By Emily Ford
eford@salisburypost.com
SALISBURY — Fibrant has renegotiated a contract for wholesale phone service, saving the city $100,000 a year, interim Director Jim Behmer told City Council.
And sales staff have maintained a goal of signing up at least 30 Fibrant customers a week for the past four weeks, said Jenny Waisner, sales and marketing manager.
“You’re cutting costs and increasing sales,” said Mayor Paul Woodson, pleased with Tuesday’s report on the city’s one-year-old broadband service.
Interim City Manager Doug Paris said staffers have been meeting on Friday afternoons for several months to find ways Fibrant can trim costs and boost subscriptions to reach what he calls the “sweet spot” — where the utility generates enough money to cover debt payments and operating costs.
The city projects that will happen after the fourth year of operation, in 2014. Fibrant, which has more than 1,700 customers after one year, will need about 4,500 subscribers to become self-sufficient.
Council members welcomed the information, which came during Paris’ comments and was not included on the published agenda.
“Bring us news often, good and bad,” Councilman Brian Miller said.
If Fibrant has problems, “tell us what you’re doing to fix them, not just about all the good stuff,” Miller said. “… Our citizens want to hear from us about this service, so please communicate.”
Miller said he’s aware of several instances where Waisner addressed complaints, and people “left delighted.” He encouraged Fibrant staff to spread the word about those successes.
“There are a lot of critics out there, but a lot of folks are raving fans, and we need to share those stories,” Miller said.
Fibrant will spend about $1.2 million for Internet, cable TV and phone services during this fiscal year, which ends June 30. Behmer said he took advantage of a window of opportunity in the two-year contract with wholesale phone provider Momentum to renegotiate the terms.
The amended contract will save $100,000 annually and run for 28 months to coincide with the city’s budget process, Behmer said.
“We negotiated the best price, and customers will have no interruption of service because it’s the same provider,” he said after the meeting.
Behmer said he’s also renegotiating contracts with video and Internet providers, as well as installation services.
Paris said he was impressed and dubbed Behmer the “chief city negotiator.”
Council member Maggie Blackwell encouraged Behmer to include service level agreements in each contract to hold providers accountable for quality.
Miller praised Fibrant’s customer service.
“Thanks for taking such good care of folks,” he said. “That’s what’s going to make the difference.”
Behmer and Assistant City Manager John Sofley mentioned several other improvements they’ve either accomplished or are considering:
• Video testimonials to play at the Customer Service Center to interest people waiting at the counter
• Cross-training tech support employees to also sell Fibrant
• Possibly offering some wireless services to cut installation costs
• Possibly bringing some installation services in-house to save money. Installation is currently contracted to a service provider.
City Council gave preliminary approval for Behmer to explore a second Internet connection for Fibrant to provide redundancy. This would prevent outages and could lure larger commercial subscribers who have been waiting for Fibrant to offer a back-up Internet service, Council members said.
Behmer said he will return more details about a second Internet connection and additional bandwidth.
Contact reporter Emily Ford at 704-797-4264.