I'm sorry, no problem. Not not not a big problem. I just know that because my son does that to me when we're talking. He's calls from his car
I live on the road if it wasn't for a car and zoom and screen, I would never catch a meeting
okay
okay, get rid of that
two minutes and then we'll be ready to rock and roll
Okay, let's, let's jump in and get started here. Got a lot of stuff to cover today. So first of all, do we have anybody new joining us today?
Thanks. So
Yvette, do we know you? I am Michelle's office assistant
Michelle Simon with the Office of Digital Inclusion. So she asked me to sit in today.
Okay, now we know who you are. Thank you. Anybody else? Joining us today. That's new. RJ. Thank you been here before have you.
Good morning. I been in the meetings. Just I haven't heard in a while.
Okay. You want to just introduce yourself real quickly? Yeah,
sure. I'm a virtual chief information security officer with Hojo cybersecurity, we offer managed cyber security solutions for tribal governments. Okay.
Sounds good. Well, welcome, everybody. Let's jump in and get the get started with the meeting today. This, okay, so first of all, I was always like to thank our sponsors that care first health healthplan Karen Ziegler, consulting services, Valley Telecom, Group G and Triad Wireless. Thank you guys appreciate your your continued support. I want to excuse me, just remind you that a lot of the things that we discussed today are usually in my newsletter, either and the current one, or the one that I'll be sending out after this meeting, has all the weeks times contact information and all of that sort of thing. So why am I no people posted in the chat, and I also send the chat, but you'll also find it in in the newsletter. So I tried to make it easy to find all the information. So with that, I'm going to go ahead and jump into the agenda. And that's the wrong date. But that's all right. So, Sandeep, I saw that you are online. Do you want to kick off with a quick update? Sure.
Good morning, everyone. My name is Sandip Bhowmick. State Broadband Director here at Arizona Commerce Authority street Broadband office. Last week was really eventful for us. I would let Aaron provide a better update. We traveled all over the state, especially the northern side of Arizona, and hold multiple roundtables, town halls and meeting with public and government officials. Having from aside from that, we this is our third week of the challenge process. We are receiving challenge from multiple entities. All those challenges are currently live, which is accepted by the state Broadband office on the Broadband Map. The challenge process webinars are still happening next this month. I think it's on 16th. If I'm not wrong for four different groups for nonprofits, ISPs, local government and the tribal government. We will conclude the challenge process after 60 days since the opening. So I would highly encourage everyone who is still planning to submit the challenge. Please submit the challenge when if you need any assistance with the challenge Is there our office hours, you can directly go to our website and book the office hours from there. Other than that, in the background, we just closed an RFQ. currently going through an evaluation, we'll be selecting contractors who will be helping us for the final plan. And also we're running some numbers to decide how to select the project area. So that's the overall update we have on our side, Steve.
Okay, well, so we also have a big announcement from the feds, Sandeep, you want to talk about that?
That is actually I want to keep that for he is basically the architect for that. And because of her effort and her leadership, we just hit the endpoint. So I want to keep that for her.
Okay. Sounds good. Always good to see you, Sandy.
Thank you.
So with that, I guess we're gonna go on to Erin.
Well, with that introduction, we found,
can you introduce yourself, please, of
course, my name is Aaron. I am the Digital Equity program manager at ACA. And I'm so the biggest news for us here in Arizona is that our Digital Equity plan was finally accepted by NTIA. And so we're very excited, that allows us to move into the next phase of the process. And that was the capacity grant NOFO being dropped on Friday. So we are still in the process of looking at that from the state perspective, we have 60 days to apply for that. And so any, you know, stakeholder next steps will be laid out in our application and sub grantees, etc, we'll find out more information as we figure it out into the future. So at this point, it's all on our office to apply for the capacity funding, we ended up with an allocation of just over $16 million, which is maybe a little less than we thought we were going to get just by the back of the envelope math that had been floating around. But we're looking forward to, you know, to working with all of the stakeholders in this group and across the state to implement that Digital Equity plan that we got approved. And I guess I can say a little bit more about last week, I Kelly is also here, our engagement manager. So I'm not sure if she has anything to add to that. But it was it was a lot of fun. It was a great success. We learned a lot about you know, our, our communities, of course, but also you know how to best provide this information to them. So we look forward to spending time in the rest of the state over the rest of the year. Okay, yeah. And
it's okay, Steve will say a few things. My name is Kelly, I'm the new Broadband Community Engagement Manager. I will plug my email into the chat we are taking a look at last week and the engagement events that we had and looking at what worked well and what we can do to improve moving forward. But I'll plug my email in because I am interested in having conversations with other areas. So we did north and northeast last week of Arizona and we are looking in the upcoming months. And really I think before September trying to visit every other county and get really in Arizona. So I do want to plug my email in, because I want to have conversations and see where we can go to really try and reach everyone. So I'll plug that into the chat right now.
Okay. And just FYI, that I do include that include her email, in actually all the content, or the contacts for all of the Broadband office is included in the email that I send out. So it's there every week, but make it easy for you to find. Okay. Alrighty. Moving on. Anybody else from the Broadband office that has anything they want to share this morning? I take that to be a no. Okay. Yes. I
just wanted to know from Aaron and Kelly, if there were any next steps that we need to prepare for.
Oh, sorry, Mala. I just replied to you in the chat too. So at this stage, it's all on us. It's all on the state Broadband office to apply for the capacity funds. As we start to develop that sub grant process and figure out what those next steps are. We will 100% be in contact with everyone. Okay. Good luck.
All righty. Moving on. So be well let me do this first. So Maggie, I think I saw you online. Do you want to say anything about what's happening with the of the working groups that you've been working on and anything else.
Um, thank you. My name is Maggie Farry, I'm the I work for Governor Homs out of the Office of Strategic Initiatives running Broadband and Digital Equity work from her level. So doing a lot of the inner agency work but also working very closely with Steve Broadband office. I think Steve Broadband office did a wonderful job. With all the other updates, always happy to plug the governor has an inner agency and community Broadband Advisory Council and in that advisory council meets quarterly however, we have public working group meetings that are open to anyone and are virtual every single month. Those meetings cover the topics of infrastructure, Digital Inclusion, workforce, and then this month, we are opening a new working group on Broadband and Digital Equity in tribal communities. The Save the date will go out I have a list of people who are interested. And if you are interested, I can pop my email in the chat, please feel free to reach out. And those will be the week of April 22 this month. So look out for those who are already on the listserv look out for a save the date later this afternoon.
Thank you, Maggie. And just a reminder that when I get those dates that I post them in my email, so that you can find the dates and the links and all that kind of good stuff and encourage you to enjoy, join the meetings and provide your input. Okay, so a couple of other things. What's the status now? Of course, we're now past April one with the RFQ. Sandeep I don't know if you're still online or Aaron. Anybody wants to talk about what's the status with the RFQ.
So Steve, it's it's closed. We're currently evaluating the applications.
Okay. Thank you. And then, before we go on, I just want to make an announcement and you will all be getting another email from me today, immediately after this meeting. But I get included also in my newsletter that went out yesterday, that as you many of you know, that each year that National Digital Inclusion Alliance hosts an awesome national met Inclusion Conference. And thanks to the great work of McHale, Sutton dust, who's the executive director with digital Connect, which is a healer river telecommunications project. The 2025 conference will be in Arizona. Very exciting, very good for Arizona. So we appreciate that work. And so in preparation for that. They want to hear from folks here in Arizona, Angela Seaver and Caitlin Kettleman mature if I pronounced that correctly. With the National Digital Inclusion Alliance. We'll be here for that planning meeting, which will be at the Civic grill on North Loop Road in Phoenix. And you're all encouraged to to attend. I don't believe in fights. I haven't seen anywhere that there's actually registration that pre registration required. Anybody know anything more about that? I want to say yeah, okay. Well, you're on. I'm sorry, I didn't know your outline. What so you'd be should be making this announcement. Oh, well,
no, you did perfectly. That. Thank you. I appreciate it. Yeah, no registration. Just it's it's just an open invitation. So go ahead and show up if you can make it.
Okay. Thanks, Mikhail. It's very exciting. Good work on your part. You always do great work. But this is very exciting for for you and for Arizona. So we really appreciate the work you do. Okay. Moving on, Nicole, you online? I haven't had a chance to check from here. Okay. Cool. So, Nicole, have you want to add anything more about the NOFO? Sure.
Just a little bit. So, as Eric indicated, this is the state Digital Equity capacity grant program that is available to the states and territories while the territories are still in the process of submitting their final Digital Equity plans. But for
excuse me, Nicole, can you introduce yourself, please?
Sure. I'm Nicole Umayam. I'm the federal program officer with the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, NTIA and I work here in Arizona as the grants administrator for the BEAD and Digital Equity Act for grams and supporting are other Broadband development programs in the state as well. I see, Mark is posting some additional updates from from NTIA. So I'll leave those to you. But as you know, as we mentioned the NOFO for the state Digital Equity capacity Grant was released last week. This is the list the allocation of funding for states based on the statutory formula for this round of funding to implement all of the goals and activities that were listed in each of these plan. Arizona's allocation is $16,170,760.44. So they will be expected to spend down to that penny. There's not a ton that can be said right now, as those the application window closes on May 28. But we do expect to make rolling awards, as applications are received. And I know a lot of this group is interested in the competitive grant program because this money is going for states to implement portions of their plan to issue sub grants or to make some sort of combination of both of those approaches. And that has to be done consistently with their approved Digital Equity plan. Right now, Arizona's Digital Equity plan that's on their website is actually the the older draft that was released for public comments. And I believe shortly they will be posting their final approved version, which meets all of the requirements for the plan. And Aaron put a lot of hard work into tweaking and incorporating all of the public comments that were received as well. So the key steps for this group is to really familiarize yourself with Arizona's final Digital Equity plan. Once that is approved. The eight, essentially 800 million was available for this round of the capacity grant funding for states. And there's an additional set aside for for US territories, and a 5% statutory set aside for tribal nations. They have their own application window that will open on September 25. And it will close on February 7, the 1.2 5 billion competitive grants, that's the one where all sorts of entities in addition to states are able to apply. So that's, you know, subdivisions of states, native entities, nonprofits, anchor institutions, le A's, which is our local education agency, you know, all sorts of those types of entities are eligible to apply for the competitive grant program. And that will not be launched until after NTIA makes the first capacity grant awards. So by statute, these things sort of have to be sequenced in a particular way. I NTIA did host a informative webinar for applicants, which is to say that state on Tuesday, I'll share that link. And let's see. Let's see. Let's see a lot of things coming in. Yeah. So it looks like Elena joined on Tuesday. And it's explaining a little bit about kind of, kind of small for me to see what's going on here. So there's a lot more guidance that will be coming out, but on the subgrantee selection process for for the state, but that's really more relevant to Erin and her team. And once once they turn in the application, then they can answer a lot more details. But you know, right now, it is an open funding window. So we are a little limited in how much we can how much we can refer to thank you so much, Elena for putting that in there. Here's the recording link as well. I mean, I do the same thing. When I watch webinars i i try to take screenshots for my own notes.
Steve Mark Goldstein, I'll comment on the two NTIA related things I posted that Nicole acknowledge two good steps on the environmental side for BEAD and all other funded grants under the internet for all program. The NTIA just adopted I think it was 40 some odd refinements and relaxations in streamlining environmental impact permitting review for internet for all projects. There's a link to the press release, it talks about bat. And then a little earlier about a week, week and a half ago, they launched a mapping tool for permitting and environmental information does have some right of way information that's quite useful and other wetland and other kind of environmental searchable maps in a new, more digestible and usable format than the former US government tools. So two environmental steps there.
Thank you, Mark. Any questions for Nicole? We move on. So, Sandeep, if you're still there, did you want to introduce your new staff person?
MVP still there? Well, if not, Aaron, do you want to make an introduction? Please?
I think Kelly has been here already, right? Or is Oh, is Jamie here to see everybody? Oh. Well, I'm not sure if I'm the best person to do this. It's usually Sandy. But um, Jamie Garrett is with us. Now, in the Broadband office. I'll let her do a full introduction. But she is our senior Broadband Program Manager. And she's also a rock star. And so we're thrilled to have her on our team. And Jamie, if you want to say hi and give a give a little bit more information about yourself feel free.
Sure. Hi, my name is Jamie Garrett. I am the senior Broadband Program Manager for BEAD. I come from the telecommunications RF engineering industry with over 10 years experience there in project management through Arizona and other states in the southwest. So very happy to meet everybody. Look forward to working with you.
Welcome, Jamie. And can you put your email in the chat, please? Sure. So I want to remind you folks about two things. One is I mentioned that most of the information is provided in my newsletter. But excuse me, excuse me. So Jamie's contact information will be in there. So also, when I send out the newsletter, you may know that I also provide a link, I download the chat, because you can't copy it, save it. So I do save the chat, copy it, put it into a document and make that available also for download. So if you've missed any of this information, any links or anything like that, again, I tried to include that in my follow up newsletter, but you can also find it in the chat. Okay. So with that, Elena, I don't know if we have anything more to talk about with with ACP?
No, unfortunately, I did put a couple of links to right at the beginning of the meeting, I can put them in again for anybody who joined late. But both the President and the Vice President now are like Hail Mary, last ditch attempts, I guess, to have Congress extend the ACP funds. So there's some Twitter links. I know a lot of you may not be on Twitter, but you can certainly post those in other places. But it would be great to amplify those. So right now, it's just a wait and see. There are a couple other vehicles being floated around out there. Where the ACP funds could, you know, possibly ride but yeah, really nothing else for now.
Thank you. And while we're speaking of Congress, Judy, I don't know if you have to leave soon. So if you want to say a few things that Judy is with Senator Mark Kelly's office.
Hi, good morning. And yeah, so the latest update from our office is they they have about four avenues that they're working on. I know the senator did write a bill which is in committee right now. But they don't see that that they they really feel like it's unlikely to move forward alone. So what what they're doing is they're taking pieces of that bill, and one of them, of course, is requiring this social media companies and other companies that, you know, will profit from Broadband deployment programs that they have to contribute to a fund. And so there there are two things. There's a consensus product that they're working on right Now, along with the commerce, department and also FCC, so they, they said, you know, they're hesitant right now to talk about the particulars of anything, because they're just, they don't want to provide false hope. But they just want, you know, the group to know that they're doing everything they can and trying to make contributions there to see how we can extend the fund. So that's it from our office. Okay,
thank you. God, I'm always glad to see you when you can, when you can be here. You bet. We appreciate that. Okay, so moving on. We're going to jump into our presentation this morning. And want to introduce Louie, Louie, John, is that Mike? Is that correct?
Yeah, that's correct. Thank you, Steve,
you got with the copy dot, he's the Government Relations Manager. And he and I had a really great conversation. And they're doing some really exciting stuff. And he may have some other information to share. So with that, Louis, I know you sent me your presentation, but you just want to share it yourself.
Yeah, Steve. And in full disclosure, I do have to hop off in a minute or two. So I'm just going to say a couple of things with regard to so rather than walk through the presentation, I'll just kind of give a couple of updates. And I guess first and foremost, just introduce myself and talk a little bit about what I do with copy adopt and, and what we're currently doing in terms of advocacy and research, and so forth. So just by way of introduction, Louis Luhan. That's my name. I'm the Government Relations Manager with copy dot, I do the government relations on a national scale, although I am based here in Phoenix. So in that regard, it's, you know, somewhat lucky and fortunate for me to be able to join this group, and participate. And I guess, the one thing that I can just start off with right away is that in right at the end of 2023, beginning of 2024, copied up really beefed up if you will, it's government relations efforts. And what that means is that we hired a few individuals, including myself on the team, to focus on government relations on a national scale. With regard to what we're trying to do, I mean, you know, things like extending ACP, just addressing these issues in our industry. And as a result, my primary responsibility is government relations, and essentially three buckets. One is research. The other is the advocacy component. And, of course, the General Government Relations, and just quickly on each one, because I think, especially with regard to the research, and maybe even the advocacy, there's some value added here. First of all, with the research, we, you know, I'd like to offer ourselves as a resource, because we have tons of research that we do, not only on the industry, but just on different issues of the day, or trends that are occurring. Or, for example, if somebody needed to know, a particular dollar amount allocation in a particular state for a particular program, I mean, whatever it may be, you name it, we do a lot of research. And I find that when I'm doing outreach to whether it's a governor's office in a state or with a legislator or whatever, the issue of research always comes up because I come from a different industry and government relations. And one of the things that's kind of a common denominator, though, across every industry is that there's a lot of information that's just out there. But the difficulty is in getting it all in one place at one time. And that's what we try to do on the copied upside, at least in our government relations team is take all this information that's out there, put it together in a in a bite sized chunk, and then distribute it. So simply put, if there's any data that you may need, or thought of, or think you might need, let me know, because I'm pretty sure we have it. So that's number one. The other one is the advocacy. And you and I talked about this a bit. We're working on a lot of little things. But the biggest thing in terms of advocacy is our, our effort with ACP. And just to give you a brief update on that we started well, we didn't really start it. We joined in on a coalition maybe a month ago or so. With regards.
Go ahead. Mary. Lisa, could you please mute.
We started off on a on a on a with a group that included ourselves and a couple of private sector companies in an effort to lobby representative Granger in Texas. For various reasons, one, you know, her being part of the Appropriations Committee, in an effort to try to get ACP renewed but the way that we see it currently in including our private sector partners in this task force is that ACP is pretty much gone. I mean, it is gone essentially, is our conclusion. So what we're doing is rather than trying to as an industry advocate for renewal, we're just looking towards the future. And what that means we're not quite sure yet, because the the group that we're with, is still brainstorming ideas. And while I'm not presently at like liberty to disclose the group's at the private sector groups, I'm sure I will be. So if anyone is interested either in joining or knowing more about that, and our advocacy efforts on a national level, you know, which congressional leaders we're meeting with, and so forth, just let me know. And then I can share some updates as we go along. I do know we have a next meeting scheduled, I want to say in the week or so. So I can provide more information on that. But simply put with the advocacy efforts, that's one of the that is by far the biggest issue that we're currently working on. And just two quick things on the advocacy bucket too. We also do a lot of state related work. So we are constantly and when I say we, it's pretty much just me, meeting with legislators, staff members, governor's office across the across the country, in an effort to educate and advocate. And then finally, just the general government relations component, of course, is becoming members and participants of groups like this. So if there are, like, for example, I heard Maggie mentioned the task force, things like that we'd love to be part of, and those are, you know, we do that across the country. But again, I'm lucky to be here in Arizona in Phoenix. So I have a lot more. I guess availability, just because of the timezone is the same to join things like this. So with that said, I do have to hop in a minute, like I said, Steve, but at least I wanted to share a little bit about myself what we're doing and offer that as an opportunity for people just to connect. And I do have that presentation, by the way, I think I did email it to you.
So you feel good. Yeah,
please do. And of course, if there are questions, I'd be more than happy to stick around for a bit.
So we can you maybe back up a little bit and just tell people more about, you know, what copy drop is, and, you know, the kind of the programs that you're doing, because you guys are doing some pretty cool stuff.
Yeah, we are we? So I'm not sure I know. Some of you are familiar with copy Doc, I'm not sure who is not, I can kind of give you just a brief, you know, I guess 25,000 foot view of what we do. So we were founded in 2007. And we're a nonprofit. And we, you know, look at ourselves as a nonprofit, excuse me, that offer solutions to the digital divide. I mean, that's the easiest way to describe it. We are we have a presence here in Arizona and Mesa. But we also have a prep, we're based in Texas. But we also our solutions rather include device distributions, digital literacy training, we offer classrooms or class sessions. You know, we just we do a lot to close that digital divide. And I guess the other thing I can just kind of briefly mention is that we are in expansion mode. So as we our strategy essentially, is, as we enter a state, for example, to do device distributions, it's not just that it comes with a government relations component. And all the services that we provide around whether it's device distribution, or digital literacy, are offered free to at no cost to the to the state or the local government. And we were able to do that because we have a very strong foundation of fundraising. So that's just again, that's a very, very brief overview of what we do and who we are.
So really, I'm sorry that we got got you on so late. That's okay. You know what, I apologize about that. But I think people will be interested in partnering with you. And also, we'll bring you back when you're ready to talk more about the the epic cgroups that you're working on, and you know, what you can share, particularly to bring you back and share more information about that. Yeah, that
would be my pleasure. And feel free to distribute that the PDF I sent you as well. And I apologize for having to jump but again, I will make myself available for any follow up questions or requests. Okay,
any quickie questions for Louis. So they bring a lot of resources and a lot of experience and certainly some opportunities for a relationships and partnerships. And again, all his information will be included. Okay,
thank you.
Appreciate that.
You bet. Thank you. Okay, moving on John Kelly, Are you online? Don't think so. So let's, let's jump up to the State Library. And, Holly, are you here? Didn't think so? Didn't Yeah,
I don't think so. And neither is Megan. They're all at PLA. I think Public Library Association meeting happening right now. So, Anthony, I don't know if you have any updates?
Yeah, he's here he is here. So Anthony, you want to share?
Hi, good to be your Digital Inclusion consultant. No major updates. I'll be at the NTTA. summit next week. So if anyone is going to be there, come say hi. But other than that, no, no major update, Steve. Okay.
Thank you, Anthony. And Ma. So you're up?
Yeah, I don't have any major updates. It's been a quiet week after the hectic rush to get the right applications through. So last week was the deadline, march 27. So this week has been pretty quiet after. And of course, I share the disappointment. You know, it's kind of sinking in more and more than ACP is, is dying. You know, and the fact that there were so many households, and we put so much effort into trying to push it through, must be disappointing for everyone, including me, of course. And it is hard to let those people know they have to pay for the internet on their own if they wanted to. So we're going to see a drop, of course, in the number of households that would technically renew after me, once they learned that they have to pay for it themselves. But at least we've provided them a taste of what could be if they needed to use the internet. And hopefully, that adoption at least has been as been successful. So I'm trying to see something good, you know, the Pollyanna and me trying to see that something good came out of it. It has been a bandaid. And I hope, you know, we you know, something else will come up to fill the gap.
Thanks. Thank you, mom. Anything, anything else?
Nothing else?
Yeah. Do you worry about the the RE award to civic cue that you and Miley put together? Oh, wow.
Yes. Thank you for reminding me. Yes, we did do a fiber build out project with cibecue library. And this was, you remember a long time ago USAC actually announced that they would do a match if we had a state match for the non discounted share. So you know, libraries or schools that were at 90% discount if the state put in 5% USAC would put in another 5% So the fiber built out to them would be at no cost to to them. I
love it. It's not a fiber build out it's a wireless link build out. Yes.
Yes. It so yeah, I was getting to that saying that this is another No no, no problem good good that you brought it up. So this this was supposed to be just for fiber build out but then now it is technology neutral. So they can you know use other technologies and they using wireless to wireless network mesh network to connect up do a really good you'll be able to talk more about the technology aspect of it.
Probably I designed it so
I know you did. So this is in good hands now.
So that the so we're going to build instead of fiber, which was going to be I you know, my guess is I'm estimating this is probably around 10 million or more and take at least two years to do we actually built it We're building a tech we will build a 10 gig link to Subic Q wirelessly out with the link coming out of show low. So so it's already it's already in progress.
Okay, any questions from Gary?
How is Syracuse spelt? I've never heard that.
CIB e cu e.
Civ is
so we designed it's a long range 30 mile see 2025 plus mile shot. But we engineered a new 10 gig, a new way to do that with all licensed spectrum and get up to 10 gigabits per second.
Okay, anything else for Rory? Righty, moving on. And Michael, come you still here? I am. I want to just introduce yourself quickly and it was a quick update.
Sure. Michael Holcomb, the interim director for the Arizona Telemedicine Program at the University of Arizona College of Medicine. Like a few others this morning, not really two major updates given the frequency of these meetings, but wanted to mention a telehealth technology survey that the National telehealth Technology Assessment Resource Center is seeking responses to basically looking to sort of get a feel for trends and what organizations are actually using practices are actually using in terms of telehealth technology. And then our Arizona has a council meeting upcoming April 17. I'll put the link in the chat for that. The agenda is posted online now. So it's a public meeting. Everyone's welcome to attend. And I think that'll be it for me today. Thank you. Okay,
thank you, Mike. Any questions for Mike? So Rory, excuse me. I see. And you sent me a direct message. But they're announcing a replacement for ACP? Do you want to talk about that?
Yeah. So we're we've created a program called TAC, triads. Affordability, connection. And, you know, we don't typically sit around and wait for things a lot. So as soon as they see Pete, we realize ACP wasn't coming back, we have about 100 people on our system that are on ACP. So we're going to we're, what we're doing right now is setting up our website to use the st to pre qualify people that would be normally using ACPs criteria. If they're eligible, then we'll follow the same guidelines and try it, we'll we'll get them connected with the same discounts that ACP would normally provide, all of our customers will automatically be migrated into that. And that gives ACP a chance to get pre funded again, and gives them a you know, it gives them some some leeway. This is in addition to our education everywhere program that we already have in place, which is $10. Internet for any child that can't get internet or his family can't afford internet. So but we'll open it up on our website here shortly. Probably, I think they're telling me either about Wednesday or Thursday, next week, it should be up. So everybody that we have will be eligible for ACP. I'm sorry, you will be eligible on our system for that discount. So just anyway, but it any any, anybody that's in our zone can be brought into the program? And I'd say we'll have it on our website here shortly.
Okay, any questions for? Yeah.
Okay, go ahead, Henry.
Yeah,
I was just gonna ask her. So on that program, those people that are eligible for ACP, they would get a $30 discount. So what would they typically what type of service would they get? Much when they have to pay
after they can get any of our services and they get that discount? Our lowest cost service is probably going to cost them $30.
You mean beyond the 30 that set beyond the 30 subsidy?
The normal package would be 100. Meg, that and it depends on the area, Henry because we have a micro billing model. We don't have the same price across our entire network, but they would be they If they're on their program, it's always 100 Meg. So to be ACP eligible, that's where you we were partnered with sun corridor on the on a project. And we were told yesterday, they're not going to move forward with their initiative in this area. So we're taking the lead on it at this point. And so anybody that's anybody on our system can are eligible for those programs. They'll just have to sign up on our website as soon as we have an operation. Okay,
but are you saying Laurie, they get that lowest cost program, they get 100 meg download and they would pay $30 A month after this subsidy that you're giving them? Yes. Okay.
Okey doke. Anything else?
Yeah, I had a question for Rory. Rory, would they have to reapply to you or if they were ACP eligible? For they just showed that they were ACP eligible? And then you would provide them that service?
Actually, you know what? That's a great question. I hadn't considered that I would say as long as they're eligible will take him without reapplying to us. Yes. Because they get there's some kind of number that's assigned to that person from AC, right. Yes. Yeah. Well, um, yeah, absolutely. We'll be happy to that back. I think Katrina is on the call. And she shouldn't be taking notes on this. So I'll make sure that gets added. Thanks, Mala. I didn't, I forgot about that situation.
Thank you. Really appreciate what you're doing, Rory? Well,
you know, it's sometime you can't wait for government, unfortunately.
So Rory, I think you're a good model for what I ISPs can do to address a lot of the needs, both in providing the connectivity and what you're trying to do with a said with the TCP replacement, and so forth. So really appreciate that.
Thank you. Okay.
All righty. So Elena, you want to say something about the about Aiden?
So our next meeting? Well, the Arizona Digital Inclusion network, for those of you that are new to this call, is an organization. It's a coalition of organizations really, and individuals from across the state. And so the goal beyond networking is, you know, obviously, to advance Digital Equity across Arizona. We meet every other Thursday, the next meeting is April 11, from 12 to one. And then at that meeting, we're going to do some member spotlights allowing, you know, new members to tell us about their organization, their work, current projects, what kind of support they need. And then we are also going to be kicking off planning for Digital Inclusion week, believe it or not 2024, which will be in October, October 7 through 11th of this year. So if you'd like to attend the meetings, I can put the I'll put the link in the chat, or the email address in the chat. And then Cindy Hogan will send you a meeting link. So that's the updates do you thanks,
Elena, do you have any, any questions for Elena? Well, I think that takes care of all of our business for today. But are there any announcements? I know there's a lot of stuffs been going on in the chat. Any other comments, announcements, questions that people might have? once going twice, then I believe that we are done for today. I'm going to stop the video and if anybody wants to hang online and chat for a while. We'll be here. Thank you, everybody. Good to see you. And we'll hopefully see you next week.
Okay. Yeah, yes. Okay.
Yeah, go ahead. Crazy.
I was just saying thank you and have a great day. Thanks. Bye. Thanks, everyone.
All right. Can you hear me? Oh, sorry. Is that Judy? No, it's
Tamara. Tamara.
Hi. I have a quick question. And you may have covered this at the beginning of the meeting that I arrived late. The meet the thing that's happening next month, the roundtables are in And so can you can you give me a little bit of background on that? Like how, how it's going to work because we do intend to participate. And so I was just wondering if you could give a little more color on that. You're
talking about the Digital Inclusion, that that to planning for the conference next year? Is that what you're talking about?
I see no. Yeah, go ahead.
I'm just gonna say I think you're talking about those state state engagement tour. Is that what you're talking about? Tamara, that the state Broadband?
I'm not sure if it's the thing that's happening in Tempe in May. Yeah, that help at all?
This is This is Aaron, do you mean next year's not inclusion?
No, no, I mean, the thing happening in May, I was in one of the links in one of the, in your newsletters. There was a link to it and there was a registration. You are looking for sponsorship? I'm not sure if that next year, that next year, what am I really getting correctly?
I'm not sure what's gonna work and I'll email you about it. Okay. Yeah. Sounds good. Okay, thanks.
Okay. Anybody have anything else that they want to chat about?
You're still sharing the screen? I can't see faces. I'm on the mobile sticks. I'm sorry. I don't know if we're Kib. If we're if it's kibbutz time, or it was Paul, Where's Paul Ross. And I've been I've been I've been as absent as he has been. We just finished our data center summit yesterday. So in the workforce Summit, so conference, choose me that bike dice biz now. Southwest thing. Work was there as mark on the screenshot, I can't see who's on.
There are 12 people on
on the mobile anyway, because I don't have I have a screen on.
Yep. Kirk. I'm on and a dozen including you and I
Oh, wow. Now I can see it. Though, Mr. Roberts.
Yeah. Haven't seen him in a while. Peter, good to see you. You got anything. You got so many things going on. You want to share just a little bit?
Yeah. Good to see Steve. We are. So we're just finished where you've where we've gotten in the
upskill. We're building Introduce yourself quickly. Oh,
yeah. Yeah. So I'm Peter Kosta. I'm the CEO and co founder of baltit technologies. We're mission driven company. And our mission is to create alternative pathways to high skilled jobs. And I guess some of the progress that we've made is that so we're building out a it's a an online, online curriculum that is aligning with the Fiber Optic Association certifications. And so we are, we're in the process of just finishing up kind of our first first level course. And our plan is that we're going to be offering this course for free
