Residential Fiber

Residential new hook ups flattened during January and February as construction came to a halt from prioritizing other projects and reduced labor capacity. During March, 2022, installs picked back up 230% as a contractor was brought on to complete residential and business drops.

Business Fiber

Business fiber has picked up on a few larger contracts, some entering into multi-year agreements. SandyNet completed it’s turn up of a regional dispatch center, which was a year of planning an implementation. The CBX Business Project has one customer currently and two other in the planning/build out phases. Equipment has shipped and is ready to be deployed.

New Developments

SandyNet has completed splicing in various new neighborhoods, and continues to see substantial take rate in those locations. In March, SandyNet entered into an agreement to feed all 69 units with ISP and managed wireless service.

Internal IT

Scott Jones, our Systems Administrator has announced his resignation. He will be moving to another department within the City of Sandy. We will be posting a new position the week of 4/4/2022.

Supply Chain and Increased Costs

Dude to higher demand than supply, costs in the telecommunications sector has increase 50-100% depending on the materials and electronics. This is due to scarcity and not just the 8% inflation over the past year.

Telecom Utility Worker

SandyNet is still seeking a Telecom Utility Worker to help expand and maintain the SandyNet serving area.

Residential Fiber

Residential fiber installations have picked back up since winter, and we have felt a strain due to supply chain issues with our vendors. From electronics, fiber, plastic, etc. lead times have been completely stochastic and unpredictable. Our team continues to be creative and make sure we are continuing to provide service while we wait for shipments and prepare for further delays in the year.

Business Fiber

Business installs have continued at a steady pace. We will soon be lighting up some fiber to businesses in the industrial area, which will convert those that have been on wireless for years over to fiber, as well as hopefully pick up some new accounts.

New Developments

The construction in Sandy Woods has nearly completed, and the homes are all occupied now. Mt. View Ridge and Marshal Ridge continue to add homes at a slow pace, and are almost immediately signed up with service upon occupancy. Dry utilities are currently being added to Shaylee Meadows and our team will be working with the construction team to verify that everything is in order before the trenches are filled back in.

Wholesale Contracts

We have secured a five year wholesale agreement with the property management company of a few apartments this last month, and have converted about 70% of the customers to our system. Of the 33 units, a few have still not called and schedule a switch over, but we anticipate to have nearly everyone online by the end of May.

SandyNet Board

Applications are in, and currently under review. Interviews will be held shortly and we’ll be on track to start up very soon. Our team is excited to finally be getting the board back online and operating.

SandyNet Mobile App

Calix has been working on a mobile app for SandyNet customers to help manage their WiFi and network from their phones. The project is nearing completion and will be live soon for testing and then general release.

Internal IT

Scott has been making headway in turning up our new DR solution, which will dramatically reduce our backup costs and allow for quicker restoration and verification of backups in the future. Equipment is ordered and licenses are pending.

Scott continues to explore education materials for staff to help in preventing breaches and compromised systems.

Residential Fiber

Residential fiber installations have slowed down a little due to the holidays, and construction is backlogged as well. The SandyNet team has been working hard to make sure that our residential service is working at peak performance for work from home and distance learning.

Business Fiber

Business installs continue to trickle in. We have almost completed the transition of the remaining wireless business customers to Fiber. One or two are holding out as long as possible, to stay grandfathered into original price. Some still require fiber to be blown into vaults. Other larger inquires for enterprise and larger companies/businesses in town are requesting service, and those are being handled on a case by case basis.

New Developments

The construction of the remaining homes in Sandy Woods, Marshal Ridge and Mt. View Ridge are starting to pick back up. It seems that construction was halted or delayed for a few months, but there is a wave of new residents coming into the area.

We will be working with Shaylee Meadows in the upcoming months as they begin building out the dry utilities in the ground.

Wireless Systems

We are in the process of upgrading eligible parts of our rural wireless to the faster speeds, which would help customers. Waybill is 100% upgraded and Vista is about 40% upgraded and transitioned.

Grants

We are still waiting to hear back from the EDA on our joint grant with Clackamas County. We have no other information at this time.

SandyNet Board

We will be starting up the SandyNet board soon and scheduling interviews, hopefully in the upcoming weeks. We’re excited to finally be back with a board to provide guidance for the future of SandyNet service and how we will better serve our community.

Internal IT

Scott Jones has joined the team as our new Sysadmin. We are happy to have him, and he has already made a mark here in our department, helping staff and council with their devices and computers.

Residential Fiber

Residential fiber installations picked back up April, and have continued to set record numbers this biennium. The SandyNet team has been working hard to make sure that our residential service allows everyone the ability to distance learn or work remotely. An uptick in Gigabit customers, Mesh Unit sales and brand new installations has kept our administration, helpdesk, NOC, construction and installation members busy these past eight months.

Business Fiber

Business installs continue to trickle in. We have had a wide fluctuation of business customers cancelling and signing as funds permit. Many are struggling to operate during the pandemic. SandyNet is in the final stages of converting the few remaining WiFi businesses over to fiber, as expansion of central office equipment permits.

New Developments

Since the last update, Center City Townhomes has completed, Sandy Woods is 2/3rds completed and Marshal Ridge (For what lots they have not sold off to another developer) have completed 85% of their development. The new developments have created a constraint for available PON ports, so an additional Calix access system has been purchased and spun up to help with the ever-growing expansion of Sandy.

Wireless Systems

We have started to upgrade and expand our wireless system that feeds rural areas and customers that are not eligible for fiber service. Recent upgrades have included expanding WiFi capabilities out at the Pioneer Mobile Home Park for distance learning. Working with both OTSD and Clackamas County, we have set three new utility poles, two in Boring, one up off of Dowling Rd for future expansion. Further, we have deployed a new Wireless system down off of Ruben ln, in the industrial park. The only provider that services that area is the phone company, and the ground composition doesn’t allow for drilling with our equipment, so we now offer 25 and 50Mbps plans for service.

Wireless Hotspots

Since the beginning of the pandemic, we have deployed numerous hotspots in Sandy and one up the mountain in Government Camp. These are to help those without internet get online if they current do not have internet, or cannot afford it. A full list can be found at https://www.ci.sandy.or.us/hotspots. Additionally, we help put up access points in the Cinema parking lot during the Wildfires to help evacuees connect and communicate with family.

Grants

Jointly filing with Clackamas County, SandyNet was part of three separate grants during the summer. One was with through the State, one through the EDA and the other was the FCC’s RDOF auction. Unfortunately the County was unable to continue with the RDOF program, so while we were eligible to participate in the auction, we cannot move forward since we filed jointly. We were rejected funds for the State grant, and the EDA grant is still being reviewed.

Internal IT

Jeff has moved from our Systems Administrator into our Network Engineer role, and his previous position is currently open for hire. We are excited to soon be fully staffed for the first time in almost two years.

Residential Fiber

Residential fiber installations have slowed due to COVID-19. Staff has been instructed to only perform repairs if needed. Installation’s have slowed naturally, but service requirements have increased due to working from home and stay-at-home ordinances. Traffic has not increased during peak hours, but has increase substantially during the work day. We are seeing an increase of many services. Gaming sources, Video streaming and VPNs/work protocols.

We are preparing for an increase in traffic, which may require an action that we call stack splitting. We are currently releasing updates to our software to accommodate the changes before we have to perform these changes.

Business Fiber

Business installs continue to crawl in. We have seen a slight increase in installations during the past month, as business gear towards take out and online systems. Others are switching, requesting an installation due to decreased performance from other providers.

Conversion of WiFi to fiber has begun near Champion and Industrial Way, as fiber is now extended to most buildings. As businesses have time, or close, we have used it an opportunity to transition them to fiber.

New Developments

Installations in Sandy Woods continues to progress. Of the available houses, most, if not all have taken service.

An upcoming apartment complex has reached out to SandyNet to explore a potential wholesale agreement. We are currently designing and calculating the cost to implement it.

Administration

Billing audits for every service charge has been discovering discrepancies, and have recovered previously lost revenue. We are continuing to run these audits monthly or bi-monthly to close the gap as we design a new workflow to prevent the process in the future.

SandyNet has installed new flow monitoring software to help track where traffic is going within our network. It has already proven very valuable during recent weeks. Future prospects may include identification of DDOS and malware attacks by linking destination streams up with known blacklisted addresses.

Work from home options are available to nonessential staff, and essential staff is still preparing to work from home in the near future.

SandyNet revenue has slowly been exceeding predictions, which is great news for helping balance the unrealized expenses this biennium.

Internal IT

We have been gearing up to deploy VPN’s and work from home measures during recent weeks. We have been working to tighten up security and decrease phishing within the city as well. One major milestone was taking control of our root domain again from our current website provider. Since then, we have incorporated a DKIM and SPF records to verify emails and prevent spoofing. Video conferencing software has been tested and implemented to allow telecommuting employees and council members to meet. Secure remote desktop solutions have been implemented for non mobile users that are working remotely.

Service Orders

Fiber and Wireless orders have continued to steadily flow. In the weeks where installs are lighter, the crew has been performing plant repairs to equipment that have degraded service.

SandyNet service can now be ordered online, though our new portal. Orders are directly inputted into our queuing system, where they are reviewed and pushed to construction or denied. We have seen an increase of orders simply due to an online presence. The option to sign up online has also shown us that users are more likely to select gigabit service.

Phone Service

We have had a long struggle between our existing phone wholesale provider and Calix equipment. Calix continues to release code changes to improve Gigacenters, and the phone provider has proven that they are unable to accommodate and modify their configuration. After months of back and fourth communication, we have decided that we would have the solve the problem ourselves and introduce a form of middleware to modify each transmission to allow interoperability. This system was implemented in December, and has passed it’s trial period and is now in production. All existing customers are now being migrated to the new voice proxy.

New Developments

Sandy Woods and Mt. View Ridge are being spliced and customers are starting to come online. We are reaching the number of available ports on our current system, so we have purchased a new system and will bring it online for next upcoming development.

Fiber service has been extended to a new major business in town. The construction required allowed us to hit a number of other business buildings along the way, which will allow for more potential business customers.

PGE & Firwood Power have completed their solar farm project, and SandyNet is providing the farm with dark fiber back to the Sandy substation. This required the team to blow 12 strands down Bornstedt and Bluff and HWY 26. 8 of those 12 strands are now available for future feeder fibers.

SandyNet has completed a contracting job for CBX which included installing conduit outside of city limits. SandyNet was able to install 2700′ of it’s own conduit alongside CBX for the project for future expansion.

Internal IT

Server migration continue as expected. Over 80% of our existing systems have been converted off of our existing virtual environment.

Residential Fiber

Residential fiber continues to expand at a manageable pace. While new residential installs will slow down as much of the city is built out, there are plenty of potential customers that have access to fiber, but are currently non active. Marketing to these customers will begin after additional projects wrap up and our team has additional time.

Business Fiber

Most businesses that were part of the 2017 fiber to the business project have been completed, the remainder require additional tools, or special equipment/replacement of brownfield infrastructure . Expansion of the business fiber network will occur as new businesses continue to develop along the Sandy industrial park, and Champion Way. The aging wireless network continues to shrink as existing access points are turned off and removed from the network.

New Developments

Multiple apartment complexes have expressed interest in SandyNet being able to provide service to various complexes within Sandy. Older apartment buildings utilize a technology called G.Fast to use existing copper twisted pair to deliver up to Gigabit speeds.

A wholesale agreement with a new apartment complex has been signed, which allows SandyNet to mount and manage modems in every unit at the complex. The expected turn up date is expected to occur near the beginning of August.

We are exploring a few dark fiber contracts with various companies to provide connectivity across town. These contracts are in the preliminary stage and are currently pending.

Administration

Steven Meager has joined our team for the next five months has he gains work experience in the IT field, while he studies for his degree at MHCC. Steven is working on creating a formal IT security policy, and acceptable use policy for the employee handbook.

Internal IT

Jeff Loder has been working on putting together a plan for our new virtual environment, and exploring the new options that exist. A move from a traditional server infrastructure to a hyperconverged set up looks promising, especially in the day and age of containers, where we can run services without an operating system.

Residential Fiber

Drop construction has officially caught up to demand. We have since shifted most of our resources to finishing up the business fiber district. Expect residential installs to drastically slow down. Historic trend show that drop construction tends to pick up after a few slow months. During this slow period we will be focusing on getting caught up with backlogged projects.

Business Fiber

We have continued to hook up new businesses. Most of the project construction is completed, and we are now working on projects that require special attention, such as Emtelle fiber blowing. Since these project tend to be more expensive and yield less revenue, they have been delayed until other areas have slowed down. And since these installs have a much higher cost, the remainder of the big costs projects will be put off until the start of the new biennium. This includes the purchase of more fiber, vaults and fiber blowing equipment.

Over the next six months, the remainder of the wireless network within city limits will be removed or decommissioned.

We are continuing to pursue large enterprise accounts, which often require a large amount of construction to complete. Several agreements are in the works.

New Developments

We are currently working with multiple housing and business developments. We are looking at ramping up G.Fast after July, because of the high installation costs. We are also looking at drilling fiber up to an existing tower site. A dedicated fiber connection would drastically reduce the amount of bandwidth consumed over another wireless link that is currently feeding multiple towers.

Administration

We are continuing to optimize the way that we setup and process orders to deliver a better experience to existing and new customers. Currently focusing on the ordering and cancellation process, which will help us in obtaining new customers that move into recently sold/bought homes.

Residential Fiber

We are continuing to add customers in the residential areas of Sandy. Our take rate continues to climb slowly higher and higher.

Business Fiber

We have increased our activity in the past few months in business installations and added several new businesses to our network. We have also secured contracts with several large enterprise customers in Sandy.

New Development

Progress continues on several new developments around Sandy.

Residential Fiber

Growth has been steady in new service installs in the residential areas of Sandy.

Business Fiber

Several new businesses have been installed over the past few months. SandyNet staff is continuing to make progress on additional installations and expanding the availability of fiber service in the business district.

New Development

As more and more development occurs around Sandy, staff has been working to keep up with the needs of the developers. We are working with developers on several projects to ensure facilities are designed and installed properly to allow for these new homes to be connected to the fiber service as soon as they are ready for move in.

Miscellaneous

SandyNet staff attended a few industry conferences this month to keep up with trends and emerging technologies. Joe Knapp was asked to speak in a session on Broadband deployment at an economic development conference. SandyNet was featured on the main stage again at the Calix Connexions conference as an example of cutting edge deployment techniques and platforms.