The Indianapolis Cable Franchise Board (CFB) meets monthly and oversees local cable franchise agreement with Bright House Networks and all local access TV channels. Public comments are allowed at the end of the meeting. The official meeting minutes are available at www.indygov.org/eGov/Cable/Franchise/Minutes/. A video archive of public meetings is available at www.indygov.org.

The Indiana Utilities Regulatory Commission (IURC) oversees the state video franchise certificates for Comcast and AT&T.

August 20, 2007: The board approved meeting minutes from April, June, and July. [May minutes were approved in July.] Cable Communications Agency Director Rick Maultra reported 20 complaints from Bright House Network (BHN) customers, and that the agency is still receiving complaints -11 the past month -- from Comcast customers about phone service, and inquiries from AT&T customers as to why educational and government channels are not available on U-Verse. Discussions with AT&T about carrying the educational and government access channels on U-Verse are ongoing, and Maultra says what he hopes is ?considerable progress? has been made regarding concerns about technical compatibility and quality. Maultra reported a $85,520 franchise fee payment from BHN based on the audit of 2002-2003 payments. Ken Montgomery, manager of government Channel 16, reported covering budget hearings and multiple public meetings, including five elections investigation meetings, and several Indiana Black Expo and National League of Cities events. The month?s most-accessed online video was the Administration and Finance Committee hearing of July 12, which received 401 hits. Montgomery also noted that older meetings are still being accessed. Al Aldridge and Buz Nesbit reported on BHN. Community activities included Indiana Black Expo and a Computerland Camp staffed by BHN volunteers who trained 16 IPS students. Nesbit requested a copy of all information being discussed with AT&T to create ?level playing fields? for all video service providers in Indianapolis and expressed hope that AT&T is held to the same standards they are, and that no public money will be spent by the city to make Channel 16 and the Educational Television Cooperative (ETC) channels available to AT&T customers. At present only BHN, unlike Comcast, still has the cable agency phone number on its bill, and Nesbit has heard there is no number on AT&T bills for customers to lodge a complaint with the IURC. Nesbit suggested the city might lodge a complaint with the IURC about AT&T?s failure to serve customers and live up to the same requirements as other providers. CFB Chairman Peter Blum said he will look into publication of phone numbers on bills and that he expected the lack of carriage of access channels to be resolved in 70 to 90 days. Robert Gobetz, ETC Secretary and Interim President, reported that AT&T is trying to get ETC on U-Verse. Blum commented they know they must connect to the head end at the University of Indianapolis (UI) where Gobetz works. In old business, Maultra reported that the agency?s 2008 budget was cut back almost to 2007 levels with a total increase of $1,708. The planned increase for the Public Purpose Grants for ETC and IRIS were cut back to 2007 levels. The board unanimously approved the revised budget. In new business, Maultra presented ETC?s request for the $41,550 public purpose grant. The city is withholding payment of all grants until cash flow improves. During the public comment period, Jean Coughlin from Public Access of Indianapolis asked about a statement at last month?s CFB meeting that the IURC was referring Comcast complainants to the cable agency. Maultra responded that he passed that information on to the Administration and Finance Committee on July 31 and has not received any IURC-referred complaints since. Maultra said the Indianapolis Business Journal reported that the IURC said they had no jurisdiction to handle complaints. Blum stated that the law gives authority to the IURC but no mechanism has been put in place for the IURC to handle complaints and it is not clear whether they intend to handle complaints or not.

September 17, 2007: The board approved August minutes. Rick Maultra reported that INET programming is ?up and running? at Warren and Washington township fire departments. The Information Services Agency (ISA) has asked the agency to participate on a committee to look at ways to provide city-wide WiFi, which will probably be via a public-private partnership. AT&T U-Verse will be connecting to the educational and government channels via a dedicated circuit to two video and four audio lines in the telephone room of the City-County Building. ISA will cover the building authority costs for pulling the cable. AT&T informed the agency that program updates to the U-Verse onscreen schedules will be available via the web. Channel 16 schedules are updated daily. Complaints are still coming from Comcast customers, 15 during the past month, mostly about long waits on calls to customer service. BHN had 11 customer complaints mostly around billing. Ken Montgomery reported higher than average meeting coverage due to the August budget hearings. Online video archive usage is increasing: total hits in July were 1,294 and in August they were 5,128. The most popular program had 1,022 total hits. It shows that more people are realizing the online video archives are available. Buz Nesbit reported that BHN?s Net Literacy program, which teaches computer literacy and security, received recognition from the Mayor?s office and that Operation Bright Eyes has helped people on three occasions by alerting police or emergency personnel to respond. Nesbit offered multiple suggestions associated with the following: the city?s WiFi investigation, AT&T?s progress in transmitting educational and government channels and who will pay for the cost of connecting, AT&T?s ability or plans for participation in the Emergency Access System (EAS), and AT&T?s payments so far of franchise fees associated with their state video certificate. Nesbit noted that BHN has paid more than $1.5 million in franchise fees to the city this year and suggested that the board seek information from all providers as to number of customers they serve and fees paid to the city - and that BHN should be refunded any costs that his competitors are not required to pay Chairman Blum responded that he agrees ?on almost every point? and that costs for AT&T?s connection to the access channels have not been settled; dates of connection have not been set; and he will investigate the EAS question. AT&T has made two fee payments which can be provided to BHN and which Blum will take under advisement to make public; furthermore there is a case currently before the IURC disputing AT&T?s confidentiality claim. Blum?s view is if fees are based on the number of subscribers that information needs to be provided. Nesbit further questioned whether BHN should be required to provide data that his competitors are not. Blum responded that he will look into it. Chuck Fearnow, reporting for ETC, stated that UI may become the fiscal agent for ETC and that AT&T is inspecting their playback site. There was no public comment.

October 15, 2007: Chairman Blum was the only CFB member present, so no votes could be cast. Rick Maultra reported that the agency received complaints about all three video providers, with BHN below the FCC customer service standard for phone response time in third quarter 2007. There were 7 complaints for AT&T U-Verse; 22 for BHN; and a spike of 27 for Comcast -- mostly around service interruptions and long hold times for customer service. AT&T?s U-Verse connections to government and educational channels need to be completed soon or the issue should be advanced to a government body that has authority to enforce the law. There have been problems with the quality of the educational channels. Comcast indicated that they received a poor signal from BHN, and ETC says the signal appears clear when they send it out. BHN is still evaluating the situation. This month the IURC provided the Regulatory Flexibility Report required by the 2006 telecommunications law to the Indiana Senate. According to Maultra, it was ?underwhelming? regarding competition and pricing. The IURC, which regulates other utilities, does not officially take complaints about video service, but their report indicated they took 20% more complaints, but could not specify why. Based on complaints received by the communications agency, Maultra thinks it is likely they were about video services. Ken Montgomery reported on coverage of final budget meetings and conferences. Online video archive hits totaled 6,571 for the month and the top video accessed was the Early Intervention Planning Council meeting. The Indianapolis Star published two pictures captured from the video of the October 8 City-County Council meeting and pointed readers to the government channel?s video link, which brought a surge of hits to the site. Buz Nesbit and Al Aldridge provided the BHN written report, and reported on public affairs. Aldridge explained that new staff is being trained and customer service response time for fourth quarter 2007 is expected to be within the 30-second standard. BHN is again sponsoring the Star Teacher awards program. Robert Gobetz reported that ETC will be offering two Parents Empowered shows, one for math and one for reading. There was no public comment.

Reported by Jean Coughlin