EFTA02441711

To: Jeffrey [email protected]] Cc: Brice Gordon William Murphy From: William Murphy Sent Tue 8/25/2009 1:22:09 PM ChoiceCommServiceProposal.doc J Epstein St Thomas 3M.pdf J Epstein St Thomas 6M.pdf Last September, we brought consultants from the communications company we use in New Mexico to Little St James for a site survey. The purpose was to determine the best means of improving data delivery for our users in St Thomas and LSJ. To date, there have been several inquiries made to bandwidth vendors in St Thomas with none of them offering any rates better than $1000 per megabit (MB). I spoke to Richard Boltz (from the NM Communications Company) today and he summarized our issue in this fashion: I. Last mile using physical infrastructure (copper/fiber) will require Innovative. 2. Last mile services wirelessly will most likely be delivered through Broadband VI. 3. There are regular power issues at the Caprita point location where the equipment we need to deliver voice and data to LSJ fails and service is interrupted. At the Wireless Consortium in Vegas earlier this year, Richard made contact with CommNet who were interested in delivering broadband services to St Croix. They were hoping to use LSJ as a relay in delivering bandwidth to St Croix. Our cost for this project was extremely high as we were looking to implement WiMax on LSJ. WiMax devices currently cost substantially more than WiFi devices and have yet to be an accepted standard in the US. CommNet has recently contacted Richard to sec if we arc still interested in a partnership of sorts. I have attached the estimates that we have received from Sprint for increased bandwidth. These quotes arc for bonded T Is delivered to Caprita Point. ATT had verbally committed to being able to deliver 10Mbps to LSJ. When we pressed them for a commitment, they claimed they would not be able to deliver their initial proposal because of lagging infrastructure upgrades in Puerto Rico. Since this process has begun, we have been met with incredibly slow turn around for any information. Most of this is attributed to Innovative dragging their heels. Our initial contact to EFTA_R1_01516312 EFTA02441711 Sprint was made on the 3rd of March this year. Sprint was unable to deliver a documented quote until the end of May; nearly three months later. As last mile services using the Caprita point utility pole will require Innovative copper, I would not expect their customer service to ameliorate any time soon. The initial "special" offer from Choice Communications was completely disregarded by myself and Brice as it did not appear to provide any concessions to you or LS!. I believe that they may need LSJ in order to deliver services to St Croix and maintain their status as a competitive bandwidth alternative to Broadband VI; however, contract negotiations will be required. We are going pursue this lead as this seems like the only option where we are in a position to barter and deliver Internet service to LSJ at a reasonable cost. This alternative will get us around the Innovative\Broadband VI last mile conundrum if we can find some middle ground. The initial Choice Communications agreement and the Sprint quotes are attached. William Murphy Systems Administrator — HBRK Associates P: M F: EFTA_R1_01516313 EFTA02441712