Monthly Report – October 2014

Posted on November 17, 2014 by jknapp

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.

Monthly Report – May 2014

Posted on June 17, 2014 by jknapp

Support – This month we logged 354 support tickets in the month of May with a first contact resolution of 98%.

WiFi – We have stopped all installs on the WiFi network inside city limits as we are now focusing completely on fiber installation. Rural installations continue as usual.

Fiber to the Home – Construction is underway and still on track for an on time completion for the project. Crews are currently installing the system in the southern region of town indicated on the map below.

Directional drilling machine setup on first day of construction.

Home drop cable being installed on side of a house:

New pedestal fully installed:

Data Center Redesign – We are awaiting some final materials for the electrical system and equipment racks to show up and then we will be able to get this project wrapped up and begin the process of moving our equipment into the new space. This move will cause at least two service outages, but we will work some late-night/early-morning hours to minimize the impact of service interruptions.

Room interior with new flooring and cabinet/rack locations marked:

New backup generator in place:

Monthly Report – April 2014

Posted on May 12, 2014 by jknapp

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:

Monthly Report – March 2014

Posted on April 14, 2014 by jknapp

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.

Customer Name	Billing Amount
Abundant Life Church	24.95
Ant Farm	Free
Immanuel Lutheran Church	24.95
Living Way Fellowship	24.95
Sandy Action Center	Free
Sandy Assembly of God	24.95
Sandy Chamber of Commerce	Free
Sandy Historical Society	24.95
Sandy Seventh Day Adventist	24.95
St. Michaels Church	24.95

Total Monthly	179.65

Monthly Report – February 2014

Posted on March 18, 2014 by jknapp

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.

Monthly Report – January 2014

Posted on February 11, 2014 by jknapp

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.

Monthly Report – December 2013

Posted on January 14, 2014 by jknapp

WiFi – 20 new WiFi customers for the month of December. We are continuing to hold things together with system upgrades and enhancements as we await the construction of the FTTH network. Scott Brown and I performed one of these upgrades on Christmas Eve to make sure that the Sandy Bluff neighborhood had sufficient capacity for the new devices that always come with bandwidth demands following Christmas.

As you can see in the photo it was a beautiful day for tower work, albeit a bit chilly.

Fiber to the Home – A lot of progress was made in December as we move forward with OFS on the FTTH project. We have received preliminary designs for the network and are reviewing them with engineers.

The amount of work that has been put into these designs is impressive and is doing a lot for our confidence level in the partnership we have entered with OFS.

Data Center Redesign – In order to make room for the new equipment we will be purchasing with the FTTH project and to ensure that the network has a high level of reliability we began the process of a server room remodel this month. We have hired an engineering company to develop some specifications that we will put out to bid for the project. The old IT Office in the kitchen area of City Hall will be repurposed to house the City’s network equipment and servers. The above photo provides a concept of how the space will be utilized. Imagine a wall where the wood floor stops that separates the room from the kitchen.

This project will include a dedicated generator for these systems to provide a robust redundant power system to ensure uninterrupted operation of the FTTH system as well as the City’s internal network in the event of an outage or emergency. We will also be upgrading the fire suppression and HVAC systems for this new area to ensure that our infrastructure is protected. We are hoping to also be able to tie into the existing HVAC system to take advantage of the heat generated by the servers and network equipment to offset the cost of heating the west side of City Hall in the winter.

Internal Network – There is a lot going on with our internal network that typically goes unseen. We have added several security and performance enhancements to the network this month and are continuing to look for new ways to improve the day to day use of IT systems for city staff.

Greg Brewster has also successfully implemented application virtualization for several of the applications that we use in the City. To spare you the nerdy technical details… this allows us to utilize and deploy applications much easier and make them available to staff remotely as needed. It is VERY cool and I would be happy to provide a demo to any council members who are interested.

Monthly Report – November 2013

Posted on December 10, 2013 by jknapp

SandyNet

WiFi – WiFi service continues to grow. We had 29 new installations for the month of November. We added several new access points in various area that were in need of some “performance boosts”.

Fiber to the Home – We are moving forward with the FTTH project in spite of contract negotiation issues with SiFi. We have switched gears and are now on the OFS path working to get contract documents prepared and financing in place to begin construction next year.

Snowberry is on track to be our first FTTH neighborhood! We are scheduled to splice in fiber that will feed the neighborhood in the next few weeks. We are currently seeking quotes to pull the fiber into the conduit infrastructure within the neighborhood to service the homes. This work should be complete by the end of January and I expect to have at least a few homes on the service by that time.

Business Fiber – Continued interest from various business customers, David Snider is doing a great job at generating leads for us in this area. I am confident that given time several of these interested businesses will subscribe to the fiber service.

Monthly Report – October 2013

Posted on November 12, 2013 by jknapp

SandyNet

WiFi – WiFi service continues to grow. We had 23 new installations for the month of October. We are continuing to add infrastructure enhancements as needed to maintain service levels.

Oregon Connections Conference – I was pleased to attend this years Oregon Connections Conference and had the opportunity to present during a panel session. The panel consisted of the four communities that were awarded the broadband strategic planning grant from the State earlier this year. It was an excellent conference and always proves to be a great event for networking with fellow broadband advocates around the state.

Fiber to the Home – I was able to attend the Calix User Group conference this month. I met some great leaders in the telecom industry and had a chance to pick their brains about what has been successful in their companies. I was also able to get some updates on the latest technology in FTTH equipment and see what is coming down the pipe in the next 10 to 15 years. I can say our deployment plans look like they will provide a very robust and sustainable solution for our community for the foreseeable future.

Business Fiber – No major developments in the business sector. We are still pursuing a few leads that have not come to fruition yet.

SandyNet Board Meeting – We will be having a SandyNet Board meeting on Thursday 11/21/13.

Monthly Report – September 2013

Posted on October 14, 2013 by jknapp

SandyNet

WiFi – WiFi service continues to grow. We had 24 new installations for the month of September. We have implemented more infrastructure upgrades in a few areas to keep up with the demand.

Rural Wireless – We have identified a few new areas in the rural area that have potential for “repeater” sites. We are working with property owners to setup infrastructure at these locations. Once in place this will allow us to provide good service in areas that previously had no good options.

Fiber to the Home – As you are all aware, progress continues on the FTTH project. We have made excellent progress in securing a good deal for the City of Sandy as we move forward with negotiations.

Business Fiber – No major developments in the business sector. We are still pursuing a few leads that have not come to fruition yet.