REPORT ON THE CABLE TELEVISION- RELATED NEEDS AND INTERESTS ASCERTAINMENT FOR CALVERT COUNTY, MARYLAND

By

CBG Communications, Inc. Thomas G. Robinson, President Dick Nielsen, Senior Engineer

and

Constance Ledoux Book, Ph. D. Telecommunications Research Corporation

and

Carson Hamlin Media Integration Specialist

and

Cohen Law Group

Prepared: June 22, 2017

Title CBG Communications, Inc. Calvert County Prepared: June 22, 2017 Needs Assessment Report

Table of Contents

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ...... 1

SECTION A REVIEW OF CABLE-RELATED RESIDENTIAL COMMUNITY NEEDS AND INTERESTS ...... 8 RESIDENTIAL COMMUNITY NEEDS AND INTERESTS ASCERTAINMENT...... 9 INTRODUCTION...... 9 WRITTEN SURVEY FINDINGS ...... 10

DEMOGRAPHICS ...... 10

TELEVISION SERVICE ...... 11

NON-SUBSCRIBERS OF COMCAST CABLE TELEVISION SERVICE ...... 12

COMCAST CABLE TELEVISION SUBSCRIBERS IN CALVERT COUNTY, MARYLAND ...... 13

CABLE SERVICE FEATURES ...... 15

CUSTOMER SERVICE ...... 16

OUTAGES AND TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES...... 17

SERVICE AND INSTALLATION ISSUES ...... 18

COMMUNICATION ISSUES ...... 19

PUBLIC, EDUCATIONAL AND GOVERNMENT (PEG) ACCESS PROGRAMMING ...... 20

QUALITY OF LOCAL PROGRAMMING ...... 22

OTHER LOCAL PROGRAMMING INTERESTS ...... 22

DISTRIBUTION FEATURES FOR LOCAL ACCESS PROGRAMMING ...... 23

FINANCIAL SUPPORT FOR LOCAL ACCESS PROGRAMMING ...... 24

ONLINE ACCESS IN CALVERT COUNTY ...... 25

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS ...... 27 RESIDENTIAL COMMUNITY NEEDS ASSESSMENT CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ...... 28 TARGETED RESIDENTIAL COMMUNITY CABLE-RELATED SURVEY ...... 33 INTRODUCTION...... 33 TARGETED SURVEY RESULTS ...... 33

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Calvert County Prepared: June 22, 2017 Needs Assessment Report

SECTION B REVIEW OF CABLE-RELATED PUBLIC, EDUCATIONAL AND GOVERNMENTAL (PEG) ACCESS NEEDS AND INTERESTS ...... 35 PUBLIC, EDUCATIONAL AND GOVERNMENTAL ACCESS NEEDS ASSESSMENT ...... 36 INTRODUCTION AND METHODOLOGY ...... 36 FINDINGS - COMMUNITY/PUBLIC, EDUCATIONAL AND GOVERNMENTAL ACCESS ...... 39

OVERVIEW OF COMCAST’S CALVERT COUNTY COMMUNITY CHANNEL 6 ...... 39

FOCUSED DISCUSSIONS WITH GOVERNMENT AND EDUCATIONAL ACCESS REPRESENTATIVES ...... 40

FOCUSED DISCUSSION WITH HIGHER EDUCATIONAL ACCESS REPRESENTATIVES ...... 42

FOCUSED DISCUSSION WITH K-12 EDUCATIONAL ACCESS REPRESENTATIVES ...... 43

FOCUSED DISCUSSION WITH PUBLIC ACCESS REPRESENTATIVES ...... 44 FACILITY AND EQUIPMENT NEEDS ...... 46

EQUIPMENT BASELINE DEFINITIONS ...... 46

HIGH DEFINITION ...... 46

VIRTUAL SET TECHNOLOGY ...... 47

ANCILLARY EQUIPMENT ...... 47 CALVERT COUNTY SHARED PEG FACILITY AND EQUIPMENT NEEDS...... 48

INFRASTRUCTURE...... 48

ARCHIVAL/STORAGE ...... 48

PRODUCTION STUDIOS/STUDIO CONTROL ...... 49

STUDIO ...... 49

STUDIO CONTROL ...... 49 FINDINGS – GOVERNMENT ACCESS ...... 50 CALVERT COUNTY GOVERNMENT ACCESS FACILITY AND EQUIPMENT NEEDS ...... 50

ANCILLARY EQUIPMENT ...... 50

FIELD ACQUISITION ...... 50

POST PRODUCTION ...... 50

INFRASTRUCTURE...... 51

HEADEND SERVERS/PLAYBACK/CHARACTER GENERATOR ...... 51

ON DEMAND/STREAMING ...... 51

HEARING ROOM/HEARING ROOM CONTROL ...... 52 FINDINGS – PUBLIC ACCESS ...... 53

Table of Contents ii CBG communications, Inc. Calvert County Prepared: June 22, 2017 Needs Assessment Report

CALVERT COUNTY LIBRARY/PUBLIC ACCESS FACILITY AND EQUIPMENT NEEDS ...... 53

ANCILLARY EQUIPMENT ...... 53

FIELD ACQUISITION ...... 53

POST PRODUCTION ...... 53 FINDINGS – K-12 EDUCATIONAL ACCESS ...... 54 CALVERT COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS FACILITY AND EQUIPMENT NEEDS .54

ANCILLARY EQUIPMENT ...... 54

SCHOOL BOARD ROOM/SCHOOL BOARD CONTROL ...... 54

FIELD ACQUISITION ...... 55

POST PRODUCTION ...... 55 FINDINGS – HIGHER EDUCATIONAL ACCESS ...... 56 COLLEGE OF SOUTHERN MARYLAND FACILITY AND EQUIPMENT NEEDS .56

ANCILLARY EQUIPMENT ...... 56

FIELD ACQUISITION ...... 56

POST PRODUCTION ...... 56 SHARED PEG FACILITY DEVELOPMENT ...... 57 PEG ACCESS NEEDS ASSESSMENT CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ...... 58

SECTION C REVIEW OF INSTITUTIONAL NETWORK-RELATED NEEDS AND INTERESTS62 INSTITUTIONAL NETWORK NEEDS ASSESSMENT ...... 63 INTRODUCTION...... 63 FINDINGS ...... 63

NETWORK OVERVIEW ...... 63

APPLICATIONS RUNNING ON THE COUNTY AND CCPS NETWORKS ...... 63

CREATION OF AN I-NET FOR NETWORK FIBER OPTIC BUILDOUT ...... 64

NETWORK REDUNDANCY ...... 65

NETWORK STANDARDS ...... 66

NETWORK TESTING AND EVALUATION ...... 66

COMCAST FACILITY ACCOMMODATIONS...... 67

NETWORK MAINTENANCE AND OUTAGE RESPONSE ...... 67

DISASTER RECOVERY PLAN ...... 67 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ...... 69

Table of Contents iii CBG communications, Inc. Calvert County Prepared: June 22, 2017 Needs Assessment Report

NETWORK FIBER OPTIC BUILD-OUT ...... 69

APPLICATIONS ON THE NETWORKS ...... 69

NETWORK STANDARDS ...... 69

NETWORK TESTING AND EVALUATION ...... 69

DISASTER RECOVERY PLAN ...... 70

SECTION D SYSTEM TECHNICAL REVIEW OF COMCAST’S RESIDENTIAL CABLE TELEVISION NETWORK ...... 71 SYSTEM TECHNICAL REVIEW OF COMCAST’S CABLE TELEVISION NETWORK ...... 72 INTRODUCTION...... 72 FINDINGS RELATED TO COMCAST’S RESIDENTIAL NETWORK ...... 72

SYSTEM DESIGN AND ARCHITECTURE ...... 72

SERVICEABILITY AND DENSITY ...... 73

SYSTEM FACILITIES ...... 76

STANDBY POWER...... 77

STATUS MONITORING ...... 77

OUTAGES AND OUTAGE DOCUMENTATION ...... 78

DIGITAL SYSTEM PERFORMANCE ...... 78

SUBJECTIVE VIEWING OF SD AND HD CHANNELS ON THE SYSTEM ...... 79

COMPLIANCE WITH THE NATIONAL ELECTRICAL CODE (NEC) AND NATIONAL ELECTRICAL SAFETY CODE (NESC) ...... 79

METHODOLOGY USED TO ESTIMATE THE TOTAL NUMBER OF PHYSICAL PLANT VIOLATIONS COUNTYWIDE ...... 80

PROJECTION OF COMCAST PHYSICAL INFRASTRUCTURE VIOLATIONS THROUGHOUT CALVERT COUNTY ...... 96 RESIDENTIAL NETWORK EVALUATION, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ...... 98

SECTION E FRANCHISE COMPLIANCE AND PAST PERFORMANCE REVIEW (to be provided under separate cover)

SECTION F FRANCHISE FEE AUDIT (to be provided under separate cover)

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ATTACHMENTS (Separate Document)

Exhibit A.1 – Calvert County Cable Television Residential Subscriber/Non-Subscriber Written Survey Markup Exhibit A.2 – Calvert County Cable Television Targeted Residential Subscriber/Non-Subscriber Written Survey Markup Exhibit B – Calvert County PEG Access Equipment and Facilities Needs Spreadsheets Exhibit C – Calvert County Proposed Extension of County Network via Comcast I-Net Fiber Exhibit D – Calvert County Comcast Physical Plant Random and Non-Random Sample Audit Findings Spreadsheets

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

CBG Communications, Inc. (CBG) in conjunction with its Team Partners, Dr. Constance Book, Ph.D., President of Telecommunications Research Corporation, Carson Hamlin, Video Engineer/Media Integrations Specialist, and Cohen Law Group, has conducted a comprehensive cable-related Residential Needs and Interests Assessment as well as a Past Performance Review, Public, Educational and Governmental (PEG) Access Needs Assessment, Institutional Network Needs Assessment and Cable System Technical Review concerning the Comcast Cable Television System serving Calvert County, Maryland (County). This Ascertainment, Review and related research has been conducted as part of cable franchise renewal proceedings with the local cable television provider, Comcast.

The full results of the Residential Needs and Interests Assessment, PEG Access Needs Assessment, Institutional Network Assessment, and Cable System Technical Review are presented in the comprehensive Report that follows and provide a wealth of information for the County regarding issues of significance to the residents and organizations in the Calvert County Comcast franchise area, related to cable communications and, correspondingly, the ability of the cable system and Comcast to meet demonstrated needs and interests.

It is important to note that the needs assessment is focused on cable-related needs. While it is important for the County to understand the broadband-related needs of its residents, the County does not have the authority to directly affect high-speed Internet or phone services through the cable franchise. However, the County is able to negotiate provisions that respond to resident concerns regarding service availability, customer service standards, Public, Educational and Governmental (PEG) Access television, and other matters. The Community Needs Assessment provides the supporting foundation for these negotiations.

The key findings, recommendations and observations discussed in this summary and in the comprehensive Report are based on an extensive data collection including, but not limited to, the following:

• A written Residential Community Survey on cable related needs and interests randomly distributed to 4,000 households within the County. Of the 4,000 mailed surveys, a total of 720 were returned by the closing date for a total response rate of 18%. Seven hundred (700) of the surveys were coded and analyzed for the purpose of preparing this report. These 700 surveys represent a statistically valid sample size based on industry standard survey techniques. Of the 700 respondents, 74% were Comcast cable subscribers in Calvert County. The remaining 26% were non-cable subscribers. Overall, the information obtained provides a wealth of statistically valid data on residents' needs, interests, attitudes and opinions related to both cable television in general and Comcast specifically.

• In a further effort to extend the opportunity to residents to provide feedback concerning cable television needs and interests, a targeted version of the Residential Community Survey was sent to 93 residents who had previously called the County about Comcast but had not been included in the random sample. It was launched after the statistically valid written survey was completed and covered the same topics. Thirty-seven (37) Calvert County residents responded to the targeted survey to share their cable television experience.

Executive Summary 1 CBG Communications, Inc. Calvert County Prepared: June 22, 2017 Needs Assessment Report

• Additionally, at the time of this report, a Public Meeting before the County Commissioners was being scheduled to provide another opportunity for residents to provide input into the needs ascertainment process. Findings from this meeting will be issued as an addendum to this Report.

• A Past Performance Review that included a review of the requirements of the existing franchise agreement between Comcast and the County. Key Franchise Agreement provisions were reviewed for compliance by Comcast. Additionally, complaints and other information provided by the County were analyzed. This review will enable CBG and its Team Partners to determine Comcast’s level of compliance under its existing Franchise Agreement. At the time of this report, pertinent information was being sought from Comcast to complete our review.

• Discussions with Calvert County Government management and staff, as well as a focused discussion with County representatives related to the current and planned government programming provided by the County on the Comcast system.

• Discussions with representatives of Calvert County Public Schools (CCPS) concerning prior and planned Educational Access program production and distribution by CCPS.

• Discussions with representatives of the College of Southern Maryland (CSM) concerning current and projected Higher Educational Access program production and the need to develop and distribute that programming within Calvert County.

• On-site visits to the current Government Access and Comcast Public/Community Access programming production and origination locations, including the County’s production facilities and the County Commissioners meeting room, as well as a review and tour of Comcast’s production facilities in Prince Frederick that are utilized for Public/Community Access program production.

• A review of a significant amount of existing and historical data related to the needs and interests of a variety of diverse communities within the County, that was provided by the County, CSM, CCPS and Comcast.

• Work group meetings and substantial follow-up discussions with the County's and CCPS’s IT management and staff concerning current government and educational use of their wide area networks and Institutional Network needs for the future.

• A driveout of the Comcast cable television system, in order to review the physical plant and other cable system infrastructure and the current reach of the cable system, as well as a review of the headend and other Comcast facilities in Calvert County.

The analysis of this data enabled CBG and its Team Partners to focus on many elements related to a renewed cable franchise.

First, CBG and its Team Partners were able to assess the needs of the Residential Community. Specifically, we were able to review:

Executive Summary 2 CBG Communications, Inc. Calvert County Prepared: June 22, 2017 Needs Assessment Report

• Availability of cable service to County residents • The general level of satisfaction with Comcast • Suggestions from subscribers and non-subscribers on how to improve the services provided by Comcast • The quality of specific cable service features and characteristics • Ratings of communication experiences with the cable company • Technical issues, including subscriber experiences with outages, picture and sound quality and restoration of services • Viewership, ratings and support for local community programming provided over Community Channel 6 in Calvert County • The types of local programming of interest to Calvert County franchise area subscribers

Regarding the Past Performance of Comcast under its existing Franchise obligations, our analysis enabled CBG to review and seek information from Comcast concerning:

• Provision of a performance bond • Replacement and upgrade of Community Access television production equipment • Compliance with customer service requirements • Compliance with the provision of complimentary services

Regarding PEG Access and local community programming, the research methodologies utilized enabled CBG to review:

• The amount and type of PEG programming currently provided over Community Access Channel 6 • The need for potential expansions in channel capacity and content delivery capabilities • The need for implementation of new PEG services such as cable-based On Demand video • The need for new, upgraded and replacement equipment, including migration from Standard Definition (SD) to High Definition (HD) and other advanced platforms

Regarding the Institutional Network (I-Net) Review, the research methodologies utilized enabled CBG to review:

• The County’s and CCPS’s overall network infrastructure • The current performance of the networks based on government and educational Users’ experiences • Capacity expansion, redundancy and other enhancements needed for the County’s network in the future • The potential for I-Net infrastructure to meet some of the County’s networking needs going forward

Regarding the evaluation of the cable television system from an electronic performance and physical plant perspective, this portion of the project enabled CBG to determine Comcast's compliance with existing local, state and national standards and codes, as well as its ability to meet the technical system and service requirements of Calvert County's subscribers in the future.

Executive Summary 3 CBG Communications, Inc. Calvert County Prepared: June 22, 2017 Needs Assessment Report

Detailed Findings, along with Conclusions and Recommendations, are incorporated in the Full Report. The Key Findings, Conclusions and Recommendations for consideration by the County are the following:

Residential Community Needs Assessment

• Eighteen percent (18%) of non-subscribers indicated that they did not subscribe because cable service is not available in their area.

• Thirty-eight percent (38%) of cable subscribers are not satisfied with Comcast cable service, with 11% being “very dissatisfied”. Those that rated cable service more negatively indicated that the primary reason was related to high costs, without enhancing the service correspondingly. Survey respondents also indicated that their satisfaction would improve if Comcast resolved signal reception issues and if improvements were made in customer service.

• Regarding technical issues, 42% of Comcast subscribers indicated that they had experienced some type of technical difficulty with picture quality, audio or a general reception problem. Additionally, the primary reason for calling the cable company (accounting for more than one-third of all calls made) was related to poor reception. Further, thirty-nine percent (39%) of Comcast subscribers reported that they had experienced a cable outage lasting 4 hours or more while they still had electricity. All of this demonstrates a need to focus on system technical quality and reliability. These issues are explained in further detail in the Cable System Technical Review Section.

• Eighty-one percent (81%) of Comcast subscribers had called the company in the past year. Nine percent (9%) of subscribers indicated that they had received a busy signal when calling the company (3% is the maximum level allowable). Additionally, 56% indicated that their call had not been answered within 30 seconds, including the time left on hold (10% is allowed under the customer service standards).

• Nine percent (9%) of subscribers reported watching Community Access Channel 6 on a daily or weekly basis. Although the percentage may at first appear to be low, it instead demonstrates substantial viewership. In fact, many cable channels have weekly cumulative viewership of less than 1%. Accordingly, it is important to keep in mind that the cable television business model is rooted in niche channels rather than mass appeal channels.

• Seventy-two percent (72%) of subscribers indicated a value for detailed program information to be available via the onscreen menu guide for PEG channels.

• Sixty-three percent (63%) of Comcast subscribers favored local access programming to be made available via the “on demand” features of the cable system.

• Sixty-one percent (61%) of subscribers expressed value in receiving PEG Access channels in high definition.

Executive Summary 4 CBG Communications, Inc. Calvert County Prepared: June 22, 2017 Needs Assessment Report

PEG Access Needs Assessment

• The provision of Community Channel 6 is valuable to the County, CCPS, CSM, residential viewers and others, and should be maintained.

• There is a need to provide two additional channels in reserve, such that, as the amount of programming increases for any form of PEG Access, there will be sufficient channel capacity to establish separate P, E and/or G channels.

• There is a significant need to provide PEG Access programming in forms and formats beyond the current real-time, linear, standard definition digital provision of Community Channel 6, including:

o High Definition

o Cable-based Video-On-Demand

• New, upgraded and replacement equipment needs to be provided consistent with the needs demonstrated and the associated projections made, including:

o To support the production of programming by the County in County facilities, at offsite locations and by portable and remote operations, $604,305 is needed over the next 10 years.

o To support the production of programming by CCPS including at the planned Career and Technology Academy (CTA), Northern High School and District headquarters, as well as through portable and remote operations in the field, $609,180 is needed over the next 10 years.

o To support the production of higher educational access programming at CSM’s Prince Frederick location, $383,760 is needed over the 10-year timeframe projected.

o To support the development of public access field checkout and post-production resources at the Library, $205,920 is needed over a 10-year period.

o To support the development of a centralized studio facility for PEG program production, $576,100 is needed in equipment funding, along with $319,875 to $639,750 in facility funding.

o The amount of funding to support the equipment and facility needs of the multiple PEG access entities totals $2,639,140 to $2,959,015 over the 10-year period. Comcast in Calvert County is currently providing support for Community Access, but is not providing any direct Capital support for the County, CSM and CCPS. The above amount is needed to support the PEG access equipment and facilities projected, and should be provided by Comcast in any renewed Franchise.

Executive Summary 5 CBG Communications, Inc. Calvert County Prepared: June 22, 2017 Needs Assessment Report

Institutional Network Needs Assessment

• The current wide area networks are primarily fiber optic connections, and are critical to the County and CCPS for transporting a wide array of data, voice and video services, and enabling critical administrative applications, as well as facilitating the provision of many services to residents and businesses.

• A fiber optic I-Net should be developed to help expand the capacity of the County’s network in certain locations, as well as provide redundancy.

• Network standards would need to be developed for these I-Net connections. Such standards should specify fiber network availability, service and repair response and restoration time, and other critical parameters.

Cable System Technical Review

• CBG's technical review of Comcast’s cable system included: document review, a system physical plant (infrastructure) audit, driveout and inspection, facility tours, and discussions with Comcast staff to determine the condition of Comcast's subscriber network in Calvert County.

• CBG's inspection of Comcast's plant to evaluate compliance with the National Electrical Safety Code (NESC) and National Electrical Code (NEC) found numerous issues or code violations related to the drop from where the cable leaves the pole or pedestal up to and including the side of the house, as well as issues and code violations at poles or pedestals at the random sample addresses.

• The specific issues directly found have been transmitted to Comcast for their review, response and correction. Documentation from Comcast of their responses, inspections and repairs needs to be provided to the County upon completion.

• In any renewed franchise, based on the number of households projected Countywide that do not have cable services available to them, Comcast should work with the County to develop more ways to serve more County residents that desire cable service. This would likely require reducing the minimum number of residential units per mile needed to require Comcast to build to new and existing unserved areas of the County, as well as innovative partnerships and contribution formulas to continue to expand service County- wide.

• CBG found a high number of outages that should be averted by backup power supplies if they’re properly functioning with adequate status monitoring. Comcast should describe how it intends to minimize these types of outages going forward and provide the County with outage reports on a quarterly basis.

Executive Summary 6 CBG Communications, Inc. Calvert County Prepared: June 22, 2017 Needs Assessment Report

Franchise Compliance and Past Performance Review

• To be provided under separate cover, once information sought from Comcast is received and analyzed.

Franchise Fee Audit

• To be provided under separate cover, once final information sought from Comcast is received and analyzed.

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SECTION A

REVIEW OF CABLE-RELATED RESIDENTIAL COMMUNITY NEEDS AND INTERESTS

Section A 8 CBG Communications, Inc. Calvert County Prepared: June 22, 2017 Needs Assessment Report

RESIDENTIAL COMMUNITY NEEDS AND INTERESTS ASCERTAINMENT

Introduction

In November and December 2016, Calvert County (County) conducted a randomly sampled residential mail survey to assess cable television-related community needs and interests across the County.

The data collected will be used to assist the County in developing an effective franchise agreement with Comcast, a local franchised cable operator. This narrative summary reports on the findings of the mail survey.1

A random set of 4,000 addresses were pulled using the current United States Postal Service’s direct mail databases and compared with County maps to ensure that each of the addresses included in the study lived within the Calvert County cable television franchise area. Calvert County reports 28,668 active addresses in the unincorporated County franchise area. A random sample of 4,000 addresses were mailed surveys from the active address list addresses.

The surveys were mailed first class to community residents in an envelope with a County logo in November with a three-week return of December 7, 2016. A mark-up of the survey and the findings illustrated in this narrative are available in Exhibit A.1.

Of the 4,000 mailed surveys, a total of 720 were returned by the closing date for a total response rate of 18%. Seven hundred (700) surveys were coded and analyzed for the purpose of preparing this report. This survey sample of 700 surveys provides a margin of error of ±3 points. This margin of error lets the reader know that if this random study were replicated in Calvert County, the newly collected data would fall within ±3 points of the findings reported in this narrative.

The survey instrument was designed to test community cable-related needs and interests and asked County residents to respond to a series of 40 questions related to a variety of cable service issues. Also, included in this assessment were questions related to public, educational and government (PEG) programming that appears on Channel 6, the Public/Community Access cable Channel in the Calvert County franchise area.

At the close of the survey, respondents were asked in an open-ended question if there was anything else they would like to add about Comcast and 40% of respondents added additional thoughts (N=283).

This response rate and rate of survey completion, including open-ended comments made at the close of the survey, suggests a substantial level of interest in cable television service among residents, as well as the additional services provided by cable communications systems, such as

1 Figures rounded to whole numbers are used in this report so that column totals will not always equal 100%, but rather fall between 99-101%.

Section A 9 CBG Communications, Inc. Calvert County Prepared: June 22, 2017 Needs Assessment Report broadband services and telephone services, subscribed to by a substantial number of cable television subscribers and a number of non-subscribers.

Written Survey Findings

Demographics

Before launching into a summary of the findings, the reader would benefit from an understanding of who responded to the written survey.

The non-response rate to demographic questions on age (17%), gender (18%), race (62%) and annual income (72%) makes it impossible to compare these characteristics to the U.S. Census, but it is noted that all demographic types and ranges were present. By gender the sample was 42% male, 40% female, and 18% no response.

Figure 1 - Gender of Respondent

Sixty-two percent (62%) of respondents decided not to indicate their race. Of those that did respond (N=266), Ninety-four percent (94%) of respondents indicated being Caucasian, 4% were African American, and the following categories reported less than 1% each: Asian-American, Hispanic/Latino, Biracial and Other.

Respondents were asked to indicate their highest level of education. While 18% chose not to respond to this question, 18% were high school graduates, 13% had some college or a Technical degree, 29% held a four-year college degree, and 22% had attended college beyond a four-year degree.

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Eighty-nine percent (89%) of respondents own a home, 5% indicated renting, and 6% chose not to respond. Thirty-seven percent (37%) reported having children under 18 living at home.

On average, respondents had lived in Calvert County for 23.5 years.

Household incomes range from under $50 to $500,000. The most frequent response was $100,000. Income can be a sensitive question. Seventy-two percent (72%) of respondents chose not to answer this question.

Respondents to the survey were also asked to indicate their age and 83% did so. The average age was 56.5 years old and the age range of respondents was 18 to 89 years of age.

Television Service

Of the 700 respondents, 76% indicated that they subscribe to cable television service from Comcast in Calvert County. This percentage is higher than the national average. As of April, 2017, the National Cable Telecommunications Association (NCTA) reports that 53 million households subscribe to cable television service2, reflecting 46% of Nielsen television’s estimate of households in the United States.

Conversely, 24% indicated that they did not subscribe to Comcast cable television services.

Figure 2 – Comcast Television Service in Calvert County

2 National operating metrics are found on the NCTA’s website at https://www.ncta.com/industry-data. Accessed April 6, 2017.

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Non-Subscribers of Comcast Cable Television Service

Residents who did not subscribe to Comcast cable television (24%) were asked why they were not currently subscribing. The most frequent reason residents gave (respondents could check more than one response) was because they were Satellite Subscribers (56%). This was followed by cost being an issue (48%). Respondents next indicated that they had Comcast cable at one time, but had chosen to disconnect (27%). This was followed by 18% who indicated that Comcast cable was not available to them in their neighborhood, which is 4% of total respondents. This was followed by Service issues (17%), Never subscribed (12%), Don’t want cable TV (9%), Object to programming (6%), and Don’t watch TV (2%).

When we look a little closer at those non-subscribers who had Comcast cable television service in the past, but then disconnected (N=43/27%), the number one reason for leaving was cost (N=36/84%) followed by service issues (N=15/35%).

Additionally, when we look a little closer at those that indicated that they currently subscribe to a Satellite service like Dish or DirecTV (N=87/52%), the number one reason for not subscribing to cable was also cost (N=33/38%), again followed by service issues (N=18/21%). It is of note that 31% of the Satellite subscribers indicated that they used to be Comcast cable subscribers.

Fourteen percent (14%) of non-subscribers also indicated “other” reasons for not subscribing to Comcast cable television and wrote comments describing “other”. The wide majority of these were comments related to the cost being too expensive, the cost to connect to the cable service was too expensive, Comcast is not available in their area, poor customer service, negative opinion of Comcast, and channels not being available a la carte.3

Comcast cable non-subscribers were also asked if they subscribed to other services from Comcast. Forty-five percent (45%/N=74)4 of responding non-Comcast cable service subscribers indicated that they were Comcast High-Speed Internet Service subscribers, while 17% of non- Comcast cable subscriber respondents indicated that they had another Internet service provider (most common was Verizon N=25). Another 21%/N=35 of non-cable subscribers indicated that they had Internet access but it was not high-speed, with almost half (N=16/46%) saying it was because high-speed internet was not available. Another 12% of non-Comcast cable subscribers indicated that they don't have Internet access at home, with not available and cost being the most common answers. Additionally, 1% of non-cable subscribers chose not to respond to the question.

Thirteen percent (13%) of responding Comcast cable non-subscribers also reported being Comcast telephone subscribers, while 37%/N=58 of non-Comcast cable subscriber respondents indicated that they didn’t subscribe to any services from Comcast.

3 A full list of “other” reasons for not subscribing can be found in Exhibit A.1 under Question 2. 4 Non-Subscribers were asked this question in Q.2.a and in Q.29 of the survey instrument. Refined numbers were used here from Q.29.

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Comcast Cable Television Subscribers in Calvert County, Maryland

Responding subscribers were asked how long they had subscribed to Comcast cable television in Calvert County. The range of responses was from less than a month to 36 years and the mean was 13.1 years. The majority indicated they had a digital cable subscription (multiple answers were permitted), with 9% indicating digital economy, 13% indicating digital starter TV service, 37% indicating a level of digital preferred service and 23% indicating digital premier service or higher tier of service. Twenty-six percent (26%) indicated they subscribed separately to a premium channel, like HBO.

Almost 1 in 10 subscribers have limited basic only (9%). As the lowest cost tier offered by Comcast, it will be critical to consider the programming assets included in that service level as Calvert County begins franchise negotiations.

Cable television subscribers were also asked if they subscribed to High-Speed Internet service from Comcast. Eighty-eight percent (88%) indicated that they had Xfinity High-speed Internet service. When considering non-subscribers of video services that do subscribe to Comcast’s Internet service, the overall High-Speed Comcast cable-based Internet subscription rate in Calvert County is 78%.

The average monthly bill of a Comcast cable subscriber (including all services) was $180.86. The range of responses to this question from Comcast cable subscribers was from $2 to $390, with the most common reported monthly billing of $200.

Subscribers were asked if there were any cable programs or types of programs that are not available on the cable system that they would like to see added. Over 1 in 5 (22%) indicated “yes” to this question. When asked to indicate that channel or programming, the subscribers provided a description of what they would like to see. The majority of these included such channels and programs as: NFL Sports Channel, Baltimore HD Channels, RFD TV, Science/National Geographic Channel, Military Channel, CMT Channel, NASA TV, Sundance and more. A full list of mentioned channels and programs (N=95) is available in Exhibit A.1.

When asked to rate their overall level of satisfaction with their cable television service, 11% said they were very satisfied, 51% indicated satisfied, 27% indicated dissatisfied and another 11% very dissatisfied. In other words, 62% of subscribers indicated some level of satisfaction and 38% indicated some level of dissatisfaction.

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Figure 3 - Overall Satisfaction with Cable Service

The following Figure demonstrates how Calvert County ranks against other localities in recent ratings of cable service during community needs assessments conducted by CBG. Positive overall ratings of cable service are compared against each other. Calvert County residents are less positive about Comcast than many other communities in Maryland.

Figure 4 -Comparative Overall Positive Ratings for Comcast Cable Service

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Calvert County respondents that indicated anything less than “very satisfied” were asked if there was anything that Comcast could do to improve their level of satisfaction with its cable services (N=395). The top seven responses were: lower costs (N=187), better reception (N=37), improve customer service (N=31), offer a la carte channels (N=19), stop raising rates (N=18), better internet service (N=15), and more competition (N=11). These are the leading challenges facing satisfaction with Comcast cable television in Calvert County.

Table 1 - Top 7 Ways to Improve “Satisfaction” with Comcast Cable Service 1. Offer lower costs (N=187) 2. Better reception (N=37) 3. Improve customer service (N=31) 4. Offer a la carte channels (N=19) 5. Stop raising rates (N=18) 6. Better Internet (N=15) 7. More competition (N=11)

Cable Service Features

A series of questions was posed related to various features of Comcast cable service in regard to picture and sound quality, the variety of cable programming packages offered and hours the cable office is open. Respondents were asked to indicate their level of satisfaction on a 4-point scale from very satisfied to very dissatisfied. The respondent was also provided the option of responding, “don’t know” or that the question was “not applicable.” Special attention was paid to service issues that received a greater than 10% “very dissatisfied” and “dissatisfied” combined score.

The tested area that received the lowest marks was related to the variety of cable programming packages offered with 19% reporting being “dissatisfied” and 9% reporting being “very dissatisfied.” Combined, over one in four (28%) of respondents reported dissatisfaction with the variety of programming packages offered. This was followed by the hours that the cable company office was open with 9% reporting being “dissatisfied” and 4% reporting being “very dissatisfied.” Combined, 13% of respondents reported dissatisfaction with the hours that the cable company office was open.

Comcast cable subscribers reported satisfaction with sound and picture quality at 88% and 91% respectively, with 11% and 9% dissatisfaction respectively.

Section A 15 CBG Communications, Inc. Calvert County Prepared: June 22, 2017 Needs Assessment Report

Table 2: Satisfaction with Characteristics of Comcast Cable Television Service

Don't Comcast Service Very Very Know/ Satisfied Dissatisfied Characteristics Satisfied Dissatisfied Not Applicable Quality of picture 38% 50% 8% 3% 1% Quality of sound 39% 52% 7% 2% 1% Variety of cable programming 25% 43% 19% 9% 3% packages offered Hours the cable company office is 21% 48% 9% 4% 18% open

Comcast cable subscribers were also asked to rate their level of importance to have the local cable office in Prince Frederick available to them. Forty-nine percent (49%) said it was Very Important, 22% indicated Important, 20% indicated Somewhat Important and another 9% indicated that it was not at all Important. In other words, 91% of subscribers indicated a level of Importance that a local Cable office being available to them in Prince Frederick was important.

Customer Service

The wide majority of Comcast cable subscribers had called the cable office in the last year (81%); 4 out of 5 subscribers. The main reason for calling was poor reception (N=147), followed by a Billing issue (N=92), an Internet problem (N=39), cable outage (23%), equipment line problem (N=21), change in service (N=15), installation (N=14), cable box malfunction (N=11), a telephone service issue (N=9), and request an upgrade (N=7).

Figure 5 - Called the Cable Company Office

Section A 16 CBG Communications, Inc. Calvert County Prepared: June 22, 2017 Needs Assessment Report

When calling Comcast, 9% indicated that they received a busy signal. Additionally, when asked if their call had been answered by a customer service representative, including the time they were left on hold, within 30 seconds, 56% indicated that it had not.

Figure 6 - Call Answered Within 30 Seconds

Survey data indicates that both of these scores are inconsistent with those allowed by the Calvert County Cable Franchise and the Federal Communications Commissions' (FCC) Customer Service Standards that set busy signals at less than 3% occurrence and call answering, including hold times, greater than 30 seconds at less than 10%.5 It is notable that 48% of the issues resulting in phone calls reported by Comcast cable television customers in Calvert County are related to poor reception, equipment issues and outages. Billing issues account for 22% of callers.

When the phone call resulted in reporting a problem, 45% indicated that it was resolved within 24 hours, 24% said it was resolved within 1-2 days, 22% said it took more than 2 days and 9% said the problem was still unresolved.

Outages and Technical Difficulties

Subscribers were asked to indicate how many times they lost their entire cable signal for a period of 4 hours or more while they still had electricity. Thirty-nine percent (39%) indicated that they lost their cable signal one or multiple times for a period of 4 hours or more. Subscribers indicated that they experienced between 1 and 30 outages lasting 4 hours or more. Two outages was the most common answer and the average was 3 outages lasting 4 hours or more.

Of those that had experienced outages, 76% indicated that they called the cable operator’s office. Survey data indicates that outages are an issue driving call volume for Comcast in Calvert County. Once the respondent was able to speak to a cable television company representative, 81% described the cable operator’s responsiveness as “responsive” or “very responsive” to the

5 The federal customer service standards for cable television can be found at http://www.fcc.gov/guides/customer- service-standards, and the Calvert County Cable Franchise can be found at http://ecode360.com/15519166

Section A 17 CBG Communications, Inc. Calvert County Prepared: June 22, 2017 Needs Assessment Report outages. Another 17% indicated that they were "unresponsive" to the outage, and 2% indicated that they were "very unresponsive".

When asked about any other technical difficulties, 42% of Comcast subscribers indicated that they had experienced some type of technical difficulty. When describing those (N=205), subscribers most frequently mentioned technical difficulties with their picture (N=95), signal loss/outage (N=27), sound issues (N=27), problems with cable box/DVR (N=23), problems with outside cable lines and modem (N=10), and problems with Internet outages (N=19).

Reception problems were most frequently described as freezing or pixelating pictures, video dropout, frequent loss of picture, and key channels being offline. The channels that were mentioned where this occurred, include: HD Channels, On-Demand Channel, Hallmark, E- Channel, CNN, MSNBC, Channel 845 and 846, FOX 5, “800” Channels, NFL Network, Channels in the range of 40-80, Freeform, HBO, Starz, “300” Channels, TBS and AMC. Sound was described as distorted, out of synch, cutting out or continually varying in volume and quality. Cable box and DVR problems were associated with “locking up” and "needs activation signal sent." A full summary of technical difficulties and channel problems reported by Comcast subscribers is included in Exhibit A.1.

Service and Installation Issues

Those Comcast subscribers with a service call or service installation in the last year (56%) were asked to provide feedback on the experience they had with the cable company during the service call or installation process.

Using the same scale in rating the other features and services, the majority of Comcast subscribers were positive about their service or installation experiences, but there were some significant areas of dissatisfaction. Specifically, the most dissatisfaction expressed was not with the technician’s professionalism (8%) or the respect the technician demonstrated for their property (6%), but rather dissatisfaction with the ability of the technician to explain subscribing options (19%); followed by the available times for installation or service (18%), the ability of the technician to resolve the installation or service issue (17%), and the arrival time of the service technician (12%). These all can be related to the number of employees available and trained to do the work at hand. In other words, the service experience can be directly related to the investment being made by Comcast in the number of staff and the training the staff receive.

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Table 3: Satisfaction with Characteristics of Service Calls

Don't Know/ Very Very Service/Installation Issues Satisfied Dissatisfied Not Satisfied Dissatisfied Applicable The available times for service or 19% 46% 14% 4% 18% installation The arrival time of the service technician 23% 45% 9% 3% 19% The ability of the technician to resolve 24% 39% 10% 7% 19% the installation or service issue The ability of the technician to explain 18% 32% 13% 6% 31% your subscribing options The professionalism of the technician 31% 43% 6% 2% 18% Respect for your property demonstrated 31% 43% 3% 3% 20% by the service technician

Communication Issues

Using the same scale in rating the other features and services, many Comcast subscribers were positive about their communication experiences with Comcast, but there were also significant areas of dissatisfaction. Specifically, the most dissatisfaction expressed was with the cable operator’s communication with them regarding rate changes at 46% (26% “Dissatisfied” and 20% “Very Dissatisfied”); followed by the cable operator’s employee’s helpfulness at 25% (19% “Dissatisfied” and 6% “Very Dissatisfied”), the cable operator’s communication with them regarding programming changes, also at 25% (18% “Dissatisfied” and 7% “Very Dissatisfied”), and the ability of the cable operator to explain and address billing questions/problems additionally at 25% (16% “Dissatisfied” and 9% “Very Dissatisfied”).

It is important to note that all these dissatisfaction levels are substantially higher than 10% and present a significant problem for Comcast in subscribers’ overall satisfaction level with Comcast.

These areas of communication, all of which relate to dissatisfaction with aspects of the provision of service (cost, billing, employees’ helpfulness and programming), may reflect challenges Comcast is experiencing when providing meaningful customer support.

Section A 19 CBG Communications, Inc. Calvert County Prepared: June 22, 2017 Needs Assessment Report

Table 4: Satisfaction with Communication with Comcast

Don't Know/ Very Very Communication Issues Satisfied Dissatisfied Not Satisfied Dissatisfied Applicable Comcast’s ability to explain and 15% 50% 16% 9% 11% address billing questions Comcast’s communication with YOU regarding programming 11% 48% 18% 7% 15% changes Comcast’s communication with 9% 34% 26% 20% 11% YOU regarding rate changes Comcast's employees’ helpfulness 20% 49% 19% 6% 6%

Public, Educational and Government (PEG) Access Programming Respondents were asked about their viewership of local community, governmental and educational access programming currently made available on the Comcast cable system on Channel 6. The local programming includes information on county government services and initiatives, Board of County Commissioners' and Board of Education meetings, public hearings and religious programs. The range of programming typically depends upon local interests and funding, and programs may be produced by local government, schools, organizations and individuals.

Subscribers report unduplicated viewing of local access programming (PEG programming) appearing on Channel 6 on a weekly basis, including daily, at 9%. When measuring how frequently local access programming is viewed, 3% of respondents reported that they watched on a daily basis, 6% on a weekly basis, another 14% described themselves as monthly viewers and 21% indicated that they were occasional viewers.

Figure 7 - Viewership of Local Access Programming

Section A 20 CBG Communications, Inc. Calvert County Prepared: June 22, 2017 Needs Assessment Report

These numbers, while on their face may seem low; in fact, indicate a significant level of viewership for local access programming and generally for most cable networks. Specifically, when considering the viewership of the access channels, it is useful to apply some standard principles of television viewing audience measurement.

The Nielsen Company is the primary measurer of media engagement in the United States. One of the numbers generated by Nielsen is referred to as CUME. CUME is an acronym that represents “cumulative audience.” It is defined by the television industry as the total, non- duplicated audience for a program or channel over a given time period. CUME is expressed as a percentage of the total television household universe. When measuring weekly CUME for commercial cable channels, Nielsen counts any household that chose the channel for at least a minute. Additionally, a viewing household is counted only once no matter how many times the channel or program is viewed during that week by that household.

In Calvert County, the weekly CUME reported by cable subscribers in our study of the local community access channel is 9% (combining the reported daily and weekly viewership). In other words, 9% of cable subscribers report at least viewing the local access channel at some point in a given week. When one compares this level of viewership against the weekly CUME of many well-known cable networks, one can see that in a universe of more than 300 channels, having 9% report they viewed your channel at some point during the week has significant meaning.

Many cable networks have a weekly average viewership rating of 2% or less. Well known examples include channels owned by Comcast such as the NBC Sports Network (NBCSN), the Golf Channel, CNBC, the Weather Channel and the Sprout Network. Even the top networks have weekly CUMEs of approximately 1/5 to 3/10 of total television households viewing audience. As an example, the Hallmark Network, one of the most popular cable networks in 2016, has a weekly average viewership of just over a million viewers. That represents less than 2% of the total households in the US that subscribe to cable television. Accordingly, it will be only rarely that one of the 300 niche cable networks will have a majority of the viewers. In cable television’s history, the industry has never had a majority of American television households watching one of its networks. In fact, the industry’s strength is its ability to tailor to niche interests like golf and business/market information.6

As another example, in January 2014, the Bravo Network issued a press release when it hit a record high in the network’s 33-year history with the viewership of the show Desperate Housewives of Atlanta. That show’s rating was reported as 4.5 million, or a rating of 5% of the potential audience.7 The press release didn’t state the average weekly viewership of the network, but since the 5% was a 33-year record high, it is likely that the weekly average is much lower.

6 NBCSN, September 20, 2013 at 75,000 a day. http://www.multichannel.com/content/nbcsn-scoring-big-total-day- gains-premier-league/145588. Golf Channel, 120,000 day. http://www.broadwayworld.com/bwwtv/article/Golf- Channel-Reigns-as-Fastest-Growing-Network-on-Television-20121004. http://www.indiewire.com/2016/12/cnn- fox-news-msnbc-nbc-ratings-2016-winners-losers-1201762864/. 7 Coverage of the press release can be found at http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2014/01/07/bravo-media-shatters- ratings-records-sunday-with-its-best-night-in-network-history/227413/

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Accordingly, the weekly viewing percentages for the Calvert County Community Access channel coupled with the niche nature of cable television, where the vast majority of cable networks have relatively small, weekly CUMEs, demonstrate substantial viewership.

Quality of Local Programming

A series of questions was posed related to various features of the local community Access Channel provided over Comcast cable in regard to picture and sound quality, the informational value and the entertainment value. Respondents were asked to indicate their level of satisfaction on a scale of “Excellent”, “Good”, “Fair”, or “Poor”. The respondent was also provided the option of responding, “don’t know” or that the question was “not applicable.”

The tested area that received the lowest marks (“Poor” rating) was the entertainment value with 12% reporting it as “Poor”. This was followed by sound quality with 9% reporting it as “Poor”, and picture quality with 5% reporting it as “Poor”.

Comcast cable subscribers reported an “Excellent” rating of 12%, a “Good” rating of 43%, and a “Fair” rating of 24% for picture quality, and an “Excellent” rating of 9%, a “Good” rating of 42%, and a “Fair” rating of 23% for sound quality. It is notable that overall cable service picture and sound quality were given a much higher rating. Accordingly, it will be important to consider ways that Channel 6’s picture and sound quality, from program production to ultimate distribution to the subscriber, can be substantially improved.

Respondents were asked to consider the informational value of the programs on Channel 6 and subscribers reported an “Excellent” rating of 14%, a “Good” rating of 45%, and a “Fair” rating of 19%. Only 4% rated Channel 6’s informational value as “Poor”.

Table 5: Community Access Characteristics Ratings

Don't Know/ Community Access TV Channel 6 Excellent Good Fair Poor Not Applicable Picture quality 12% 43% 24% 5% 17% Sound quality 9% 42% 23% 9% 17% Informational value 14% 45% 19% 4% 17% Entertainment value 9% 36% 21% 12% 22%

Other Local Programming Interests

Comcast subscribers were asked what kind of programming they would like to see more of on Community Access Channel 6. Community News had the most interest with 38% of all subscriber respondents indicating they would like to see “more” of this type of programming. The other top categories of local programming of interest to respondents are listed below in Table 6.

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Table 6: Top 12 “See More Of” Community Programming Rank Ordered by Interest

Categories of Local Programming Needs More Of Community News 38% Special Events and Activities 33% Local Sports 25% Local Historical Programming 25% Public Safety Information 25% Health/Wellness Programs 22% Public K-12 School Events and Activities 16% Government Meetings 15% Local Senior Citizen Programming 14% Higher Education Programs 14% Local Arts 13% Local Business Programming 8%

In the “Other” category (4%), subscribers mentioned a desire for programs concerning Calvert County weather, local history, High School Sports, College Courses, Local Cooking, Baltimore Sports, insights into County Government, emergency information, and other topics.8

Distribution Features for Local Access Programming

Comcast Cable subscribers were also asked to value the availability of certain distribution features for local PEG access programming that they currently have for other channels on the cable system. A substantial majority of randomly sampled subscribers indicated that the following cable television system features were valuable: local community programming information being provided on the current electronic program guide/menu would have value at 72% (including 21% “Very Valuable” and 32% “Valuable”); having local community programming provided On-Demand at 63% (including 18% “Very Valuable” and 25% “Valuable”); and having local community programming provided in High Definition (HD) at 61% (including 16% “Very Valuable”, and 22% “Valuable).

Table 7: Value of Local Community Programming Distribution Features.

Don't Know/ Very Somewhat Not at all Local Community Programming Valuable Not Valuable Valuable Valuable Applicable Information provided on the program 21% 32% 19% 14% 14% guide/menu Programming in high definition (HD) 16% 22% 23% 21% 18% Programming provided on-demand 18% 25% 20% 19% 18%

8 A full list of responses can be found in Exhibit A.1 under Question 24.

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Financial Support for Local Access Programming

A key area tested was the importance that a portion of a subscriber’s future cable bill go to support local community programming on Community Access Channel 6. A substantial majority of subscribers agreed that this initiative is important. Twelve percent (12%) described it as “very important”, 22% “important” and 32% “somewhat important”. Thirty-four percent (34%) said such funding was “not at all important”. In other words, a majority (66%) of subscribers surveyed indicated some level of importance that a portion of their future cable bill go to support local, community programming on Channel 6.

Figure 8 - Importance of Financial Support for Local Access Programming

Local Access Studio

Subscribers were asked if they were aware that the Public Access Channel 6 operates a local community access studio for television program production by County residents at no charge. Sixteen percent (16%) of subscribers were aware of this opportunity.

Additionally, subscribers that were aware of the opportunity were asked if they had ever used the Public Access Channel 6 studio, portable equipment or taken part in an access program. Eleven percent (11%) indicated that they had. These same subscribers provided detailed information on how they used the Public Access Channel 6 facilities. These descriptions are listed in the table below.

Section A 24 CBG Communications, Inc. Calvert County Prepared: June 22, 2017 Needs Assessment Report

Table 8: How have you used the Public Access Channel 6 facility?

• Comcast spotlight • Election results, county jobs/employment • Filmed shows there years ago. Nothing recently • Interviewed • Participated in a local commercial • To air Christmas parade • To promote Habitat for Humanity

Online Access in Calvert County

All survey respondents were asked what high-speed Internet service they used at home. Seventy-eight percent (78%) indicated that they used Xfinity high-speed Internet services. This was followed by 7% who indicated that they used another high-speed Internet provider. The most common response was Verizon (N=41).

Seven percent (7%) said they had Internet Access but that it was not high-speed. Of those that did not have high-speed Internet (N=49), 29% said it was because it was not available in their area.

Additionally, 6% (N=39) of all survey respondents indicated that they had no Internet access at home. The most common categories were: cost/cost too much/too expensive (13%), have no computer (15%), don't want/don't need (10%), and not available in my area/not here (5%).9

When looking at those with no “high-speed internet” and “no internet,” the combined survey respondent total is 13%. This finding is lower than the national tracking data which finds that “no high-speed Internet (broadband) access at home” is currently at 33%.10

All survey respondents were then asked a series of questions related to various aspects of their Internet service in regard to speed, rates, billing practices, system reliability/outages, customer service, and the installation technicians’ ability and courteousness. Respondents were asked to indicate their level of satisfaction on a 4-point scale from very satisfied to very dissatisfied. The respondent was also provided the option of responding, “don’t know” or that the question was “not applicable.”

The tested area that received the lowest marks was Internet service rates with 35% reporting being “dissatisfied” and 20% reporting being “very dissatisfied.” Combined, 55% of respondents reported dissatisfaction with Internet service rates. This was followed by billing

9 A full list of responses can be found in Exhibit A.1. 10 http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/12/21/home-broadband-2015/ Broadband is defined by the FCC as a service having a speed of at least 25 Mbps downstream and 3 Mbps upstream. Comcast has, though, marketed its 10 Mbps downstream/2 Mbps upstream product as being “high-speed”.

Section A 25 CBG Communications, Inc. Calvert County Prepared: June 22, 2017 Needs Assessment Report

practices with 23% reporting being “dissatisfied” and 12% reporting being “very dissatisfied.” Combined, 35% of respondents reported dissatisfaction with their Internet service billing.

Survey respondents also reported significant dissatisfaction with system reliability (disconnects or outages) at 30% (18% “Dissatisfied” and 12% “Very Dissatisfied”), and the Speed of their connections at 26% dissatisfaction (19% “Dissatisfied” and 7% “Very Dissatisfied”). Customer Service Representatives’ knowledge and courteousness also received 22% dissatisfaction from those respondents with Internet service (14% “Dissatisfied” and 8% “Very Dissatisfied”).

Table 9: Satisfaction with Survey Respondents’ Internet Service (N=630)

Don't Know/ Very Very Internet Service Issues Satisfied Dissatisfied Not Satisfied Dissatisfied Applicable Speed of connection 20% 53% 19% 7% 1% Internet service rates 8% 35% 35% 20% 2% Billing practices 11% 51% 23% 12% 3% System reliability (disconnects 13% 54% 18% 12% 2% or outages) Customer service representatives' knowledge and 19% 49% 14% 8% 11% courteousness Installation technicians' ability 24% 46% 7% 3% 21% and courteousness

When we drill down to just look at those survey respondents who subscribe to Comcast Internet, we see 35% reporting being “dissatisfied” and 21% reporting being “very dissatisfied” with Internet service rates.” Combined, 56% of Comcast Internet subscribers reported dissatisfaction with Internet service rates. This was followed by billing practices with 23% reporting being “dissatisfied” and 12% reporting being “very dissatisfied.” Combined, 35% of Comcast Internet subscribers reported dissatisfaction with their Internet billing practices.

Comcast Internet Subscribers also reported significant dissatisfaction with system reliability (disconnections or outages) at 30% (19% “Dissatisfied” and 11% “Very Dissatisfied”). The Speed of their connections received 25% dissatisfaction from those respondents with Comcast Internet connection speeds (18% “Dissatisfied” and 7% “Very Dissatisfied”). Customer Service Representatives knowledge and courteousness received a 22% dissatisfaction (14% “Dissatisfied” and 8% “Very Dissatisfied”), and installation technicians’ ability and courteousness received an 11% dissatisfaction score from Comcast Internet Subscribers.

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Table 10: Satisfaction with Comcast’s Internet Service (N=528)

Very Very Don't Know/ Service Issue Satisfied Satisfied Dissatisfied Dissatisfied Not Applicable Speed of connection 20% 55% 18% 7% 0% Internet service rates 8% 35% 35% 21% 2% Billing practices 12% 51% 23% 12% 2% System reliability (disconnects or 14% 55% 19% 11% 1% outages) Customer Service Reps' 17% 49% 14% 8% 12% knowledge and courteousness Installation technicians' ability and 22% 46% 8% 3% 21% courteousness

Additional Comments

When all respondents were asked to provide any final comments about Comcast and its services in Calvert County, 40% (N=283) used additional space provided at the end of the survey to do so. The comments were collapsed into categories. The top 10 first responses from those that provided additional detail (N=195) included:

First Top 10 Response (N=195) 1. Cost too high 27% 2. Comcast is a monopoly/only choice 21% 3. Want FIOS 4% 4. Want a la carte programming option 3% 5. Stop raising price 3% 6. Like Comcast cable 3% 7. Need better customer service 3% 8. Need faster Internet 3% 9. Need better reception 2% 10. Don’t outsource customer service 2%

Section A 27 CBG Communications, Inc. Calvert County Prepared: June 22, 2017 Needs Assessment Report

RESIDENTIAL COMMUNITY NEEDS ASSESSMENT CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

The following series of recommendations were developed from concepts and issues that emerged during the residential survey of cable television needs and interests in Calvert County.

1. Subscriber Satisfaction with Comcast cable television services – Sixty-two percent (62%) of cable subscribers are satisfied with cable service, with 11% indicating being “very satisfied” and 51% “satisfied”. This means that the other 38% are “dissatisfied” or “very dissatisfied”. In other words, almost 2 in 5 Comcast cable customers report overall dissatisfaction with their cable television service, which is lower than in other recently tested Maryland franchise systems.

Those that described lower satisfaction with cable television service were most likely to indicate that the primary reason was related to high rates or cost too high (35% of subscribers/N=187). This response and associated comments suggest that negative attitudes have a lot to do with subscribers’ perceptions of the price/value relationship concerning their current service. With the prevalence of “over the top” programming increasing in the marketplace (i.e., Hulu, HBO, Netflix, application driven television, online distribution of network programming and Internet-capable televisions), the concern over rates indicates these disruptive innovations are challenging the cable television landscape and will require innovative responses from the cable industry, including more locally responsive programming, to adapt their cable television business model to increasingly provide more value to subscribers.

Lower reported satisfaction was also related to concerns about better reception (N=37/7%). This includes technical difficulties that Comcast cable television subscribers are facing in Calvert County. In open-ended comments related to cable television satisfaction, 6% of subscribers (N=31) indicated that improvements in customer service would increase their satisfaction level. Another 4% of subscribers (N=19) indicated they would be more satisfied if they had a la carte programming choices. All of these areas are deserving of attention by Comcast and would likely drive higher customer satisfaction with the service. These issues are within Comcast’s ability to immediately address and would likely help to counter the dissatisfaction reported by nearly 2 in 5 cable subscribers (38%).

2. Non-Subscribership of Comcast cable television services – Of those currently not subscribing to Comcast (N=166), 56% subscribe to satellite services. Non-subscribers further indicated reasons as to why they did not subscribe to Comcast cable television. The number one reason was cost (48%), which was then followed by had, but disconnected (27%), cable television service not being available at their home (18% or 4% of all survey respondents), service issues (17%), never subscribed (12%), don’t want/don’t watch TV (11%), and programming objections (6%). The street, road or neighborhood location information for those respondents indicating it was unavailable was collected and is available in Exhibit A.1. Comcast could immediately engage subscribers in Calvert County through further construction, creating a greater build-out of

Section A 28 CBG Communications, Inc. Calvert County Prepared: June 22, 2017 Needs Assessment Report

their system than is currently available in the area. These findings also suggest that to further engage subscribers as Comcast moves into franchise renewal, it would need to compete more effectively with satellite offerings and design new, enhanced or alternative programming package options, as well as address service issues.

3. Technical Issues – A substantial number of cable television subscribers, 42%, indicated that they had experienced some type of technical difficulty. When describing these “technical difficulties,” the most common response was related to picture quality (N=95). This was followed by more descriptive elements of “channels cut out” or “picture freezes” and “pixilation.” This was then followed by outages/signal loss (N=27). Several comments were made about audio problems as well (N=27). Lastly, subscribers indicated having problems with their cable boxes/DVRs (N=23), and these were often coupled with "box freezes up”. This was further described as “needing to reboot,” "Box acting up" and/or “box stopped working,” and "On demand or HD Channels won't work on box/DVR."

Added to this, the primary reason for calling the cable company within the last year, which 81% of subscribers did, was related to a problem with reception (accounting for 35% of calls made), this was followed by billing issues (22%), Internet going down (9%), and cable outage/loss of signal (accounting for 5% of calls made). Clearly, the cycle of poor reception and outages (also discussed further below) are accounting for call volume to the cable television company that creates call answering and hold times that are over 450% greater than allowed under the federal customer service guidelines. The prompt and successful correction of these service and customer service problems was reported by cable subscribers as a solution for increasing their overall rating of cable television service. Addressing cable television service problems and the resulting telephone response to those issues is clearly a critical area of needed improvement in the next franchise.

4. Customer Service – In line with the 38% of cable television subscribers that are dissatisfied with Comcast’s service, certain areas of Comcast customer service are indicated to be in need of enhancements, and there are areas in the survey where subscribers’ responses indicate potential non-compliance with Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Customer Service Standards and the Calvert County Cable Franchise Ordinance. These are:

a. Telephone Answering Standards – Eighty-one percent (81%) of cable television subscribers had called Comcast in the last year and the primary reason for calling was a poor reception. Nine percent (9%) of subscribers indicated that they received a busy signal when calling the company, which is 200% greater than the three percent (3%) level specified by the FCC as the required customer service standard. Additionally, 56% indicated that their call had not been answered within thirty (30) seconds, including the time left on hold, which is over 450% greater than the 10% allowed under the FCC customer service standards. Primary reasons for calling, other than poor reception were related to billing issues, Internet problems, loss of

Section A 29 CBG Communications, Inc. Calvert County Prepared: June 22, 2017 Needs Assessment Report

signal/outage, equipment line issues, change of service and installation -- all controllable customer service issues.

b. Outages and Restoration of Service – Thirty-nine percent (39%) of Comcast subscribers reported they had experienced several outages in the last year for a period of 4-hours or more. Specifically, subscribers reported on average 3 outages experienced in the last year for a period of 4 hours or more while they continued to have electricity -- suggesting that these were normal operating conditions. Seventy-six percent (76%) of those experiencing an outage called the cable company to report the problem, and while 81% were positive about the cable company’s response to the outage, 19% were not. Important to franchise renewal proceedings is the satisfaction level that subscribers have with the length of time it takes to restore service.

c. Service Calls – Fifty-six percent (56%) of subscriber respondents indicated they had a service call or installation in the last year. These subscribers were asked a series of questions about that experience and the findings are worth noting here. Of those that had an experience with Comcast service personnel at their home, most were positive about the technician’s professionalism and the respect the service technician demonstrated toward their property. They were less satisfied with the ability of the technician to explain subscribing options. There was also dissatisfaction expressed with the ability of the technician to resolve the installation or service issue, the available times for service or installation, and arrival time of the technician. These are all staffing-related issues and may reflect directly on the number of technicians assigned to work in Calvert County and the training these employees received. Improvements in these areas are likely to improve overall satisfaction with cable television service and are important discussion points during franchise renewal.

d. Communications with Subscribers – Forty-six percent (46%), almost half of responding subscribers were dissatisfied with Comcast’s communication with them regarding rate changes. This was followed by 1 in four subscribers being dissatisfied with Comcast's ability to explain and address billing questions/problems, Comcast’s communication with them regarding programming changes, and Comcast’s employees’ helpfulness.

As part of franchise renewal negotiations, we recommend that Comcast provide an overview of how notice was provided to cable customers, how troubleshooting and problem escalation is handled, technician training improved and their strategy for improvement going forward. As Comcast responds to these concerns, we encourage the County to consider notification and problem resolution requirements as part of customer service standards that can be measured and benchmarked at regular intervals during the course of the next franchise and that penalties for non-compliance be clearly articulated.

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Each of these are areas that we recommend as focus areas with Comcast in franchise renewal to see what improvements can be made to resolve the concerns indicated by subscribers.

5. Access Channels and Viewership – Up to nine percent (9%) of subscribers reported watching the local access channel on a daily or weekly basis. While this percentage may at first appear low, it is important to keep in mind that cable television’s business model is rooted in niche channels rather than mass appeal channels. As an example, many well- known cable channels have weekly CUME’s of 2% or less and one of the most popular overall cable networks, USA, typically has a weekly cumulative audience of approximately 21% of all television households. While not a direct comparison because of the different measurement basis (national multichannel video subscribers weekly viewership versus local cable television subscribers weekly viewership), up to 9% of Calvert County subscribers that report watching the local access channel on at least a weekly basis should be seen as viable and healthy cable television viewership and a valuable part of Comcast’s cable service.

Cable television subscribers reported significant interest in seeing more of a variety of types of programming on the local access channels. The top 12 categories of interest included:

Categories of Local Programming Needs More Of Community News 38% Special Events and Activities 33% Local Sports 25% Local Historical Programming 25% Public Safety Information 25% Health/Wellness Programs 22% Public K-12 School Events and Activities 16% Government Meetings 15% Local Senior Citizen Programming 14% Higher Education Programs 14% Local Arts 13% Local Business Programming 8%

Additionally, the majority of subscribers (63%) favored local access programming be made available via the “On-Demand” features of the cable system and almost 3 in 4 subscribers indicated value for robust program information to be available via the on- screen menu/guide. Additionally, sixty-one percent (61%) of subscribers also expressed value in receiving the access channels in high definition on the Comcast cable system in Calvert County.

Overall, the results from the survey show a high level of interest in local access programming, indicating that a renewed franchise should have strong support for continuation and enhancement of access programming and distribution. Such enhancements should occur in a variety of areas, most specifically better television guide

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information about the channels, ensuring the channels are integrated into the system in a way that puts them on a level playing field with other channels and enabling the generation and provision of greater amounts of programming in the categories specified.

These concluding remarks and recommendations are not meant to be a comprehensive reflection of the needs assessment findings as a whole, but rather are an important part of the analysis. Other data presented in sections of this narrative may also be of value to the County as it moves forward with the franchising process. An understanding of the needs and interests in the community can serve to continue to improve cable service in Calvert County.

Section A 32 CBG Communications, Inc. Calvert County Prepared: June 22, 2017 Needs Assessment Report

TARGETED RESIDENTIAL COMMUNITY CABLE-RELATED SURVEY

Introduction

After the randomly sampled mail survey was completed, a targeted mailing of the survey to residents who had previously called the County with comments about Comcast, but had not been included in the random sample, using the same questions was conducted. This provided those residents an opportunity to provide input into the needs ascertainment process. By February 3, 2017, 37 of the 93 targeted surveys mailed were returned (40% response rate).

This effort provides additional “public comment” from a highly-interested population for consideration during Calvert County’s franchise renewal discussion.

Targeted Survey Results

Calvert County provided the names and addresses of residents in the community who had called or written the County regarding Comcast cable in the past several years. These residents were provided a targeted survey that mirrored the randomly mailed survey to provide feedback about their Comcast cable television experience. Of the 93 residents mailed surveys, 37 returned those surveys and the responses were reviewed. These additional findings act as public comment and are not part of the randomly sampled survey findings.

Many of the key concerns presented in the additional 37 targeted surveys are consistent with key findings in the randomly mailed survey. For example, a number of issues presented in the returned targeted surveys were related to customer service. One respondent noted that the service at the local office was minimal and that more opportunity to interact face to face with Comcast was desired in Calvert County. Another indicated that service repairs are not done in a timely manner.

This targeted survey group of residents had also placed calls to Comcast in the last year. Many of these calls were in reference to billing issues, the cable being out, increases in the cost of service, poor phone service and cable service issues. One targeted survey respondent reported having outages all the time, having experienced as many as 29 outages in one month. These targeted residents also reported loss of internet and poor picture quality, similar to the random sampled survey respondents.

Others also noted that the cost keeps rising but the service continues to decline and that cable line repairs needed to be performed often. Still, others noted that there was no senior discount and one was needed. Poor communication regarding programming package changes and rate changes were also noted.

Also, similar to the random survey respondents, the targeted survey respondents want more types of local programming, such as community news, special events and activities, government meetings, health/wellness programming, public safety information programming, and local arts programming.

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The biggest overall difference between the results of the two survey efforts was that the majority of the targeted survey respondents didn’t have cable service available to them. Specifically, 22 out of the 37 targeted survey respondents indicated that they were without cable television service and a majority lived on the Breeden/McQueen Road area. In several communications that were provided, it was clear that the residents had worked aggressively to have Comcast provide a line extension for services to their area. In multiple correspondences, costs to complete the work were introduced, but not resolved. Several of these respondents mentioned that the cost for completing the work continued to increase with each proposal from Comcast without a clear explanation.

The targeted survey respondents also indicated that a going forward franchise should require a complete build out of the County.

The full results of the targeted survey can be found in Exhibit A.2.

Section A 34 CBG Communications, Inc. Calvert County Prepared: June 22, 2017 Needs Assessment Report

SECTION B

REVIEW OF CABLE-RELATED PUBLIC, EDUCATIONAL AND GOVERNMENTAL (PEG) ACCESS NEEDS AND INTERESTS

Privileged and Confidential Draft 35 CBG Communications, Inc. Calvert County Prepared: June 22, 2017 Needs Assessment Report

PUBLIC, EDUCATIONAL AND GOVERNMENTAL ACCESS NEEDS ASSESSMENT

Introduction and Methodology

As part of its overall assessment of the cable television related needs and interests of the Calvert County (County) community, CBG Communications, Inc. (CBG) and its Team Partners, Dr. Constance Book (President, Telecommunications Research Corp.) and Carson Hamlin (Media Integration Specialist), conducted an assessment of the Calvert County community’s needs and interests regarding Public, Educational and Governmental (PEG) Access channels and programming.

Individual residents of the County and key stakeholders in Calvert County’s PEG community were contacted for the PEG Access Needs Assessment, via written surveys, focused discussions, in-person interviews, and physical site surveys of facilities and equipment. Specifically, information and opinions about PEG Access needs and interests were obtained from: a random sample of County residents who participated in a written survey of the community’s cable- related needs and interests), Information Technology, Governmental Access and other staff and stakeholders involved in the production and development of programming for the Government Access portion of Community Access Channel 6, as well as input from other County Departments and agencies; Calvert County Public Schools (CCPS) staff regarding the potential for Educational Access programming over Channel 6; College of Southern Maryland (CSM) representatives involved with its current Higher Education Access Channel (CSM-TV) about the potential for providing certain of its programming over Channel 6, as well as developing additional programming from its Prince Frederick location in Calvert County; and Comcast staff that facilitate the use of the Public Access portion of Channel 6 from Comcast’s local Community Access studio.

The PEG Access Needs Assessment included a request for, and reviews of, documentation from the County and Comcast, the current program providers and facilitators of the production and distribution over Channel 6. Requested documentation included:

• Annual production and programming statistics; • Technology plans for future development; • Facilities layout; • Master control signal flow diagrams; • Programming signal origination transport information; • Equipment inventories; • Operating rules and procedures; • Operating and capital budgets; • Staffing levels; • Channel programming schedules; • Programming samples; • Website usage statistics, and

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• Other documentation depicting current and planned operations.

Along with analysis of this information, CBG conducted facilities surveys and focused discussions and interviews with both Comcast channel management as well as production personnel from the County and other government and education stakeholders.

Specifically, regarding Governmental Access, CBG toured the production area at the Calvert County Courthouse which is utilized for the production of Board of County Commissioners meetings, as well as the development of other content utilizing field camera and editing equipment available on site. The facilities and equipment were reviewed and current needs, as well as needs that will arise in the next 10 years, were identified and documented during these site visits. Additionally, interviews were conducted with County staff concerning their perspectives on Governmental Access production and programming content development. A focused discussion was also held with County Governmental Access stakeholders that focused on the state of current County video production facilities, equipment and programming, projected equipment and facility needs for the future, and current and future needs related to program content development, production and distribution. This includes continuing live meeting coverage of the County Commissioners, as well as other live meetings and program content covering County initiatives, programs and services.

Regarding K-12 Educational Access, CBG and the County held interviews with CCPS staff regarding past efforts and future needs and interests related to provision of Educational Access programming for Community Channel 6. These interviews, similar to those for Governmental Access described above, focused on current and projected facilities and equipment needs related to the development of K-12 Educational Access programming, as well as future program content development, production and distribution, including potential coverage of School Board meetings, activities at individual schools, and CCPS events. Discussions also centered on how such programming development efforts could be integrated with a core digital media production curriculum.

Regarding Higher Educational Access, CBG, from its work in Charles County was already familiar with the College of Southern Maryland (CSM) studio, editing and post production facilities. Building on this knowledge and understanding, CBG and the County held interviews and conducted a focused discussion with CSM representatives that help facilitate CSM-TV’s programming development and distribution. The interviews and focused discussion concerned the projected equipment and facilities needs related to the potential production of programming in Calvert County for Channel 6, as well as needs and interests related to providing existing programming produced by CSM-TV over Channel 6. The information obtained also included the participants’ perspectives on future program content development, production and distribution specifically related to the Calvert County CSM Campus.

Regarding Public Access, CBG reviewed the Comcast facilities and equipment that are provided in support of the Public Access programming that appears on Channel 6. Additional information was gained from Comcast staff that facilitates the operation of the Comcast studio and the aggregation and distribution of programming over Channel 6. CBG conducted an interview with Comcast staff that discussed Comcast’s perspective on current and projected facilities and

Section B 37 CBG Communications, Inc. Calvert County Prepared: June 22, 2017 Needs Assessment Report equipment needs, what can be done to enhance Public/Community Access programming in Calvert County and what Comcast’s future vision is related to Public/Community Access in Calvert County.

Findings concerning PEG Access Channel 6, and the various Public, Educational and Governmental stakeholders were used to develop the facility, equipment, capacity and distribution needs and associated funding projections included in the following subsections, as well as projected new concepts for PEG Access going forward. All of this is described below and summarized in the Conclusions and Recommendations at the end of this Section. The needs and interests are the basis for phasings and priorities for equipment and facility implementation, upgrades and further replacement that PEG programmers will need over a projected 10-year timeframe. Detailed discussion of the PEG Access Needs Assessment and CBG’s findings follows.

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Findings - Community/Public, Educational and Governmental Access

Overview of Comcast’s Calvert County Community Channel 6 Comcast’s Community Channel 6 in Calvert County provides programming produced by members of the public, programming produced by Calvert County and, in the past, programming produced by Calvert County Public Schools (CCPS). Comcast also provides an electronic community bulletin board which runs between video programs that provides announcements submitted by community organizations. The community bulletin board is PowerPoint-based and is the default program content when video is not present. Switching occurs at the headend. Organizations can provide announcements for the bulletin board by emailing their information to Comcast.

The programming produced by the public is largely religious and faith-based programming which is produced by various church groups throughout the County. This includes church services from the Southern Calvert Baptist Church, the St. John Vianney Church, Trinity United Methodist, the Church of God Lusby and the Church of God Huntingtown. Other religious programs include Healing and Deliverance, Bethel Way of the Cross, Communion Way of the Cross and New Day Ministries.

Calvert County Government’s primary focus is on providing recorded coverage of its Calvert County Commissioners meetings over the cable channel (provided live online), as well as a variety of public service announcements. The public service announcements include tourism- related and promotional spots, as well as public safety information from the Sheriff’s Office.

Regarding educational programming, the Board of Education had been recording School Board meetings and providing them to Comcast in an FTP fashion, similar to the way that the County provides them to Comcast.

Comcast maintains a Community Access facility in Prince Frederick for both studio production and post production. The studio facility also serves as the master control facility for video content. Video content is either uploaded, or produced and then uploaded, to a Leightronix encoder which puts all the video content into an MPEG 2 stream. It passes through the local Calvert County headend up to the Comcast regional Capital Heights Headend where it is combined with all the other video channels serving the Comcast Calvert County system and then sent back to the Comcast Calvert headend for QAM modulation and ultimate delivery to the subscriber.

The programming produced in the studio follows a similar path but goes from the Betacam recording devices to DVD and then to MPEG 2 during post production activities. The substantial amount of processing from original source content to the video delivered to the home, including analog to digital, baseband video/audio to digital MPEG 2 IP and then MPEG 2 IP to QAM appears to create significant degradation from the source video to what’s delivered to a subscriber.

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The studio facility includes a 23’ x 27’ studio with two cameras and a lighting grid. Seven (7) lighting fixtures are attached to the grid. There are some standard set pieces available.

The control room includes a switcher, audio mixing console, preview and playback monitors and one Sony Beta SP video tape recorder.

Comcast also provides a Sony Beta SP camera for field production. Content produced via this single camera can be edited at the studio production facility location using a linear edit controller as well as a Beta SP video tape player and video tape recorder. The programs are mastered to DVD and then, similar to the imported programs brought in on DVD, are encoded into the Leightronix system for playback.

Comcast has developed a Public Access Policies and Procedures document which specifies who is eligible to be a producer and then is therefore eligible to use the facility. This person must already have the technical skills required to meet minimum standards of competence with the studio, field and editing equipment. Comcast does not provide training to utilize the facility; however, staff can be present during all productions and is available to assist if needed. Comcast indicates that the studio is available for scheduling from 9:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and from noon till 9:00 p.m. on Tuesday. However, Comcast indicates that it has been a number of years since the facility has been utilized by a Calvert County resident. Accordingly, Comcast now “makes available one full time employee to support Channel 6 on an as-needed basis to meet the demands for use of the studio”.

Comcast also indicates that it has no current planned upgrades related to the facility or plans to provide Channel 6 in a high definition format. It also does not maintain a separate operating and capital budget for Channel 6. Rather, they are integrated with budgetary categories for other related operations and facilities at the Prince Frederick location.

Focused Discussions with Government and Educational Access Representatives In October, November and December of 2016, discussions were held with a variety of governmental and educational representatives concerning current and planned concepts for Community/Public, Educational and Governmental Access going forward. Discussions were guided by a PowerPoint discussion guide which focused on an overview of PEG Access from a Community Needs Assessment perspective; Access Channel capacity; facilities needed for Public/Community, Educational and Governmental Access; equipment needed to facilitate the production of programming; organizational structure for enabling PEG Access; staffing; distribution of programming and delivery methods; and related topics on communications networking and cable service connections. The key findings from discussions with Calvert County government representatives, including those most familiar with the County’s current Governmental Access television production efforts, as well as those who are developing concepts for the future, included the following:

• Coverage of public meetings is very important and should be expanded -- Discussion participants indicated that coverage of the Board of County Commissioners meetings was a critical part of County government outreach and government transparency and should

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be enhanced to include live coverage of the meetings over the cable system as well as the current recorded playback.

It will also be important to cover more meetings such as Planning Commission meetings, the Animal Matters Hearing Board and others. In fact, there are 50 Boards and Commissions that have meetings that could be covered on the Channel.

• More programming should be developed that focuses on civic engagement -- It will be important to continue to enhance and expand the production of programming related to tourism and promotional information about the County. It also will be useful to develop more programming about volunteerism and participating in civic matters and on government Boards and Commissions. Along with this, the Channel could develop more programming on how the Calvert County government works and serve as a type of ombudsman for interfacing with the public.

• Calvert County needs upgrades and enhancements to its Government Access facilities and equipment -- During discussions, it was indicated that the following would be needed, especially if Comcast no longer provided production facilities, equipment and facilitation in the future at its current Channel 6 production facility in Prince Frederick. Specifically, the County needs the following:

o Upgrades and enhancements to its Commissioners’ Meeting Room production facilities. o Upgrades and enhancements to its field production and editing capabilities. o A large server capable of providing both Channel 6 program output to Comcast and potential additional channels, as well as interconnections to both the local CSM Prince Frederick Campus and Calvert County Public Schools’ Central Media Center location (either co-located with the current studios at Northern High School or a planned Career and Technology Academy [CTA] in the future). The interconnections could either leverage existing fiber assets between entities, or may need specific connections for PEG Access facilitated by Comcast.

• Additional programming should be developed that focuses on outreach and economic development -- This also means enhancing information provided over the community bulletin board, including more information from the County, the Sheriff’s Department and other government agencies.

There is a high interest in Parks and Recreation initiatives and activities. Accordingly, more programming covering these initiatives and activities would be beneficial to the County and its residents.

• A separate channel for Government Access could be needed in the future -- Participants discussed whether a second channel should be reserved for Government Access. As operational resources may allow in the future, the expansion of meeting coverage programming alone could develop the need for a specific channel for

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Government Access that wouldn’t be shared with both Educational Access and Public/Community Access programming.

Focused Discussion with Higher Educational Access Representatives A meeting was held with representatives from the College of Southern Maryland who have both a campus in Prince Frederick, as well as their own Educational Access Channel, CSM-TV (currently provided over the Comcast and Verizon systems in Charles County, Maryland). The discussion related to Educational Access centered on the same overall Access television subject matters as delineated above for Government Access television. Key findings from this focused discussion included:

• CSM-TV is an active component of college outreach to students as well as to the public at large and should be provided in Calvert County -- Participants indicated that, at the very least, the programming that is being produced by CSM-TV and currently running over the Comcast system in Charles County should be provided over Calvert County Channel 6. It was discussed that this could occur currently under the existing Franchise, and discussions between the County and CSM should continue to ensure that this occurs either now under the existing Franchise or in the future under any renewed franchise.

• Development of production capabilities at the Prince Frederick CSM campus would assist in increasing the development of programming for CSM-TV that focused on activities both specific to Calvert County as well as Southern Maryland region-wide -- It was discussed that, while the current focus on digital media production is at the CSM campus in La Plata, it will be important to have specific field and editing capabilities at the Prince Frederick campus, as well as potential use of a shared studio facility to increase the amount of production for CSM-TV. This also would give students and faculty at the Prince Frederick campus an opportunity to develop productions locally, without having to travel to the La Plata campus. Additionally, programming produced there could be transported through the College’s network back to the La Plata campus as well as through interconnections to both a shared studio space and a central PEG Access distribution facility that the County would oversee.

• CSM indicates that it will be important to have the Calvert County campus as another content development hub for CSM-TV -- CSM’s current plans are to continue to expand its media production capabilities beyond the La Plata campus to the Prince Frederick campus, as well as to the developing Hughesville campus, which will be located between the La Plata and Prince Frederick campuses. As Hughesville comes on board, as further described below, it may also be able to help with the provision of Public Access training, facilitation, production and post production capabilities, similar to what is provided at the La Plata campus now for Charles County residents.

• CSM-TV may need its own channel designation in Calvert County in the future -- As programming will continue to develop over time with resources at multiple campus locations, CSM-TV will continue to expand its program lineup on its Charles County channel. This may mean that programming will be developed that should have its own

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presence in Calvert County as well. This should be developed such that specific channel capacity for CSM-TV is held in reserve in the future in any renewed franchise.

Focused Discussion with K-12 Educational Access Representatives Discussions were held with representatives from CCPS concerning the provision of K-12 Educational Access programming over Channel 6, both now and in the future. Subject areas discussed were similar to those discussed for Higher Educational Access and Governmental Access. Key findings from the focused discussion are the following:

• CCPS is looking at a variety of Educational Access programming opportunities for the near and longer-term future -- CCPS has in the past cablecast recorded School Board meetings over Channel 6. Recently it has only provided them online, both live and on demand. CCPS is actively looking at providing these Board Meetings over Channel 6 once again. Beyond this, CCPS sees a variety of potential programming that would be beneficial to Calvert County residents, including coverage of Parent Information Nights, coverage of scholastic athletics and student-developed programming.

• CCPS is looking at developing a complete pathway for a communications curriculum -- Currently, there are studios at Northern High School where there is a broadcasting program, that is part of course work that develops content. CCPS is looking at developing an entire “completer” curriculum that would comprehensively train students in digital media production that would occur at the CTA. As this is developed, it would provide more opportunities for student-developed programming. Additionally, CCPS currently works cooperatively with CSM in secondary to college transition programs. Potentially, as both entities develop more local digital media production capabilities, this type of secondary to college transition program for digital media production could be put into place as well.

• CCPS would need additional facilities and equipment to expand its development of programming in both the near and longer term -- For example, CCPS envisions utilizing a shared studio facility for District-focused productions such that staff and faculty could develop programming simultaneously with the studio-based programming that would be developed by students at Northern High and/or the CTA.

To produce programming remotely in the field using a multi-camera setup, CCPS would need both a studio in a box type of arrangement as well as individual field cameras. This further needs to be augmented by post production equipment.

The combination of this would serve to significantly enhance and expand CCPS’ television production efforts for Channel 6.

• CCPS may be able to assist in the development of Public Access -- It was discussed during the group meeting that the production facilities developed for and by the School District may be able to be utilized by the public after hours when not being utilized by students. A drawback is that there would have to be multiple mechanisms put in place to

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facilitate night and weekend use, including security enhancements and other requirements for such use to be consistent with the School District’s policies and procedures.

Focused Discussion with Public Access Representatives During the group discussions with government and educational representatives (including CSM representatives who currently facilitate Public Access in Charles County), the potential for expansions and enhancements of Public Access beyond the current slate of religious programs was discussed. Previous discussions with Comcast indicated that, because of the lack of studio use, they may desire to stop enabling Public Access during any renewed franchise. Based on these existing circumstances, the group discussed a variety of options for Public Access going forward. Key findings from those discussions included:

• It will be important to continue to give the public an outlet for producing video programming and distributing that programming over a Community Channel within Calvert County -- It was discussed by group participants that there could be multiple causes for lack of usage of the Comcast facility, including facility location, lack of training and facilitation services, older style equipment, and lack of promotion of the availability of the facility. Participants believe that, properly promoted, there would be an interest in continuing to have Public Access opportunities in Calvert County, and these should be facilitated in some way to ensure that the opportunity continues to exist.

• If Comcast continues to provide Public Access services, then its facilities must be upgraded and usage opportunities promoted – Much of Comcast’s Public Access equipment is clearly antiquated, and is not consistent with current industry standards. Also, it does not appear from written survey results and other anecdotal information that many people are aware of the opportunity to produce video programming. Accordingly, any renewed franchise should include development of a modern facility with modern equipment that is properly promoted and facilitated, such that any resident of the County would have a user-friendly environment to produce programming and provide it over the Community Channel.

• Other options exist for the production by the public of programming that can be explored, but supporting resources will be needed -- Participants indicated that there were three other potential options for facilitating Public Access going forward, either in addition to or instead of capabilities provided by Comcast. These options included the following:

o Provision of field equipment and editing capabilities at the Public Library -- Participants indicated that, since the Public Library already has established mechanisms to check out materials and to oversee use of those materials within the facility, it would be a good location for providing both field and remote camera packages for check out by members of the public, as well as space and equipment for editing the content that was produced utilizing the production equipment that could be checked out. Participants indicated that this should be explored with the Public Library and considered as an option for helping facilitate Public Access. This,

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however, would not provide studio capabilities or necessarily provide training and facilitation capabilities.

o Facilitation by the College of Southern Maryland -- CSM representatives indicated that, since they are quite familiar with facilitating Public Access in Charles County, it may be a service that they can provide to Calvert County residents as well. However, there is no space currently available at their Prince Frederick location for facilitating Public Access or developing the facilities and housing the equipment to support Public Access. One option would be to open up the Charles County facility for the use of Calvert County residents. However, this would require an agreement between Calvert County and Charles County, and approval by the CSM hierarchy, because this operation is currently funded by Charles County and CSM. Accordingly, there would most likely need to be specific resources provided by Calvert County and Comcast through the Calvert County Franchise.

Another CSM option would be at the new campus that is being developed in Hughesville, which is much closer to Calvert County and so therefore would be more convenient for Calvert County residents. Potentially, space could be made available and if outfitted with equipment and properly supported with staffing resources, the facility conceivably could house a Public Access operation that could be utilized by Calvert County residents. The issue here, besides how the resources would be structured and who would provide them, is that most likely this facility would not be ready for another 3-5 years.

o A third option would be to house Public Access at one of the CCPS facilities such as the CTA or Northern High School -- Public Access could be facilitated in the late afternoon and evening hours when the facilities and equipment would not otherwise be utilized by students. The largest issue here is that these facilities are typically only staffed during school hours, so additional staff would be needed for facilitation, training and related activities in the evening hours. Again, staffing, facility and equipment resources would need to be provided in order to make this possibility a reality, as well as an agreement between the Calvert County government and CCPS.

All participants agreed that these various options should be explored in order to provide the best opportunity for individuals and organizations within Calvert County to be able to produce video programming and provide it over the Community Channel.

Section B 45 CBG Communications, Inc. Calvert County Prepared: June 22, 2017 Needs Assessment Report

Facility and Equipment Needs

In order to help meet the needs described above, CBG developed specific equipment and facility requirements, as described below.

Equipment Baseline Definitions CBG’s assessment established certain “baseline requirements” that apply to CBG’s needs assessment and equipment projections for all Calvert County PEG production facilities. The goal of the Baseline Definitions is to define core requirements for these organizations as they continue to transition from their current video production environments to the industry standard of high-definition and other associated digital technologies, and to successor digital technology as it becomes industry standard, in order to meet the needs assessed by this report. The spreadsheets include a description of the type and range of equipment needed in order to function adequately at the HD digital level. Some equipment that is not related to digital transition, but is still critical for video production, is also included in the spreadsheets. Items such as tripods, light stands, and microphones are generic to the facility, and are not format dependent. Considerations for support of legacy equipment in a phased transition are critical to ensure continued operations as the facility moves into the HD world.

High Definition All new equipment purchased by the Access organizations should be High Definition. Standard Definition (SD) equipment can either be a 4x3 or 16x9 aspect ratio (in a digital format, not analog). SD equipment can be anything from consumer grade to broadcast (professional) quality equipment, whereas HD always has a 16x9 aspect ratio and produces video with a much higher, professional-level quality than SD. As the television production world has moved over time from black and white to color, VHS to DVD and Blu-ray, and from analog to standard definition digital, it is now moving rapidly to a fully high-definition digital environment. This means that eventually little or no standard definition digital production and post-production equipment will be available in the marketplace, nor will replacement parts to repair existing SD equipment be available. Additionally, the cost for high-definition equipment continues to fall, making it available at a reasonable cost during the term of a renewed franchise. These two factors together make it far more cost effective for PEG Access organizations to acquire HD equipment in all of their new equipment purchases.

The broadcast, cable and satellite industries have moved to HDTV because of the obviously better picture quality and sound quality, which viewers now demand. The percentage of American households outfitted with HDTVs has increased substantially over the past five years: 81% have at least one and 52% have multiple HDTVs, according to a report from the Leichtman Research Group (LRG).11 That compares to 46% and 17%, respectively, five years ago. According to the research, the percentage of HDTV homes continues to grow. Although statistics are difficult to obtain on the exact amount of programming available in HD, it is CBG’s experience that in order for television providers to remain competitive and expand viewership,

11 https://www.benton.org/headlines/HDTV-sets-Now-Over-80-Percent-of-US-Household

Section B 46 CBG Communications, Inc. Calvert County Prepared: June 22, 2017 Needs Assessment Report they must deliver programming in HD. This applies to PEG Access organizations as much as to commercial cable channels.

Accordingly, based on the assessed needs of the PEG channel operators described in this report, CBG recommends that all new equipment purchases be HD, but in some cases still SD- compatible based on integration with existing equipment. This allows access to past programs or applications that could only be retrieved by utilizing legacy equipment.

Virtual Set Technology CBG recommends virtual set technology be installed in the studio area of the proposed Calvert County Shared Television Production Facility. This technology uses computer generated environments to create the illusion of a physical set in which subjects perform, substantially reducing the expense and logistics of managing physical sets. Sets can be generated live or subjects can be videotaped against a “green screen” and the virtual set added in post-production. The technology permits a variety of sets for different program types, at little cost, and allows for more efficient use of limited studio space.

PEG Access channels, like commercial channels, continue to have more and more competition from other video services while their viewership and user community demand increased program offerings. In the current environment of constrained budgets, all content providers, including Calvert County PEG Providers, must have faster and more economical ways to deliver a greater range of programs. Virtual set technology meets this demand to produce and deliver more with less by substantially eliminating the time and cost of building, taking down and managing physical sets, with no loss in production quality. It permits use of a variety of video environments to keep programming fresh and creative, bringing viewers back to the channel, at a fraction of the cost and time required for multiple physical sets.

CBG recommends use of a chromakey curtain in the studio space that can be pulled in place as needed, as opposed to a static green wall. This will add flexibility to sets, is easy to maneuver and use, and creates the illusion of increased depth, giving the viewer the sense of a larger space.

Ancillary Equipment This spreadsheet category includes basic items such as microphones, teleprompter equipment, PA, miscellaneous stands, tripods, recorders, workstations, fixtures, and the like, plus their upgrades and replacements. In working with many communities, this type of equipment usually needs replaced on a regular basis as it also includes consumables such as light bulbs, connectors and other small items that are needed in the production facility. Rather than calling these items out in separate line items, we recommend this budgetary line item to accommodate these types of replacements. It is necessary for any PEG production facility and must be replaced, upgraded and added to, over the term of a renewed franchise.

Section B 47 CBG Communications, Inc. Calvert County Prepared: June 22, 2017 Needs Assessment Report

Calvert County Shared PEG Facility And Equipment Needs

Based on interviews and focused discussions, as profiled earlier herein, it is evident that a shared production facility at an area to be determined in the County (such as at a CCPS or CSM facility), would prove to be an efficient, cost effective and highly beneficial means to generate more government and educational programming. The characteristics and elements described below are proposed for the inclusion in the shared facility.

Infrastructure “Infrastructure” includes equipment necessary for all functions in a video production facility, such as encoders/decoders, optical transmitters/receivers, routers, signal converters, and high capacity cabling throughout the facility, sufficient to produce and distribute high-quality HD signals. Audio and video routing is the ability to interconnect signals throughout the facility. This means that content from an edit suite, meeting room or a studio can be routed to playback or to another production area, making it possible to share content among producers and productions with the touch of a button. Since the infrastructure is the backbone for all existing and new equipment needed to communicate throughout the facility and to transport the channel to the cable operator, it is essential that infrastructure components be upgraded to handle both the existing equipment and new equipment we have recommended. For example, it is important to have adequate infrastructure in place to support the conversion of legacy SD video to HD, which requires high bandwidth network connections.

The audio/video routing system recommended for the Calvert County Shared Television Production Facility infrastructure should be capable of complete HD routing that will enable the movement of HD video and digital audio signals simultaneously through the facility. We are recommending a router with 16 inputs by 16 outputs.

The number of optical transmitters and receivers recommended in the spreadsheet reflects those needed to interconnect the Shared Facility with the Government Facility for further scheduling and distribution of programming.

Archival/Storage As Calvert County’s production facilities grow, produce and provide programming in HD requiring greater storage and archival capacity, the need for more archival/storage space will increase as well. Storage and archiving is important because it enables staff to save and share their work, such as standard shots of community scenes, collaborate in projects where elements are similar in nature, and store programs that can be used in an “evergreen” fashion.

Archiving and storage is also used to house finished programs that can be accessed by residents for on-demand viewing of programs. Not only can programs be archived, but they can be categorized by subject, producer, event type, or date and can be stored in various file types. Television viewers are also demanding the ability to view programs online via computers or mobile devices. Storing categorized programs is necessary for such access to programming.

Section B 48 CBG Communications, Inc. Calvert County Prepared: June 22, 2017 Needs Assessment Report

Even though Calvert County has some of this technology in place, we have included costs for significant upgrades and growth throughout the 10-year projected timeframe, based on necessary increases in the amount and type of programming that is being, and will be, produced and distributed across multiple platforms. Specifically, CBG’s review shows that Calvert County needs an additional 64 terabytes of storage over the 10 year equipment upgrade and replacement schedule. This has been calculated based on our estimation of the current and future programming projections against the storage requirements needed for HD content (approximately 35 GB per hour of programming).

Production Studios/Studio Control Production studios, along with studio control (control room and equipment for the main studio), is considered the nerve center of a video production facility, typically requiring a large commitment of resources and funds. During our visit to the Calvert County facilities, CBG identified a number of studio needs and recommends the following to meet needs of the shared television production facility studio. This would take the place of the current outdated studio facility provided by Comcast, or provide completely modern production equipment if Comcast continues to facilitate studio productions.

Studio CBG has recommended virtual set technology be installed in the studio. As discussed earlier, this technology uses computer generated environments to create the illusion of a physical set in which subjects perform, reducing the expense and logistics of managing physical sets. Sets can be generated live or subjects can be videotaped against a “green screen” (variously, a screen, wall or curtain) and the virtual set added in post-production. The technology permits a variety of sets for different program types, at little cost, and allows for more efficient use of the studio space.

The three cameras recommended for the shared Studio space are robotic, pan/tilt/zoom (PTZ) devices which allow for minimal staff and flexibility in camera operation. The camera package also includes camera lens, tripod and tripod adapter, CCU and camera head.

Lighting technology is also recommended to include both dimmable LED fixtures as well as a new lighting grid and the ability to change color temperatures.

Studio Control “Studio control” refers to the equipment, usually located in a separate walled area of the studio, from which camera feeds can be controlled and switched, graphics are created and mixed, and lighting, audio and other production elements are controlled.

CBG is recommending a full complement of equipment dedicated to studio control as well as a dedicated space adjacent to the studio that houses this equipment. This results in programming with high production values that all agree, and we concur, are necessary for a professional level of production that is well regarded by viewers.

Section B 49 CBG Communications, Inc. Calvert County Prepared: June 22, 2017 Needs Assessment Report

Findings – Government Access

Calvert County Government Access Facility And Equipment Needs

Based on the information gathered from site reviews, interviews and focused discussions, an analysis was made by CBG to determine the cable-related needs of Calvert County Government’s access operation, using our expertise, experience, comparisons with other similarly situated PEG Access operations and understanding of capital and operating funds needed to meet the needs. We then made pertinent facility and equipment projections for Calvert County, including specifications and costs for recommended equipment. Key projections are detailed below.

Ancillary Equipment As mentioned earlier, ancillary equipment includes basic items that generally need replacing on a regular basis such as microphones, miscellaneous stands, fixtures and the like and their upgrades and replacements. It is necessary for all production facilities over the term of the renewed franchise.

Field Acquisition Field Acquisition is one of the simpler functional areas to transition to modern HD digital because it is an independent process that does not rely on the other functional areas. Current HD cameras offer many capabilities and are cost-effective, lightweight, and easy to use.

Calvert County currently has two camera field packages. The replacement camera field packages recommended all include one HD camera, one tripod and two channels of wireless audio and accessories and have been recommended for upgrades in Year 1 and Year 6.

Post Production Post Production lends itself to ease in transitioning to HD due to the fact that it can be done as an independent process that does not depend on the functional areas in the rest of the facility. In post-production, raw footage of video and audio are edited to create a finished program. Graphics and other creative additions can also be inserted to create a more professional product.

The major types of equipment involved in the baseline post production category are for ingestion (loading video into servers for processing), monitoring, digital audio mixing, video editing, and video recording (portable solid-state recorders for preference).

CBG has determined that one new edit system should be procured to replace the current system, which is aging and has older technology. Due to advancements in technology in both hardware and software, current edit systems require state-of-the-art processing speed and updates to keep pace with the systems, besides the CATV system, that also host these types of programs such as YouTube, Livestream, mobile devices and other distribution platforms.

Section B 50 CBG Communications, Inc. Calvert County Prepared: June 22, 2017 Needs Assessment Report

Infrastructure Calvert County Government Access streams live from their Hearing Room and sends the completed meeting via FTP to Comcast for playback.

As discussed earlier, infrastructure includes all the equipment necessary to do live streaming and provide for playback capabilities. For Calvert County Government Access, this includes encoders/decoders and optical transmitters/receivers.

Since the infrastructure is the backbone for all existing and new equipment needed to communicate throughout the facility, it is essential that infrastructure components be upgraded to handle both the existing equipment and new equipment we have recommended. For example, it is important to have adequate infrastructure in place to support the conversion of legacy SD video to HD, which requires high bandwidth network connections.

The number of optical transmitters and receivers recommended in the spreadsheet reflects centralized distribution of the existing Community Access channel, as well as the interconnection to the Calvert County Public Schools, the Shared Television Production Facility and the College of Southern Maryland.

Headend Servers/Playback/Character Generator Production servers must have the capability for both standard and HD playback, moving to all HD in the future, must have the ability to have programs transferred to them over the network (real-time ingestion), and must have a robust scheduling capability to enable a well-rounded playback resource.

Calvert County’s current playback system is standard definition. CBG has recommended the upgrade of the current playback system to be capable of both SD and HD playback and compliant with the above capabilities. SD will support the current workflow and HD will provide for future capabilities.

A requirement we identified for the Calvert County’s headend/playback capability is a character generator (CG) capable of 24/7 playback of on-air bulletin board information. This allows for additional programming features that are of interest to residents. The character generator will enable the playback of video sources as well as the bulletin board information required.

Moving into the future, CBG has allowed for use of a stand-alone system or CG capabilities could also integrate into the playback server if desired.

On Demand/Streaming Both Internet streaming and Video on Demand (VOD) streaming have become an integral part of many production facilities’ outreach to the public, especially consumers without cable television services. Even broadcasters and cable operators stream their content to mobile devices and over the internet. It has been documented that a large portion of a new technical generation wants to view programming over mobile devices and the internet. It is necessary in order to keep up with

Section B 51 CBG Communications, Inc. Calvert County Prepared: June 22, 2017 Needs Assessment Report the growing demand for alternatives, PEG Access channels need to stay current and remain diverse with these new technologies.

Along with streaming and VOD over the internet, some communities are provided with cable- based VOD whereby programs are viewed on the cable system. With this in mind, video streaming equipment needs to be capable of handling signals within the facility, be HD compatible and in most cases, capable of running 24/7 so that the facility is running at full HD capacity and viewers can access information and programming “on demand”. The equipment should also include both live streaming and VOD capability and is included in the cost for the type of playback system we are recommending.

This system should be robust enough to enable the simultaneous encoding of multiple feeds for both internet and cable-based linear and VOD delivery thus saving time and increasing efficiency for staff and the turnaround time for distribution of access programming.

Encoders are also included and recommended in the attached spreadsheets for future replacement.

Hearing Room/Hearing Room Control

The equipment recommended for the Calvert County Government Access Hearing Room and Hearing Room Control is as follows:

Hearing Room • Cameras • Wired and Wireless Audio Microphones • Digital Audio Mixing System • TV Monitors • Dais Monitors • Assisted Listening Device • Scan Converter

Hearing Room Control • Switcher • Robotic Camera Control • Character Generator • Digital Audio Control • Multiviewer Monitoring • Engineering/Confidence Monitor • Solid State Recorder • Miscellaneous D/A’s and cabling

Section B 52 CBG Communications, Inc. Calvert County Prepared: June 22, 2017 Needs Assessment Report

Findings – Public Access

Calvert County Library/Public Access Facility and Equipment Needs

As described earlier herein, the Public Library is proposed to potentially be a hub for providing public access television production opportunities to Calvert County residents, if these are no longer provided by Comcast.

Ancillary Equipment Similar to Government Access and the Shared Television Production Facility, this spreadsheet category includes basic items such as microphones, miscellaneous stands, tripods, recorders, workstations, fixtures, and the like, plus their upgrades and replacements. It is necessary for any PEG production facility and must be replaced, upgraded and added to, over the term of a renewed franchise.

Field Acquisition For the Library/Public Access, the recommendation to meet the needs assessed for camera field packages for the public to checkout is three camera field packages that include 2 channels of wireless audio along with a full HD camera, tripod, lighting package, audio and accessories.

Post Production Post Production capabilities are proposed for the Public Library to enable members of the public to edit the video they shoot using the cameras provided, or their own. Specifically, in post- production, raw footage of video and audio are edited to create a finished program. Graphics and other creative additions can also be inserted to create a more professional product.

The major types of equipment involved in the baseline post production category are for ingestion (loading video into servers for processing), monitoring, digital audio mixing, video editing, and video recording (portable solid-state recorders for preference).

CBG has recommended two post production systems for the Library/Public Access.

Section B 53 CBG Communications, Inc. Calvert County Prepared: June 22, 2017 Needs Assessment Report

Findings – K-12 Educational Access

Calvert County Public Schools Facility And Equipment Needs

Much like Calvert County Government Access, Calvert County Public Schools has a mission to communicate valuable content to the citizens of Calvert County. CCPS’s goal, by adding television production equipment in key areas, is to provide a complete pathway for communications studies as well as to inform residents. This includes curriculum, instruction and outreach, as well as production.

As stated above, because of the move toward HD technology, it is important for Calvert County Public Schools to develop its technology to keep pace with industry standards and support the vision and goals of the administration, faculty and staff in the education of students and the provision of critical information to the public.

Ancillary Equipment Similar to Calvert County Government Access and the Shared PEG Facility, this spreadsheet category includes basic items such as PA, miscellaneous stands, tripods, recorders, workstations, fixtures, and the like, plus their upgrades and replacements. It is necessary for any PEG production facility and must be replaced, upgraded and added to, over the term of a renewed franchise.

School Board Room/School Board Control The equipment CBG has identified for replacement is listed below.

School Board Room: • HD Cameras • Wired Audio Microphones • TV Monitors • Projection System • Assisted Listening Devices • Scan Converter

School Board Control: • Video Production Switcher • Robotic Camera Control • Character Generator • Digital Audio Mixer • Multi-viewer Monitoring • Solid-state Recorder • Distribution Amplifiers and cabling • Engineering/Confidence Monitor

Section B 54 CBG Communications, Inc. Calvert County Prepared: June 22, 2017 Needs Assessment Report

Field Acquisition The recommendation to meet the needs assessed for camera field packages for Calvert County Public Schools is for one high-end camera field package that includes 2 channels of wireless audio along with a full HD camera, tripod, lighting package, audio and accessories dedicated for the Public Information Officer. Three prosumer (entry level) camera packages which include one channel of wired audio and accessories, one tripod and a small lighting package are also recommended for students.

CBG has also recommended the use of a flypack also known as a “Studio in a Box”. A flypack offers the ability to house all the equipment needed for multi-camera video production in one convenient portable package. It offers the flexibility to broadcast and stream live while adding all the production elements to make interesting viewing. Field cameras can be used as stand- alone or in tandem with the flypack to add extra camera angles.

Post Production As referenced in the other portions of this report, Post Production lends itself to ease in development in HD due to the fact that it can be done as an independent process that does not depend on the functional areas in the rest of the facility. In post-production, raw footage of video and audio are edited to create a finished program. Graphics and other creative additions can also be inserted to create a more professional product.

The major types of equipment involved in the baseline post production category are for ingestion (transferring video into servers for processing), monitoring, digital audio mixing, video editing, and video recording (portable solid-state recorders for preference).

Section B 55 CBG Communications, Inc. Calvert County Prepared: June 22, 2017 Needs Assessment Report

Findings – Higher Educational Access

College Of Southern Maryland Facility And Equipment Needs

The College of Southern Maryland’s CSM-TV has a television production facility located at the La Plata campus in Charles County. They produce a considerable amount of programming that is relevant throughout the region. In order to make their programming accessible, CSM-TV has the ability to transfer video signals throughout all the campuses in their internal network. However, in order to make their programming accessible countywide within Calvert County, necessary equipment for interconnection between the systems must be established.

Beyond this, some production equipment is needed at the Prince Frederick campus. This equipment will be utilized by CSM students in Calvert County to produce programming that will expand the content currently available from CSM-TV.

Ancillary Equipment Similar to Calvert County Government Access, the Shared PEG Facility and the Public Schools, this spreadsheet category includes basic items such as PA, miscellaneous stands, tripods, recorders, workstations, fixtures, and the like, plus their upgrades and replacements. It is necessary for any PEG production facility and must be replaced, upgraded and added to, over the term of a renewed franchise.

This equipment is also beneficial for students to learn about all components of video production.

Field Acquisition Identical to CCPS, the recommendation to meet the needs assessed for camera field packages for CSM-TV is for one high-end camera field packages that include 2 channels of wireless audio along with a full HD camera, tripod, lighting package, audio and accessories dedicated for the faculty, staff and more experienced producers.

Three prosumer (entry level) camera packages which include one channel of wired audio and accessories, one tripod and a small lighting package is also recommended for students.

CBG has also recommended the use of a flypack also known as a “Studio in a Box”. As described in the CCPS portion of this report, flypacks offer the ability to house all the equipment needed for multi-camera video production in one convenient portable package. It offers the flexibility to broadcast and stream live while adding all the production elements to make interesting viewing. Field cameras can be used as stand-alone or in tandem with the flypack to add extra camera angles.

Post Production As referenced in the other portions of this report, Post Production lends itself to ease in development due to the fact that it can be done as an independent process that does not depend on the functional areas in the rest of the facility. In post-production, raw footage of video and

Section B 56 CBG Communications, Inc. Calvert County Prepared: June 22, 2017 Needs Assessment Report audio are edited to create a finished program. Graphics and other creative additions can also be inserted to create a more professional product.

The major types of equipment involved in the baseline post production category are for ingestion (transferring video into servers for processing), monitoring, digital audio mixing, video editing, and video recording (portable solid-state recorders for preference).

Shared PEG Facility Development

In order to potentially migrate from an older Comcast-provided PEG facility to a modern studio production facility in Calvert County, CBG has recommended some general guidelines for facility development. These recommendations are intended to give a broad idea of video facility requirements based on best practices across the industry. CBG has also given cost options in the attached Exhibit B spreadsheets for a facility renovation as well as a new build, with the space designations being the same.

Recommendations for space designations are:

• Reception/Lobby • Equipment Storage • Two bathrooms • Studio and Studio Control • Infrastructure Room • Two offices • Conference Room

Section B 57 CBG Communications, Inc. Calvert County Prepared: June 22, 2017 Needs Assessment Report

PEG ACCESS NEEDS ASSESSMENT CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

After review and analysis of all the data and information gathered from the focused discussions, interviews, follow-up phone calls, onsite facility reviews, related web-based and written documents and materials and the written residential survey, during the PEG Access Needs and Interests Assessment portion of the Overall Needs Ascertainment Project, CBG has developed the following conclusions and recommendations (along with others that will be noted in other sections of the Needs Ascertainment Report). CBG’s recommendations on how these needs should be fulfilled are detailed below and should be pursued with Comcast during franchise renewal negotiations.

1. Access Channel Capacity -- CBG recommends that the present Community Access Channel 6 be preserved, modest additional capacity be held in reserve, and that PEG Access capacity be expanded to provide for any Access Channel to be cablecast in HD, as well as provision of Access Channel programming on demand, as further described below. Specifically:

a. The Community Channel 6 should be maintained to provide Calvert County Government Access programming, including live and recorded meeting coverage of the County Commissioners and other public meetings, as well as programs that highlight County services and a bulletin board of County events, among others. This Channel should also facilitate K-12 Educational Access for Calvert County Public Schools, focusing on future coverage of School Board meetings, as well as school events and other types of special programs. This Channel should also provide for current College of Southern Maryland programming from CSM-TV, as well as additional educational and informational programs that will emanate from, and provide coverage of, the Prince Frederick CSM Campus. This Channel should also provide for continued delivery of local community programs produced by individuals and organizations, as well as other public interest programming that may be developed in the future.

b. Two (2) additional channels should be held in reserve, in order for, over a projected 10-year timeframe, other linear channels to be developed for Governmental, Educational or Public/Community Access purposes, as determined by the County in the future, as programming may increase for any of the four types of programming described herein (Government, K-12 Educational, Higher Educational and Public/Community Access).

c. Over the course of any renewed cable franchise, as the amount of HD programming continues to increase for all the PEG Access Channel programmers, HD capacity will be needed for each of the aforementioned PEG Access Channels. Comcast must also provide each of these channels in an SD version until the entire system is converted to HD so that every subscriber, regardless of their tier of cable service, will always be able to receive all of the Access Channels. It will be equally important to ensure that HD channels are provided in

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successor formats (such as HD4K) so that the quality of the Access Channels is always at least equal to the best quality of commercial channels on the system. As noted further herein, equipment upgrades and replacements will be needed to support all of the programmers to ensure that the Access Channels are able to continue migrating to the then current television production industry standard, and that they are provided without noticeable degradation or deterioration in quality, from the point of origination at the Access Channel origination site to delivery to the subscriber.

d. As time shifted viewing continues to increase, it will also be important to ensure that enough cable-based video on demand capacity is available for PEG Access Channel programming that is both time sensitive and evergreen so that PEG Access programming can have the highest possible accessibility to subscribers by being available through multiple distribution methods. This will require average allocations for each PEG provider entity, estimated at 20 hours of video on demand capacity per programmer. This should also include the necessary equipment to provide VOD programs to Comcast in the format that it requires, with an ongoing requirement to upgrade such equipment if Comcast changes its standards. The programming submitted for VOD distribution should be able to be updated and refreshed on at least a monthly basis, as needed.

e. All PEG Access programmers should also have access to Comcast’s electronic program guide (EPG)/digital menu for both real time (linear) and video on demand program content descriptions. These descriptions should be detailed, and enable viewers to select and record specific programs based on accessing them through the EPG/digital menu.

f. As additional advanced platforms of video delivery continue to be provided on the cable system, it will be important to make these platforms available to PEG Access Channel program providers, producers and users, again, to facilitate the widest possible delivery to the Calvert County community and the greatest accessibility by viewers and content users. This may include, for example, programming provided via interactive television (iTV) services, especially for governmental and educational programmers.

2. Access Equipment -- New, upgraded and replacement equipment for the Governmental, Educational and Public Access program providers needs to be provided consistent with the projections shown in Exhibit B to this Report. Equipment category projections have been made from the information provided by the PEG Channel programmers and associated stakeholders, as well as that obtained through onsite review of equipment amounts, types and conditions, along with projections for expansions in the nature and level of Access Channel content development. Our review indicates that the following Access equipment funding is required to meet the needs assessed over the course of a projected 10-year timeframe:

Section B 59 CBG Communications, Inc. Calvert County Prepared: June 22, 2017 Needs Assessment Report

a. Calvert County Governmental Access -- To provide new, upgraded and replacement equipment for the County’s Governmental Access operation, to produce programming at the County Courthouse, as well as through portable and remote operations, $604,305 ($464,850 base cost, plus $139,455 installation/ training/warranty cost) will be needed during the projected 10-year timeframe, in order to support the government programmatic initiatives indicated by our Assessment findings.

b. Calvert County Public Schools K-12 Educational Access -- To provide new, upgraded and future replacement equipment for CCPS’s K-12 Educational Access Channel, to produce programming at CCPS video production facilities as well as at the Career and Technology Academy and at the Board of Education Administration Building, and through portable and remote operations in the field and at schools throughout Calvert County, $609,180 ($468,600 base cost, plus $140,580 installation/training/warranty cost) will be needed during the projected 10 year timeframe, in order to support the K-12 educational programmatic initiatives indicated by our Assessment findings.

c. College of Southern Maryland Higher Educational Access -- To provide new, upgraded and future replacement equipment for the College’s CSM-TV to establish a Higher Educational Access operation at the local Calvert County Campus in Prince Frederick, $383,760 ($295,200 base cost, plus $88,560 installation/training/warranty cost) is needed in order to support the Higher Educational programmatic initiatives indicated by our Assessment findings.

d. Public/Community Access Facilitated at the Public Library -- To provide new, upgraded and replacement equipment for Public/Community Access in Calvert County through both field production and editing/post production operations facilitated by the Public Library, $205,920 ($158,400 base cost, plus $47,520 installation/training/warranty cost) is needed in order to support the Public/Community programmatic initiatives indicated by our Assessment findings.

e. Shared Television Production Facility -- To provide new equipment, as well as upgraded and replacement equipment in lieu of the equipment currently provided by Comcast at its Community Access production facility, at a County, CCPS or CSM facility to be determined, $516,100 ($397,000 base cost, plus $119,100 installation/training/warranty cost) is needed in order to support the studio operations to facilitate Government and Educational Access programmatic initiatives indicated by our Assessment findings.

3. Access Facilities -- As indicated herein, a shared television production facility is needed through either renovation or new build in order to properly support the Calvert County Government, Calvert County Public Schools and College of Southern Maryland Access television program production in Calvert County. This facility would take the place of the current Comcast community production facility. The projected cost, if it is a

Section B 60 CBG Communications, Inc. Calvert County Prepared: June 22, 2017 Needs Assessment Report

renovation of space at a current government or educational facility is $319,875. If, however, new construction is required to develop the shared television production facility, $639,750 will be needed. Funding to support facility development will be needed early in the 10-year projected timeframe.

4. Capital Support for Facilities and Equipment -- As indicated above, for equipment, the total dollar figure needed over a 10-year period equals $2,319,265 ($1,784,050 base cost, plus $535,215 in installation/training/warranty cost) to support the four (4) forms of Public, Educational and Governmental Access currently provided for in the County and anticipated to expand during any renewed Franchise. Added to this, is the need for $319,875 to $639,750 in facility renovation or new build costs, to support a shared TV studio production facility for government and educational entities, across a 10-year period. Combined, this equates to a range of $2,639,140 to $2,959,015 in needed equipment and facilities support provided over a 10-year period. Based on the number of subscribers projected for Comcast in Calvert County, if Comcast elected to pass through the full amount of support needed, a subscriber pass-through would range from $1.03 to $1.15 per month, per subscriber over a period of 10 years, if subscribership holds steady.

Note that this does not take into account capital support for any I-Net requirements. This is discussed separately in the Institutional Network Needs Assessment Section of the overall Needs Ascertainment Report. Accordingly, the amount needed per subscriber per month would need to be increased further as described in the I-Net Needs Assessment Report Section to account for both PEG and I-Net needs going forward.

5. Provision of Complimentary Cable Services -- The County and CCPS should work with Comcast during franchise renewal negotiations to develop a system to provide basic and expanded basic cable services to County and CCPS facilities that receives the programming at central locations and then redistributes it as IP video streams through the County’s and CCPS’s networks.

Section B 61 CBG Communications, Inc. Calvert County Prepared: June 22, 2017 Needs Assessment Report

SECTION C

REVIEW OF INSTITUTIONAL NETWORK-RELATED NEEDS AND INTERESTS

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INSTITUTIONAL NETWORK NEEDS ASSESSMENT

Introduction

CBG Communications, Inc. (CBG), at the request of Calvert County, MD (County), has performed a review of the current networks operating in the County utilized by the County and Calvert County Public Schools (CCPS). This review was designed to gain an understanding of the networks’ operations, reliability and overall usefulness and functionality for the end users. In addition, CBG held meetings with the key users of these networks to understand their experiences and perceptions concerning the networks’ ability to fulfill their needs today and into the future, as part of a broader cable-related Needs Assessment.

CBG participated in meetings and follow-up discussions with these entities in order to enable them to share their experiences and to determine their needs specific to networking that may be fulfilled by a cooperative agreement between the County, CCPS and Comcast as part of a renewed Cable Television Franchise Agreement.

The findings from these various activities are described below.

Findings

Network Overview Currently the County and CCPS have connectivity to numerous locations via fiber networks; more specifically the network known as the One Maryland Broadband Network (OMBN) and County owned fiber optic infrastructure. This network connects over 1,000 facilities throughout the State of Maryland. In addition, there are approximately 20 locations in the County that are connected via wireless technologies, cable modems, DSL and T-1 lines. The County also operates a 900 MHz wireless network for Public Safety utilization as well as for other County facilities.

Overall the network users are satisfied with the networks as they are built, but need to move locations from lower bandwidth technologies such as wireless and cable modem, to fiber optics based technologies to increase bandwidth, speed, functionality and reliability at these locations. Other connections are needed for redundancy in order to increase the reliability of portions of the network.

Applications Running on the County and CCPS Networks Both the County and the Schools are using the available networks for many current applications and to expand existing, and deploy new, applications, including various forms of the following:

• VoIP • Video applications o Video surveillance o Training • Radio network backhaul

Section C 63 CBG Communications, Inc. Calvert County Prepared: June 22, 2017 Needs Assessment Report

o Emergency radio traffic • Data o Specialized applications o Desktop software sharing o Computer Aided Dispatch o Cloud based services • Monitoring and activating devices o SCADA backhaul • WiFi backhaul o Public availability o Governmental use ▪ Public Works ▪ Public Safety

In addition to the applications running on the existing networks, additional services and applications which require higher reliability and faster network speeds can be made possible by expanding the current fiber optic network. For instance, HD video cannot effectively run on cable modem systems if the shared bandwidth is not high enough. Additionally, the cable modem and wireless networks may be able to handle some video applications but only with limited utilization. The need for network expansion is further explained below.

Creation of an I-Net for Network Fiber Optic Buildout During our network review and discussions with network users, it became clear that additional facilities will need to be connected to the networks going forward, but more importantly, existing sites that are not on the fiber network are limited in applications that can be utilized and then these applications operate much slower. The need exists to upgrade these locations to a fiber- based network. We have created a list of the approximately 22 sites needing to be upgraded and attached it to this Report as Exhibit C. The ultimate goal is to tie these facilities back to the existing core data locations via the most cost-effective method available. Because expansion of the OMBN would require all new construction from end-to-end (or nearly end-to-end), this option would produce a high construction cost.

Accordingly, we looked at the potential availability of dark fiber optic cables within Comcast’s network. CBG has signed a Non-Disclosure Agreement with Comcast and therefore cannot include detailed Comcast network locations and fiber counts in this Report. CBG looked at each of the institutional locations and compared it to the subscriber network operated by Comcast. Often times, the fiber optic infrastructure of Comcast runs within a few hundred feet of a facility requiring an upgrade to fiber optics. We then determined how much new fiber optic infrastructure would need to be put into place in order to get back to a logical tie-in or connection point. These points were often several hundred feet or more from the facility with the range being approximately 500 feet to 9,000 feet to reach an existing node location on Comcast’s system. It should be noted that although new bundles of fiber optic cables or strands will need to be placed, this will not be entirely new construction. Most often, these new bundles would be over lashed to existing Comcast strands or could be added to existing conduits used by Comcast for its coaxial cable infrastructure and therefore much of the cost of building new infrastructure is alleviated.

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It may be the case that Comcast would be able to create a new splice point closer to given facilities but that determination would need to be made by them as a refined design is created. In addition, the design in Exhibit C is to be viewed as a high-level design. As the County works with Comcast to refine it, the footages and costs will be developed and refined as well. This design is to facilitate an estimate of the scope and potential costs of such a network expansion.

There are many variables that will affect the final cost to build a fiber optic Institutional Network expansion. Of these, the final route will likely vary somewhat from that envisioned to compile these estimates. In some cases, additional footage may be needed, while in other cases shorter routes may be available. Another variable is the percentage of underground versus aerial construction. Underground construction is approximately two to three times more expensive than aerial construction so the final route design may have an impact on the total cost. Although we know where Comcast fiber optic infrastructure terminates at node locations in the County, the largest unknown variable at this point is how much of this existing fiber optic infrastructure could be leveraged for this expansion. In the network expansion detailed in Exhibit C, the design requires new fiber optic strands to an existing node location and then it is assumed that existing dark fibers would be used to connect to the existing County networks.

An additional design focus that should be considered, is that of potentially passing areas of the County where densities are below the threshold in the Franchise requiring Comcast to build out its subscriber system. These requirements are explained further in Section D of this Report in the Serviceability and Density sub-section.

Building new fiber optic infrastructure to serve additional County and CCPS facilities may place fiber optic cables closer to areas of the County where homes are currently unserved. This could reduce the amount of new infrastructure needed to serve these homes with subscriber service or reduce the amount of “additional charges” Comcast can charge new subscribers in areas that do not meet the minimum of 15 homes per mile density requirement.

Network Redundancy Currently there is limited redundancy built into the Network utilized by the County. As applications continue to increase and critical applications running on the network increase, additional redundancy needs to be built into the network. Some of this redundancy can be built in by creating one or more rings and sub-rings. The existing Comcast fiber optic cables can mirror the routes of OMBN and County fiber and therefore, would in many cases, only provide a low level of redundancy. For instance, if a pole supporting OMBN and Comcast gets hit by a truck, it may well cut both Comcast and OMBN’s fiber and the backup fiber then can’t serve its purpose.

However, in some cases Comcast takes an entirely separate route with its fiber optic cables than that of OMBN and the County. These routes should be further researched to determine the level of redundancy that could be provided by utilizing Comcast fiber optic cables for an entirely independent routing of County data.

In addition to the existing fiber optic infrastructure owned by Comcast, Comcast is undertaking a system upgrade on a national level, whereby they are deploying fiber optic cables further into its systems to minimize active devices in the system and to reduce node sizes. This deployment is

Section C 65 CBG Communications, Inc. Calvert County Prepared: June 22, 2017 Needs Assessment Report referred to as the “Fiber Deep” project and is further detailed in Section D of this Report. The County should work with Comcast to deploy extra strands of dark fiber during Comcast’s system buildout for use as I-Net fibers. The additional cost to Comcast for adding a few extra fiber optic strands, during this construction, would be measured in cents per foot of new fiber as opposed to several dollars per foot of separate fiber optic cables being constructed at a later point.

Network Standards Because this I-Net will be a dark fiber network, many of the performance standards that are maintained on networks would not apply to Comcast and therefore they are not necessarily needed in a franchise agreement. For instance, error rates, jitter, throughputs, latency, etc. are primarily the result of the equipment placed on the dark fiber network. However, there are still standards that apply to Comcast’s operation of the dark fiber I-Net. These include reliability or availability, response time when a problem is reported to Comcast, repair time when a problem is identified and notification to the County in the event of planned outages due to required maintenance. Accordingly, the following standards should be included for a dark fiber I-Net in any renewed franchise: Optical loss on the fiber shall not exceed manufacturer’s specification and be no worse than:

≤ .25 dB per Kilometer at 1550 nm

≤ .35 dB per Kilometer at 1310 nm

≤ .1 dB per splice

≤ .75 dB per connector pair

Network availability shall be equal to or better than 99.995% on an annual per facility basis. A facility is considered down if the fiber optic network causes a reduction in network performance for any reason.

In addition, the Franchise should allow for changes to the specifications as network parameters change over time. This will eliminate the potential to have obsolete specifications or standards in place over the final years of a franchise agreement.

Network Testing and Evaluation I-Net users, through the County, should have the ability to have Comcast test specific links when problems are believed to exist. Users should first determine that their equipment is functioning correctly and then work with Comcast to troubleshoot the problem including by performing Optical Time Domain Reflectometer (OTDR) testing when users believe the network is operating below design standards.

In addition, all new facilities that are activated on the I-Net should have all single fibers tested to show acceptable construction and operation within the standards described above.

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Comcast Facility Accommodations These network connections are designed to be a completely passive network provided by Comcast. The County and Schools would provide the equipment to activate or light up the network and would therefore be responsible for maintenance of the equipment. To this end, the County should not need to access Comcast’s headend for trouble shooting except in rare cases. Furthermore, there should not be requirements for County and CCPS equipment to be housed in the headend.

Network Maintenance and Outage Response The maintenance of these new fiber optic cables in the air and underground would be the responsibility of Comcast. Because Comcast would be over lashing to its existing fibers or using existing conduits and fibers within its existing strands, they would likely not want the County to be maintaining these fibers at all. An agreement should be a part of the franchise or a side agreement that specifically spells out who is responsible for the fiber and at what point that responsibility shifts from Comcast to the County.

Processes should be put into place in a renewed franchise such that Comcast has a written procedure to follow as it relates to planned outages. For instance, if any of these links will be impacted by a planned outage, Comcast must provide a minimum of 45 days’ notice and work with the County, during the first 10 days following such notice, to determine if the day chosen by Comcast will work for the users. This will allow the County to pick days for the planned outage that will present the least impact on the users.

Comcast should be required to inform County staff, of network expansions, including for the Fiber Deep project, that are planned so that the County can determine if adding additional fiber during the expansion could benefit the County by reducing the cost to connect sites to the I-Net. County staff can keep apprised of construction by other companies and share this information with Comcast as well. Since putting conduit in the ground is the most significant cost of network expansion, this knowledge exchange should benefit both parties.

Disaster Recovery Plan A Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) is a documented written set of procedures, processes and steps to be taken to recover from a catastrophic network failure. A number of natural or manmade events can cause these failures, such as earthquakes, flooding, widespread storms, fire, freezing rain, volcanic eruption, civil unrest, terrorism, network sabotage, etc. Regardless of the cause, a DRP will ensure that all parties involved in the operation of the I-Net, including Comcast and the I-Net users, are prepared to react to the disaster and take the proper steps, in the proper order, to get the network running again. A DRP becomes even more critical when multiple network providers are involved so that each clearly knows their responsibilities and priorities. The following actions should be taken to create a DRP:

• Obtain commitment by all users, Comcast and OMBN. • Establishment of a DRP Committee to develop and regularly update the DRP. • Perform an initial and regularly scheduled Risk Assessments. • Establish priorities for a recovery situation.

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o Site priorities o Application priorities

• Establish potential equipment needs in the event of a disaster. • Ensure spare equipment is on hand and multiple (local and non-local) equipment suppliers are identified prior to needing additional equipment. • Assign specific responsibilities for oversight and implementation of the recovery process. Ensure that personnel are not assigned other, non-I-Net responsibilities that will compete with the recovery process during a disaster, by their organizations. Develop multiple layers of personnel for each potential task, assume some personnel and organizations will not be able to perform tasks during the recovery. It should be assumed that, during the development of the DRP, key personnel who are highly qualified and dependable during normal operations may not be available during a disaster recovery. • Create a highly descriptive well documented DRP. • Test the Plan regularly and update the plan as needed but at least on an annual basis. • Get final buy-in and approval from all users and entities. Renew the buy-in as the plan changes.

Without a DRP in place, when a disaster occurs, Comcast and various users will have different, and perhaps opposing, ideas of what needs to be done to get the network back on line and what the priorities are. In addition, necessary equipment and personnel may not be available or may be assigned to repair or recover other non-County/CCPS facilities. A DRP for the I-Net can be included in the County’s and CCPS’ DRP(s) that currently exist, but very clear responsibilities, as described above, need to be included for the I-Net. Creating a DRP needs to be a very high priority in the near term for any I-Net infrastructure.

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CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Network Fiber Optic Build-out The County should work with Comcast to design network links to connect the facilities listed in Exhibit C. The most cost-effective means of connecting these facilities is to use existing Comcast fiber optic strands while constructing the least amount of new fiber to reach each facility. In some cases, where Comcast does not have fiber running in areas where the density of homes has not met franchise parameters, the County and Comcast may be able to work cooperatively to reach additional County or School facilities while allowing Comcast to run additional strands of fiber to connect new homes or neighborhoods not previously served.

Applications on the Networks The applications running on the County’s and CCPS’s networks are numerous and of various forms. These range from database sharing and backup between facilities to VoIP applications and video. In addition to the applications being run today, users desire to enhance these over time. Moving these applications, at cable modem and wireless facilities, to a fiber optic I-Net would allow for applications to run at these facilities where they may be slow or not possible today.

Network Standards A renewed franchise needs to have network standards in place for the I-Net. These standards will put in place expectations that are consistent for both the County and Comcast. Network standards should include fiber optic specifications and reliability requirements. These should include:

Optical loss on the fiber shall not exceed manufacturer’s specification and in no case be worse than:

≤ .25 dB per Kilometer at 1550 nm

≤ .35 dB per Kilometer at 1310 nm

≤ .1 dB per splice

≤ .75 dB per connector pair

Network availability shall be equal to or better than 99.995% on an annual per facility basis. A facility is considered down if the fiber optic network causes a reduction in network performance for any reason.

Network Testing and Evaluation All new locations added to the I-Net should be tested with an OTDR to ensure the fiber optic infrastructure is constructed and operating as designed. All documentation on these sites should be archived for future reference if a problem is experienced along a given link. If problems do

Section C 69 CBG Communications, Inc. Calvert County Prepared: June 22, 2017 Needs Assessment Report develop over time, new tests of the fiber can be performed and compared to those done prior to activation of the link.

A renewed franchise should contain language requiring Comcast to run tests on the fiber optic links when users experience problems that may be caused by faulty fiber(s).

Disaster Recovery Plan A Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) should be put in place, by the users of the networks, so all catastrophic failures of the network can be overcome in the least amount of time while prioritizing the recovery tasks. The plan would dictate responsibilities, as determined during normal operating conditions so fewer decisions are being made during the disaster. The plan must be designed and accepted by all entities on the network as well as by Comcast and OMBN.

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SECTION D

SYSTEM TECHNICAL REVIEW OF COMCAST’S RESIDENTIAL CABLE TELEVISION NETWORK

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SYSTEM TECHNICAL REVIEW OF COMCAST’S CABLE TELEVISION NETWORK

Introduction As part of the past performance review and needs assessment conducted by Calvert County, Maryland (“County”), CBG Communications, Inc. (“CBG”) has completed our technical review evaluating Comcast’s residential cable television network.

CBG’s overall goals were to evaluate Comcast’s compliance with the County’s franchise documents, and applicable laws and regulations, and to determine the condition of Comcast’s equipment and infrastructure and the operation of this infrastructure. CBG conducted evaluation tasks, document review, system driveout, discussions with Comcast staff, and other processes to determine the existing condition of Comcast’s residential network.

The network review included the headend, fiber optic and coaxial infrastructure and their ability to deliver services to residents of the County reliably and in a safe manner; consistent with the requirements of the franchise and applicable laws and regulations.

The major findings and recommendations of CBG’s review and evaluation are outlined below in this Report.

Findings Related to Comcast’s Residential Network

The beginning of a technical audit or system review is to seek various information from the cable TV system operator in order to establish a baseline and make informed determinations related to the system’s performance. This request is in the form of a “Request For Information” (“RFI”) and was sent to Comcast on September 30, 2016.

Comcast delivered the information requested on or about December 5, 2016.

System Design and Architecture

Comcast is operating a Hybrid Fiber Coaxial cable (“HFC”) network that is designed to provide video (Cable TV), Internet and data services and telephone services to the addresses within the County’s service area.

Comcast’s system architecture begins at the regional master headend located in Capital Heights, MD and then connects to the headend in Prince Frederick, MD. The Prince Frederick headend is the aggregation point for most signals that are transmitted to, and received from, subscribers in the County and surrounding areas. From the headend, Comcast uses fiber optic infrastructure to send and receive signals to/from nodes located in neighborhoods, throughout the County’s service area, where forward (or downstream) signals are transformed from light, on the fiber optic infrastructure, to Radio Frequencies (RF) for insertion onto the coaxial cable infrastructure for ultimate transmission and distribution to residents and businesses served by the particular node. Forward (or downstream) services include all standard definition (“SD”) digital and high definition (“HD”) digital channels including Video-On-Demand (“VOD”). Additionally, Internet data, traveling from Comcast’s headend to subscribers, and telephone or voice service to

Section D 72 CBG Communications, Inc. Calvert County Prepared: June 22, 2017 Needs Assessment Report subscribers is carried on the forward/downstream portion of the network. In addition, the nodes receive RF signals from subscribers via the coaxial cable infrastructure which feeds these signals into the node. These return signals include upstream data, ordering information for VOD and other video services as well as telephone and home security traffic. The node converts these signals to light for transmission, via the fiber optic infrastructure, to Comcast’s headend.

The total spectrum utilized by a system dictates the level of services that can be provided by the network. System spectrum can also be described as the bandwidth of the system which is important to understand. Comcast’s system, as designed and operated today, has a total usable spectrum of 5 MHz to 860 MHz (5 million to 860 million Hertz). Simply stated, the system is an 860 MHz system. Further defined, the return (or upstream) system is designed for signals between 5 MHz and 42 MHz, while the forward system is capable of transmitting signals between 52 MHz and 860 MHz.

The system spectrum described above translates into system bandwidth or capacity. It is difficult, even with this information, to describe the maximum number of channels, or services that can be provided on the subscriber network, as the bandwidth utilized for specific channels and services can be determined at the system level. For instance, compression technologies allow for Standard Definition digital TV channels (SD) to commonly utilize one 6 MHz channel to transmit between 7-15 SD channels. Furthermore, 2-3 High Definition digital channels occupy a one 6 MHz channel. In addition, the system is configured and used to provide non- cable TV services, including telephone and Internet service which occupy a portion of the system’s bandwidth.

As subscriber needs and desires change and increase, and as more services become available, particularly the bandwidth intensive services subscribers increasingly demand, such as High Definition video programming and the yet-to-be rolled out Ultra High Definition Television (4K HD, which will use as much as twice the bandwidth of current HD technologies) Comcast may need to upgrade its current system, depending on the length of any franchise renewal term, to gain additional bandwidth in order to provide these new services. Such upgrades could include using new electronic equipment to increase the system capacity to 1,000 MHz (1 gigahertz or 1 GHz), deploying fiber to the premises or home (FTTP or FTTH) as well as utilizing technologies that conserve bandwidth such as Switched Digital Video (SDV). The County should, in a renewed Franchise with Comcast, at a minimum, require a mid-term review of the system to determine if it is still capable of meeting the communities’ cable-related needs and interests, and providing the needed bandwidth for new services that become available in the future.

Serviceability and Density

CBG has, as part of the technical review, examined availability of cable TV service throughout the County. During previous discussions and as part of this project CBG’s initial and subsequent discussions with County staff, it was made clear that service availability throughout the County is among the top concerns of the staff and residents alike. The reason for this level of concern is further substantiated by the findings of the Residential written survey conducted as part of the Residential Community Needs and Interests Ascertainment. As described earlier in the overall Report, of the respondents that said they do not have cable TV at their residence, 18% cited that Comcast service is not available in their area.

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The existing “Cable Television Franchise Agreement” between the County and Comcast, under Section 5.1 General Service Obligations states:

The Franchisee shall provide Cable Service to every dwelling unit within the Franchise Area reaching the minimum density of at least fifteen (15) dwelling units per mile of cable from terminus of existing trunk, either underground or aerial. The Franchisee shall offer Cable Service to all new homes or previously unserved homes located within 125 feet of the Franchisee’s distribution cable.

The Franchisee may elect to provide Cable Service to areas not meeting the above density standards. The Franchisee may impose an additional charge in excess of its regular installation charge for any service installation requiring a drop in excess of the above standards. Any such additional charge shall be computed on a time plus materials basis to be calculated on that portion of the installation which exceeds the 125-foot standard set forth above.

Simply stated, this means that for every potential new customer in the County, not passed by the existing cable system, Comcast is not obligated, by the Franchise, to build to them if more than 352 feet of new mainline infrastructure is required. Further explained, for every dwelling unit included in a line extension, Comcast must pay for 352 feet of new construction plus the standard 125-foot drop, from existing Comcast cables.

Based on this information, CBG, during the system driveout, looked for areas of the County where cable TV service is not available and also looked to determine if the density in those areas would require Comcast to build out its system to feed additional residences. This was further reviewed in comparing areas with residential units to the maps supplied by Comcast to determine if service is required based on the density of homes and the distance from existing Comcast infrastructure.

CBG’s findings are that there are not unbuilt areas, except potentially the Breeden Road area described below, that we are aware of, that meet the density requirement and therefore we don’t believe Comcast is in default of this Franchise requirement in a large-scale manner. However, it must be noted that individual cases may exist where one or more residences do qualify to be connected, if the residents so desire, because they are within the 15 residences (352 feet per home) requirement. Each case must be evaluated individually to be certain of whether the density requirement obligates Comcast to build infrastructure to feed the residence(s).

Furthermore, there is language in the Franchise under Section 3 that allows Comcast to build to areas of the County that do not meet the density requirement and allows Comcast to “impose an additional charge in excess of its regular installation charge for any service installation requiring a drop-in excess of the above standards. Any such additional charge shall be computed on a time plus materials basis to be calculated on that portion of the installation which exceeds the 125-foot standard set forth above.

There are instances where residents have approached Comcast to see what contribution would be required of them to get service to their homes. Because of the differing densities throughout the

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County and the varying distance homes are from existing cable TV infrastructure, the cost to expand the cable TV system can vary from a few hundred dollars to tens of thousands of dollars.

One example of this is the neighborhood area of Breeden Road and McQueen Road. Neighborhood representatives have reported there are 31 existing residential units with an additional 11 platted lots that could be developed in the future. In addition, when the Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative (“SMECO”) installed new underground lines in approximately 2011, one of the residents paid to have approximately 1,700 feet of coaxial hardline cables installed and pedestals were placed.

CBG measured the distance along McQueen Road from Sollers Wharf Road to the end of McQueen Road. We then measured the distance from McQueen Road and Breeden Road to the end of Breeden Road. This total footage would be approximately 9,500 feet or 1.8 miles. 1.8 miles times 15 dwelling units per mile equates to a required 27 dwelling units for Comcast to pay the entire cost. If the cables installed by the Breeden Rd resident are usable by Comcast, this would decrease the mileage needed to approximately 1.5 miles and the required number of dwelling units would drop to 22.16 dwelling units.

These numbers do not include the distance off the road, that often times is significantly more than the 125-foot distance for a standard drop, as is required by the Franchise Agreement. However, many of these residents know that they would be responsible for any additional cost related to long drops or additional plant to feed their houses.

Based on the information provided by the neighborhood group, this area would meet the current density requirement in the Franchise. The County should proceed with an official inquiry of this matter and require Comcast to provide a complete detailed design of the extension needed with a full bill of materials. Furthermore, Comcast must provide its understanding of what dwelling units currently exist and which lots or units may not apply and the specific reason they do not.

Because each situation is unique, the County should have very specific requirements, in a renewed Franchise, related to density requirements and cost sharing formulas for instances where residents may be interested in paying part of the cost to extend Comcast’s system.

Accordingly, as a first step to providing cable service to more County households, it is CBG’s recommendation that the County seek to lower the density requirement to 10 homes passed per mile (“HPM”) measured in road miles. This would facilitate service availability to additional homes in the County, but would not constitute a significant burden on Comcast as many other homes are in areas significantly below, even 10 homes per mile.

For those residents in areas with a density less than 10 HPM, lowering the density number to 10 HPM would also positively impact their cost by diminishing the number of feet they are responsible for. Furthermore, residents willing to pay hundreds or even thousands of dollars to connect to Comcast’s service are likely to become long term loyal customers for Comcast. The following example illustrates how a lower HPM number would benefit residents in low density areas while still providing Comcast with cost sharing mechanisms with residents. The example assumes that 5 addresses with a single dwelling unit exist with 1 total mile of new infrastructure needed and assumes $40,000 is needed for construction of the new system infrastructure:

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• Currently @ 15 HPM:

Divide $40,000 by the required 15 homes = $2,667 per each of 15 dwelling units

Comcast would pay for 5 of these units = $13,335 for the 5 actual dwelling units Potential subscribers would pay for the = $26,665 divided by # of interested 10 units that do not exist residents

5 interested residents = $5,333 each

• Proposed @10 HPM:

Divide $40,000 by the required 10 homes = $4,000 per each of 10 dwelling units

Comcast would pay for 5 of these units = $20,000 for the 5 actual dwelling units Potential subscribers would pay for the = $20,000 divided by # of interested 5 units that do not exist residents

5 interested residents = $4,000 each

The overall benefit of this density threshold then, is to lower the number of dwelling units needed to require Comcast to build, but it also lowers the price for residents that live outside of the 10 homes per mile. This also allows Comcast to gain more loyal customers as they would not invest in a system buildout if they did not plan to be a longtime customer of Comcast’s services.

Overcoming density obstacles, by creative and innovative design, lower density requirements and cost sharing where reasonable and prudent, needs to be a cooperative effort between the County, Comcast and the potential customers (residents of the County). Taking the actions described above to find workable solutions will constitute a win/win/win for all three parties.

System Facilities As indicated above, Comcast serves the County from its headend located in Prince Frederick, MD. CBG toured the headend facility in December 2016. In addition, Comcast provided information describing the headend and discussions were held with Comcast personnel as additional data or information was required. Our findings are that the overall condition of this

Section D 76 CBG Communications, Inc. Calvert County Prepared: June 22, 2017 Needs Assessment Report facility was clean, well-kept and with sufficient space for future expansion without having to compromise spacing needs for cooling and maintenance functions. Grounding of equipment in various locations throughout the headend is more than adequate for protection of the equipment and personnel having to perform maintenance. Fire suppression systems are professionally installed throughout the facility and appeared to be sufficient to protect the building and its contents from fire.

Standby Power Standby power provides the system with the capability to remain operational when commercial power is lost for any period of time. Comcast employs several backup power methodologies, from the headend to the power supplies located on the distribution system in the field.

Comcast has a large backup generator located at the headend capable of backing up the headend if a commercial power failure occurs. This generator is designed to provide enough power to keep the headend operational for 2.5 days without refueling, in the event of a power outage at this location. In addition, Comcast utilizes -48volt DC powering in the headend with this equipment operating off of banks of batteries that are continually being charged by commercial power. This provides conditioned power and protects the equipment from brownouts or power surges that can occur on commercial power. Furthermore, this bank of batteries provides power to inverters that produce conditioned 120 Volt AC power to equipment designed to operate on AC voltage with additional Uninterrupted power supplies (UPS) installed to back up the powering needs of equipment that operates on AC voltage. An additional benefit of these battery banks is that of backup powering. In the event of a commercial power outage, these batteries will provide enough power to keep the headend operating for a designed 8.5 hours and certainly long enough for the backup generator to come up to speed and produce power for the headend or for Comcast to respond and repair the generator if it fails to provide adequate backup power.

Comcast has power supplies located on the distribution plant to provide power to the nodes and amplifiers used in the field. These power supplies are equipped with batteries that provide backup power in the event of a commercial power outage in much the same way the headend backup battery power is provided. Based on information provided by Comcast, these power supplies are capable of running, without commercial or other power sources, for four hours at normal load conditions. This run time will increase based on lower power needs at some power supply locations. The power supplies should be maintained on a regular basis.

Status Monitoring Comcast has deployed numerous tools to monitor the operation of the network in real-time. These tools monitor various components throughout the system showing areas of the system that are not operating as designed or that are experiencing an outage. For instance, the signal to noise ratio or C/N and other distortions can be measured and monitored throughout the system via cable modems at subscribers’ homes and businesses. Other monitoring tools can measure the health of power supplies in the system and alert Comcast when issues arise that need further troubleshooting and repair. These tools can provide Comcast with data showing where problems occur and often times staff can react to, and repair, problems before the network user knows of the problem.

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As stated above, Comcast employs several tools to perform ongoing monitoring of its residential network. These tools are at least comparable to monitoring systems in place in other cable systems we have reviewed throughout the country.

Outages and Outage Documentation CBG, as part of the Request for Information sent to Comcast asked for documentation showing outages between August, 2015 and July, 2016 with associated down-time, response time and problem resolution times and resolutions. Comcast sent the Outage Reports with all of the other information provided.

Overall, the outage numbers are not abnormally high for a system of this size. Similar to other Comcast systems in the area, though, an area of concern related to outages is that of system outages related to loss of commercial power. As stated above, Comcast reports that the power supplies used in the distribution system have batteries which provide power in the event of loss of commercial power. Additionally, Comcast monitors these power supplies and knows when they have gone into standby mode and also how long the batteries should last. This should allow Comcast staff to connect electrical generators to the power supplies when the potential exists that the batteries will run out of power before commercial power is restored. However, Comcast’s Outage Report shows a high number of outages labeled as “Commercial Power”, with other labels including “Power/Temp/Water”, “Automobile accident” or “Environmental/Weather” where the “Solution Description” indicates a problem with commercial power. In total, more than 14% of all outages were commercial power related. Another 17% of outages were labeled as “Unplanned Outage” with an “Alarm Self Cleared” repair. It is likely that some of these are power related and came back on when commercial power was restored. These outages lasted anywhere from a few minutes in duration to more than 4 hours long. This indicates that either the batteries didn’t perform as designed, the system monitoring didn’t notify staff of the pending power failure of the batteries or staff did not adequately respond to the monitoring alarms. Regardless, based on the number of outages of this type, Comcast should describe why the power supply problems are as numerous as they are.

Digital System Performance CBG historically began its analysis of cable systems by reviewing a system’s most recent Federal Communication Commission (FCC) Proof-of-Performance (POP) test documents. These documents reflect the results of tests the FCC requires to determine compliance with standards for analog channels and are required to be stored in an operator’s Public File, and to be available for inspection by the Federal Communications Commission or the local franchising authority. However, because Comcast has removed all analog channels from its system and became all- digital, such tests and documentation are no longer required and Comcast no longer performs these tests.

The FCC does require that operators of digital cable systems comply with certain technical standards for their systems. (See Title 47, Section 76.640 of the Code of Federal Regulations (47 C.F.R. § 76.640). However, the FCC’s rules do not prescribe how, where on the system, or how often testing must be performed to determine compliance. Additionally, FCC regulations have no requirement for cable providers to document results of tests to determine compliance. Comcast representatives indicated Comcast has not performed or documented tests for compliance with

Section D 78 CBG Communications, Inc. Calvert County Prepared: June 22, 2017 Needs Assessment Report these FCC standards and their system testing has not been specifically designed to evaluate the digital performance parameters specified by the FCC. The County should require Comcast to provide documentation of this testing in the future and provide the results on a bi-annual basis, consistent with previously mandated FCC Proof of Performance testing.

As part of CBG’s site visits, CBG observed Comcast personnel performing tests at four locations throughout the County to determine compliance with the FCC’s digital standards. Comcast provided the results of its tests to CBG. In addition, CBG viewed a system spectrum trace showing the response of the system which provides a snapshot of the overall system electronics and cable infrastructure’s performance. The results of these tests were all within federal specifications.

Subjective Viewing of SD and HD Channels on the System As part of CBG’s testing, CBG subjectively viewed analog, SD and HD channels at four locations within the County where the above-mentioned observation of testing was performed, to identify signal quality problems currently existing on the system. Digital signals are typically either on or off with few if any distortions added by the network other than undesired attributes that can be introduced as a result of significant compression of channels to conserve bandwidth. When distortions and noise are significant enough, pixilation and picture freeze-ups can occur, whether the cause is compression or network-caused distortions.

CBG requested that a TV be available with a minimum screen size of 40 inches. Comcast provided a much smaller TV set and therefore many problems that may exist on the system would not be seen on this smaller TV set. However, CBG’s observations, of the SD and HD channels on the system, found that, in general, the HD channels on the system are very crisp with little, if any, pixilation or other undesired attributes noted, while problems often seen on the SD channels were not noticeable on the small screen.

Compliance with the National Electrical Code (NEC) and National Electrical Safety Code (NESC)

CBG performed an independent system drive-out to note any problems with the system plant and drops to residences and businesses pertaining to the condition of underground and aerial appurtenances, grounding and bonding, as well as clearance and attachment issues. If a system is not properly maintained, problems will arise with the aesthetics of the system, but more important, such issues result in potential safety problems. In addition to appearance and safety issues, the integrity of the cable plant is important for proper operation of the network and its ability to deliver high quality signals in a reliable manner.

Comcast needs to regularly inspect and repair problems that arise on its system in order to maintain a network that is safe to the public, Comcast employees working on or around the system, as well as personnel from other tenants of the Right of Way in the County who must work in close proximity to Comcast’s facilities. Furthermore, NESC Code 214 requires that “lines and equipment shall be inspected at such intervals as experience has shown to be necessary.”

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CBG performed an inspection of a representative, random sampling of areas throughout the County. It must be noted that this driveout should be viewed as a representation of issues that exist throughout the system. The list of issues and code violations attached to this Report as Exhibit D is not to be viewed as all-inclusive lists of issues throughout the County’s service area.

Exhibit D includes all of the randomly selected addresses and the findings at each address. These findings are used to estimate the number of issues County-wide. The second part of Exhibit D only includes issues found that are not related to one of the 150 random addresses. These are issues that were spotted while driving from location to location and while performing inspections of the random sample addresses in Exhibit D. These issues are noted, for repair by Comcast, but do not impact the random sample findings or the estimations of issues County- wide. Furthermore, the non-random sample findings in Exhibit D are not referenced in this portion of the Report in order to minimize confusion as to the findings at the random sample addresses.

Methodology used to estimate the total number of physical plant violations Countywide The following paragraphs explain and illustrate how CBG utilized the results from the random sample inspection to project the condition of the physical plant and code violations present throughout Comcast’s cable plant countywide.

CBG worked with the County to create a database of all addresses that were in the Unincorporated areas of the County that could be served by Comcast. The Project goal was to visit 150 addresses in the County and perform an inspection of the cable TV infrastructure where it exists and where access to the drop and hardline cables was possible. To this end, CBG pulled 150 addresses from the Universe of 36,379 addresses12.

For violations at the pole, pedestal or vault itself, CBG made adjustments to reflect the fact that such violations were linked to more than one address. For instance, if a pedestal, vault or pole with a violation is on the property line between 101 and 103 First Street, then both addresses are affected by the violation. If, as typically is the case, a pole, pedestal or vault carries facilities serving drops to multiple addresses, then a violation affecting facilities mounted on or in it could affect service to premises at each of the multiple addresses served. CBG did not, however, record violations at poles, pedestals or vaults serving multiple addresses as violations at each served address. Rather, CBG proceeded as follows to extrapolate, based on the random sample of addresses inspected, the number of violations with poles and pedestals county-wide:

We estimate each pole or pedestal passes or potentially serves 2.5 addresses (Note that this is not the number of active customers per pole or pedestal) based on many poles and pedestals in front yards serving 1-2 addresses. However, some pedestals in backyards serve 2 to 4 addresses and some pedestals, such as at multiple dwelling units, serve from 2 to upwards of 20 residential units.

This subset number was then used to project the number of poles/pedestals with that violation countywide, in the same manner as for service drops: For every pole/pedestal with a violation

12 Inspections occurred in 2016 between December 13th and 16th and in 2017 between January 23rd and 27th. The address list used to generate the Random Sample was from the County and included 36,379 addresses.

Section D 80 CBG Communications, Inc. Calvert County Prepared: June 22, 2017 Needs Assessment Report found, we divided 1 by 150 for the corresponding percentage of the sample of inspected addresses represented by that violation. This percentage was then applied to the 2.5 homes passed per pole, pedestal or vault to project such violations countywide.

Conditions that affected the application of our methodology include:

• Where CBG found a building but no drop-in place, (14 instances), the location was recorded as not having a drop. The hardline cables were still inspected and any issues noted. • Where CBG found no building at the address (10 instance), the location was recorded as “no house”. • When CBG could not gain access to a yard (13 instances) and therefore could not inspect the drop, the drop (address) was documented as a “No Access” address. No access addresses include properties where no one was home and a gate prevented inspection or in some cases where gated communities and secure facilities exist. • Where CBG could not locate the specific address on the list (4 instances) the location was recorded as No address found.

Hypothetical examples, in a system where 150 locations were randomly selected for inspection and the total number of addresses is 36,000, to explain the process.

Forty (40) problems with drops divided by 150 locations inspected would equal 27.0% of inspected addresses having the same or similar problem. This applied across the entire system would equate to 27.0% of 36,000 addresses for an estimated 9,600 drop-related problems system-wide. It must be noted, with a sample of the size of Calvert County’s, the margin of error is ± 8%. Further explained, this would mean if the survey were redone with a new random sample of addresses throughout the system, the findings should be the same as found in this sample ± 8%.

Taking the above Hypothetical example, this is mathematically shown as 27.0% ± 8% or 6.720 (19%) to 12,480 (35%) similar issues projected system-wide. This example is shown in Table 1 below.

Table 1 - Hypothetical System Wide Projections Total Universe of addresses 36,000 Number of locations inspected 150 Number of problems found 40 Percentage of inspected addresses with a problem 27% Percentage applied system-wide 9,600 Margin of error ± 8% Margin of error applied to glean the projection of problems system-wide 6,720 to 12,480

Some problems found during the driveout can be linked to more than one address. For instance, if a pedestal or pole, with a problem, is on the property line between 101 and 103 1st Street, both

Section D 81 CBG Communications, Inc. Calvert County Prepared: June 22, 2017 Needs Assessment Report addresses have a problem but it cannot be shown as two separate problems based on the two addresses. Therefore, we have we used the following methodology to derive a good faith estimate of the number of problems system-wide:

• Each pedestal/pole/vault passes or potentially serves an average of 2.5 addresses based on many pedestals in front yards serving 1-2 addresses. However, some pedestals and poles in backyards serve 2 to 4 addresses and some pedestals and poles, such as at multiple dwelling units, serve from 2 to upwards of 20 residential units.

Therefore, if a problem is found at a pedestal or pole, it equates in the following manner to estimate the number of similar problems system-wide:

• 40 problems on the distribution system (before the house) found at pedestals/vaults (underground) and poles (aerial) serving the 150 random sample addresses, divided by 150 locations inspected equates to 27.0% if all addresses had their own pedestal or pole. • Applying the margin of error, as shown above, this results in 19% to 35% or 6,791 to 12,611 pedestals or poles with a projected similar problem system-wide if each household had its own pedestal or pole. • Since we estimate that each pedestal or pole serves an average of 2.5 addresses, we take 19% divided by 2.5 or 7% and 35% divided by 2.5 or 14% of the pedestals and poles County-wide are projected to have a similar problem. • Taken across the entire system this equates to 2,716 to 5,044 poles/pedestals projected system-wide with a similar problem.

The following 14 inspections and observations were made at each location:

• Can the address be definitively determined? • Is the hardline (also known as mainline cable. This is the cable system up to, but not including, the drop) constructed and maintained as required by the NESC? o Are proper clearances maintained to the ground, roadways and other occupants on a pole? o Are pedestals secure and installed in a workman like manner? o Are down guys and lashing wire properly maintained? o Are power supplies grounded and locked? • Is there a cable TV drop? • Is the drop installed and maintained as required by the NESC and NEC? o Are proper clearances maintained to the ground, roadways, decks and windows of adjacent buildings, and other occupants on a pole? o Is the drop properly grounded and bonded at the premises? o Is the drop attached to the premises correctly? ▪ Not hanging in front of windows or doors ▪ Not laying in front of doorways ▪ Secure attachment

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During this sampling, we identified approximately 92 issues, at the randomly selected addresses, that are either violations of NEC or NESC codes or are simply outside of good engineering practices. These are further detailed below.

System Grounding and Bonding - The cable system must be grounded properly to provide a path to ground for stray voltages such as lightning or power conductors coming into contact with the cable system. In a similar manner, the distribution system and service drops must be bonded to other utilities in order to ensure that there is not a voltage difference between them. If they are not properly bonded, there will likely be a difference in electrical potential between the systems, thereby producing a shock hazard to anyone coming into physical contact with both utilities at the same time. Code requirements for grounding and bonding of cable TV networks and service drops are provided in the NEC and NESC and provide that a communication system can be grounded effectively by attaching or bonding to the building’s electrical ground and to other communication and utility systems, such as telephone networks and water pipes. Bonding the service drop to other utilities that are themselves properly grounded is acceptable, as is bonding to the building’s interior cold water pipes, within 5 feet from its point of entrance to the building13 but only if the cold-water pipes are connected or bonded to an electrode (grounding rod)14. However, bonding to water pipes cannot occur outside the building and an inspection must be performed on the water pipe to ensure there is not a break in the electrical path from the service drop to ground (such as would be introduced by plastic or non-metallic pipes or valves in the building plumbing or in water softeners15. The most significant violation found during the random sample driveout was that of missing grounds and/or bonds (to other utilities), faulty or incorrectly installed bonds or grounds in service drops, including drops where no bond/ground was made on the outside of the building and, if it exists, inside grounding/bonding could not be verified. In the random sample of addresses selected for inspection (and used for countywide projections), CBG observed 25 instances of improper bonds/grounds at residences and businesses.

Examples of proper grounding are first shown below, followed by examples of grounding problems identified during the system audit.

13 National Electrical Code Section 820.40.(B).(1).(2), 14 National Electrical Code Section 250.53(D)(2), 15 National Electrical Code Section 250.53(D)(1),

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Picture #1 - The above picture shows an example of proper grounding and bonding. The cable TV ground wire connects to the power conduit which provides a ground and bond to power’s ground.

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Picture #2 - Above is an example of a common bonding strip that is required to be installed in all new construction and when significant electrical work is performed in a building. This is called a “Intersystem Bonding Termination Bar” (“IBTB”). Many IBTBs have a plastic cover installed after connecting wires to the bar.

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Picture #3 - English Oak Ln – Comcast is not bonded even though an IBTB is within inches of the cable drop.

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Picture #4 - Shore Drive – Cable enters and exits the house box but there is not a ground/bond wire to power and phone.

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Picture #5 - Wagner St – Cable TV ground/bond wire is connected to a clamp screw not intended for bonding.

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Picture #6 - Ponds Wood Rd – No ground/bond to power ground.

Pedestals that are smashed, open or are not secured properly – Pedestals that house cable television equipment such as amplifiers, splitters, taps and distribution and drop cables, should be secured to ensure the public cannot easily open the pedestal and thus have access to the equipment and cables. When there is power on the equipment, such as when an amplifier is within the pedestal or when the cable plant downstream of the pedestal has an amplifier needing power, failure to secure the pedestal is a violation of the NESC Code Section 380. When power is not present within a pedestal, good engineering practice would still provide that the pedestal be secured to minimize theft of service and vandalism to the plant and drops within the pedestal, therefore reducing the likelihood of outages due to unauthorized access to the equipment within the pedestal. We found 20 locations where a pedestal was smashed or open.

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Picture #7 - Calvert Blvd – Smashed pedestal with drops hanging out.

Service drops and hardline cables not properly attached to poles and hanging low from the strand between poles - Cable drops that are not properly attached to poles as the drops are hanging away from the pole, in some cases several feet, can create a tripping or entanglement hazard to the general public or a property owner as they come in contact with the cables. Additionally, these not-to-code drops create aesthetic problems. These cables often times are in what is referred to as the climbing area or climbing space of the pole. This area is to remain clear in order to provide a safe area of the pole for cable TV and other technicians to climb up to equipment fastened to the pole. Having this clear area on the pole is a safety concern and also a performance issue as someone climbing the pole can become entangled in the cables causing them to fall and/or causing them to damage the drop. We found 22 instances of drops and/or hardline cables that were not properly attached to the pole.

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Picture #8 - Dunn Rd – Drops are not properly attached to the pole, creating a climbing hazard.

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Picture #9 - Big Sandy Run Rd – Drops are not properly attached to the pole creating an entanglement or tripping hazard.

Broken lashing wire and down guys that are missing, loose or dangling from the pole - Aerial (overhead) cable TV infrastructure is constructed by attaching a messenger strand cable from pole to pole, attaching it to the poles with heavy duty bolts, nuts and other hardware components. Once the messenger cable is in place, the cable television coaxial and fiber optic cables are strapped (lashed) to the messenger cable by wrapping a thin wire or multiple wires around both the coaxial/fiber cables and the messenger cable. The lashing wire is then secured or tied off at each pole by using a “bug nut” that is fastened to the messenger cable. We only

Section D 92 CBG Communications, Inc. Calvert County Prepared: June 22, 2017 Needs Assessment Report found 1 instance of Broken lashing wire, or down guy issues as part of the Random Sample, with significantly more found and included in Exhibit D.

When lashing wire breaks it must be repaired before the cables become damaged by sagging into telephone or other low voltage facilities, or the weight of the cables pulls them out of their connectors. If the cables sag enough, they will violate NESC requirements for minimum clearance between the TV cables and other facilities, and minimum clearance between the cables and the ground.

Picture #10 - Sollers Wharf Rd – Broken lashing wire.

Poles at the end of a series of poles, or where the cables and wires angle off, such as around a curve in the road, must have a guy wire (down guy) to help support the poles and cables, keep the poles perpendicular to the ground, and maintain tension in the cables. Failure to install or properly maintain down guys places additional stress on the poles, leads to early failure of the pole(s), and can cause poles to fall into the right-of-way, dragging cables with them. In addition, if additional stress is applied to the cable or wire run, such as a pole being hit by a vehicle or ice loading on the cables and wires, one or more poles that would otherwise handle the added stress may fail without the additional support supplied by the missing or loose down guy. These conditions can jeopardize the safety of vehicles and pedestrians using the right-of-way. Down guys not properly attached to the pole or not properly anchored to the ground can lead to safety risks if the poles become stressed more than usual because the tension placed on the poles is not carried to the ground. Failure of the poles also creates the potential for failure of the cable

Section D 93 CBG Communications, Inc. Calvert County Prepared: June 22, 2017 Needs Assessment Report system, and can damage and cause failure in systems of electricity, communications, and other providers occupying the poles.

Picture #11 - Willow Rd – Missing down guy.

Power supply and service boxes not locked – All power supplies and the service boxes (fuse or breaker boxes) must be locked. Comcast has a significant number of power supplies and their corresponding service boxes that do not have permanent built-in locks. Some of these are not locked as is required by code. One purpose of having power supplies enclosed in a cabinet is to keep water and debris out. In addition, these cabinets keep unauthorized people out of harm’s way by blocking access to power that is harmful or fatal if a person comes in contact with it.

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Furthermore, the batteries housed in the power supplies are very costly and are prone to theft, which also “invites” people not qualified or authorized into a potentially hazardous situation. Providing locks on the access doors further deters people from accessing the potentially dangerous contents of the power supply. It should be noted that some power supplies, and their service boxes, are locked throughout the system. Therefore, Comcast is aware of the requirement to lock these facilities. We did not find any power supplies without locks as part of the Random Sample addresses, but did find several that are included in Exhibit D with the non- random sample addresses.

Picture #12 - Summer City Blvd – Power supply is not locked.

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There are other, less frequent violations of codes that are listed and described in Exhibit D to this Report. It is important for the County to require regular system inspections by Comcast and timely repair of issues and code violations that are found.

Projection of Comcast Physical Infrastructure Violations throughout Calvert County

Issues with drops as they leave the pole or pedestal up to the side of the residence or business – During the driveout and inspection of Unincorporated Calvert County, at the 150 randomly chosen addresses, CBG found a total of 36 issues or Code violations related to the drop from where it leaves the pole or pedestal up to and including the side of the house. Some of these issues are explained above and all of these issues are listed in Exhibit D to this Report. Based on statistical probability and the margin of error at 95% confidence, we estimate that there are between 5,821 to 11,641 issues or code violations relating to drops system-wide. Specifically: • 36 problems found from the building up to the pedestals or poles serving one of the 150 random sample addresses, divided by 150 locations inspected, equates to 24% of all addresses having a drop related problem. • Taken across the entire Unincorporated area of the County, this equates to 24% times 36,379 addresses, equals 8,731 addresses projected system-wide with a drop related problem. • Applying the margin of error, this results in 16% to 32% of all addresses with a drop related problem or 5,821 to 11,641 drop related problems projected system- wide.

Issues at the pole or pedestal – During our driveout inspection at the 150 randomly selected addresses in the system, CBG documented issues or code violations at 56 poles or pedestals at the sample addresses. Some of these issues are explained above and all of these issues are listed in Exhibit D to this Report. We estimate that there are between 1,707 and 2,639 issues or code violations at a pole or pedestal system-wide.

• 56 problems on the distribution system (before the house) found at pedestals/vaults (underground) and poles (aerial) serving the 150 random sample addresses, divided by 150 locations inspected equates to 37.0% if all addresses had their own pedestal or pole. • Applying the margin of error, as shown above, this results in 29% to 45% of pedestals or poles with a projected similar problem system-wide if each household had its own pedestal or pole. • Since we estimate that each pedestal or pole serves an average of 2.5 addresses, we take 29% divided by 2.5 or 12% and 45% divided by 2.5 or 18% of the pedestals and poles County-wide are projected to have a similar problem. • Taken across the entire system this equates to 4,268 to 6,596 poles/pedestals projected system-wide with a similar problem.

The County as the overseer of the public rights-of-way, should require Comcast to provide a detailed inspection and repair plan which addresses these and all issues and code violations in the County service area. Specifically, Comcast must be required to address the bonding and

Section D 96 CBG Communications, Inc. Calvert County Prepared: June 22, 2017 Needs Assessment Report grounding issues and provide the County with a detailed plan to inspect for grounding and bonding at all addresses in the County. Each address, where a problem exists, should be brought up to code, in a timely manner, including all active and disconnected drops. Where the resident is a non-subscriber to Comcast-provided services, the drop can be removed in order to eliminate the code violation that may exist. In addition, the system should be regularly inspected for, but certainly not limited, to:

• Drops properly buried in a timely manner (all the way from the pedestal to the home or business) • Hardline cables properly attached to the pole and protected • Down guys and guys over roads properly installed and tensioned • Power supplies locked • Pedestals in good condition, properly placed and secure from unauthorized entry, replace faulty doors, smashed covers, etc. • Proper grounding and bonding at the poles and pedestals • Proper grounding and bonding at the residence or business • Proper clearances between facilities and providers on poles and from the pole to the residence • Proper clearance of aerial cables to the ground • Drops properly attached to poles

Documentation of these inspections and repairs needs to be provided to the County on a regular basis; perhaps quarterly.

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RESIDENTIAL NETWORK EVALUATION, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

1. Remediation Plan and Regular Inspection of Infrastructure - Comcast must be required to maintain its system infrastructure in a safe manner and ensure it protects the public as well as technicians and others that must enter the areas around cable TV infrastructure. We understand that Comcast is currently responding to, and has indicated that it will resolve, all the problems noted in Exhibit D. Once this is completed, the County should require a maintenance and system remediation program designed to regularly inspect all cable TV infrastructure, by individuals specifically designated to inspecting the system infrastructure and drops, from the headend location, up to and including at the subscribers’ residences or business locations. Documentation should be provided to the County detailing problems found, dates found and repaired and the ultimate resolution. These inspections and repairs should include, but not be limited to:

• Drops properly attached to poles • Drops properly buried in a timely manner (all the way from the pedestal to the home or business) • Hardline cables properly attached to the pole and protected • Down guys and guys over roads properly installed and tensioned • Power supplies locked • Pedestals in good condition, replace faulty doors, smashed covers, etc. • Proper grounding and bonding at the poles and pedestals • Proper grounding at the residence or business • Proper clearances between facilities and providers on poles • Proper clearance of aerial cables to the ground

In addition, the County should perform spot checks on a regular basis to determine if the system is being maintained as required by both the NESC and NEC and as required in the current and future franchises. These checks could be performed by Public Works employees that are in the field performing their current tasks.

1. Serviceability and Density Requirement – The County should work with Comcast to develop ways to serve more County residents that desire cable TV service, including reducing the minimum number of residential units per mile required to obligate Comcast to build to new and existing unserved addresses. With dropping the density requirement from 15 HPM to 10 HPM, more residents would be served by Comcast but equally as important, residents still not meeting the density requirement, interested in paying a share of the cost to construct new infrastructure, would be charged less in a cost sharing arrangement with Comcast.

Overcoming some of the density obstacles will take a combination of creative and innovative design, lower density requirements and cost sharing where reasonable and prudent. This needs to be a cooperative effort between the County, Comcast and the interested potential customers.

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The County should work with Comcast and the residents in the Breeden Road and McQueen Road neighborhood to get the system extended to feed these residents. Comcast should be required to provide all documentation explaining their determination of why the extension does not fall within the 15 HPM requirement and what financial participation they deem necessary of the interested residents.

2. Outages – Comcast should be required to describe why it is having a high number of outages that should be averted by back-up power supplies with properly functioning and administered status monitoring. Comcast should describe how it intends to minimize these types of outages going forward and provide the County with outage reports on a quarterly basis. The County should review these reports as they are received and further address any systemic problems that appear.

3. Mid-term Review - The County should require, at a minimum, a mid-term review of the system to determine if it is still technically capable of meeting cable-related community needs and interests, and providing the needed bandwidth for new services that become available in the future.

4. Digital System Performance - The County should require testing of digital channels to ensure they meet the specifications required by Title 47, Section 76.640 of the Code of Federal Regulations. This testing would replace the previously required Proof of Performance testing that evaluated the quality of analog channels on the system. These tests should be performed at random locations twice per year in the same manner as the Proof of Performance tests were.

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SECTION E

FRANCHISE COMPLIANCE AND PAST PERFORMANCE REVIEW (to be provided under separate cover)

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SECTION F

FRANCHISE FEE AUDIT (to be provided under separate cover)

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