HomeMy WebLinkAboutPublic Comment Dewey Allison Spani
From: Shanna Kuhlemier
Sent: Friday, January 20, 2023 9:56 AM
To: Allison Spani
Subject: FW:January 18th Broadband Workshop
Follow Up Flag: Follow up
Flag Status: Flagged
Please just add as public comment. His comments were different in the meeting.
Shanna D. Kuhlemier, CIVIC
District Clerk/Assistant to the General Manager
!�'7RUCKEE DONNER
11570 Donner Pass Road
Truckee,CA 96161
P: 530-582-3980
www.tdpud.org
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From: Barney Dewey [mailto:barneydewey@outlook.com]
Sent:Thursday,January 19, 2023 4:18 PM
To:Joe Aguera;Jeff Bender; Christa Finn; Kim Harris;Tony Laliotis
Cc: Shanna Kuhlemier; Steven Poncelet; Brian Wright
Subject:January 18th Broadband Workshop
CAUTION:This email originated from outside of the Truckee Donner PUD. Do not click links or open attachments unless you
recognize the sender and know the content is safe.
Dear TDPUD Board,
Thank you for letting me speak concerning the TDPUD Broadband initiative on January 18th during
the Broadband Workshop. It was very informative. I learned a lot from the workship. Also, thank
you President Bender for suggesting I continue my Public Comments in writing.
I am committed in supporting the TDPUD Broadband project. Please call on me, if I can assist in
the endeavor.
I have extensive experience in electronic communications. I started out on the technical side; but,
moved over to the marketing side for the majority of my career. At the Board meeting I first
approached the report from a technical view. I was wrong, I should have first approached my
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observations from a marketing viewpoint given the 3-minute speaking limit. I appreciate it if you
let me correct my error here.
1. It is clear that TDPUD needs to embrace Fiber and 1+ Gig speeds. This is the major market
differentiator for entry into a market with an established leader having around 75% market share.The
term "fiber" is critical, in my opinion, for entering the market.
2. The other main differentiator for TDPUD is customer service. This coupled with "fiber" can be a big
winner in competing with other providers.
3. 1 believe it is important to determine the actual factors for dissatisfaction with Optimum. The
dissatisfaction with the perceived speed delivered by Optimum needs to be investigated to determine
what the real customer satisfaction problem as the TDPUD business plan is developed.
a. Is it the subscriber's Wi-Fi or the actual speed being delivered to the cable modem or something
else keeping the speed low or perceived as poor? Knowing this is critical to understanding how
TDPUD can deliver a satisfactory perceived speed. Delivering 1G to a Wi-Fi router that is only
delivering a few megabits to important rooms in the house will not satisfy the customer.
b. The well-known phrase, "If you don't measure it, you can't fix it" is important and literal in
understanding the real needs of the customers for the proposed broadband system.
4. As the business plan is developed there are additional items that need to be considered. Here are a
few to be considered that I am not sure have been discussed yet.
a. What will the impact to the TDPUD business model be if Optimum lowers their prices
significantly to keep its market position?
b. As discussed above (3), what is the impact if the main customer satisfaction problem is
delivering high-speed Wi-Fi throughout the customer's entire home, not the speed coming into
the home (or business). In other words, the main satisfaction issue may be delivering high-
speed Wi-Fi service beyond the "wall closest to the street"?
c. How will TDPUD deliver Wi-Fi service throughout the home? Optimum usually provides a
combination modem and Wi-Fi access point to customers? Will TDPUD do the same or, when
needed, provide a better whole-house solution?
d. What are the switching costs (both dollars and effort) for the customer? For example, a family
could have a dozen (or more) devices connected to their existing Wi-Fi router (e.g., 4 mobile
phones, 2 tablets, 2 TV's 1 game console, 2 smart speakers, 2 Ring cameras). What effort is the
customer willing to make to change the Wi-Fi name and password on their many devices? Is
TDPUD going to provide a service (at what cost) for the customer to help change all of their
device passwords?
My above comments assume the business model chosen is the ownership model where TDPUD is
responsible for the entire customer experience. If TDPUD chooses one of the wholesale open
access models these concerns will vary in importance.
These are a few topics that need to be addressed in the business plan. I would like to help TDPUD
and volunteer to participate in the TDPUD's Broadband project development.
Thank you.
Best regards,
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Barney
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