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The scheduled meeting of the 91st Day Subcommittee held in the Town of
Abingdon Municipal Building was opened by Chairman F. H. Moore, Jr. There were
twelve members present. These included:
Minutes of the 23 April meeting were approved as presented. Dr. Moore reported that he and Jay Cox had attended and helped with
Congressman Boucher's Internet Conference held in Wytheville. There were 350
people in attendance, an indication of the high level of interest in that
subject. Jay Cox stated that Abingdon was far ahead of other localities in
connectivity. Jay and Dr. Moore also discussed their presentation to the Town
Council concerning setting up an authority to operate E V A. The Town Council
had agreed to do so. David Taverner then proceeded to suggest the next phase of the demonstration
project wherein service would be offered to individuals, businesses and offices
in the target area, thereby giving us experience with operating such a system on
a commercial basis. The target area proposed included the general courthouse
area with fiber optic lines designed to serve the vicinities of Plumb Alley,
Court Street and Troopers Alley. This arrangement was suggested in order to
allow the greatest initial connectivity for an area known to have a substantial
number of computers and to be in need of such services. David further explained the topology of the proposed system using the
existing T-1 connection at the Municipal Building and the facilities of the
Sprint Central Office on Valley Street to interconnect the above areas. Much of
this would be accomplished by a high density cable along Court Street extending
from Trooper's Alley to Plumb Alley. Such high density cable would provide
adequate service for the commercial establishments and residences along Court
Street and Trooper's Alley by means of fiber cable and electronic hubs and
routers as necessary. Such facilities would then feed into the fiber optic
cables leading to the Sprint Central Office and through other fiber optic cables
leading to the Municipal Building. Dr. Moore asked David if this system could be installed within the
approximately thirty days remaining to us and David replied that it could,
provided that we were able to agree and begin with it shortly. There followed a
discussion of the number of users in the area and the potential for the system
to be designed accordingly. It was determined that this Phase Two demonstration
should be made available to all potential users in the immediate area to be
served where possible. Inevitably, the cost of such a system was discussed. David explained that he
had not worked up a cost estimate pending agreement of the group as to the
service area and changes that could be made at this meeting. When the actual
system requirements and the number of users were known, a cost estimate could be
derived. David Taverner will amend the area and upgrade the facilities to support
additional drops along Plumb Alley as needed. Jean Luker suggested that we design any proposed system to serve at least 80%
of the demand in any given area so as not to have to replace wires and cables in
the immediate future; recognizing that eventually some such replacements would
be unavoidable. This standard was tacitly accepted by the group as a design
standard. In this instance the standard would require upgrading the fiber optic
cable stretching down Plumb Alley from Court Street to the Municipal Building,
since it would have to accommodate several additional structures in this area. Jay Cox suggested that ISDN networks could be begun in some other parts of
Town where there are clusters of users. The topology of these connections would
be similar to that described above and they could be readily converted to fiber
optic connections when that system reaches those areas. Jay specifically
referred to an area of West Valley Street where there are already enough
potential connections to justify some type of system. The next meeting was scheduled for May 28 to discuss costs now that an
agreement is reached as to the area to be served and standards for service
provision. Respectfully Submitted,
Albert C. Bradley, Secretary |