Vote to Upgrade Internet & Phone Service

Sponsors

• Sky Nova
• Ron Olson
• Daniel Martinez
• James Lamken

History

Mailing List Announcement: 08/20/2019

Officially Proposed: Postponed

To be voted on: Postponed

Background

This is a proposal to eliminate our 75/50Mbps Comcast cable connection (with phone service) in favor of a 300Mbps symmetrical AT&T fiber connection (with phone service and auto attendant).

The plan we would be upgrading has the following specs-

• 300 Mbps symmetrical fiber uplink ($225)
• Cellular Backup Connection ($15)
• 13 Static IP Addresses ($25)
• AT&T Phone Service ($30)
• Phone Auto Attendant ($3)

The total of these services would be roughly $290/m, assuming $320 after tax (at 7%, estimated from Comcast bill and rounded up).

The core issue this vote is attempting to address is our poor upload speed with Comcast. Right now we have 75Mbps down and 15Mbps up. This is too slow to make proper offsite backups for our data. Our critical infrastructure is 400GB, our non-critical infrastructure is 1TB, and there are plans to implement shared drive storage for all members which will start with a cap of 8TB.

There are some other benefits outside of this issue, such as increased network speed and the auto attendant function. PS1 is required to have a phone number for some financial services and it is listed on the receipt you get when your membership is processed. Right now the number simply rings a few board member's phones. With the auto attendant, we're hoping we can better direct the occasional calls we get and provide a friendlier greeting. Our current line also has no voicemail box, for better or for worse.

The current Internet utilities budget is $2,100. This vote will require $850 for service for the remaining year and $300 for potential Early Termination Fees from Comcast. In the new budget the total for Internet utilities will be increased to $3,850 a year. (or adjusted for taxes as this vote does not affect theoretical budgets and is only requesting additional money for this year’s budget)

Vote Language

Allocate an additional $1,150 to the existing Utilities budget for the termination of Pumping Station: One's Comcast contract and the creation of an AT&T services contract for the following services-

• 300 Mbps symmetrical fiber uplink
• Cellular Backup Connection
• 13 Static IP Addresses
• AT&T Phone Service
• Phone Auto Attendant

Results

• Vote to Upgrade Internet & Phone Service
  • For
  • Against
  • Abstain
  • Quorum