Year

2020

2
Apr
2020

February 5, 2020 Minutes

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CTAC Meeting Minutes February 5, 2020 —FINAL

Attending members: 
Peaches Quinn – (New Haven) –  Acting Chair
George Alexander – (Hamden) – Treasurer
Yvonne Manning-Jones  – (New Haven) – Advisor
Laurel Coleman – (Hamden) – Advisor
Anthony Cardo – (Hamden) – Advisor
Johnes Ruta – (New Haven) – Acting Secretary

Visiting attendee – Tad Weinstein – former CTAC Chair.

Meeting called to order at 6:09 pm.

1. Minutes

January 2, 2020 Minutes
a,   Laurel Coleman asks about “gift card” to Tad Weinstein for his service. Peaches notes that
this should read “Thank You Card” as there was no gift or renumeration included. Johnes
accepts this correction to be made to the January Minutes.

b. Yvonne Manning-Jones makes Motion to accept the January Minutes as amended.
Anthony Cardo seconds this Motion. Vote is unanimous to accept .

December 2019 Minutes.
   a.    Paragraph #2 – George questions what he was “concurring” with. “…evidence data” added to end of previous sentence to clarify.

b.  Peaches made motion for minutes procedures: initially publish “draft minutes” to all attendees. Upon approval/amendments made, minutes will be labeled FINAL and sent to George for posting.

Yvonne seconds . Motion carries.

 

  1. Treasurer’s Report

George presents an audit letter from PricewaterhouseCoopers describing that Comcast issued
a check to CTAC in the budget year 2016. They asked for confirmation the check was received. George will look back into financial records to confirm.

3. Old Business

a. CTAC Annual Report
George Alexander and Peaches Quinn prepared the CTAC Annual Report . It was submitted to PURA January 31 (their deadline). Acknowledgement made that report should have been published first to Council members.

Laurel presented a list of questions regarding meeting minutes contained in annual report. PQ will review and respond to questions by next meeting.

Reminder to all: Monthly minutes should be carefully reviewed and questions asked/corrections made prior to final approval.

b. CTV PSA– Laurel Coleman made motion to approve her finalizing outine/script for CTAC PSA
(Public Service Announcement) to promote public knowledge of the work and role
of the Cable Television Advisory Council. She recommends that all CTAC members
be available to appear in this PSA video recording.

Yvonne seconds and motion carried. Laurel will continue to coordinate PSA taping to be done prior to March 4 regular meeting.

  1. c.  Membership- Need to fill slots. Tad’s, West Haven seat remains unfilled. Also noted,
    there continue to be no Board of Education representatives for any of the three towns (New Haven,
    Hamden, or West Haven), and no City Libraries represented from Hamden or West Haven
    (as described in CTAC By-Laws).

    4.   New Business

  2. George Alexander states that the CTAC Funds Balance is presently $9,178.68.
    The CTAC is therefore in the position to make Community Awards George restated motions for multiple grants of $2,000, including one to Hamden Partnerships. Motion to approve deferred to next month pending identification of a senior center recipient in West Haven.

b.Anthony made motion to target 2020 financial gifts to help veteran groups. Johnes seconds. Motion carries.

 

  1. Correspondence

George read a statement from Comcast to Citizens TV (that CTAC received) describing number of subscribers in three towns for last quarter, 2019.

George made motion for PQ to followup with Comcast to determine was this an error or is it a new Comcast procedure and what does it mean. Yvonne seconds. Motion carries.

Next Meeting to be Wednesday, March 4th at offices of CTV at 6:00pm. Reminder: Arrive at CTV for 5:00 PSA taping.
Meeting adjourned: 7:25 pm.

February 5th, 2020 Minutes respectfully submitted by Johnes Ruta (New Haven)
Acting Secretary.   February 25th, 2020.

2
Apr
2020

January 2, 2020 Minutes

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CTAC Meeting Minutes January 2, 2020 

Attending members: 
Peaches Quinn – (New Haven) –  Acting Chair
George Alexander – (Hamden) – Treasurer
Yvonne Manning-Jones  – (New Haven ) – Advisor
Laurel Coleman – (Hamden) – Advisor
Johnes Ruta – (New Haven) – Acting Secretary

Dinner Invitees:
Tad Weinstein, past Chair of this chapter of the Cable Television Advisory Council.
Jennifer Sacco, past member Hamden advisor.

Meeting called to order at 6:30 pm.
Annual Dinner Meeting held at Adrianna’s Restaurant, Grand Avenue, New Haven.

  1. December CTAC Meeting Minutes
    No edits requested.
    Peaches makes Motion to accept as amended. Laurel seconds the Motions. Vote is unanimous.

    2. Old Business

    Vote to contribute funds to Hannah Grey center.

    George Alexander had made Motion in a previous meeting to present the Hannah Gray Senior Center
    with a grant of $2,000, but now wishes to revoke his Motion, as no West Haven senior center
    has yet been considered for a grant.
    Peaches specifies that CTAC has already given a $1,000 grant to Hannah Gray Senior Center in
    New Haven, and $1,000 to the Partnetship Adult Day Care Center in Hamden.

    George now makes a new Motion to make a $1,000 grant to a Senior Center in West Haven, to be
    determined..

Peaches Quinn says: “We will rise the topic of giving to institutions in 2020. George’s motion
is therefore revisited and amended, to a $2,000 total gift to be divided between New Haven and
Hamden.”   George consents.

Johnes Ruta seconds George’s amended Motion.   The vote is unanimous.

3. Correspondence.
George Alexander reports that there has been no correspondence since the December meeting.

4. Presentation of a gift card to Tad Weinstein, now to be named Chair Emeritus Retired.

 

Next meeting Wednesday February 5th, 2020, 6:00 at the offices of CTV.
Meeting adjourned: 7:00 PM.

January 2nd, 2020 Minutes respectfully submitted by Johnes Ruta (New Haven)
Acting Secretary.   February 1st, 2020.

14
Mar
2020

Coronavirus Comcast Update – Some FREE for Everyone

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  • Xfinity WiFi Free For Everyone: Xfinity WiFi hotspots across the country will be available to anyone who needs them for free – including non-Xfinity Internet subscribers. For a map of Xfinity WiFi hotspots, visit www.xfinity.com/wifi. Once at a hotspot, consumers should select the “xfinitywifi” network name in the list of available hotspots, and then launch a browser.
  • Pausing Our Data Plan: With so many people working and educating from home, we want our customers to access the internet without thinking about data plans.  While the vast majority of our customers do not come close to using 1TB of data in a month, we are pausing our data plans for 60 days giving all customers Unlimited data for no additional charge.

 

  • No Disconnects or Late Fees: We will not disconnect a customer’s internet service or assess late fees if they contact us and let us know that they can’t pay their bills during this period. Our care teams will be available to offer flexible payment options and can help find other solutions.

 

  • Internet Essentials Free to New Customers: As announced yesterday, it’s even easier for low-income families who live in a Comcast service area to sign-up for Internet Essentials, the nation’s largest and most comprehensive broadband adoption program. New customers will receive 60 days of complimentary Internet Essentials service, which is normally available to all qualified low-income households for $9.95/month. Additionally, for all new and existing Internet Essentials customers, the speed of the program’s Internet service was increased to 25 Mbps downstream and 3 Mbps upstream. That increase will go into effect for no additional fee and it will become the new base speed for the program going forward.

 

  • News, Information and Educational Content on X1 and Flex: For those with school-age students at home, we’ve created new educational collections for all grade levels in partnership with Common Sense Media.  Just say “education” into your X1 or Flex voice remote. To help keep customers informed, we also have created a collection of the most current news and information on Coronavirus.  Just say “Coronavirus” into your X1 or Flex voice remote.

 

  • 24×7 Network Monitoring: Underpinning all of these efforts, Comcast’s technology and engineering teams will continue to work tirelessly to support our network operations. We engineer our network capacity to handle spikes and shifts in usage patterns, and continuously test, monitor and enhance our systems and network to ensure they are ready to support customer usage. Our engineers and technicians staff our network operations centers 24/7 to ensure network performance and reliability. We are monitoring network usage and watching the load on the network both nationally and locally, and to date it is performing well.
13
Mar
2020

Comcast Increases Access to and Speeds of Internet Essentials’ Low-Income Internet Service

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Comcast Increases Access to and Speeds of Internet Essentials’ Low-Income Internet Service to Support Americans Through the Coronavirus Pandemic

As our country continues to manage the COVID-19 emergency, we recognize that our company plays an important role in helping our customers stay connected – to their families, their workplaces, their schools, and the latest information about the virus – through the Internet.

We also know that for millions of low-income Americans who don’t have Internet service at home, this uncertain time is going to be even more difficult to manage.  As schools and businesses close and families are encouraged, or even mandated, to stay home, Internet connectivity becomes even more important.

At Comcast, we’ve been looking for ways to help through our Internet Essentials program, which is the nation’s largest and most comprehensive broadband adoption program for low-income Americans.  Since 2011, it has connected millions of individuals to the Internet.

A hallmark of this program has been our flexibility in adjusting Internet Essentials to meet the needs of low-income residents in our footprint.  So, effective Monday, we are putting in place two substantial program enhancements to help these families deal with this crisis.

  1.  We will make it even easier for low-income families who live in a Comcast service area to sign up by offering new customers 60 days of complimentary Internet Essentials service, which is normally available to all qualified low-income households for $9.95/month.
  2.  Also, we are increasing Internet speeds for the Internet Essentials service from 15/2 Mbps to 25/3 Mbps for all new and existing customers, which will be the speed of the service going forward.  In this way, we will ensure that Internet Essentials customers will be able to use their Internet service for all their increased needs as a result of this health crisis.

We want to make it as fast and simple as possible to access this service:

  • To receive the increased Internet speeds, existing customers will not need to do anything.  The new speeds will be rolled out nationally over the next few days.
  • We’ll send all new customers a free self-install kit that includes a cable modem with a Wi-Fi router.  There will be no term contract or credit check and no shipping fee.
  • To sign up, applicants can simply visit www.internetessentials.com.  The accessible website also includes the option to video chat with customer service agents in American Sign Language.  There are also two dedicated phone numbers 1-855-846-8376 for English and 1-855-765-6995 for Spanish.

We’re also reaching out to our thousands of governmental and nonprofit partners to help us spread the word.  Our hope is that broader access and faster speeds will help all of our Internet Essentials customers more easily work from home, access educational resources, obtain important government health care alerts, and stay in contact with their families during this difficult time.

 

Sharon Codeanne

Director, Government & Regulatory Affairs

Comcast

222 New Park Drive

Berlin, CT  06037

860-505-3477

[email protected]

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