I think there is a great audience here in the valley for their jazz-American songbook repertoire. They’ve released two excellent CD’s and are performing constantly in the Shenandoah Valley area. We have made the trip to Staunton several times to see them at The Dining Room restaurant on Tuesdays.

We would certainly talk it up and get in an audience if they were scheduled.

If you’d like to investigate, the website with audio clips is http://www.jenniferkirkland.net., and they’re very personable individuals to contact and make arrangements.
Please let me know if you get them on the schedule.

Good luck-

A

“BPL Installation Update
January 5th, 2009

Last week, IBEC reported to you on the status of testing at the Martins Store substation required by Verizon prior to the activation of the T-1 Lines. IBEC contracted with a utility specialist who traveled from North Carolina and conducted tests to assess soil resistivity and other factors that would allow Verizon to confirm that a connection to the BPL system would pose no threat to the communications company equipment.

The engineer conducted the tests on December 18 and the results were submitted to Verizon the same day. IBEC updated you last week on December 24 after resubmitting information to Verizon.

Today, the Inductive Coordination & Electrical Protection (ICEP) Engineer for Verizon notified IBEC that the test data indicated that the completion of the T-1 line activation should be able to move ahead quickly, subject to confirmation that the Verizon equipment pedestal is more than 35 feet away from the substation ground grid. IBEC estimates that it is more than 200 feet away and does not foresee any further delay. This is good news and indicates that the activation of the T-1 lines is close at hand.

IBEC has resubmitted the Verizon data form to the ICEP Engineer and will be in touch with the local Verizon supervisor to coordinate the final phase of the T-1 line activation. We will share the estimated date that the Martins Store substation area will begin to pass Internet data by way of the BPL system.

There is more good news. The north Rockfish Valley T-1 injection point is scheduled to be activated by the end of this week. Once activated, Internet traffic will flow through the backbone equipment and the IBEC customer service reps will begin contacting customers to activate their BPL modems and optimize their Internet connections. That injection point will serve customers who live north of Tanbark Drive and some customers to the south of that location. Please wait for IBEC to contact you after their engineers have activated the backbone equipment.

The third BPL injection point lies to the east of Route 29. It will be powered up on January 5 and Verizon will activate it after that date. IBEC will provide you will specific information about this site after January 5.

The other component to this project is the completion of the buildout of the BPL system, or the installation of regenerators (BRU’s) that pass Internet data along the main power lines and the installation of the Customer Access Units (CAU) that are installed near the electric transformer at each subscriber’s home or business. The Davis H. Elliott contract crews have been working hard, both during Christmas week as well as during New Years week. The crews are installing about 90 units (BRU’s and CAU’s) per week and have about 300 total units to go before the initial phase of the BPL system is complete. While weather conditions and terrain can affect the present buildout rate, the crews are working hard and we hope that you will offer them encouragement when they are on your street or in your neighborhood.

We hope that this information has been helpful and encouraging and ask that you get it touch with us if you have questions or comments that will help us to serve you. To do so, you can call 888-423-2275 or e-mail us at service@IBEC.net. Thank you for your support.

Thanks for your patience,

IBEC Customer Service”

An earlier notice referenced above from January 1st, indicated customers in the Tanbark area would have service by week’s end, technically Saturday of last week. Though this is most likely an error on IBEC’s part in the wording of the notice and giving them the benefit of the doubt probably meant this week????

NCL also received an e-mail this morning from another customer who spoke with IBEC today and they told us - they were told the following:

“They just sent me the Jan 1 update that said verizon work would be done on the 5th. ???

The CSA told me they do not have the networking addresses programed yet for the equipment that now hangs on the power lines.

The CSA also said that not all the networking equipment has been hung on the mains.

It could be that they need the internet connection in order to program the routing and addresses (my guess) and once the internet is connected they will start to assign ipa’s.”

In a somewhat related matter, Ntelos out of Waynesboro will most likely be offering high speed mobile broadband service or something similar here in the Rockfish Valley in the very, very near future. The site has passed all regulatory approval hurdles and is under construction along Route 151 just south of Route 6, ironically Martins Store. They are already doing this in other portions of Virginia with great success. It is approximately 10 times faster than dialup speeds.

More as we know.
NCL