Fiber to the Home

Work is progressing very nicely on the fiber network. Initially when the construction started the contractors were confident they would have the project completed by the end of 2014, city staff was a little skeptical of that target and communicated a message to the community of May or June of 2015. As it stands now it looks like the more conservative estimate will be pretty accurate. The table below provides a snapshot of completion on the various phases of the project as of 11/14/2014.

Video Service

We will be meeting with representatives from CSI Digital at the end of the month to discuss the timeline of their video service launch. In our most recent communication with them they are now anticipating a May or June timeframe for service availability.

We have also reached out to Sling TV, a new service offering from Dish Network that is targeted at “cord-cutters”. This service includes small bundle of live TV channels including ESPN, ESPN2, TNT, TBS, Food Network, HGTV, Travel, CNN, ABC Family, and more. They are planning on launching service this month, it may prove to be a great fit for many of our users.

Project Update Video

Fiber to the Home

Work is progressing very nicely on the fiber network. Initially when the construction started the contractors were confident they would have the project completed by the end of 2014, city staff was a little skeptical of that target and communicated a message to the community of May or June of 2015. As it stands now it looks like the more conservative estimate will be pretty accurate. The table below provides a snapshot of completion on the various phases of the project as of 11/14/2014.

Take Rate Update

Projected take rate numbers are looking very good for the project. We anticipate approximately 45% to 50% of homes taking service. This will be a HUGE success if it comes to fruition.

Video Service

Council approved the franchise agreement for the provisioning of video service in Sandy with CSI Digital this month. In a next steps call with CSI Digital they provided an overview of their product launch process and let us know that they anticipate having service available in March of 2015. They will be providing some marketing materials to us soon that will allow us to direct interested customers to them and answer a lot of questions regarding the service.

Fiber to the Home

Construction of the fiber distribution network is nearly complete. There are a few small bores that still need to be performed but overall the bulk of the conduit has been placed. Cable placement is significantly completed as well. The majority of the remaining work is placing drops to the homes, splicing, and landscape and concrete/asphalt restoration. These items will still take several months to complete and should provide steady work for the contractors well into the spring of 2015.

The image below shows the progress of the various areas of the city. The southern route is nearly complete and we are actively installing customers. As of 11/17 we have 149 active fiber customers.

The North and East route are complete and awaiting splicing aside from a few small areas that still need cable extensions or adjustments.

The western route is the most recently constructed area. Cable is placed throughout most of the route and everything is being tied up for splicing make ready.

Support –  This month we logged 243 support tickets in the month of April with a first contact resolution of 98%. There is a lot of general buzz and questions about the fiber to the home network construction.

WiFi – Holding steady on the WiFi front. We are essentially in maintenance mode at this point as the construction for the fiber is scheduled to begin very soon. As usual we had a few maintenance issues this month with equipment upgrades, replacements, and repairs.

Fiber to the Home – Construction staging has begun this month. Henkels & McCoy are preparing to begin very soon. You can see in the photo below the storage area on Champion Way is being utilized heavily. The orange reels of conduit are 9000 feet each, totaling 198,000 feet of conduit in this photo, most of which will be used for the project. On the left side of the photo near the “Great Wall of Sandy” you can see the over 1000 pedestals that were delivered so far for the project. This photo was captured from a new camera we installed on the Operations Center Tower to monitor this site.

Snowberry installation is complete. We are waiting for the data center remodel to be completed before we can install the equipment necessary to put light on the fiber and then we will be able to provide our first fiber service to customers in the Snowberry neighborhood. Below is a photo of the inside of one of the splice cases out there.

Data Center Redesign – Things are moving along well on this project. The bulk of the construction work is completed and we are now awaiting the arrival of the generator and automatic transfer switch so the electrical work can be finished up.

New Generator Pad:

Interior Construction: 

Support –  This month we logged 848 support tickets in the month of February with a first contact resolution of 99%. The primary reason for the extra large volume was a billing system audit that generated several tickets for cleaning up support databases.

WiFi – Holding steady on the WiFi front. We are essentially in maintenance mode at this point as the construction for the fiber is scheduled to begin very soon. We did a few system expansions to address performance issues in the month of March.

Fiber to the Home – Field engineering for the FTTH network was completed in March. The are in the drafting phase now and construction is scheduled to begin in the first week of May.

The materials for the Snowberry Neighborhood have arrived and are being installed. Below is a photo that shows our first reels of fiber and the inside of a vault with fiber being pulled in at the Snowberry neighborhood.

Data Center Redesign – This project was awarded to Payne construction and is slated to begin construction very soon. We have already received the new equipment for the FTTH project that will be taking up residence in this new space, it is eagerly awaiting the completion of its new home.

HWY 211/Dubarko Project – K&E Excavation have been great to work with from the IT Staff’s perspective. They have gone out of their way to not only avoid hitting our active fiber, but also to save our “abandoned” line that ODOT made us relocate. Below is a short video of one of their crews digging right on top of both our lines as they prepared to install a new catch basin on the NE corner of the intersection.

Non-Profit Customers – As per Councilor Coleman’s request I have compiled a list of current non-profit customers with a “brick and mortar” building in the City of Sandy. This list may not be exhaustive as we do not have any formal method of tracking non-profit status of our customers.

Support – February was a busy month for the IT Department. We logged 446 support tickets in the month of February with a first contact resolution of 98%.

WiFi – The WiFi network is continuing to gain subscribers but at a slower rate now as anticipated. We have stopped charging installation fees as we approach construction starting for the fiber project. We are encouraging customers or potential customers to maintain their current connection and wait for the fiber to be ready in an attempt to eliminate two installations within a few months of each other.

Fiber to the Home – Engineering for the FTTH project reached 60% completion in the month of February.

Business Fiber – We added a new business fiber customer this month. As usual they were impressed with the high speeds and excellent service offered by SandyNet Fiber.

Data Center Redesign – We developed an RFP for this project and it was advertised in early March.

Ice Storm – The Ice Storm that we experienced in early February was a tough one on our network but overall things fared well. We were very pleased to have minimal damage to the SandyNet systems, but this experience once again highlights how fantastic it will be to have a FTTH network that is securely underground away from the chaos of wind/rain/snow/ice.

Support – January was a busy month for the IT Department. We logged 440 support tickets in the month of January with a first contact resolution of 98%.

WiFi – The WiFi network is continuing to gain subscribers. We had 31 new installations in the month of January. As we transition to FTTH we are preparing new customers for the fact that the service will soon be changing over. We anticipate a decline in new subscriptions over the next few months as fiber construction draws closer.

Fiber to the Home – Engineering for the FTTH project is underway. We are on track to have construction started sometime in April.

Data Center Redesign – Engineering is still underway for the redesign of the data center. I am working on getting quotes for the Generator and Battery back up system that we will be installing. It is looking like construction on this project will be starting in the second half of March, or early April as well.

PD Computer Upgrade – The IT Department put in a lot of research time on the upgrade that has to be completed for the Police Department. I want to give a special mention to Scott Brown for fitting this into his already busy schedule on such short notice. He has done an excellent job researching alternatives and providing both the  Chief and I with excellent info to base a decision on.

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