proposal of the city staff and Utilities Advisory Commission relating to the city's installing a fiber-optic ring as a core city communications channel.
Rosenbaum said that PA-Comnet members probably know more about the staff's recommendations than he does. He noted the Utilities Advisory Commission met the week before and recommended a proposal to spend $1.5 million to pull 15 miles of cable through existing conduit, funded by electric utility initially. He said he was more curious to see what the reaction of PA-Comnet members were.
Jay Thorwaldson asked him what his basic concerns were, as a start.
Rosenbaum said he did have a basic issue of why the city should get involved, and why it should not be a private sector responsibility.
Imsong said the primary concern was about getting the entire city connected, and there was a feeling that the private sector would connect the most profitable areas and leave the rest unconnected.
"How many streets do we need to dig up?" Imsong added. "It's a jungle out there. Everyone wants to get into the action, funding their own infrastructure. As citizens we are concerned about leaving the infrastructure purely in private hands." The intent, he said, was not to stifle competition but to enhance it.
Dick: Assume the city puts down some kind of backbone? How do you see it get to city homes?
Imsong: Lease to private providers. They would connect to homes.
Dick: Why wouldn't private sector rush to provide service to homes?
Keith Cooley: There are barriers to entry. The private sector would have to bury conduit.
Joe Villareal: Eventually they will do it. It's a question of when and how. This is a way also of fostering different kinds of economic activity in the city.
Keith: I see it as similar to utlities. Turning it over to private companies and different organizations. By the city getting involved we can get it deployed that much greater and faster. It will be better for residents, because they won't have MFS, TCI, PacBell, and others digging own trenches for fiber. They would have to put in own conduit.
Louis Bookbinder: Now it's not cost-effective to do anything that reflects the interest of the community. If we don't put it in we're essentially out of the game.
Dick: Why would Palo Alto be out of the game any more than Mountain View and Sunnyvale?
Bob Pound (city staff) said Sunnyvale is using cable television.
Joe: A counter example is San Bruno, where city is putting in the basic system.
Imsong: This is a kind of a new system and could be the lifeblood of the new economy. Without it, we cannot function as a new economy. If Palo Alto is to maintain a leading edge interface, it is imperative we should have this facility.
Dick: That's understood. But in some sense Palo Alto is the capital of this area, hard to understand why the private sector can't do it.
Jay compared the proposed system to city streets infrastrucure, and said in a very real sense this is a decision as to whether the city should put in the public streets or allow private toll roads. He said the new communications potential is unprecedented in history, far overshadowing cable television or any other past technological innovation in its potential. The potential of cable TV compared to the new electronic communications network is as of a light bulb to a huge searchlight. Market forces won't hit everyone, but will tend to skim the cream.
There was general discussion of cable system.
Bill Cutler said one way to get at it is tP>Dick: We have not solved the problem of connecting the ring to the home.
Imsong: The installation of the ring would stimulate the private providers coming in to make the final connections.
Jay: Suggested the costs of the core system will be a deterrent to a number of private providers that otherwise might come in to offer connections, which would be a relatively small cost. We can't see the future, and perhaps wireless transmission will be the primary communications channel of the future. But fiber seems like a solid investment. He said that without a city ring, there is no way to regulate multiple trenching by different firms in the neighborhoods and business districts.
He said he and Joe Villareal some months ago had been talking about potential for "trench warfare in the streets and neighborhoods of Palo Alto" because of unregulated right to lay cable. If that were to occur and people started complaining and showing up at City Council meetings, the Council might see the investment in a fiber ring as having been exceedingly well worth the $1.5 million.
Bob Pound quoted Dr. Brian Reed of DEC on the long-term significance of fiber for high-speed, high-volume communications.
Councilman Rosenbaum was thanked for attending.
There were some minor items of information and discussion covered at the end of the meeting, including the status of the draft letter to the City Council on the fiber ring. The next meeting will be held on Wednesday, August 7th, at 7:30AM, in the Terman Library conference room.
To the Honorable Members of the Palo Alto City Council:
In this letter we, members of the Palo Alto Community Network (PA-Comnet), would like to express our support and recommend approval by City Council for the Electric Utility Plan to develop a dark fiber ring around Palo Alto. We fully support the June 25, 1996 staff recommendation to the Utility Advisory Commission as follows:
1.) Implement a flexible positioning strategy by having the Electric Utility develop a dark fiber ring to be co-located in conduit and on poles with existing Utilities' communications lines,
2.) Finance the positioning strategy with Electric Utility reserves in an amount estimated to be $1,860,000 in FY 96-97 and $210,000 per year thereafter until costs are recovered out of future cash flows generated from the fiber ring,
3.) Create one new Full Time Equivalent staff position in the Electric Utility in FY 96-97 with general responsibility for the City's commercial telecommunications activities, and
4.) Convert Phase 5 of the Telecommunication Strategy Study from business plan development to strategy implementation.
We believe strongly that the above recommendation is compatible with our charter and purpose, as is stated in our homepages on the City's website and partially excerpted below.
The Palo Alto Community Network is a grassroots community organization. We are citizens from all walks of life, from high school students to retired professionals, who share an interest in making information and verbal interchange available electronically to everyone in the Palo Alto community.
Each of us has a slightly different idea about what information we would like to give or receive and about the nature of the conversations in which we would like to participate. We are, however, united in a number of beliefs:
1. That computer controlled transmission of large quantities of information, via telephone lines today and fiber optics very soon, is a cost-effective way for Palo Altans to contact each other, to conduct business of interest to groups and to share mutual interest and ideas and opinions, consistent with our democratic process;
2. That this information be made available at no cost (e.g. is in the public domain), accessible for free in certain municipal facilities (e.g. such as our City libraries or City Hall lobby), and available through low cost means from our homes and work places.
3. That availability includes:
We have had one of our members on the City's Telecommunication Advisory Panel (TAP), since its conception. This member's quote from April 5, 1996 is provided below in summary of our concerns.
"The two concerns I think PA-COMNET should have are:
* access
We want to make sure that the telecommunications "pipe" reaches every home, business and organization in the city.
* symmetry
We want to make sure that every home, business and organization is capable of being a producer/generator of information as well as a consumer. The old model of a few commercial producers and a mass of consumers of information is not going to work for PA-COMNET."
Urgency is needed as this is the only opportunity to make use of the last of this conduit under our City. If we as a City do not act now we will lose out to private interests.
Please contact all of us by e-mail sent to PA-Comnet@svi.org, or contact any one of the individual signers of this letter.
Thank you.
Concerned members of PA-Comnet,
Margaret Cooley
Keith Cooley
Imsong Lee
Harry Saal
Marvin Lee
Bob Moss
Louis Bookbinder
Jay Thorwaldson
Bill Cutler
John J Kilfoil Sr
Joe A Villareal
David Greene
Ken Poulton
Stan Hutchings
Avron Barr
Shirley G. Tessler
Elliot Margolies
Marilyn Davis
Richard Adler