Good evening, everyone.

Um, I'm Brad Wortell.

If you don't know or I haven't met you before, I'm the chief operating for Velocy Network.

Um also VNet Fiber.

Um appreciate everyone's time uh to to hear about our updates and then get some feedback and we can provide some um additional data and some of the roadblocks and things that we've been seeing that we can maybe work through here, and maybe council can help us out with and continue the growth that we have here.

I know while I'm working with Chuck before we had uh you know just a little bit of areas that we were in in the city, and it's been a little bit of uh time here since the last meeting, but I wanted to provide a printout here, and we can get you a digital copy of this as well so you can zoom in.

I know I tried to blow it up on uh a larger paper, but uh it didn't really blow up well.

So um, but if you know the city uh and and the roads and everything in here, this will kind of uh break out where we've been.

We've been really busy um the past year.

Um we started with uh permitting or working through uh permits with uh First Energy.

Um we had um set a number of poles in the in the city for some areas where we couldn't get on the telephone poles.

Um, and as you're aware, majority of the city of Erie, um the utilities are um through the air or aerial.

Um there are some areas that are underground.

Um there were some sections we we put some uh underground conduit in, but we really expanded uh dramatically from the border of uh Pittsburgh Avenue.

Um I would say from 26th, 26th Street to 38th Street, and then just recently we've moved all the way up to uh West Grandview Boulevard.

So everything that's highlighted in uh in orange is areas that those houses can get service from VNet Fiber.

Uh you need another one?

Here we go.

The area um you'll see a couple that are in bluish purple.

They would look blue on the computer, but it's more purple.

Um is uh State Street.

We've we've been working on um pole permitting and costing for State Street from about where um Collegiate Academy is up to 38th Street.

There's been an area there in the middle that we were running into.

There's issues with the telephone poles, and if you're familiar at all uh with the uh telephone uh and power line poles in some parts of the city, they're very old.

Some of them are probably in the 60 to 70 years of age.

Um, first energy is starting to do a lot of work on replacing those with more uh modern poles.

Um you'll see that in different parts of the city.

But that how that holds up some of our deployments because we bear the burden of paying for those replacements.

Um there's some changes in the FCC uh laws that are coming down that are requiring the power companies to I'd say take the burden on of a majority of those poll replacements because they should have been replaced 25, 30 years ago.

Um but what's happened historically is uh providers like us in other regions, other providers when they go to attach to a telephone pole if they're the next one on the power company or the telephone company of Verizon owns they own about probably 20%, 30% of the poles in the city would come and say, okay, velocity, you're the next one to attach.

We wouldn't replace this poll if it wasn't for you needing to get on it, and it's $15,000 for that one pole.

So we're still running into those things.

We had had a crew come out and survey West Bayfront two years ago, East Bayfront, and put together a model for us to be able to go on telephone poles in those areas.

That pricing two years ago is not the pricing of today.

So there's been some changes in the uh requirements and height requirements, a whole bunch of technical stuff and where we can attach and where we can't.

We are working very closely with First Energy and Verizon to see if there's some relief and some different ways we can go about getting on some of those poles.

Um there are areas in West Bayfront and even on um East Bayfront that there's poles on both sides of the street.

So the power company owns the poles, let's say on the north side, and Verizon owns it on the south side.

But if power lines cross your your lines, your telephone lines, we have to maintain clearances.

So now we get we would have to pay 800, 900, 1,000 to have first energy move the power lines up higher so that we can fit above spectrum.

So there's a whole bunch of different things that go into attaching to telephone poles.

We found a lot less of those problems south of 26th Street because there's not as much uh equipment and as many things attached to the polls.

So that's what's allowed us to spread out pretty rapidly from Pittsburgh Avenue all the way.

I mean, we just wrapped up McClelland and 38th Street.

Um that's we were over there.

Yeah.

Yes.

So McClellan 38th to um what uh East Grandview Boulevard.

I grew up on English Avenue, so uh you know my parents got fiber finally here, they've been asking for it for like 20 years, but uh over there on uh 40th in English, 44th in English.

We've got um a section in um you're over near Mount Calvary and Ricardo's, they're on the north side of East Lake Road.

Um that was a section we were able to get permitted and surveyed before Penelect changed the parameters, so we're able to get on a lot of those telephone poles at the rates that we had budgeted back two years ago, so that we were able to complete that successfully.

But then um, as you will see, there is a lot of the the red lines here across the city, and those are where our trunk lines are.

So that's where we have fiber now everywhere that is service servicing a business, a school, the wastewater treatment plant.

If you see here on the north side, um a lot of small mid-sized businesses.

So what we're doing right now is we're kind of in these areas is pivoting and looking to say, okay, what poles can we get on?

What things can we attach to and work with first energy that isn't a whole blanket amount, but we can build off of the places we already have attachments.

So wherever you see the lines, we permitted with Verizon or First Energy, maybe even 20 years ago, depending on where we built to.

So we're now trying to go and pick just being able to build off of our existing um fiber to then expand into those areas and then hopefully you know, see where poles are being replaced by First Energy.

Um we're gonna work on having some discussions with them on what their um timelines are for replacing poles and upgrading some of the facilities in some of these uh areas in West Bayfront and East Bayfront to allow us to come in and not have you know if we budgeted 100,000 on the West Bayfront for pole uh pole attachments, that's now 400,000, 500,000.

It's it's jumped dramatically.

So we don't also want to hold back some of our expansion.

So what we're doing is hey, if we can go off of our network, how many homes can we feed off of that?

How how many poles can we get to that um aren't problematic?

Um in some of the areas around the city, we go underground to bypass problems on poles in the city.

It's a lot more complicated.

There's a lot of utilities, there's a lot of old infrastructure under the ground, and we're really trying to be good stewards of that because we ran into that in frontier.

And I think it's happening right now with like the water line replacements, is like you're digging up things and it can lead to the trees being destroyed, the root system, and I've seen that in other areas where like if you start disturbing the ground ahead, it could create other problems.

So we really want to stay on poles where the utilities are aerial and stay underground where the utilities are underground and not set poles necessarily where people didn't have them before because we have gotten you know calls from um citizens that we set a pole you know in you know on their street that wasn't there before because we're trying to get around a problem area with the the utilities, and they're not used to having a telephone pole on their other property.

So we send our team out, we talk about the benefits of the fiber and everything coming to them, and they they're fine with it after we tell them what it's for.

Um so you know that's worked out well, and I I don't I haven't received many complaints, you know, and I haven't heard from anyone on council that's gotten a phone call from someone.

So, you know, we're we think we've gotten through that uh that part of the deployment.

But you know, as you can see, um, if you compared it to where we were before, and Chuck, to your point, we had areas that we were in development, you know, especially along West Bayfront.

Right now, you know, based on all the things that I've said, is we're kind of in limbo on some of that.

We're we're going through block by block and seeing if there are areas that we can get some success on the the telephone poles.

I think our biggest obstacle is you know, making sure that we are working alongside with First Energy to get on the poles that they are replacing, and or um find a longer-term plan with them as to what their you know upgrade path is for the existing infrastructure because there is a lot of lines criss-crossing, going back and forth.

I mean, if you just drive down second street, you can just see lines or third street.

It's just how it happens.

You got cable going one way, you got Verizon going the other, you got Penelect coming across, and we're the new people coming in trying to get around that.

So you know, I think we've had a very good relationship working with First Energy and Verizon here locally to help us keep this growth going.

And you know, this is what our current status is right now.

So I'll leave it open for for questions that you might have.

And do you run into any problems with tree trimming?

Or you are lower than the lowest branch.

So we have had probably a half dozen fiber cuts recently because of the tree trimming that was going on where they're they're um you know trimming the trees to get them off the power lines, and we're the top attachments.

So it happens, it's an accident.

You know, we have you know where they're using the saws and they they nick the fiber, or um, you know, it's the branches fall down on our on our lines, and we have to repair them.

Um, but it's not it, it's not too bad.

Um, we have to trim trees as we're installing at times.

Um, we've done uh we did a lot of builds over in the um let's say uh green garden, you know, north of uh south of 32nd Street.

There's a lot of trees covering those lines, and in order for us to get our um fiber through, we had to trim them.

Um so you know, there's a lot of you know, encroachments because it's in the backyard.

A lot of the power lines are in the backyards in those areas.

So, yes.

Do you get any complaints from the residents on you know tree trimming?

I would expect more, but when they hear that we're coming and bringing fiber and bringing it an option to them, they're like um most people are like very understanding and say we understand like we have to that you have to do this to get to get a service and to get our neighbors service.

I mean, the the rear easements are sometimes a problem because we talked to other people like Spectrum or you know, trying to get in backyards and they're fenced in, and you have to get permission.

We can't just walk in on to fenced in backyards.

But generally, when they hear, hey, we're trying to hook up your neighbor to fiber.

Can we get into your backyard to get up to the pole?

Most people are really accommodating, and it's been it's been great the um the response we've gotten from when we go into the areas.

We have citizens coming out of their houses and handing the technicians water and and you know, offering them a drink for you know working out in the area.

It's just been it's been really neat just seeing the response we got from the areas.

That's good to hear.

Would you say that you have more um business uh clientele or residential?

Because for me, it looks like the areas that are prominently developed are the business areas of the city.

Um right now we have more we have more residential customers than we do business customers right now in the city.

I mean, our our um growth has been.

I mean, we've got right now we are at 6,400 subs in the Erie area, and a large majority of these those are coming out of the city right now from from Frontier, South You know, Southwest Erie, South Erie.

Um, we've got a very high take rate up near you know, mount like I said, Mount Calvary.

Um Southeast Erie, we've got a lot of fiber there, especially around Brandis.

Um that area, the take rate is actually uh you know pretty low.

It's it we thought maybe there would be more um people signing up, but we're like 12-13 percent.

We're hoping to get around 25.

Our goal in an area is to be at 25 to 30 percent, but there are areas in Southwest Erie that are doing phenomenally well.

Um Charlotte Allegheny, um anywhere up off of West Grandview Boulevard.

Um that's all that's all gone really well.

Um West Northwest Erie, um Coqua, um, all of those um side streets off of uh 6th Street have done really well.

Um then along uh 29th Street, uh you know, West 29th.

Um our one of our main offices that feeds the fiber is off of 21st and Bower, so areas just south of that have done have done um pretty well.

Um our goal is to fill in, start filling in areas.

So you'll see in purple one of the areas that we're gonna be uh working on, um, hopefully uh very soon as long as we clear our penalect permits uh right across from West Erie Plaza.

It's at uh 8 and Shenley area there.

Um there's uh a number of houses right there in the cluster there, right?

Uh um, I think right up against I-79.

And then hoping to be able to take that all the way out to Harding Elementary that's over there.

So get that section.

Did you say it was more of a challenge to get more closer to the inner inner city as because it looks like you're describing like the out maybe the outer outsides?

Yeah, so is it more of a challenge?

The challenge is the you the older utility poles and the access to those utility poles.

Um I would say that is our number one challenge right now because a couple years ago when we were starting uh this project and and meeting about it with the different contractors and meeting with our you you have engineering firms that come in and survey the polls.

Um our initial estimates came in where we needed to be to make that work.

The rules have changed, the attachment heights have changed, things have changed.

Whether it's a first energy policy or it's more of a safety policy that's been adopted across the industry, they've changed those heights and those clearances that we need to be at.

And because of the high density of homes in a lot of these areas and the fact that there's lines on both sides of the street, it's creating I would say uh four times cost for us.

So what we're hoping is in the conversations with First Energy and Verizon is okay, what are your plans to you know to upgrade the poles and facilities?

You'll see polls all over the city that have X's on them, but they're they're slated for replacement.

And I get it, you know, if we are the next one to attach a poll and we create a life safety issue because the pole is you know 50 years past when it needs to be replaced, and we put a bolt into it and the pole falls apart and power lines fall on the street.

Yeah, we don't we do not want to be a part of that, and we understand why first energy has the rules that they do.

So our plan here over the next 18 months is to you utilize, and that's why layered in our our backbone network because that's how we've built all of this is built off of our backbone, which a majority of those lines you'll see across the network were there before we started this fiber to the home project.

So the only way these work is if you already have a backbone in place that you can build off of.

So our goal is everywhere we've got backbone is to look at those strategic plans and look at the polls, look at the data, and go, okay, can we can we deploy here?

And you know, we've really been edging, we've been edging up north as much as we can.

Um we've got some plans along Bird Drive that we're gonna be right in the middle of developing right now, Bird Drive down the Fairmont Parkway on the west side.

So you've got Wesleyville Hobby on the east side of Bird Drive and um Erie on the west side.

So we're working on those plans right now.

But um, this is what our current situation is.

I'm very thankful.

I live in the 43rd Street uh Rice Avenue area, and that whole area is basically late 50s, early 60s, some 70s uh houses.

Very thankful.

I really hope that First Energy is working with you as best as they can because pool upkeep.

I know that they went through um last year or so summer, and we're checking all of our polls in the neighborhood.

But um it drives me nuts that some poles still exist when new ones are right.

Right next to it, yep.

I would hope that someday that there'll just be one pole instead of two poles.

Um but and that they should have maybe grandfathered you in from I mean they've done uh over the past couple of years, they've done a really good thing.

They brought in um consultants and they brought in engineers to go and document everything they have, and we were a part of that documentation.

So everything that we have in the city has now been redocumented into first energy system.

They had a third party come out, and that's probably who you've seen.

Yeah, is uh, you know, they were contractors, they went to every pole.

Looked at every single one in all of Erie County.

Uh First Energy's done it across their whole, I think they're doing across their whole um company in all the different regions.

But that's helped us too to identify where things are, you know, what it tells you the age of the pole, you know, how tall it is, and all those things.

So I think our big thing is the price, and you know, even with inflation and all the the pressures on the the inputs, the products that we put on the on the polls, the strand, the fiber.

None of that pro none of those products to us, at least right now, have gone up in price.

Like, if anything, a lot of this has come down a bit to make it um a little bit easier to get um the equipment on the polls.

The thing that has skyrocketed are the permitting fees, are the what they call make ready fees to make the pole ready for you to attach.

Um, and then the post fees.

There's now post inspection fees on top of the pre-inspection fees.

So our issue isn't unique to other providers that are doing this right now.

Um the FCC has done uh a really good job over the past uh you know, I'd say dozen years in trying to make a level playing field as to how these processes work, the timelines, the expectations of the providers, such as velocity and first energy, Verizon, ATT, whoever those providers are in that region.

Um but it's not moving fast enough, it's still moving slowly as to how you know companies are adopting those rules, and um I can say first energy has done a much better job the past couple years bringing in uh different third parties to help them with the backlog because what we're doing in Erie is happening in areas all over, and companies like First Energy are being pressured to get all of this done this work done for providers, and they're being hit by in in multiple ways.

So what we can do is you know work as closely as we can with them to make sure that we can get as much deployed as possible.

Um there are other companies that are looking at the region right now that are doing some things.

Um there's another company that's been doing a little bit of fiber here in the the Erie area, but we've been you know there right alongside the same time.

So we've been uh happy to say most of the business is staying local.

You know, we're still 100% locally owned, and we're you know, we're here for the long term.

We're not looking to get gobbled up by some bigger company doing something.

Um, even if we're not in these areas right now, we have pushed a price decrease to people in the city of Erie with Spectrum.

If you've not called Spectrum, you know, they're calling you, they're trying to save their you know, save um some of their business.

Uh we've done a really good job of coming in and positioning of what we offer, and we've got an overwhelming response.

We were just set up at uh celebrate Erie with our tent, and we had an overwhelming response of people coming and saying, Look, you're helping me out here, like I'm getting better service and better rates from you.

I would never go back.

Um, even if they came and gave me a cheaper price, which is what they're doing, and we're we're we're preparing ourselves for the for that.

But we have found that price is not the only thing that is you know keeping people from you know not switching to VNet.

So you know, we're proud to give everyone those options, and you're seeing it now.

I mean, they are throwing once they know that there's competition, because we're really the only one here doing this right now.

I mean, Verizon is really cellular, is the competition, they're not doing any fiber, and I haven't heard any plans of that yet.

But um, we're just gonna keep chugging along and getting into these areas that we can and provide a an opp opportunity for their citizens of Erie to have a another connection to the internet.

With the backboning on the map, is do residents is that dark fiber or is that areas that that residents are able to tap?

So a lot of these, a lot of these areas are it's it's fiber that is connecting to a business in the area.

Those businesses, because of the way the network is built, can now the technology has changed that we can now utilize that same connection and and feed that to residential units.

That's how we've built the whole network out.

Is all of these lines you see in the shaded areas are ways that how now we fed those blocks and streets and and neighborhoods from there.

So those lines that are there can be used, you know, depending on what the equipment is on those telephone poles.

So if there's a problem, outage problem with the business.

All the residents will suffer as well.

Yeah, if the if the fiber, if the fiber is cut, you know, let's say on you know, one of these streets here that's feeding those businesses, and there's residential units that are there, they're all gonna be affected.

So we try to build the network out to have connections coming in from multiple locations so that a whole area doesn't get isolated because of a fiber cut because it happens.

You got someone you know hits a telephone pole, you get the like you see the tree trimmers, um, squirrel chew.

I mean, that's happens with the rodents, they they find they get into the low conduits and they start chewing away at the fiber.

We have we have that happen.

But majority of the fiber cuts is because a telephone pole got taken out, you know, someone you know, a car crashed into it, or utility vehicle did something, and that's what usually causes our damage.

That would be the same.

So if fiber's going out, then spectrum's gone out, and then the I mean, every so it's not just generally, yes, we're all on the same poll.

So generally if a poll gets taken out, spectrum's out, Verizon's out, the power's out, we're out.

Um usually that's what ends up happening.

But uh the one thing we do pride ourselves on is we our crews are all here locally, local employees.

We don't outsource our our repair team, so they're all here on call to go fix problems, you know, when there's something that gets cut.

So I'm trying to remember.

I I think when we first talked to you or when I first talked to you before getting into office in 21, you were uh you were able to reach, I think it was 3700 residential, you know, residences.

Uh uh do you know what your numbers now for households that are have access?

Across the entire uh I don't have the number for Erie specifically, but across the entire plant, it's 20,000 right now.

So these areas that we added over the past 12 months are about nine to ten thousand of that.

Yeah.

So we've got a lot of density here, like I said, southeast, southwest Erie, Northeast Erie, and Northwest Erie are the big pockets, and if you go and look, like I said, the utility polls and everything in some of those areas are for some reason they've been replaced and not you know aged out for as for some reason as if I'm looking down you know Fifth Street right now.

You I mean you're you can look at those poles and trying to get on those, it could cost us $20,000 to get on one pole right now.

So that's we are working feverishly to figure out how do we better work with First Energy to get on those poles because at 20,000 a pole, you could go down a whole city block and there's 20 poles, 400,000.

I even put I haven't put fiber on the pole yet, and you're at you know half a million dollars.

So that's the and like I said, we're not unique in in having this problem, especially in you know, cities that have older infrastructure.

Um, if everything was underground, then we would be just doing everything underground.

It would be much more expensive.

Underground is way more expensive than aerial.

But what's very interesting now is we're running into situations where putting the fiber on the poles in some of these areas is more expensive than underground.

But we can't go underground in some of these areas in the city because we will disturb everything.

We will be disturbing trees, we will be breaking up roads, and we don't want to do that as well either.

Because what will happen is the the opposite is where someone will say, Well, my utilities come in over the air, I've got a line to my house.

Why are you digging up my driveway?

Why are you digging up my my sidewalk to put something into my house?

And we don't want to have that happen as well.

So we're we're working a bunch of different angles to try to get as much of this, you know, the orange shading, so the next time we talk, you get more of the shade uh in some of these areas.

Um the two, like I said, in purple are the ones that are imminent right now.

There are other areas where now we're just working back and forth to figure out um what the pole costs are gonna be, and then try to edge out from these different backbones that we have right now.

How eminent are we talking with these two blue sections?

Um, if the weather holds out, if we don't have a well, I don't want to predict what snow's gonna look like this year.

That really slowed us down last year.

But um if the weather isn't a problem, then it would be late this year.

Um most of these are aerial, so we can work during um the bad weather unless you've unless you've got three feet of snow in the street, you can't get that.

Was one of our problems last year and completing all of these uh on time was the the contractors just couldn't get their trucks down the streets and and couldn't get uh you know from a safety standpoint, we can't block the roads off.

So as long as you know we had two good seasons a couple years ago where we could get work done.

Um I'm hoping cautiously optimistic that we can keep just working away.

Um but I would say late this year, early next year.

Are any residents um putting the bill to have the hardware installed themselves?

To have the fiber wiring and everything installed are we don't charge an install fee.

But if they wanted to get connected, are you guys like offering to if so if someone wanted to pay for us to build infrastructure to them, it's no different than Spectrum.

If you're they're not there and they wanted to pay and we did a survey to say it's gonna cost this much, absolutely.

I wonder if our state legislators could contribute like with through a grant or something to help you out.

We've been we've been looking at a bunch of different avenues.

They've been focused on areas that don't have it.

So one of the disadvantages for Erie is we have, I mean, we have what's considered broadband with spectrum that they meet the standards, spectrum is down every street.

So to me, I'm clarifying it from competitive broadband because really they're in the areas that we're not, you know, they're a monopoly.

So they can control it.

Let's put some numbers on there to like what the state defines as high-speed internet.

Is it three megabytes per second upload speed and a 25 download?

I think is the Yeah, I think right now it's still it's the FCC standard.

So I want to say it's 25 by 3, and maybe fit I've heard 50 by 10 coming as a as a 25 by 3.

I I I could be off on that, but I but I'm I I know that that was the standard recently.

And what are you throwing?

Like a thousand up and down at the same time.

Or uh in some areas right now, it's two thousand.

Yeah.

So it's a big difference.

Yeah, we're talking and the upload speed, especially, like we're talking something, it's not even comparable.

But because we have three upload speed available everywhere in the city, they're not helping us, uh, which is why the city has stepped in and especially through revolving loans.

Uh we're at about twenty two point eight million dollars in revolving loans between six of them, one of them is about to be paid off.

We're gonna be down to five with you.

So um, you know, that is that is part of it.

Where where are you guys at to make this move faster?

Is there is there pressing capital needs right now for you guys?

I I know I don't think it's pressing capital, it's getting the the cost uh you would say cost per home passed to a point that no matter what the capital number is, it it works.

You know, the capital numbers, you know.

If if I'm talking about $20,000 to replace a pole in front of one house and it's you know $200,000 to get a half a block, it just doesn't it just doesn't work.

The the cooperation, if we can get cooperation and maybe come up with some creative um creative ways to get down some of these blocks, then I think that that's gonna be the the the bigger thing.

Um you know, yeah, capital is you know if if we had tar if we were targeting a specific area, I mean capital's always you know something that we could we could use.

I'm not gonna say that that's not uh it's it's not holding us back from doing those areas if if that's the question you're asking.

So I think the last two years has been very eye-opening as to how the regulations have changed and how the power companies and the phone companies and all the regulatory things have changed over the past two years too to make it a little tougher to get on some of these poles.

We'd been approached before about um you know burying fiber and some of our standards for what um for the cuts were gonna have to be were um stringent from their views.

Yes, so the is there anything that we're that we could do to make it easier for you in that way?

Well, the you know the providers they were looking at underground in the city, they would be looking at like micro trenching.

I just don't know how you deal with that in the winter when you have four inches of ice on the road.

Yeah, we're not even looking at that.

That's something like it would be a disaster if someone had to dig up a water line in the middle of the winter and hit a fiber light and we couldn't fix it.

Yeah, so we're just not looking at that.

Okay.

I I would strongly suggest to any fiber provider that's looking to do that up here.

I've talked to I was just in Salt Lake City at a conference, and they're like, we're not even doing that up here.

We're not we're not touching that because of the repair side of it.

It's great to put in, you can put it in the ground, but when you have that that fiber cut and you're dealing with three feet of snow, good luck.

So at least with a telephone pole, we can fix it, you know, get up there on the poles.

Is there benefit so I guess this it might be an obsolete question?

When we are doing new infrastructure and new buildings are going up, if that part is buried underneath around, would that make sense?

That helps that helps immensely, yes.

Okay.

Yep.

So they just it's like a dig once thing.

And there's there's been some ordinances, some some municipalities are looking at like Barry once dig once the everything that's going on, they're putting conduit in the ground at the same time so that it gives you access to get there.

Because thinking about parade street, like there is so much infrastructure and development that's about to happen down parade.

So if we could coordinate where there's just and parade is parade, is not gonna be a problem for uh but we've been working really we worked really closely with the city.

There was a um uh camera, I think a camera project that happened up and down Parade Street that we made sure we put extra facilities in there to be able to service areas from there.

So um six and parade, I think it was six to tenth in parade, and then that got us down.

Um I think it gave me it's down even further.

So um we have some micro cell um towers that are down that way too that we we cover, so we're gonna be looking at that area as well.

I think if you look down um East Sixth Street, you know, there's there's lots of lines out there.

A lot of those are Verizon micro towers that we have.

And how does it just play well with or not play well with the power grid in and of itself in Erie?

Because as we're looking like hybrid cars things that are charging, that is it's it's tapping it out pretty pretty quick.

Like I'm just curious about it.

I think they're just gonna be putting you're gonna see uh I've been seeing a lot more high voltage lines and and and facilities being put in to handle that because it's definitely a big need.

Yeah.

I mean, I'm sure there are areas now that with a lot more electric vehicles that the power grid's being taxed though in ways it hasn't been before, which is a which is a good thing because of the electric vehicles, but also a bad thing if the if the infrastructure can't keep up.

Right.

So this will take you through the end of this year.

Do you have uh blue areas in mind for next year yet?

Uh like I said, we're working on um design and network design to fill in.

I mean, if you're looking at these gaps in here, is how do we fill those in on top of our existing infrastructure backbone and spread out without first energy prices being too high.

And you know, like I said, we've had some really good conversations.

We're gonna be working very closely with them and their engineering teams and their um they've got a new company that's working on the engineering side as well that we're gonna be working with and really try to squeeze out as many of these areas as we as we can in terms of um building off of our existing infrastructure.

And if we can get through some of those hurdles, you know, um, and leverage, you know, talking with the the different there's there's uh a lot of different grants and funding sources, but like I said before, a lot of those are really focused right now on the underserved, and to your point, Chuck, it's not considered that in here, even though it's really low.

It's low standards for that.

The stand, I mean if we could set the standards to if you're trying to stream video from your security camera at your house or use your blink yeah, your cameras, yes, it's really low.

Um that's one of the benefits on the fiber size our upload is a lot higher.

So your cameras and all the things you're trying to do from a security standpoint are way better than on a cable modem.

I forget how many cameras I have to upload from my house right now with this fiber.

And and you take and you take it for granted when it's just working and you're like, well, okay, I can so you know that's one of the benefits.

So different from back in the day when you're sitting in front of your computer for 10 minutes while something's loading, yeah.

Heaven forbid someone call you.

Yeah.

Any other questions or I guess we're just looking forward to it expanding throughout the whole city.

I know there's residents who continue to ask when you guys are coming to their neighborhood, and you know, we don't have those answers.

Yeah, and uh I encourage everyone to keep coming to the website or keep reaching out to us via phone.

We take all those notes, we put it all into our system, we're crunching the data.

Some of these backbone areas look like you almost have like a solid and that's why I wanted to share that with you in this map, because that's where we're really focusing on is how do we expand from that?

Um because we're already on those poles.

Yeah, and when we're on those poles, you know, that that's not holding us back from those areas.

So um that's where the um people signing up and showing us their interest is really helpful.

Yeah, like cherry cherry to parade looks like you have a cord out there that the whole thing's almost full already.

It's just that it's all backbone.

And a lot of these the backbones are uh you know original from when we um the schools were all connected, so they're all near schools.

Do you have deals?

I mean, Fairmont Parkway is white, but deals on the deal.

Um yep, so um Fairmont Parkway, McClelland, um down to Buffalo Road, uh up to 38th Street.

So we're looking at that McClellan corridor as well.

So essentially the biggest barrier right now is if there were new poles, like so these aging infrastructure, if the new poles were in place, that would expedite the process for you all.

Yeah, the the new poles that would allow us to attach to them without having to replace them.

Yes, absolutely.

And like I said, there's been a lot of progress from from Penn Lek on that.

Um probably it should have you know, probably should have been years ago that that was going on, but you know, it you know it's it's moving.

You're seeing a lot of them get replaced.

Are you having any specific issues with uh northwest 26 streaks?

I see how there's like most of that's connected in that one street looks like right there in the corner.

Northwest 26.

So like right there near 79.

Yeah.

Right here.

That's yeah, that's all that's on the mill creek side, right?

Oh heck with that.

Yeah, like I'm just asking different.

That's Mill Creek.

I see how like you guys have been going along most of the middle.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

Uh 20 the the backbone, there's no telephone poles on 26th Street from 79 till gosh.

I mean, there's we don't have any backbone on 70 uh 26 from Peninsula Drive to 79.

It's just there was never any reason to do that because it's all commercial.

Well, anytime you're thinking about putting any zones on this side of that blue line or on this side of the blue line or this side, and you're like, we're not sure if we're gonna do it here or here, let us know.

We'll find a way to make it here.

That's what that revolver loan front's for.

Yes.

I was just talking to the guy that works at Cam uh yesterday, the day before, and he lives in Westonville.

He's really looking forward to fiber, and I said I was into everything in my power to make him move to Erie for it.

No, he's on the other side of that blue line, right?

Yeah, yeah.

So I told me you'd have to be a little bit more.

Yep.

So cut off there.

Yeah, so um, we are you know, because we've got trunk lines on what is that uh Buffalo Road and McClellan and getting over to Bird Drive and wrapping up that where McClellan Park is and around there, that's that's something we're looking at as well.

Yeah.

Now there's a couple areas uh I know is underground.

I think uh north of McClellan Park, that's an underground area, I think, of homes.

So that's you know, that's one where there's no telephone poles, but you know, it's gonna be a little bit it's it's more expensive to bury it.

But if the infrastructure's there, we can we can get that done a little bit easier.

The other thing too is um you'd be surprised like the the amount of interest where there's a lot of interest, and then you you get built to it and it's it's that change, you know, changing providers, you know.

So we're doing a lot of um outreach and explaining the process because it changes, you know, it's not easy.

I mean, changing providers that I mean the install for your I mean um we try to make it as seamless as possible.

I mean it was like it's two hours from the it's yeah, it's a two yeah, it's a process, it's yeah, it's a two-hour process.

But it was what I'm saying is like if there was a disruption from going from one provider to another, I was connected within two hours.

So I didn't miss a football game and it was quick once it was there.

That's part of the education that we're really trying to get across.

Is he it's okay, it's not it's not gonna be a big deal.

What is the the communication like with like our permitting department, for example?

So if if is there connection with so if we know that there's gonna be a new build, we know that the ground is gonna be torn up.

Or is there like just communication with our departments?

We we communicate a lot with the permitting department for our needs.

Yeah, and I think you're on to something is that hey, we're building this here, let's just let us know.

We can put something in the ground or work with the team to make sure we have infrastructure built out.

Um but um I can tell you from the city side, everything we've needed from the permitting and setting poles and vaults and all that has been phenomenal, phenomenal response from the team here.

And that may be I mean, because I know we get a lot of like when the permits are coming through, we're approving them on council.

So I mean it might just be a coordination of making sure that the minutes are certain, you can see what's coming up.

But if the ground is gonna be tore up and there's gonna be things built, it would just be it would just be cost effective.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

Oh, that's a great point.

I mean, since for anyone that's actually watching this, if people are watching, everyone's watching it.

You know, I think this is one of the things that I continue to point out.

Um, you know, studies have this at being worth about four to five percent appreciation in home value.

Uh assessed value of our houses in the city is you know, about three and a half billion.

Uh it's probably actually like from an appraisal value, probably closer to about five billion now.

So like when you look at like the investment that happens, like this can create a quarter billion dollars in home equity if we add a citywide fiber network.

Right now we're at about looks like about a 30% coverage.

Uh we were at 10% coverage a couple years ago.

Um 30 to 40 percent.

You're gonna be able to do that.

Yeah, I think you're uh we're in the 40s.

Yeah.

So I mean this is we're talking about homes past, yeah.

Yeah.

So I mean this is really yeah, with the backbone and stuff like prior, probably.

So as we get up to close to half the city lit, I mean, this is you know, nine figures wealth creation for a community, and that's that's where it really becomes important that I think the city continues to you know invest in this with the revolving loan fund and to to see that because it's an investment in the community as much as it's an investment in your company.

And what I um commit to here is the the data that we're gathering on these zones that we originally thought were going to be X to build and now they're Y is you know pushing that to the point where we can confidently know we can build for this and talk with you know this the city and talk about the the different funding options and things that are available to help even push that across the finish line.

But um, I think there's a lot of work to be done with first energy on that.

But like I said, there's been a lot of communication and it's it's uh way better process than we've had year for years.

So we're we're optimistic.

Um but you know, I I agree with you, like I'd like to have it yesterday, and you know, we see how when we're getting into areas, how we're being received and how we're changing you know the technology for a lot of these homes that we're going into.

Um, and we just want to continue to do that for the city.

I'm just speaking from like personal experience.

This this was a game changer for my kids who are online school, but also for our private business where we do a lot of sessions.

And so when when we're investing, we're investing in the entrepreneurs.

We're I mean, there's just it's there's a lot, there's a lot of people that work from home.

Yep, there's a lot of students who are going to school from home.

I mean, so this is incredibly beneficial, not just from like the the business side of it, but it creates a pathway for a lot of people.

And I don't know that that the human side of of the benefits of this getting to as many places as we can.

I think can't be over overemphasized.

Yeah, it's just not the tech speak and that you're getting the fastest.

It's actually changing lives and changing what you're doing from your home.

The work from home is big.

The security aspect of it, um, the reliability.

I mean, your doctor's appointments here.

I mean, just there's so many things now that people are doing from home, and this is this would be a game changer for so many families.

Yep.

Um, so whatever we can do, we gotta do.

Yeah.

Well, and yeah, and you know, um, you know, our mission's been that way, Joel's um, to continue to keep expanding this.

Um, we're gonna work on getting rid of all the roadblocks we can, and I think you know, the the cooperation and all the help from from the from council and from mayor's office and and everyone here to keep doing this.

We're we're gonna keep pushing ahead and we'll get around um these roadblocks and you know you make sure we get it deployed as much as possible.

Yep, right here.

I appreciate I appreciate the updates.

This is helpful for me too, to also for us to understand what is what is stopping some of the expansion.

So, where can we help and where can we push on this side as well?

So I appreciate.

Oh, you're welcome.

We're just not now.

Does anybody else have any other questions?

We we block an hour, but I mean I don't think we have we're not obligated to take the hour, should we?

No, I just um I look forward to it reaching more residential neighborhoods, especially the east side residents and you know residents who have been asking for fiber um for quite some time.

So I'll be reaching out to VNet to see what we have to do to get the uh Chestnut Street connected from West 18th down to whatever the other orange line is because I know a lot of you know feel free to reach out to me directly and give I give you my email address, and if you want to send me those areas, I can definitely look into that.

Right now we have Mo over here in this dead zone, and then you have me over here in this dead zone, and I'm more concerned with all of these dead zones of actual residential neighborhoods, so yeah, okay.

Questions for another day?

Well, I just want to know how come you uh took care of Kathy first.

I telephone polls are looking good.

Yeah, uh that process where you where you're at over on Rice Avenue, that was about a year and a half of planning and uh designing and then finally getting it implemented.

I think we we just wrapped that up uh early this year.

Um the the winter really we were we were chugging along looking at the previous two winters and knowing that we thought we could make some progress, but I should know better, being in Erie that like our luck was gonna our luck was gonna run out.

So that that held us up, but we appreciate it to be able to serve everyone over there.

So there's nothing else.

Uh we thank you very much for your time and expertise and uh let's keep it going.

Okay, thank you everyone.

Thank you.

Have a good evening.