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June 19, 2025 AZBSN Digital Access Task Force | Otter.ai

June 19, 2025 AZBSN Digital Access Task Force

Steve Peters1h 11min

Steve Peters

00:00

Wow, I was sharing anyway.

Steve Peters

00:10

Okay, good morning, everybody. Thank you for showing up. Those of you, I apologize, I guess I should have been more observant about the fact that this is a holiday today, so I appreciate you all being here. I didn't, didn't mean to be disrespectful about the holiday, so just Just FYI. On the other hand, since I will be gone while I'm while we're talking about it, I will be gone traveling next week. Actually, I'll be traveling through July the 10th, but I will be traveling, actually in travel in transit next week, so there will be no meeting next week. The following week is July 3, and then the 10th, I'll be back online again, even though I will be traveling. So anyway, that's that so when I start with welcoming a few new people this morning, excuse me, Scotty. You want to kick it off? Please?

Scotty Ward

01:14

Certainly Thank you. Steve. Good morning everybody. I am Pastor Scotty Ward. I am currently on administrative leave from the federal government. By the end of the year, I must retire, so I'm sort of looking for opportunities around here. I've been in it for 35 years, and cyber security for at least 25 of those. And I am also the founder of the cybersecurity sensei mentorship program, where we help anyone, regardless of age or experience level, get entry level cybersecurity jobs. I and my wife live down here in Green Valley, and I also teach cyber safety issues to any group in Arizona that'll have me, I'm, I'm very, very enthusiastic about helping people be more safe online. So that's the that's my calling right now, is to get to as many people as I can help them save their their their money, their resources, and, in many cases, their reputations. So it's great to be part of this group. Thank you, Sep, for inviting me.

Steve Peters

02:30

Great thanks. Scotty, welcome Joe. You're part of the gang here, so we'll hear from you a little bit later, and let's see who else, Matt, of course. Well, you were here last time, but we'll also be hearing from you in just a little while. Excuse me, I just lost somebody here.

Tony Conover

02:59

Pretty cool. Do I think you're looking for me.

Steve Peters

03:06

Yes, I am. Yep.

Tony Conover

03:07

So hello everybody. My name is Tony Conover. I own conver industries. I'm down here in McNeil, Arizona. I partner with the local Co Op ran by John Benedict. Maybe y'all have heard he was the co op. Was my first pilot for bringing internet and Starlink and other broadband access down here. I have now done two other locations here, but basically what I'm trying to do, or what my company does, is that we try to bring it education in any shape form. So cybersecurity would be great online presence, and also looking to partner with the local school districts here to try to provide distance learning in any underserved community. And McNeil is one of those. So it's already a food desert, but I will call it a tech desert as well. And so I'm really honored to be able to sit on this call, because it sounds like a lot of good resources are here, and I'd love to, you know, pick somebody's brain, or everybody's brain, and also be able to provide help on my end. So thank you for having

Steve Peters

04:12

me. Sounds good. Thanks Tony. Glad to have you join us. Anybody else that I'm missing that's new today, I don't believe so. So let's just jump into our meeting this morning. Excuse me having a little allergy attack here. So here's here's the agenda for this morning. Just quickly, we're going to get our briefings, as we always do, and just as I always try to remind you that I do send out my newsletter, and the newsletter has the recording of the meeting. It has this transcript of the meeting. It has. Chat and the attendance list, and so all of that. If you miss the meeting, or you miss something in the meeting, you will have all that information. Theoretically, I will have that out of here today, tomorrow, possibly Monday. But it just kind of depends on how things roll out here. So just wanted to just remind you about that again, our meetings next week. Our next meeting is on July the 10th. We have meetings July 10, 1724, and 31 and again, no meetings on the 26 and of course, July the third. So just, just FYI, so we'll get our usual updates from the broadband office. I was assuming if Kelly's here, I haven't seen if she's here yet or not, and the Department of Education, State Library, and then we're going to hear some good discussion. Those of you attended our meeting last week, heard from David Ackerman and Rachel Matic Hughes about what they're doing and opportunities for technical assistance and training resources. And so we're going to hear the I think they sparked a lot of interest, so we're going to hear more details from them today, and then Lucy, while we're at it, Lucy, you want to give us a quickie update on the cast of the force, the health health network that we're working on, please?

Lucy Howell

06:38

Yeah, just a matter that we and I'll put this link. You caught me off guard there, Steve, I thought I was later in the agenda. I will put a link in our bi weekly health and task Education Task Force that we are that we created with part in the partnership with the Arizona broadband stakeholders network. So if you're interested in education and health implications with digital connectivity. We meet every other Thursday at three o'clock to four o'clock at the force for Health Network. And again, I will put that link in there for you. So working along many goals and objectives, and today we're going to talk about a specific live program that we will look to launch starting July, that is called my healthy broadband and will be a platform for anybody here. We openly invite to be part of the guest speakers, and that'll be a pilot from July through December. So continue.

Steve Peters

07:32

Go ahead. So Lucy, the next meeting is today, right?

Lucy Howell

07:36

Today? Yep, three to four. At what time? From three to four, okay? And I'll put the link in the chat here.

Steve Peters

07:43

So sounds like a plan. Anything else? Lucy, uh,

Lucy Howell

07:47

no, just very excited about the groups have been small but mighty, maybe four to six per week, but they continue to roll in and get representation from all sectors, and that was the goal here. So if you have not come, don't think that you're missing out. We we invite you to join.

Steve Peters

08:07

Sounds good. Thanks. Lucy, thanks. Okay, so just FYI some potentially upcoming meetings. Excuse me on July 17, Joey Wender, who is the Executive Director of Shelby, the school's health and Library's broadband coalition, will be joining us. Hopefully. I got to confirm with him again, but he will be giving us again a briefing on what's happening in Washington. As you know, it keeps changing from day to day, and he is actively engaged in all of those discussions at the federal level, and so it will be good to hear from him. And of course, we also get a lot of that information from Mala on a pretty regular basis. Couple of other things that I'm working on is so one of the big topics that seems to be happening around the country is a discussion on public networks, not municipal networks, but public networks. And I hope to have a panel featuring Gigi Sohn, who's the executive director of the American Association of Public broadband. She's probably the most knowledgeable about what's happening with public broadband around the around the country, if not the world, for that matter, and that seems to be a growing issue and particularly relevant regarding what's happening with bead. So hopefully that will be happening in the next few weeks, and then I want to do a an update on cyber security in Arizona with Ryan Murray, who's the Deputy Director for the Arizona Department of Homeland Security and the state chief information security officer. Ryan's been with us before and. I have had conversations with him, and he's more than willing to come back and kind of give us an update. There's a lot of stuff happening. There's a lot of different organizations working on cybersecurity here in the state, and so Ryan's going to give us kind of a briefing on what's happening here in Arizona regarding cybersecurity. So those are just a few of the things that I'm working on. If you have any ideas of things that you'd like to hear, please send me a note, put it in chat or whatever, and I will consider that. So just a reminder that we had Judy soltruck, who's the Northern Arizona outreach and constituent services coordinator for Senator Kelly Judy, is here when she can and excuse me, and has had representative other representatives from the senator's office, and we discussed in previous meeting, happenings in Washington And and the impact of the loss of DEA of the Digital Equity money. And so she has asked that in order to, of course, Senator Kelly is very much in support of Dei. And so she has asked that we send her stories about how the cuts to dei to the Digital Equity money has impacted your organs, you your organization, your constituents, and so forth. And so I do have in my newsletter a link to Judy, and would encourage you to try and do that ASAP, with all the current discussions going on in Washington at this point. So just a reminder about that. And Kelly, Are you online or not? Kelly, Chrissy, it doesn't look like she is. So we won't hear from the broadband office today. I don't know if there's anything new to report at this point in time. Steve, this was Yeah, go ahead mark, so

Mark Goldstein

12:05

they are in the middle of a specific request to unlicensed fixed wireless providers to confirm by this Friday whether they intend to submit evidence that their previously declared broadband serviceable locations with 100 slash 20 unlicensed service as of their FCC 477, filings that Were current as of December 30, 2024, that they intend to claim those locations as being served. So on the Commerce website, there is a couple of paragraphs about that. There's a link to a spreadsheet of, think 60 some odd 1000 locations by provider, and providers need to declare by Friday if they're going to claim those locations as served, then they will have another week or so With guidance still pending to prove that, to validate that with both some narrative and maybe propagation maps. So that is topical with a Friday deadline. I don't know if to this audience, but that is a current broadband office deadline and activity.

Steve Peters

13:39

Thank you. Mark anybody have anything else from the broadband office that they know about? Yeah,

Rory Conaway

13:47

I'd like to add one thing to this, because I don't think anybody understands what happened when bead was actually designated as a as an option. A few days before the deadline, we all of the providers were asked to prove that they had service to specific addresses, and even as late as 48 hours before the deadline, Triad Wireless was flooded with 1000s of request of challenges to addresses we already had coverage over some of them Were actually customers of ours. Some of them were even within 1000 feet of our towers. And by hitting us with all of that stuff at the last minute, there was no way that we could respond to them. And so they were immediately assigned as being unserviced areas, which was, you know, in our opinion, was extremely unfair and should never have been allowed. Those are the areas where we're hoping to now clear up with this challenge that the state has now opened up because we were unfairly targeted, and several other companies were unfairly targeted with this, this method of this of over running areas we already had service. To so just letting you know that this was bead was not as up and up as everybody believes it might have been. So hopefully this allows us to correct that injustice to the companies that were targeted,

Randy Luening

15:13

and go ahead, but Rory is saying too, is we? Is this is actually been an on time. Can you introduce yourself please? Oh, I'm sorry, yeah. Randy, leading broadband toolkit.com, and we do, we do analytical toolkits for for the industry, for all sorts of planning. And so one of the things that has been sort of leapt to the front of a lot of discussions over the past week is just, you know, basically the numerical implications of this particular rule in, you know, sort of the ecosystem of things that have changed with bead and for instance, in the state of Arizona, the 36.5% of locations are affected by this rule are essentially, you know, these are locations that have been that kind of under the old rules would be deemed unserved or underserved and unfunded. So if you allow unlicensed fixed wireless, you know, which the rules do? You know, with a few caveats, it affects 36.5% of locations. And what makes it also even more interesting is is just on a county by county basis, it's big. For instance, Pima County, 87% of locations are affected. Maricopa County, 49% Yuma County, 60% so So across the country, it varies widely. The average numerical impact is about 13% nationwide. And so we've been we're about to publish some stuff and have tools and so forth. So any anyone who wants to run the numbers, we've got a lot of resources, and I'm having conversations every day with different states to help them think through what's going on.

Rory Conaway

17:12

Randy amazing. Apima was one of the areas that we had the biggest complaints over.

Mark Goldstein

17:16

Oh, right. Randy is right of the year. In round one, there were 192.8 eligible locations. Now 69,000 of them are up for the potential of being claimed by unlicensed wireless providers and taken off the table. I have, I have to assume not everyone will be responsive, or even, you know, care or pursue it, but Randy's 36% or so does translate to the 69,000 of the 192.8 1000 original locations. So

Steve Peters

17:54

okay, thank you. Mark. Anybody else wanted to chime in before we move on. Okay? If not, let's move on to the State Library. Holly, Mala and Mala, I'm sure you probably have some other stuff regarding what's happening at the federal level. But Holly, do you have anything that you'd like to share or Mala or Anthony,

Mala Muralidharan

18:20

I think Mala can talk about E Rate for us. Okay, sure, sure, I will. E Rate. We've received a commitment, okay? Mala muralidharanda state, E Rate, Administrator for public libraries.

Unknown Speaker

18:35

Good job, Mala.

Mala Muralidharan

18:40

Thank you. I put a note to myself to introduce myself, and I just ignored and went straight ahead. Okay, the state received has received so far a commitment of 22 million for this year out of the 90 million that we applied for. So it's still going ongoing. It's early days still, and the commitments will roll in through the year. In fact, there are some commitments for last year and the year before that are still being reviewed. So the one thing that we need, that we need to note, is that for Category Two, which well, e rate has category one and Category Two, Category One is internet connect, connectivity to the door for schools and libraries, and Category Two is internal connections within the school and library. Category two has typically been a five year budget, and this this year is the last year of the last five year cycle. So the new five year cycle begins July, 120, 26 and applications for those typically are due in March. There. Are changing some rules and regulations regarding the category two application. And the positive stuff is that the funding floor, which which is capped for each school and library, for schools based on the school on the head count, and for libraries based on the square footage that the funding floor, the minimum that a school or library can get has increased from 25,000 to 30,000 this is over a five year period. So it's and you don't have to apply equally for each year. You can apply one year for the whole amount, or wait till the last year and apply for the whole amount to spread it out however you want. So that funding floor has increased, and the budget multiplier for the square footage or for the number of students, that has also increased, which is for libraries, it was $4.50 per square foot, and that has gone up to $5.43 per square foot for students. For schools, the multiplier has gone from $167 per student to $201 per student. So those are all the positive things that are happening for Category Two next year. We're still waiting to hear about the other rules that will be put in place for the application process, and anyone who wants to know more about it, I'm happy to discuss offline, because I value the time that we're all spending together. The other thing that I want to draw your attention to, which is of immediate concern, is that there's a hot spot. Hot spots have was introduced into the E Rate program by Jessica Rose Rosenworcel, before she quit from FCC. And they there is a debate going on about whether it should continue as a part of E Rate or not. This week they're going to take Congress is going to take a major step in ruling for or against it. They are doing what is called the CRA Congressional Review Act, which allows Congress to repeal this and by a simple majority in each chamber, ruling out a filibuster in the Senate. They already successfully passed it through the house. It's going to the Senate this week, and it will if it is repealed, if this is repealed, and we cannot introduce hot spots through E Rate, again, through this program. So that is something we're watching out for. We're also watching out for the Universal Service Fund, which the Supreme Court had a hearing of the the oral arguments for and against it. It was a it was FCC versus consumer research case, which was challenged in March, the hearing was, hearing has happened already, and end of June was when they said they would let US Supreme Court, let us know the decision. Today is a decision day. Friday is another decision day. They usually come out with their decisions on Wednesdays and Fridays, so we're waiting to see what happens in that case. Again, if anyone wants to know more about it, I'm happy to discuss it offline. Okay, Steve, I think that's all I have as far as edit and Universal Service Fund

Steve Peters

24:04

so so Mala, did I understand, and I hope I didn't miss it. Did I believe that the bipartisan, bicameral USF commit committee has been reconstituted and his meeting, as we speak, is that correct?

Mala Muralidharan

24:24

That's correct. That's under Senator Lujan. It was, it was in effect till a few months ago, and then they adjourned. Didn't make any conclusive reforms. That committee was not for or against the use the Universal Service Fund, but it was more for the reform of how the contribution happens. Now, as we all know, the contribution factor is it's been disputed. That's another aspect. It to the Universal Service Fund. This is a small amount that each of us pay if we still continue our landlines. It's a small fee of about three to $4 and all of that money is collected centrally and then redistributed to schools and libraries, through and through to the other programs like lifeline and rural health through USAC, the Universal Service administrative company. Now the contribution factor has been going higher and higher every year they FCC just declared last week, the contribution factor for the next quarter, it's going to be 36% which is a lot for the landline service providers to pay into this part, and the fact the factor is going higher and higher because there are fewer of us that have landlines. So the contribution reforms have been a topic of discussion for the last couple of years, I want to say, and there have been many, many write ups and reports on how this could what, how this should be could be done more equitably, like charging the internet service providers rather than just the landline. So it is, it's that's the reform that Senator Lujan is spearheading. So we will wait and see what happens when that committee meets and when we get a report back from that

Steve Peters

26:50

so if I'm not mistaken, that I think the biggest discussion, one of the biggest discussions about USF, is whether the edge providers should be contributing to the plan. That's right,

Unknown Speaker

27:04

that's right. So that that is that could be a possible solution. It could also there are other solutions that have been suggested as well.

Steve Peters

27:16

Okay, thanks, Mala. Any questions for Mala? Michael Kendall, well, you popped up here. Do you have anything with the Department of Ed?

Michael Kendall

27:28

Yes, this is Michael Kendall. I'm project manager with Arizona Department of Education, and I helped to administrate broadband, especially expansion within our office, we focus on the special construction portion of category one, and then I also manage a host of other broadband network, or not broadband, but other network infrastructure projects. So and for in our office, in some ways, it has been quiet with all the changes you can what we would normally, typically see with a cycle of of new work or new projects coming our way. We're not saying so in our office right now. We've got several projects focused on into June completion. Some challenges. There got folks coming into the schools in July, some administrative folks. And so that's really my focus right now. So really, as far as other it's, as I said, in a way, it has been quiet. We're waiting for the proverbial dust to settle. And so I greatly appreciate attending this meeting and getting all of the information from Mala and others who I consider to be experts in the field. So I appreciate the participation and all of the good information from from everyone.

Steve Peters

28:46

Michael, thanks. So can you just maybe explain to people kind of what the difference is and the role you have with the State Education Department versus local school districts are in relationship, I should say to locals,

Michael Kendall

29:02

right, right, right. Well, what the portion I manage is, is a state matching funds, and it's usually five to five to 10% of an overall project cost. And so for those projects that we are engaged in is providing that funding support. Then I, in addition to I meet routinely, bi weekly meetings with all the construction folks I mentioned end of June deadlines for many of our projects, I have a probably monitoring eight of those projects right now, and so that's a big focus right now. Is, is, in some ways, our role is passive with the construction. We meet with the general contractor, the carrier representatives from the school, but we certainly step in when we see, you know, problems with construction for. Example, where's my electrician? Can I get an electrician? Simple things like that. Those are things typically, you know, we've got good contractors out there. There's not a lot of that's needed from us, but we do step in, certainly, when we were at at at risk for schedule and and providing service in our schools when they're when we're committed. For

Steve Peters

30:24

Hey, thank you, Michael. Any questions for Michael? So Erin, you just want, you want to just quickly in the chat you mentioned the letter to Secretary lutonick, do you want to just comment on

Erin Lorandos

30:37

that, just raising for awareness that the National Digital Inclusion Alliance and dia put together a letter in support of reinstating the Digital Equity Act funds, and that was compiled with all of the signatures of folks who were able to sign and sent to such Secretary ludnick Yesterday, I want to say, and there were a number of Arizona organizations and representatives on there, which is very makes my heart glad. So I just wanted to share that for awareness. I don't have any other information about it, just what's been publicly made available by NTIA.

Steve Peters

31:18

Anybody have any more comments about that before we move on. Okay? Well, I think that may be all of our updates for the moment. So let's get into our agenda this morning, and as I mentioned earlier that last week, when we have discussions about all the changes happening to bead at this point in time that David Ackerman, who's the CEO of Ackerman Consulting Group, and Rachel Matic Hughes, who is the CEO of rural prosperity partners, kind of gave us a quickie introduction to the services that they provide to help people with broadband planning. And so based on the response I saw about them and their capabilities, that I thought this was perfect timing to bring them back and to have them do a more detailed update on the work that they're doing and how you can take advantage of their services. So with that, I'm going to stop sharing, and David, I'm going to turn it over to you and Rachel. And then you have a couple of other people on your team who are here, and you might want to go ahead and introduce them to please, absolutely.

David Ackerman

32:30

Thanks, Steve. Hey again, everybody. My name is David Ackerman, CEO of Ackerman Consulting Group. I've got a small crew on here today, one of my teammates, our partner, rural prosperity. We've got a couple of them on too. Last week, we went over at a high level what we've got going on here and how we can help with broadband aspirations throughout the state. Most pressingly, bead. We work with communities, tribes, rural ISPs. Really, just about anybody who's in the broadband space or is looking to get in it. While I'm pulling up the PowerPoint, I'll go ahead and pass the intro over to Matthew, and then the rural prosperity team can go ahead and jump in. I'll pull up the presentation right now. Yeah, thanks, David. I got to introduce myself a little bit last week as well. I work with David over here at ACG in our COO role, and very excited with the news of the PTA grant that we'll share here in a little bit, and hopefully getting to, like David said, help expand broadband across Arizona. Rachel,

Rachael Maddock-Hughes

33:46

hi everyone. Good morning. Yes, I'm Rachel Mala keys. I'm the CEO of rural prosperity partners and all. And I have my colleague Joe for now on the call as well, and we'll talk more about who we are, what we do as we get started in the presentation. Thank you. You

David Ackerman

34:05

alright, can everyone see?

Steve Peters

34:09

Yes, yes,

David Ackerman

34:11

great. So just a real quick overview, intro. What we're talking about here is BTA. I'll go into the specifics, but it's a Rus grant, and Ackerman Consulting Group was awarded it, and we're partnering with rural prosperity partners and to create a holistic package for us to assist broadband needs. We'll go into the what each group does, and you'll see why we're partnered, because to create that holistic assistance, to develop grant applications, programs, training, engineering, packages, whatever it may be, together, we can create that full package. So Ackerman Consulting Group is an. Erin Consulting Group, like I said, we're here to help communities, tribes, rural ISPs, anyone who's really in the broadband space or trying to get into it, we have worked on many grants, very, very high success rate, 75 million currently secured in broadband grants for our clients. Little bit about the engineering that we've done over 500 miles, 7500 plus homes connected, and that's all in rural America.

Steve Peters

35:35

David, can I interrupt for one second? Do I have everybody on your team, spotlighted now, I think so you and Rachel and Joseph and Matt. That

David Ackerman

35:51

everybody. That's everyone we got on right now. Yep, okay,

Steve Peters

35:54

sorry, go ahead,

David Ackerman

35:57

Rachel, can you tell us a little bit about rural prosperity?

Rachael Maddock-Hughes

36:01

Yeah, so rural prosperity. We're based in Oregon, and we are a technical assistance firm, and our whole Mo is to help rural communities secure private, state and federal funding to help them have thriving communities. And so we have a very large focus on broadband, but we also do other kind of grant writing, etc. In terms of broadband, we've helped secure almost $30 million in grant funding, and that was primarily focused in Oregon, and that was through the first broadband technical assistance cooperative agreement in the US, through our us, and we've done about $50 million all together for the communities that we've worked with over the last five years. And we were really, we really focus in and you'll see this in kind of the package that we're doing with through the BTA award, we have really capacity building approach in working with our clients.

David Ackerman

36:57

Thank you, Rachel. All right, any questions before we move on about ACG or rural prosperity? All right, so why are we here? We're rewarded the BTA grant through our US. This was a program that was launched on 23 $25 million made available. The goal is to provide technical assistance to ISPs, tribes, communities, any eligible entity who, who's looking to deliver broadband. We are here to help with technical assistance because we were awarded that grant. The being our US funded program eligible projects must promote broadband expansion in rural communities. You will see, as we go into more of the details, the specific communities that were eligible and that we were awarded to assist with, we'll get into that a little

Mala Muralidharan

38:06

bit later.

David Ackerman

38:08

Expanding broadband in rural Arizona is really what we're focused on here. So PTA grant, federal funding our US rural broadband. What can it be used for a whole host of things? You can see that it's a broad named broadband Technical Assistance Grant.

Steve Peters

38:31

Excuse me, David, can you enlarge your screen at all? Maybe it's just me, but it's kind of small. Let

David Ackerman

38:42

me see what I can do. Can you just say

Steve Peters

38:53

that's better?

David Ackerman

38:57

Everyone say it better? Yep, yes, excellent. Thank you, Steve.

Rachael Maddock-Hughes

39:02

Think it'll be even bigger if you go into presentation,

David Ackerman

39:06

that's what I was. Oh, yeah, you're

Rachael Maddock-Hughes

39:10

right. That's weird. It does. It goes back to the small one.

David Ackerman

39:13

I've got one of those big screens. That's probably what it is. So we'll leave it here. Please chime in if you have any questions. Anybody make it as interactive as possible. We've got a lot of information to go through, but more meaningfully, your questions will probably help narrow down what's important to you. So we'll leave time at the end, but chime in if anything pops out to you. All right, like I was saying, technical assistance of feasibility studies, engineering permitting, compliance planning, community engagement, training, financial feasibility studies, really and rural prosperity is part, a big part of it's going to be that outreach and. In helping the funding, the actual grant applications, outreach, you know, really getting communities to be funding ready, along with the grant applications. One big point that I want to make is it of all these things that it does help, it does not cover any actual infrastructure. So typically, the grant that you're writing is going to cover that infrastructure. The grant that you're trying to apply for will cover that infrastructure cost. BTA will not cover any of it. So it's a good bit of anything. But, and I've had a few people reach out after last meeting. That's that's what we need to do every every single case is going to be slightly different. So let's have one on ones reach out. I'll have the contacts on here on the last slide, and we'll set up an independent meeting and really kind of run through what specifically your group needs or what we can help with. Alright? So again, ACG was awarded the BTA grant, and we are partnering with rural prosperity to create that holistic package. The goals, broadband expansion, increasing broadband access, rural and underserved, unserved Arizona ISPs, communities, tribes. We already, we do, in fact, have one tribe who's interested. So that's that's going to be the first for bead through BTA. That's going to be our first partner to work through bead funding success. What does success mean to us? Is really what this is saying and to USDA is generating 25 to 50 million in broadband funding applications. So we really want to really five to 10 applicants partners throughout Arizona that we can work with and help apply for bead or other applications, any kind of design, whatever it may be that that's what success is to us.

David Ackerman

42:21

Let's talk about Rabson. This is a fun little name. Everyone's got their state network, right? Rural Arizona broadband support network. What we're doing is creating a group that we're running our BTA program through. We're working on creating a website that everyone can go to the outreach, the training, all these kind of things, is all going to be through reps, and much like rural prosperity did in Oregon, and Rachel, maybe you can speak to that a little bit so that everyone can kind of have A background there. Yeah, absolutely

Rachael Maddock-Hughes

43:00

so in Oregon. So the model in Arizona is based on a successful model that we ran in Oregon. Like I said, that was the first BTA cooperative agreement in the nation. And actually the BTA competitive program was kind of based on our experience and model in Oregon. And so the idea is, is that, you know, rural communities and the ISP serving them, we they struggle with capacity and expertise when it comes to securing funding for projects. And so the idea is to offer outreach and training. So we have developed a couple of different trainings that are both for communities as well as for internet service providers and for the ISPs, it helps get them grant ready. So there's a lot that one or grant or loan ready, right? There's a lot of pieces that you have to gather, and knowledge that smaller ISPs may or may not have about applying for, usually federal funding. And so we work through that with them so that then they are in a better position to then apply when opportunities come up. And then we hand them off to technical assistance, engineering experts like David's firm and others, and then we work with them to actually do the grant or loan application. And so that has led to about $30 million being secured in the Oregon pilot. And again, that's what we're hoping to do in Arizona. And there's the additional component of of training and outreach for community. So not the ISPs, but the communities that are involved, to just make sure that elected leaders and key folks are really up to date and have that foundational knowledge around broadband and can be part of the solution, also when it comes to support, so when it comes to supporting grant and loan applications from local ISPs, and also supporting rollout, so actual deployment. So those grant and loan dollars are are in the door. So that's kind of what the the model is based on questions. Thank you Rich.

David Ackerman

45:18

Dive into the sorry.

Tony Conover

45:20

I was double muted. I did have one question. Yeah, I did have one question. Sorry. So with the difference between the state one versus the rural the local one is the same tagline, still with infrastructure that's not involved, like any it's just the trainings and the like, surveys and things of that nature. Is that how that works?

Rachael Maddock-Hughes

45:44

Yeah? And I think you'll so there's no so the BTA grant cannot be used for infrastructure. It's, I just want to make sure, yeah, it's technical assistance to support folks getting the money in for infrastructure. Become clearer when David goes through these very specific project objectives, so you'll understand that.

Tony Conover

46:04

Yeah, I didn't I figured I was jumping the gun, but Yeah, no worries. Wouldn't hurt to jump in. So thanks,

David Ackerman

46:10

yeah, yeah. And on that note, let me just make sure that I clarify so the the specific funding from BTA cannot pay for fiber, for example, what it is paying for is the application, the preparation and the training to apply for grant money that could pay for the fiber or even training programs, etc, the specific money from this grant, can't actually buy the fiber, but it can help you obtain the funding that will.

Rachael Maddock-Hughes

46:48

And the reason why we do it this way, the reason why it's set this way, is because so there's a there's a longer history to this. We've done some reports around what it takes to secure federal funding and the barriers. And in the case of broadband, we know that Hiring a firm, an engineering firm, to help you do the application for a grant or for a loan can cost anywhere in the neighborhood between 40 to $90,000 and when we're looking at grant applications where it's not guaranteed that you're going to get that funding. It's a real barrier for ISPs serving rural communities, and so it's this kind of like double hit of, let's make sure you're ready, and then we're going to help you. And you'll see here the objective. So I'm kind of jumping into this, David, but like, you know, we're going to help ISPs become grant ready. That's objective one. We're going to make sure you're connected to technical assistance firms. So that's what Rabson is. That's the whole we're bringing a whole group of folks around you that are vetted partners that have done this before, have success in securing grants and loans, etc. Then we're going to subsidize the cost of those grant and loan applications so that it's not a it's not such a big financial lift. And then we'll provide training and objective for to communities that are in the same area. And these are the non ISP actors to make sure everybody's on the same page. So those are our real deliverables for this project.

David Ackerman

48:22

Chris, I think I just want to add a couple of things. So Rachel went through the objectives. That's perfect. The other day, I was talking with Steve, and he mentioned, and I think he mentioned again this morning, the private network piece. So when we're saying ISPs in this presentation, it's it's more than that. So communities creating public network lump all of that into what we're saying when we say ISP, a tribe trying to create a network lump that in work that that's part of the group to ISP for, for purposes of this presentation, tribes, communities, cities, towns, counties. Anyone who has ambitions, aspirations, current networks doesn't have to be new. It could be an existing ISP. It could be brand new. You could just have the aspirations and want to look at it from a feasibility standpoint. So just keep that in mind. Just wanted,

Rachael Maddock-Hughes

49:20

and we have a question over in the chat. It says, what do we envision doing in a short window of time with bead, and then how does the landscape change post bead? So we are welcoming folks to reach out to us if you need support with bead, and then the landscape changing. Wow, post bead, who has their crystal ball, right? I mean, it changes like every day, but we have had discussions with USDA, our US, and you know as so in Trump's first term, what we saw, generally speaking, was a. Lean towards more loans, less grants, right? So we all know that there has been, well, a lot of us know that there's been a proposed cut to like the reconnect programs and grant programs in the proposed budget, but we don't know if that's actually going to be cut or not. But in talking to USDA, you know the thought is that there will likely be more loan funding available than grant funding moving forward in this term. But you know, we all know that bead is not going to solve all of the issues, so that's my to take my two cents on it. David,

David Ackerman

50:38

yeah, so we got a little bead slide here, and maybe this will help with some of the specifics around that. The reality is, at least during this administration, or what we're seeing is like Rachel said that grants are drying up, right for infrastructure. Now you've got, you've got beat that's running through modified and we have to be agile and able to, you know, roll with the punches. Whatever it may be, USDA, they'll have what they have. Maybe it, maybe it is just loans. Maybe it's whatever's left in their their original program. As far as funding goes, we don't have a exact answer yet on that, but as far as bead goes, we do know that we've got a few we've got a few answers, pre registration open to June 30. If you need help with that, reach out now. Reach out ASAP, and let's see if we can help get you going. Not that complicated. As long as you have your approval organizations information, we can help you get that set up. As for the program itself, I think that some of the important things, and actually, Rachel and her team have developed kind of a questionnaire that'll that'll help you see how ready you are for programs like bead. But one big thing is the match, 25% match. Now, does that have to be all cash? Is that a question? Okay, that can be a combination of any kind, cash or even a waiver. So that's one of the things that jumps out for bead, for our support purposes, having a project in fallen counties here, Apache, Cochise, Coconino, Greenlee, Maricopa, Mojave, Pima canal and Yuma. If you have one outside of that or in tribal lands, still reach out. Let's see what we can do. We have no problem going to bat for for your project with USDA. They want you to win. We want you to win. So let's still reach out. We'll look at no promises, but we'll look at it for sure. Tribal lands, same thing. If you're not within this county or these counties, and your projects not in these counties still reach out. We'll go to bat for you and see what we can do. The pre screening support, that's what I was talking about. The rural prosperity put together. We've got, of course, the technical grant writing assistance, make sure your applications are strong, subsidized. Rachel kind of already went through these. I'll just repeat it for everyone's info, subsidized cost, preparing spending applications. And then we've got, of course, engineering, design, GIS, financial modeling. We have put together a team that can handle every aspect of the grant application and process for you, from project management to financial modeling, the engineering, etc. So let us know if you need help. Did that answer the question that was in the chat, was there more I

Rachael Maddock-Hughes

53:59

can't so and just to, just to chime in really quickly too. So we are just getting this launch, so we will have so we will actually run a structured, like kind of training program, pre screening program here in the future, and the same with like outreach and training for communities. So the reason why you're all getting this right now is because we know that bead is top of mind, right? So we'll be coming out with dates and all that sort of stuff here with on the rest of it. But for now, we can help with bead if you reach out to us. And this is Mallory to answer your question. This is just for Arizona. So this, this project, and in specifically the project areas that we have listed.

Gordon Fuller

54:45

If, if I could ask a question real quick, Gordon Fuller, Tucson plan systems, I wanted to inquire about your considerations regarding 6g particularly with respect to rural and tribal communities, the infrastructure will need. To upgrade over the next five years for the 2030 goal of introducing 6g it has such more broad reaching implications for community in every respect, I work on the side of the desk of spatial computing and web three. And so how could your program help setting up for that? Because five years is going to go by in a blink, and I would like to see people getting trained in spatial computing and other Spatial Mapping technologies, things like that. Could you help with

David Ackerman

55:30

that or not? I would have to look at the specifics and probably have an engineer on. It looks like Rachel's got some comments too. But if it's if it's helping rural, rural broadband, I think it could be covered in this. Rachel, yeah, I don't

Rachael Maddock-Hughes

55:48

know. I think we'd have to get more specific information about that. So again, the the focus of this is getting folks ready to apply for grant and loan funding, subsidizing the cost for that grant and loan application, and training up communities on like just foundational knowledge of broadband and very importantly, how, what role they can play in speeding up deployment or securing funds. So if there's something within 6g that falls within that we could definitely have a conversation.

David Ackerman

56:29

So Gordon, I think the short answer is reach out. When I put the email and everything up, if you can reach out to us, give me more specifics, I'll have an engineer take a look at it, and we'll we can discuss it in more detail.

Steve Peters

56:47

So David, can you maybe recap you and Rachel, kind of recap about how people apply to you. Are there any match requirements, any other requirements about who can and can't apply. I know you talked about that pretty much. Anybody, any, excuse me, ISPs, communities and so forth. But just to kind of again Recap, you know, who can who can apply, what the requirements are for them to apply to you? Are there any match requirements? And so forth.

David Ackerman

57:22

Yeah. So who can reach out right now? Like Rachel was saying, we're focused on bead is just the number one priority we're trying to can't really get ahead of it just because of the timing that the BTA grant was awarded was right in the middle of Arizona's bead program. So we're trying to help with, you know, all the different changes and everything, and just get out there and and assist with bead so as far as what can we help with? I think that's probably the most important aspect of how we can help. Who can we help? So anyone with rural broadband projects or aspirations that are in the counties that we have listed now, your company doesn't have to necessarily, or organization doesn't necessarily have to be in those counties. The project does, or the research does, your triad, for example, that spans over multiple counties. Might have a project in Navajo County that we can help with, even though the tribes not necessarily located in there. So just trying to give you an example of one that we've actually talked to, trying to think what other question mapping? No no matching. We can go

Rachael Maddock-Hughes

58:58

ahead. Rachel, yeah, in matching. So you have to have the funds available to apply for a grant, and if that grant, so if that grant requires a match, the person applying has to have it. We're not subsidizing the match cost. So we're just application costs. So you have to have those funds available for this.

David Ackerman

59:23

So for using our program, though, which? Which? Steve, there's two different ways the question, but to use our program, no, there is no match to apply for certain federal programs like Rachel saying the match for your entity will be the match for your entity. That's that's just part of applying, and the subsidized BTA program will not cover that. But working with us, there is no match requirement,

Rachael Maddock-Hughes

59:51

and we have a couple of questions over in the chat. So no this bill, this does not allow for workforce development. I. Uh, training. And then there's another question around, is the consulting purely focused around grants and loans? Yes, it is. And then there's Mallory you have another question, is this funding through BTA you received guaranteed given the possibility of reconnect being cut? Yes, they're coming from different sources. So we have these. We've signed the papers. I mean, as any, as much as anyone, has a crystal ball right now, right? So, yeah,

David Ackerman

01:00:31

so we have received the release of funds, so that that's as far as you need to go with obtaining grant funds with the federal government.

Steve Peters

01:00:41

So So Rachel, I have two questions. First of all, David, do you have any more to share, or can we stop sharing? And I think we can

David Ackerman

01:00:50

start other than the contact info. And I'll, Steve, I'll send this presentation to you, and you can distribute to the group as as needed. And anyone who wants to reach out, please do and we'll, we'll work with everyone on an individual basis, because everything's a little different.

Steve Peters

01:01:06

I just wanted to open it up so that we can see everybody, rather than just focused on the spotlights. And then the second thing is, Rachel, are you doing any kind of webinars or because since training is kind of your bailiwick, if I understand correctly, are we doing any kind of webinars or anything that we should help promote that people can participate in?

Rachael Maddock-Hughes

01:01:33

Yeah, that's a great question. So actually, can we shut down the share screen there? David, if you don't

David Ackerman

01:01:39

mind, yep, once I figure it out, okay, thank you.

Rachael Maddock-Hughes

01:01:44

We will, we will be doing, we will be promoting trainings. We are still working on the timing of those trainings. So again, there'll be kind of two groups. The one is for folks who are ISPs, excuse me. And as as David said, that can be anyone who's providing broadband services, not just ISP, so, tribes, cities, counties, etc, and so to help them get ready. And so we will be launching that training a little bit later this summer. And then there's also going to be the outreach and to the communities that are in our project areas. And we will be setting up, we're going to do a little bit of due diligence into how people would best want to within those communities receive training, right? Because we want to be responsive to their needs. So is it, is it a webinar? Is it more one on one, phone calls with local elected leaders? So we'll do a little sussing out of that, and then from the responses we get, we'll either create some webinars and trainings for that, or we'll do some one on one, advising and meeting with folks so and by the way, the the length of this project is 18 months, so

Steve Peters

01:02:57

That was a good thing to know. Okay, any other questions or comments for anybody, or from anybody, if not, thank you all for for being here this morning. I think you know when we started with the Arizona broadband stakeholder network, years ago. And then, of course, now the the task force, the one of the things that we kept saying is we needed to have an entity that can help organizations to write grants, to find funding opportunities and to write grants, because that's a difficult thing to do, and so in many cases, that the communities as you well know, which is kind of what your project is based on that a lot of smaller communities in particular don't have the resources to hire consultants like you guys to be able to write those grants so they get left out just because they don't have anybody today, as you know, in many cases, in some of the smaller communities, the IT director at a school district is also the football coach and the English teacher and and everything else. So, so I think it's really important to know that there's that you guys are here as a resource.

Rachael Maddock-Hughes

01:04:13

Yeah, absolutely. And I was just going to put something here, and just the this, this is a little bit non broadband related, but it can be, let's see if I can get over to the right screen here just a second, something that we've worked on around technical assistance. And just responding to what you're saying about the limited capacity, is we did a report in Oregon with the Ford family foundation, not the big Ford, but our Ford, and it was talking about both the challenges to securing federal funding, as well as some solutions and opportunities. So, like you said, the subsidization of grant writing and that sort of thing. So you're welcome to check out the site I just put in here. This is kind. Of where all of that, that research and some of the initiatives that came out of it live, just in terms of, you know, because this is our this is our valley. Wic really is like technical assistance to help rural communities secure funding, and we happen to do a lot in broadband as well. But this page is not just broadband, as it's kind of all encompassing. So just if you guys want to look at, you know, other states and kind of what they're doing, take a peek.

Steve Peters

01:05:25

And before I forget, just a reminder that there's a lot of information in the chat, and it's hard to keep up to capture that. So two ways that you can get that information. First is that, before the meeting ends, you can go to chat, and at the very top, you'll see three ellipses, and if you click on that, you can save the chat to your computer, so you will have that information available immediately to you. And then secondly, when I send out my newsletter, that I will also have the information in the chat, but if you want to get that stuff very quickly, I would suggest that you save the chat to your computer. I just wanted to remind you about that. So Rachel, can you? Can you and David maybe talk a little bit about, you know what kind of work, or have you had contact yet with the broadband office here in the state at all and actually related to that? Michael Kendall, are you still here? I thought I saw you a minute ago. Yeah. So Michael, can you share out this information? Actually, you and Mala and Holly and Holly, whether you can share out this information to school districts, libraries and so forth.

Michael Kendall

01:06:47

Yes, let me catch up here with the chat. Anything specific for for a D, E that's popped out of the chat here and I'm scrolling through here now.

Steve Peters

01:07:00

Well, I think mostly, and maybe David and Rachel and all can can help you. Maybe even draft something that you can share out to the school districts about, you know your what the program is, how they can take advantage of it, what assistance, and so forth. Because I'm sure your school districts struggle with this issue all the time.

Michael Kendall

01:07:23

Right, right. Oh, no, I'm happy to to work with them on this for sure.

Rachael Maddock-Hughes

01:07:27

Yeah, I think, I think right now, it'd be great to just like, maybe set, we can set up a meeting and chat with you, Michael about that. And we just want to make sure that you know, if you're leading school districts, that we we talk, we give them the right information about how they can engage. So,

Michael Kendall

01:07:43

right, right. And, and I will share with you what, what we have, you know, we provide. There's a lot of public information out there, so, yeah, so let's, let's set up a meeting, and I look forward to

Rachael Maddock-Hughes

01:07:58

it, great. And you've got our, you've got our email in the presentation, David's information, my information. So go ahead and just shoot us an email.

Michael Kendall

01:08:06

Will do? Will do? Thank you.

Steve Peters

01:08:09

Okay, right now, I'm sorry. Go ahead, David.

David Ackerman

01:08:14

I was just gonna just make a point. A lot of what you're seeing right now is bead specific. The program overarching is more than bead, but we're just with the timelines and everything going on with bead in Arizona. We're really just trying to make sure we're helping in that capacity right now.

Steve Peters

01:08:33

And so if you remember David, I think I asked you about this. So do you have an army of people? So if you start David, that's part

David Ackerman

01:08:43

of the reason their experience in doing this, and that the team is it's a holistic group, and we've got, we've got enough people to take on the work that is needed in Arizona right now. So yeah,

Rachael Maddock-Hughes

01:08:56

and I would, I would add on timing, so y'all know that this stuff, this was supposed to come through about nine months ago. So what it's been a little bit of a timing constraint thing. So normally we would have wanted to start the kind of like the pre development, like, get grant ready training ahead of time. But this actually happened because of the US government's timing in Oregon as well, and we just kind of flip flop things, and we did some grant applications upfront, and then some kind of get grant ready, and then some more applications. So it all works out. But that is also why it's just, it's just a little wonky right now. So, yeah,

Steve Peters

01:09:38

okay, any other we're about out of time. Any other questions or comments for David, Rachel and the team? Great. Thanks guys for being here. Let's talk some more about we can collaborate with you. I'll get the word out. That

Rachael Maddock-Hughes

01:09:56

sounds great. Thank you guys so much. Thanks for having us,

David Ackerman

01:09:59

and thanks. Everybody.

Steve Peters

01:10:01

Okay, any other announcements that people have before we end? And then you're going to get a break from me for for a couple of weeks. Look forward to seeing you back on July the 10th.

Rory Conaway

01:10:18

Sorry, I apologize. I have a quick question for Erin, please. Yeah, go ahead. Erin, how is, how are the companies supposed to find what format do you need the information on for bead to exclude the houses that were previously approved for bead funding?

Erin Lorandos

01:10:39

Rory, I can't answer that. I'm no longer on the state broadband office team. I would recommend my apologies out to the broadband office directly for any questions on that.

Rory Conaway

01:10:49

I'll take care of that. Then sorry, my apologies. Thank you.

Steve Peters

01:10:53

Okay, any other questions comments, if not just a reminder that we have the health and network meeting at three o'clock today, and encourage you to all participate in map. And then just want to wish you all a happy and safe July 4 holiday, and we will see you on the 10th Thanks, everybody.

David Ackerman

01:11:22

Bye. Thanks, Steve.

Steve Peters

01:11:25

I'm going to start stop recording, and if anybody wants to hang around.

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