About Us

Uptown Services is in its 26th year of providing broadband consulting to the municipal and county government sector. We support our clients with leading edge feasibility studies, business planning/strategy advising, engineering and implementation support services across a full range of functional areas. We work with existing broadband operators as well as entities considering deploying these systems. Uptown has established a strong track record as a consulting advisor to over 100 municipal broadband systems across a full range of functional expertise including business plan development, financial analysis, market research, business operations, system design, technical planning, and system implementation.

Neil Shaw – Uptown Services, Principal

Neil brings over 38 years of experience in telecommunications to the team. He has an extensive understanding of various broadband network infrastructure alternatives and the financial dynamics that are critical to making decisions in this industry. Mr. Shaw has a BS in Electrical Engineering from Iowa State University and an MBA from the University of Colorado.

Experience

As vice president of marketing at TCI Internet Services, he guided the launch of the @Home Network in the first three markets deployed worldwide. These were TCI’s Freemont CA, Arlington Heights IL, and Hartford CN markets. These market launches jump-started the cable industry in entering the broadband Internet sector. As vice president and general manager for Jones Lightwave, he was responsible for business development, sales and marketing for this competitive access provider with networks in Atlanta, Tampa, and Denver. Within this role, he launched a full suite of SONET-based transport services in one of the earliest competitive access providers.

As a principal for Uptown Services, Neil has built the firm’s municipal broadband practice from scratch over the past 26 years. His business case financials have been the basis for over $480M in publicly financed municipal broadband projects. He has also personally managed and/or completed detailed all of Uptown’s FTTH and middle mile designs. Neil understands the inner workings of the local government process based on his experience with more than 100 municipal and utility clients.

Mr. Shaw has a BS in Electrical Engineering from Iowa State University and an MBA from the University of Colorado.

Dave Stockton -Uptown Services, Principal

Dave has 39 years of experience in the telecommunications, cable, and high-speed Internet sectors. He spent 17 years in management positions at Northwestern Bell, US WEST, MediaOne, and AT&T Broadband and was Vice President of Marketing & Sales for a 600k subscriber system in Atlanta. For the last 22 years he has been a Principal with Uptown Services. In that capacity he has completed 40+ feasibility studies.

Experience

In completing these studies, he has overseen market research for each study with total quantitative research sample of over 29,000 residential respondents, evaluated competitive offerings and created product strategies and plans, and completed detailed financial analysis and pro forma development. A number of these feasibility studies have subsequently deployed FTTP systems.

In addition to his leadership roles in private sector operating units, during his consulting career he has assisted in multi-year projects with the start-up of 8 municipal FTTP systems, playing a key role in the functional areas of developed marketing and sales plans, defining product strategy and pricing, creating brand identities, securing video programming contracts, securing backbone connectivity, evaluating operating support and billing systems, assisting with staffing, developing budgets and operating forecasts/reporting, establishing methods and procedures, and negotiating wholesale partner agreements with CLEC partners.

Mr. Stockton has a BS in Economics and Statistics from the University of Minnesota and an MBA from Arizona State University.

Randolph Maestas -Uptown Services, Construction Manager

Randolph has 39 years of experience in the broadband and telecommunications industry. His extensive experience spans significant positions in both operational and leadership capacities, and includes a blend of technical expertise, business acumen, and team leadership, employed across multiple multi-million-dollar projects.

Experience

Randolph's career began with MediaOne, where he served as an Install Supervisor for the Tri-County region. He was then promoted with MediaCom to the role of Senior Technical Operations Manager for the Mid Atlantic area. During his 23-year tenure, he oversaw technical operations, streamlined processes, and ensured exceptional service delivery across vast geographic areas. As a Project Manager for Charter's SoCal KMA, Randolph demonstrated his proficiency in project management and his ability to oversee significant initiatives. His role involved coordinating various aspects of project execution, from planning to completion, ensuring timely delivery and adherence to budget constraints.

Randolph holds certifications in HITS/Motorola headend in the sky, BCE, NCTI supervisor, and manager certifications. These credentials reflect his deep technical knowledge and ability to stay abreast of industry advancements. Randolph's innovative mindset and problem-solving abilities have been key drivers of his success. He is adept at identifying challenges and devising effective solutions, ensuring continuous improvement and operational excellence.

Rick Hunter -Market Research Advisor, SDR Consulting, President

Rick Hunter, President for SDR Consulting, will serve in the capacity of market research advisor for this project. Rick has supervised the completion of over 200,000 surveys during his career. He has consulted major political candidates, as well as major corporations on the public's opinion of them and other issues using public opinion research.

Experience

He has also been an executive political news director during election night coverage for two national Hispanic television networks (working in conjunction at different times with ABC, CBS and CNN). Rick is responsible for the sampling services operation, client relationships, project management, and the development of new services and products for SDR Consulting.

Mr. Hunter holds a Bachelor of Science degree with Honors from Jacksonville University in Political Science and History.

James Wolken -Market Research Fielding, Prairie Research Group, President

James Wolken, owner of The Prairie Research Group, has a Master’s level education in Political Science with over 30 years’ experience in all aspects of market research covering a range of industries. His research expertise includes web survey programming and hosting, price and revenue modeling, cross tabulation tables using Wincross, statistical analysis including cluster analysis and segmentation (SPSS), and experience with both Sawtooth and Qualtrics Web Survey software.