US Telco Support > Verizon > Verizon Fiber Optics > Verizon Reaches Agreement with Montgomery County

reply to DonLibes

Re: Verizon Reaches Agreement with Montgomery County

said by JT's testimony :

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Good evening, and thank you for the opportunity to speak about the proposed agreement with Verizon.

I'm J* T*. Usually I say I'm from Rockville, but for the purpose of my testimony tonight, I need to be more specific. I live in Randolph Hills. My postal address is Rockville because the post office that serves me is in Rockville, but my community is outside the city limits. In fact, we're so far outside the city limits, that none of the city maps even show Randolph Hills, so I borrowed Verizon's service area map to show my neighborhood.




As you know, Verizon has already built a fiber optic network in the initial service area - a network that will serve all our communication needs: voice, video, and high speed data, well into the foreseeable future. As a telecommuter, reliable high speed data service is essential, so I was very excited when I saw deployment begin in the Fall of 2004. Then slowly, I began to notice that deployment was happening in all the neighborhoods surrounding mine, but Randolph Hills and everything to the north was being skipped over. By Spring of 2005 Verizon began offering FiOS, the most advanced high speed data service available anywhere in the county. It was at that time I became aware that the City of Rockville and Verizon could not agree on the terms under which Verizon would be permitted to build within the city. Because of this dispute, Verizon can't bring FiOS to Randolph Hills. And because Randolph Hills isn't in the City of Rockville, our community has no recourse, and no say in the matter.

I was hopeful that a county-wide franchise agreement would supersede Rockville's ability to cause delays for us, but unfortunately the proposed agreement carries a clause that could exclude Randolph Hills from the agreement altogether, because we're served by Verizon's Montrose Road wire center.

Now even though this agreement could have a negative impact on Randolph Hills, I still think you should grant the franchise as soon as you possibly can. Verizon's high speed data service is truly revolutionary, and the county should not, under any circumstances, introduce any further delays in the process.

But once this agreement is granted, it is my hope that the county will address the needs of communities, like Randolph Hills, where service may never be deployed, or where it may take years to agree on the terms, and where members of the community are not constituents of the permitting authority.

In February, I attended a presentation on community Wi-Fi networks. On the panel was William Graham, mayor of Scottsburg Indiana, who described his approach and the costs of deploying a community Wi-Fi network. I've enclosed a transcript of the presentation in my written testimony. I do hope you'll read it, and consider deploying such a network, or even foster a public-private partnership in neighborhoods like Randolph Hills, to help insulate us from the negative impact of decisions made by neighboring jurisdictions.

Modern services offered in a competitive environment would be a tremendous benefit to Randolph Hills. If only we could find a way to get them.

Thank you.

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It was just a meeting where the public was invited to congregate and share stories with each other.

Typical isn't it?
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---Barney

No, it wasn't typical.

Typically the cameras aren't rolling, we don't get mics, and we aren't timed.

someone should have invited a news crew!!!
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---Barney

There was some press there. Someone from Capital News is supposed to call me tomorrow for an interview.

It did feel stupid to deliver a speech to people behind me but I was sitting next to the head of the PEGs and he told me the whole thing was being broadcast on Ch6.

In all, I thought it was quite well attended. A bunch of the cable office staff was there including Jane, Amy, and Keith. Verizon had a big group and both sides brought the lawyers. Comcast was also in attendence. The PEG administration was there. Rockville politicos were there. Someone sent a photographer who took pictures throughout the entire session. Two reporters chatted with us afterward. Besides the one you mentioned, the other was from a Baltimore paper. Oh, and there was a whole row of scouts!!!! (Did you promise they were going to see real live councilmembers at work? Oops!)

Altogether there were easily 40 people. Maybe even 50+, don'cha think? It was a bit silly that the citizens were so outnumbered by the officials but it was a good opportunity to get them to listen. I think they were listening anyway.

I think there were easily 50+ people in attendance.

I'm not sure why, but I didn't expect to see City of Rockville. I guess I figured they were done mucking things up. But nooooooooooooooo.... they presented an additional list of demands.

It really took an extra shot of courage to deliver my testimony while they were in the room.

Interestingly, I was speaking to the Rockville reps afterward and it sounded like deja vu all over again. Verizon says Rockville has rejected their offers. And Rockville says "What? They've rejected all our offers!" Maybe it's time for another lawsuit?

The lack of information released is truly amazing. I can't understand how elected officials can carry on extensive negotiations for more than a year over an issue that the citizens spend typically many hours of a typical day [watching cable TV] and how many millions of dollars and release so little information to the citizens. We are to assume that the elected officials know exactly what they are doing and have our best interests in mind. But, if the complaints against Comcast are any indication, they don't seem to have been doing a very good job so far despite the many years of experience and huge amounts of money they have been collecting for their services over the years

reply to DonLibes