Ahead at Lightspeed

[stephen davis]

I'd commission an artist to paint a well-maintained double on it.

...that has been converted to a single.

[d drickhamer]

Be forewarned, they're "switching boxes" at the end of our street and knocked out our phone/internet service for a day and a half. The AT&T guy said they somehow switched pair 16 for 1492, or something like that. Oops.

He also confirmed that AT&T's U-verse service should be available here sometime in the middle of the month. Waiting to see if it cost less than Direct TV + DSL so we can make an HD DVR upgrade decision. The box on our street is next to Rite Aid, so at least it's not directly in front of anyone's house.

Love the lightspeed box photo mashups by the way. Like the satellite dishes that installers are allowed to slap on the front of houses in Lakewood (unlike RR, Bay, Westlake, etc.) we need elected officials who better understand what it takes to protect property values.

[Jim O'Bryan]

Making Lakewood Better Safer One Corner At a Time.



This installation on a quiet side street has a lud humming that can be heard at least 30' away!



Should not be a big problem. Wait what foes the sticker say?



Oh!



.

[stephen davis]

Wait what foes the sticker say?



Oh!

Jim,

You and I were at the meeting when AT&T said that the Lightspeed boxes would use the same voltage as a room air-conditioner. Of course, we know you can get a pretty severe shock from a 12-volt car system. Darn, those amps can hurt.

When these boxes rust out like their old boxes, as you have documented with photos, what is the danger?

As I read threads about "Anti-Slob" and shopping cart legislation, and think about all of our sign ordinances and attempts at housing/building code enforcement, I wonder how our mayor and council allowed these eyesores to happen unabated. All 3 mayoral candidates (Demro, Fitzgerald, and George), and all 4 ward councilpersons whose seats are up for election this fall, and 2 at-large councilpersons voted to allow AT&T to have their own way. Fairview Park made AT&T bury their boxes. Though burying utility infrastructure is not a new idea, are we to assume that Mike Dever, the only dissenting vote, is the only elected official in Lakewood that cares as much as those elected in Fairview Park?

The potential blowback from contract breaches with Cox Cable, along with unsightly and potentially dangerous AT&T installations, really shows that vote to have caused way too many present and future problems for Lakewood. What did we get for that vote?

I am not anti AT&T, I just don't see that our representatives demanded an equitable deal or future restraint on utility infrastructure.

Our officials let us down. Does spending time in the AT&T loge at Jacobs Field make you kinda numb?

Steve

[Joe Whisman]

We should have an AT&T box festival. Special interest groups and decorate the boxes for charity. It could be a huge draw for Lakewood. Why not? It would be a city wide party. Our motto "Lakewood Ahead @ Light speed, Embracing Our Future" Is that too many letters for a banner?

[Jeff Endress]

I'm not entirely sure, but I've been hearing a rumor (whenever I'm out of my tin foil lined room) that the Light speed boxes are going to work in conjunction with the Nuisance Ordinance and the Curfew law. The little voice in my head (which actually speaks to me in Mandarin) told me there are secret sensors embedded in the boxes which can detect a child out after curfew and deliver a high amperage jolt. They also can sense excessive noise, alcohol consumption or smoke. The lightspeed box isolates the address and send microwaves through the phone lines causing the occupants to vacate the premises to seek snack foods, or if no food is available, then go to Taco Bell.

I think this may have been the rational for not only allowing the placement of the lightspeed boxes, but also adding additional ordinances, which will be enforced by the boxes, without adding more responsibility to the safety forces.

I mean, it makes about as much sense.

Jeff

[Kevin Butler]

Does spending time in the AT&T loge at Jacobs Field make you kinda numb?

Unless I'm mistaken, Steve, maybe you could have avoided this insinuation.

No one's happy about how the VRAD boxes look. City Council was advised by both in-house and outside counsel, on the record over the course of several public meetings, that prohibiting AT&T access to our public right-of-way would be unlawful such that the ramifications could include litigation by AT&T against the city, as had occurred in other states.

After Councilman Dever's request for additional time to negotiate box placement with AT&T failed (by a 4-3 vote, with FitzGerald and me joining Dever), the contract with AT&T then came before us on the same night for full approval. The die was cast at that point. Any implication that we made our decisions in anything but an informed, public environment is, in my view, misleading.

Nobody's happy with the aesthetic result, particularly before AT&T unveils the service to customers, but I'm sure all councilmembers very seriously considered this proposal from beginning to end. And I suspect no one did so from a loge.

Kevin Butler
(Ward 1 Council)

[Jeff Endress]

Councilman Butler

Thanks for the input. Just for my own curiosity, How did Fairview manage to get these isores buried?

Jeff

[Kevin Butler]

Jeff, you have better information than me. I haven't heard anything (other than on this thread) about the boxes going underground in Fairview. I'd be delighted to know this is feasible, because it'd be quite a departure from what AT&T's engineer told us when we pressed for an answer.

Kevin

[Jim O'Bryan]

Jeff, you have better information than me. I haven't heard anything (other than on this thread) about the boxes going underground in Fairview. I'd be delighted to know this is feasible, because it'd be quite a departure from what AT&T's engineer told us when we pressed for an answer.

Kevin

Kevin

Thanks for coming into the discussion. I have had the pleasure of speaking with other council people over the past couple days about this.

It seems as if AT&T misrepresented itself to council, and Lakewood residents.

I remember words like, safe, smaller than a refrigerator, quiet, not near residence, and the comment that it was not financially feasible to put them underground, but that they were willing to look at doing four of them underground. It does seem absurd that COX Cable can deliver the same service through wires with no big boxes, yet AT&T needs them.

As citizens what can we do?

Could we sue AT&T for misrepresentation?

Could any of this violate the terms of the contract?

I do appreciate you coming in to talk about this. You were one of the few that questioned the timing. Even going as far as to mention "why are we being pushed into this?"

Now we know, if it sounds to good it usually is.

.

[Kevin Butler]

It seems as if AT&T misrepresented itself to council, and Lakewood residents.

I'd like to know what AT&T is doing in other communities, as has been suggested, before making any assumptions.

Kevin

[David Lay]

Looks like U-Verse (ATT's name for Lightspeed) is suffering some setbacks:

http://www.engadgethd.com/2007/06/13/ta ... ng-delays/

[Joe Ott]

Looks like U-Verse (ATT's name for Lightspeed) is suffering some setbacks:

If they fail with their projects here, and/or have set-backs, what then?

I don't know how these things work, but when the city entered into (I assume) some kind of agreement with AT&T to do this, was there some kind of contract or something between the city and AT&T? If so, were there certain stipulations and/or guarantees and so on that certain things would be done certain ways by both parties by certain dates?

If AT&T played the card:

"prohibiting AT&T access to our public right-of-way would be unlawful such that the ramifications could include litigation by AT&T against the city, as had occurred in other states"

is there someone at the city playing the same game with them and making sure they fulfill their part of the bargain?

For example, did AT&T agree to have the service available by blah blah (technical talk) date and the boxes would be located and look like blah blah blah?

Is there a project leader at the city watching over this making sure all milestones are met and so on. I really don't know how these things work at the city, I'm just asking. I really didn't think Demro would answer my question about whether or not the city is going to post the entire police department around the stadium to catch all the curfew law breakers after Friday night high school games , but maybe somebody from city hall can reply to the above.

[Jim O'Bryan]

Joe

A couple things.

When Lakewood signed the house away, Lightspeed was and is still vaporware. A dream that was going to be implemented at some point in San Antonio I believe. This past January I saw an announcement that AT&T was finally going to roll out their TV product with up to twelve channels!

It would seem to me and I am no where near the lawyer your brother is, that we could have let AT&T sue, and not shown up in court, lost by default but full-filled our agreement with COX in principle, but not in spirit.

This is what bothers me most about this whole deal. It looked like the skids were greased, the deal was pitiful, promises were made by AT&T, and the law department, some council people do not feel were 100% truthful. then you have COX who has kept their word on every detail in their contract and go overboard being part of this community. Much of the freebies worth $500,000 - $750,000 could be lost entirely with no guarantee that AT&T would ever match it. Like channel 74, TV equipment at the high school, etc.

The final part is perception. When a city works so hard to bend contracts against GREAT providers, where is the trust and incentives to do business with us?

Terrible night in Lakewood fer sure!


.

[Bryan Schwegler]

Joe

A couple things.

When Lakewood signed the house away, Lightspeed was and is still vaporware. A dream that was going to be implemented at some point in San Antonio I believe. This past January I saw an announcement that AT&T was finally going to roll out their TV product with up to twelve channels!

In fairness, Lightspeed, or Uverse as the actual consumer product is called, is out in a bunch of cities in TX, CA, and around Chicago. It's not vaporware.

https://uverse1.att.com/launchAMSS.do

AT&T lists just as many channels as Cox and has several plans. I'm not sure where you heard 12 channels.

Now I'm not happy with the deal or the boxes, but I want to make sure all the facts are correct.