November 21, 2024 AZBSN Digital Access Task Force Recording
5:01PM Nov 22, 2024
Speakers:
Steve Peters
Mark Goldstein
Erin Lorandos
Mala Muralidharan
Henry Goldberg
Vaughn Croft
Ilana Lowery
Tamara Rosenberg
Anthony Constantini
Amina Fazlullah
Kristi King
Mallory DeVol
Gordon Fuller
Ed Hackett
Keywords:
Thanksgiving break
digital navigation
newsletter updates
pre-registration window
office hours
telehealth project
911 calls
MD Ally
insurance billing
TC3 program
school cell phone bans
USF program
contribution reform
spectrum auctions
digital equity
Okay, good morning, everybody. Excuse me. Glad to see you all this morning. This, of course, will be our last meeting until after Thanksgiving. So if I don't get to tell you that everybody have a happy and safe holiday, and we'll see you on December the fifth. So what's on the agenda for today? Have a really interesting presentation. We'll hear from Ed Hacket with the Tucson Fire Department in just a couple of minutes. But let's go ahead. First of all, thanking our sponsors, Maui telecom group, care first health plan, Kajeet triad wireless and Karen Ziegler consulting services. We appreciate that. Who do we have that's new today? Ed, we'll introduce you later. Do we have anybody else who's new to us today? Theresa, I know you're new to us today. Yes, good morning.
I'm Teresa wine. I'm with wecom fiber. I've just taken a new role as their digital navigator, Field Marketing Specialist. So excited to be here.
So she's interested in meeting without meeting all you folks who are engaged with digital navigation. So we'll, of course, we send out the cut the attendance list, and so we will do that after the meeting. I want to just remind everybody about two things. First of all, as you know, I send out my newsletter with links, with follow up to the meeting, where we have the the video, the registration, the chat and and summary and everything is available. So if you either miss this meeting, or you miss some things and want to catch up on what's what, what happened at the meeting, that it's a good place to do that. It's it's sometimes. And then related to that is that you can, I do, send out the chat with the with the newsletter, but if you want to do the chat more quickly, you can download the chat to your computer. You can go up to go, go to chat, go up to the top, up right, upper right hand corner, you'll see three ellipses. Click on that, and it'll say, Save to this computer. And you can save the chat, because people put contact information and and share things in the chat. And so it's a good way to capture everything we have anybody else who's new to us today, going once, going twice. Okay, so let's just jump into it. Erin. Want to introduce Erin Lorandos, who most of you know, who is the ACA digital equity program manager with the state broadband office, and so Erin, I'm going to turn it over to you.
Hi. Thanks everybody. Good morning. As Steve mentioned. My name is Erin Lorandos, and I am with ACA. I don't have a ton of new information right now. We are on the bead side of things, we have opened that pre registration window for eligible applicants to get all of their pre registration information submitted before the first round of actual applications opens, which, of course, is scheduled for December 20. At this point, the pre registration will stay open through the rounds of of actual application, but it is the most, we'll say, labor intensive part of the application process. So we do encourage folks to pre register ahead of of when the actual applications open. Um, let's see here. I will drop a page link for you here. Everything on the bead side of things can be found on that page. There will be updated resources on the website, including the pre registration, Webinar recordings, slide decks, some FAQs and things like that coming in the next week or so, we're catching up on the things that happened last week and getting all of that information available online. There are still office hours being offered, and registration can be found for that on the website as well. Best way to reach out to the office, of course, is through our inbox that we all see, which is broadband, easy commerce.com, and I'll put my contact information momentarily for the digital equity side of things as well. Let's see here. I think that's it for bead on the de side. Not a ton to update.
We're. Hold on a second. I'm trying
to find Mala and Stacy of four people.
It's Vaughn, yeah, I
was looking for him. I thought that was Vaughn. Oh, there he is. Okay. Go ahead. Sorry about that. No
worries. That's okay. No worries at all. Um, just mentioning not too much on the digital equity side, we're still working through the approval process for our capacity grant. So that's, you know, still with the federal government. Once we know more on timelines there, we'll be happy to share, as I mentioned before, you know, the whole broadband inbox right now gets a little full with bead related things. So if you'd like to talk about digital equity things, it's probably easiest to reach out directly to me, just so that we make sure that we get things done in a timely manner. I think that's about it. Unless there are any questions, let me give you our contact here, the general one and mine. See anything else I can answer while I'm typing
any questions for Erin? Thank you, Erin. Appreciate the update. Don't believe Nicole was here this morning. So moving on. And I don't think Amina is here yet. Are you Amina? Well,
I just, I just pinged her. Steve, okay,
okay, well, hopefully she'll be able to join us in a minute. But just wanted to tell you that starting today, we are going to have a regular update, which we kind of have done anyway, but kind of a wash Washington watch on broadband policy, on what to expect from Congress in the next administration. And again, I just want to remind you that we are a nonpartisan organization, but lots of stuff is happening, as you all know, in Washington regarding broadband, digital inclusion and everything. And so we're going to try to give you an update on a regular basis, and that's going to be interesting, since it changes from day to day and hour to hour about what's happening there. So we're going to and then in after the first of the year, when we have a better feel of what's actually happening, that we will do a more extended discussion about what's happening in Washington and what the implications are for broadband. So I just wanted to mention that and Erin, I believe the broadband office is still looking for a tribal liaison manager,
so that position is with ACA generally, not just with our office. I don't have any updates. I think the posting is down, but I'm not sure if they found somebody or if they're just working through the process at this point. But you know that being said, oh, you know, it's not a filled position yet. So okay,
alrighty. So moving on, and when, when Amina joins us, we'll get back to that, to that update. So future presentations, I am going to work on getting the workforce development session done, hopefully right after Thanksgiving, and kind of give an overview of what's happening with workforce development here in Arizona, and hopefully to give you a picture of what to the best that we can, because it is a huge monster about What the workforce infrastructure looks like here in Arizona, so working on getting that put together. So with that, I want to just jump into our
Steve on that the governor has just formed. I don't know the proper name of it, but I just heard of it last week, a big workforce development, multi agency working group or task force. So you might want to find someone that can talk about that. Yeah,
I I am aware of that Mark I've actually included in the newsletter, and I'm hoping to get Carlos Contreras, who is the Executive Director. I'm not sure exactly what his title with OEO, and he's very engaged with that, so I'm sure be looking for him to kind of give us an update of what OEO is into. We actually had a good conversation with one of his people, and was kind of. Surprised to find out how much they're doing actually with digital equity related training, so I'm hoping to get him on the panel. In the meantime, I do want to find out who's leading that task force markets.
Is that Mark isn't that's called the talent ready Arizona initiative. Is that what you mean?
If that is what was just launched, that sounds about right? Sorry,
that's it, yep.
Thank you. Henry,
okay. Mala, Are you online? Mala, where are you? She's not here today.
I am there. There
you are you?
I can't talk today, so I'm gonna I'm gonna pass. Okay, I've got a horrible throat.
I was gonna say, are you sick? Yes, I
am
sorry to hear that. Well, I hope you feel better.
I do hope so.
So let's just jump into our presentation for this morning, and want to introduce Ed Hacket, who's the Deputy Chief for tech services with the Tucson Fire Department. Is that correct? Ed, that's correct. So I discovered there this new project that they have on used on Tucson dispatch, providing telehealth for 911 calls, and it's kind of one of the leaders in that project. And so I thought it was really cool, and might be something that other folks and other communities who are on this call might have an interest in. As those of you have been around who've been with us for a while know that telehealth is out. Is very much of interest to this, to this group. So with that, Ed, I'm going to turn it over to you. Did you want to share something? Ed,
no, I don't have any. I hesitate to call it a presentation, more, maybe more maybe more of a verbal introduction, and just kind of over brief overview of what we're doing here and kind of the purpose behind it and what we hope to get out of it, and maybe some of the things that we've done to help get it off the ground. So just to get things started. My name is Ed Hackett. I'm a deputy chief of technology services for the Tucson Fire Department, and we, I work closely with the Public Safety dispatch center here in Tucson, which is a dispatch center that dispatches for a number of agencies in in southern Arizona, and as every you know, every business, pretty much is, while we're a public service, just like any other business we would, we're short on resources. And there, there are a couple factors that we look at when we're, you know, we're always looking for things, ways to stretch our resources out or and to provide better service, because that's what it comes down to. If we don't have the trucks available to run those 911, calls, then we're not providing the service that the public is asking and asking for and needs. So one of the directions we went, as we, you know, in researching the 911 calls that we have, we found a number of them. You know, they didn't end up in a transport to the hospital for looking at the medical side. So our when you call 911 as I'm sure many of you know, there's you're guided through a series of questions, and those questions are designed to make sure that whatever your problem is, you get the right resources at the right time that are going to get you the help you need. So we're finding a lot of folks who didn't have anywhere else to go would call 911, because we're kind of, we kind of end up being the clearing house for problems that you know, nobody seems to have a an answer for immediately. So 311, and that connection of disparate resources throughout the city is one avenue that has been employed to kind of take the load off some of the more, let's say service oriented calls that come into the 911, center, but for medical calls that don't quite meet the level of an emergency that requires a four people on A fire engine, or two people on a paramedic truck to show up at the door, and, you know, prepared for the big emergency with the transport to the hospital, there's a lot of calls that come in that just don't meet. Need that kind of service. And in addition to not needing that service, while those trucks. Are visiting that person, then they're not able to respond to the people who does need it, who do need it, rather so. Long story short, we ended up working with a company called MD ally, who is also being used in Phoenix, and depending on the question, the way the medical questions are answered when the person calls 911, if they don't meet the acuity that is required to initiate a EMS response directly, then they're transferred to a medical center where they actually talk to either a doctor or a doctor's agent, like a PA or someone who will then handle those requests, and as they're in during that conversation with those resources, those other medical resources, if they determine that you know this person probably would be better served by a transport to the hospital, then it gets sent back to 911, but what we're finding out is about 50% of the calls that are coming in that are that meet the criteria to be transferred to the telehealth about 50% of them end up getting being served through the telehealth service, whether it's prescriptions or, you know, a ride to a medical appointment. There are a number of resources that they can employ to meet the needs of those callers without sending out a fire truck and an ambulance, the ones that the medical staff at the telehealth company decide, do you need that transport? They get sent back to the 911, side and then dispatched as a normal call. So what it's ended up doing for us is about, it's it's kind of interest. Been interesting to watch. We started it with just a regular eight hour a day trial, and then recently, in the beginning of October, we went to 24/7 operation, and we did a little press, some press release, some public education on it to let folks know that it was there, and we've seen it grow from the beginning to where now we're getting about 200 calls a day as of this past month that are being transferred to the telehealth so that means, you know, 100 100 calls a day are being taken off of the fire trucks. You know, assuming that about half of them end up going back to the fire and EMS services, we're getting pretty close to 100 dispatches a day, and that's just within the city of Tucson that doesn't include any of the surrounding area. So we've just recently had some interest with spins from Sierra Vista. They're interested in the program, and like I said, Phoenix is is using it, but they have a little bit different model than us, so I believe we're working with them to kind of share information and see how we can help each other refine our process, because it is very much a learning process. So that's kind of the brief overview of it. So if anyone has any specific questions, I'll be happy to see what I can do. Okay,
any questions for Ed?
Yeah. Ed, I was just going to ask, when you talk about telehealth, are you including both phone calls as well as zoom calls? Or how does that set up for the clients when they have a telehealth
so on the on the 911 side, it's just a a phone call. You know, just when anyone calls 911 Yeah, the telehealth company, MD ally, they have the ability to set up a a video, video chat. So they, you know, they can do that as well. So they can, they can work it over the phone or video.
Okay, I see
it'll start out as a phone call, but they, you know, they can adapt from there.
Okay, so you don't have any data yet on how many or video type of telehealth versus just a phone call?
I don't know that off the top of my head, but that's a good question. I could find out. Yeah,
okay, that's interesting.
Let me make a note here.
Gordon Fuller, here, I was getting ready for me. Working with Janet Lesher, and I started poking around on Tucson Fire Department, and I saw that they had 98,000 calls in 2022 and it turned out, according to the records I saw in the county, only 14% of those had anything to do with the fire department. So when I saw this, I realized what a wonderful innovation it is, and I can think that it would probably help a lot if we had accurate spatial computing instead of just GPS to help point people in the right directions when they were arriving at an emergency situation or coordinating in emergency conditions. I
yeah, I'm not sure about the 14% I know last year we ran 104,000 calls, about 80, 85% of those are EMS. And you know, whether maybe the 14% is of the EMS that got transported to the hospital by Tucson fire, you know, I'm not sure what those numbers are off the top of my head, but we, we go to a lot of calls. I do know that. So any, any that we can kind of from our perspective, but from the perspective of the fire department, anything we can do to get those calls to the right resources and save our trucks for the calls where they're really needed, excuse me, is, you know, good business for everyone.
I could just think of the equipment and personnel. You know, all being applied so needlessly. That's just quite a, quite an extraordinary thing. Good, well, and
I wouldn't, I wouldn't say needless. You know, many of these folks have very definite needs. It's just the 911, system tradition, as it's traditionally arranged, isn't the best resource to answer those needs. So when we can put them in touch with a a doctor or medical professional that can directly address that need, whether it's transport to a doctor's appointment or, you know, a an update of a prescription delivery of medications through a number of public outreach services. You know, there, there are a lot of things that the fire department just can't do. You know, we're not set up for it, and we're not, in some cases, we're not allowed to do it, and getting those folks to the right resource actually gets them the care they need faster.
Hey, Steve, yeah, Ed. This is Vaughn Croft at Job Corps here in Tucson,
the TC three. That's that's a pretty vital component of what you're talking about. Is it not? It is so for those who aren't aware, within the fire department, the fire department has a a cooperative agreement with Tucson Medical Center, and we provide a lot of outreach. It was kind of initiated from a lot of the same sort of thought in that there we would get people who would call 911, multiple times, they would have needs that the fire department couldn't address, but they were using the fire department as the intermediary with community services because they they didn't know how to get a hold of them. So we've been a we worked with TMC to establish a group that we call TC three that is kind of an outreach and we call their actual title is navigators, and it helps folks who have specific healthcare needs or issues that, again, aren't best answered by four guys on a fire truck or two people in an ambulance. It it helps them find their way to those resources that they need, and then provides follow up, and, you know, maybe some additional whether it's help with constructing a ramp in their house, or maybe shower handles in their shower. You know, there, there's a ton of things that that these the TC three folks do besides just direct people to the right resources. They they get out and get hands on with a lot of our customers. And it's, it's really been a great benefit to a lot of folks. And again, it helps the fire department in that it takes those calls where the people on the trucks aren't necessarily the best resource and gives those folks the resources they need in a much more efficient manner.
Any other questions for ed i.
I actually, I have one that's off the subject. And Steve, Amina Can't she said the link isn't working for her.
I just sent her back to her. I just sent
Okay, she's trying, she's trying to get on but anyway, Ed, thank you for your presentation and for talking with us. So I slacked you or I put my comment directly to you in the chat. My name is Ilana Lowery. I'm the Arizona director for Common Sense Media, and so we primarily work with educators and families. And so my question is like a little out of left field, but we've been talking to a lot of public safety officials about school cell phone bans. And I know there's a lot of people on the call that are either with libraries or schools or, you know, etc, and so first responders are telling us, especially if they're dealing with school lockdowns, that they're in favor of the cell phone bans in schools. And I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about that, because I know that it can overwhelm the system with students using their phones during the day if there's an emergency calling 911, and then also, they were telling us that with all the parents that show up at the schools to get their kids during an emergency situation, like a lockdown that then you guys can't get in and do your jobs. Do is that? I know it's totally out of left field, but since I had you, I thought I'd ask you,
well i i will say I'm certainly not the the authority to give the definitive answer on on on that particular question, but I do know that, as you stated, you know everyone calling 911 whether it's the kids calling parents or kids calling 911 it does cause a lot of confusion and mayhem. There are definite positives to having cell phones available, because it does allow direct communication, you know, let's say, from a child to a parent to let them know that, you know, yes, they're still alive or okay, you know, whatever the scenario is. But when that child is not able to answer the phone, even if they're okay, you know, I, as a parent myself. I can tell you with first hand knowledge that there's not much that's harder to deal with than a frantic parent from an emergency services standpoint, and so I don't know what the right answer is. I think that's kind of a jurisdictional and school based. Those rules are more from the schools. My My wife works at a school, and they're very limited on the use of their their cell phones, some I don't, kind of going off topic. On the off topic here in Tucson. Tucson unified school district just recently did a big purchase of a system that provides it a an emergency pendant for the teachers to wear. So in the event of a major emergency, they have a pendant where they push a button a certain number of time for different sorts of notifications or to elicit a certain response. So that is currently being worked on right now, the public safety dispatch center has also been working with Motorola. They have a program called the rave panic button, which is a telephone app that provides kind of emergency notification, as well as very specific GPS location information for when it's designed for use in schools or like government buildings, that sort of thing, and can be used To give and receive notification in the event of an emergency at a site. So there's a lot of interesting stuff going on in that field, and it's, it's just, it's, we're all learning about it kind of at the same time here.
No, that's great. I appreciate that that's so interesting, that that those other options are available. So thanks for that.
Yeah, they in the there was a recent shooting where they had just employed that school, a recent school shooting where they had just deployed that pendant, and someone saw the shooter walking into the school. So they pushed the with their with the gun, they pushed the pendant, and the school was on lockdown in a matter of minutes, and it worked really well, and that's been a big driver in the adoption of that particular device.
Well, thank you for that. I didn't mean just like throw you. Of course there, but like I said, since I had you, I was going to ask you,
no, that's great.
So Ed, I think when we talked that, and maybe you addressed this, I was kind of paying, trying to pay attention to some other things going on here. But I asked you about who pays for this, and I think you said the city of Tucson, and are there any charges to anybody who then uses telemedicine service? How does that whole system work?
So it works through insurance, the medical service, MD, Ally, is able to bill insurance so that, you know, that's kind of their, their bread and butter, that's where they there. It's like a doctor's office over the phone, so they get insurance information and can bill that. So there's no charge to the city, because that, it comes to the, to my knowledge, I'm not you know this is I've worked with the fire department. Part of it, it's really run through the dispatch center, so I'm not involved in all the daily details, like I said. I just have the overview of it, but I'm pretty sure it just build through insurance. Insurance,
there's no problem. And if people don't have insurance, as I'm sure you know that people call 911, or other kinds of services expected somebody's going to show up, and they don't have insurance, they don't have health care. Mean, for a lot of people, that's the only way they get health care, emergency rooms. Yeah,
a lot of those folks, they can petition for emergency access, you know, to the access health care system. So there are a number of routes. I'm not sure where the the funding with other funding would come from, but there may be some federal grants that are kind of similar to the broadband grants for access that apply to telehealth. I'm not certain on that, but I'm I know that they're not they're not doing it for free, and I don't think that we're paying them. So I just don't have all the details on how they're getting paid,
and then they're not on here today. But I think I mentioned to you that we have the Arizona telemedicine program, which is one of the top telemedicine programs in the country, and they're based with the University of Arizona, and so it might be something for you guys too. Yeah. And unfortunately, as you heard, Mala is not doing good today, but she's been very engaged in working with the libraries, looking at telehealth. I think I mentioned that too.
I saw she had a question in the chat there about when folks call for call 911, looking for resources, and they get directed to help telehealth. Her question is, if we send them back to 911 if they need 911 does it not cause crucial delays? And it really shouldn't, because the way the 911 questions are designed, if someone has a crucial time dependent medical emergency, they're going to be directed, you know, ambulance is going to be dispatched right away. Anyway, they're going to bypass the telehealth option, so they wouldn't, wouldn't be directed to telehealth to start with.
Let's see they have, like,
one that's kind of
a drop somebody. I'm not sure who that is. That's we're getting background noise,
yeah, I have a cubicle, not an office. So that's you.
So that you okay? Yeah, okay, now we could deal with as long as we don't have anybody else, any other questions or comments for Ed. So, Ed, have you? Have you seen other communities here in Arizona who are aware of this and are having have an interest in rolling this out?
Yes, Sierra Vista is looking at it. I know Phoenix, the city of Phoenix is is using it their, their success rate isn't quite as high as ours. As far there the Yeah, they're just a lot of it has to do with medical direction. So depending on the medical direction provided to the development of the 911, questions and the criteria that meet the telehealth diversion, you know, is very. Dependent on somebody, somebody from a medical direction standpoint, taking responsibility for the the accuracy and safety of the questions that are asked to divert folks to the telehealth. So I think our, you know, it's there's just a lot of collection of data, reviewing incidents that got transferred back to 911, making sure that we're providing the right service, the best service, the right service, to the right people at the right time, and not skipping anyone or missing an emergency that we should have just sent directly to the EMS resources.
Any other questions for Ed? Going once, going twice?
Yeah, have a real quick question. You mentioned something earlier, and I missed the name of the company. You said you're also partnering with a company. I think it was called T 3t.
C3, is an internal, yeah, it's an internal fire department division that is coordinating and receiving funding from Tucson Medical Center and the TMC foundation. So we have nurses from Tucson Medical Center partnered with navigators who work for the fire department, and they're part of their kind of also teamed up with our public education group. So there's a lot going on in that
that was, that was interesting. So, yeah, no, I just wanted to make sure I made a note of that. Thank you so much. Very welcome.
Okay, yeah, well, thank you very much. It's really pretty exciting program.
There it's, it's really relatively new for us. Like I said, it went 24/7 in October, so after a short trial period before that. So we're still very, very new with it, and there's a lot of learning and tweaking going on. But it's, it's doing a great job at helping us get the right resources to the right people with the right time and take a little bit of a load off some of our trucks on the field and make those resources available for the people who really need it. So thank you.
Pretty awesome. Thanks for being here. Ed, really appreciate it. I've added you to our list. You're welcome to join us whenever you can. I know you're you're busy, but we're not an emergency call, but, fortunately, but, but you are more than welcome to participate with us.
Thanks for inviting me. I appreciate the learning from from the group as well, and
I'm sure that Mala will be in touch with you when she's feeling better. She's pretty good about that. So anyway, thanks again, Ed. Okay, so give me just a second here you Yeah, okay, Amina, I believe I saw that you have joined us, and there you are, and I apologize. I'm sorry that you had a problem getting connected with us, but would love to have you kind of give us an update on what we know about what's happening in Washington these days. So I'm going to turn it over to you, great. If you would introduce yourself first.
Yeah. Well, thanks for having me. My name is Amina FES Lula, and I'm head of tech policy advocacy at Common Sense and my background is in telecom law and anti trust And as well as consumer protection issues,
I have been following the upcoming changes with the new incoming administration at the federal level, and it's hard to predict a lot in this moment. I think there are a few certainties. We expect a new chair to be announced. Chair car to participated in Project 2025, and listed some of his thoughts and ideas in in that. So, you know, we're pulling from that, to the extent you know, to understand where the. If SEC might be headed, I think when it comes to broadband,
it's possible that there will be more of a focus on broadband related to spectrum or related to changes around USF, because the USF program is currently involved in a court review, there is a expectation that
that the Supreme Court will take up a case that's looking into a non delegation doctrine issue related to the USF program, specifically around the contribution mechanism, and so that will likely sort of chill activity at the FCC until that court case sort of plays out. So we expect that to take up most of 2025
and then,
could you explain a little more for folks? I think many of our people probably know, but to explain a more, little more about the what's happening with USF and what the what the issue is, please.
Yeah. So there have been challenges to the USF program in terms of whether or not the FCC is allowed to delegate authority to USAC, which is the the nonprofit that administers the program. The FCC controls. USAC, directs USAC
in the administration of the Universal Service Fund program, and has, for you know, the past few decades, the there's a circuit split on essentially on whether or not the FCC has that authority. So it's relatively fundamental to the way the current USF program is structured and operates.
Even though there is this challenge, the program will continue. So for example, the next upcoming E Rate funds that application window is opening and will continue.
The updates and modernization efforts to E Rate will continue in all likelihood, despite the fact that this court cases going forward, so so on. Not much will change in the short term for folks who are utilizing the USF program, but there's a possibility of some really drastic changes to the USF program. You know, if the Supreme Court decides to take up this issue, and what could happen is that the program could get, essentially, as it's currently functioning, get struck down, so that the FCC will sort of have to halt
the USF program to determine how they're going to proceed with their the contribution mechanism, and in which case, in all likelihood, Congress will take up the task of,
well, we'll have to determine whether or not they want to take up the task of reconstituting the program or providing additional detail in the statute so that you know you don't run into this problem again. Already, there is for the past session, there was a USF contribution reform working group. It's bicameral and bipartisan. They've been actively putting together, like concepts of how us or contribution reform would operate, as well as other changes to the program that they would put in statute, so through the legislative process. So there's a lot of pieces that are moving at the same time, which can be a little confusing, but the short sort of answer is that the USF program, for purposes of like the next round of E Rate funding, is continuing and sort of not impacted by the current challenges. However, once those play out, I think there could be potentially an impact to the program. So that's that's probably the biggest activity in the year ahead and under the next administration and with the new Congress, I think that folks who utilize the USF program, whether it's the. High Cost E Rate lifeline, or the telemedicine telehealth programs should, you know, keep an eye out and potentially be prepared to engage with Congress to, you know, petition for the their parts of the program, because there'll be an opportunity for Congress to reopen how the entire USF program is designed, and potentially lock it into statute. This new design and and remove the FCC is authority to do, you know change to the program through rule making? So it'll be important to really pay close attention, because if the Supreme Court decides that there is a problem with the way the program is currently designed, then Congress will will definitely have an opportunity to redesign the program and and even if the program continues without any impact from the court case, The contribution reform conversation may also give Congress an opportunity to reopen the statute and make changes to the program. So I would expect in the year ahead, that we should be prepared to engage with Congress on changes to the USF program, if, if this is a program that impacts you, um, and I do expect Commissioner car or chair car to potentially free some of the modernization efforts that chair Rosen has started. So specifically the initiatives around like Wi Fi, on busses, at spots and, sorry, what I trying to remember the third one, but, but they're a learn without limits. Initiative, yeah, cyber secure. Cyber Yeah, the cyber security pilot, I expect that there is a possibility that the chair will consider reversing those changes, even while the court case is ongoing, once there is a three, two majority in favor of the Republican chair. So that was, again, that will take some time, potentially to actually happen. So I expect this first round of E Rate funding to be unchanged. However, it's certainly on the on Wi Fi, on busses and on hot spots. We know that he has dissented already, so we expect him to push back on those programs when he has the votes to do so. So I would be prepared for sort of two tracks where there's, you know, or actually, you know, I guess, if we're being really picky, three tracks. So there's going to be potential reversals at the FCC. Once there's a three, two majority, I think there will be potential court impacts to the USF program if the Supreme Court takes up the case, and then there could be, even if that doesn't happen, there could be changes to the contribution reform mechanism and then other USF programs through Congress. So that's one area, and I think it'll be a really critical moment for voices who care about the USF programs to be heard. So because if there are changes made by Congress, it will be very difficult, and they don't allow the FCC to have authority, regulatory authority over the USF program, or if they limit it in some way, those changes will only be you know, you can only change that language through another act of Congress, and that's not how the USF program has operated. It's been modernized through rulemaking for the past few decades, so it will be a significant shift in how people have been able to improve and change the USF programs over the past. Few years. So it'll be really important to be engaged, because whatever comes out of Congress will stick for a long time.
Okay, so there's lots of other issues out there, you know, if there's any changes that could happen with NTIA. Apparently, there's not much that they could do about bead at this point, but who knows. And then there's lots of other issues out there.
Yeah, well, I think on infrastructure with the bead program, it's possible, because the money is, is has sort of been designated out the door. It's, it's, it's unlikely that it'll be clawed back, but I think that it's possible that some of the DEA, the digital Equity Act funds, the like, follow on rounds of federal funding, could get Claud back
again. I think it'll be a moment for folks who are engaged in the bead funding to you know, reach out to the new leadership at NTIA and be heard so that they, you know, understand the value of the funds and the commitment of the community to engage that the digital Equity Act funds, I think the Same and probably like more effort should be placed in ensuring that there isn't an impact to those follow on funds, because those could really be in danger of being clawed back. But I think that there's an opportunity again to be heard early in the administration to protect the existing expected uses of that funding stream. So for you know folks are on this call that are engaged in either the digital Equity Act funding or the bead funding, I think there's value to reach out once there is new leadership at the NTIA, the and then, you know, obviously, I think it's unclear where things are headed on privacy and on other sort of tech policy issues, because a lot of that will be determined by the new Congress. And you know, there are a number of advisors that come from the tech world, Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, who have like particular points of view and have outsized influence in the next administration. So it's and even, you know, VP Vance has particular interest in tech, it's hard to predict kind of which direction things will go. I do expect to hear, you know, a lot of interest around a comprehensive Privacy Bill, and potentially interest around efforts to prevent platforms from content moderation and there may be some interest in, like, Children's Online Safety, or, yeah, writ large, but like in various through various channels, so Incoming Chair of the Commerce Committee, Ted Cruz, he had bill that attached restrictions on social media use to the E Rate program. So there may be these types of like carrot stick approaches, where we'll see restrictions or requirements placed on some of the federal funding programs.
I guess there's been some talk regarding going back to the USF person for a second that I guess there's been some talk about having big tech companies contribute to the USF, rather than just the broadband providers as our telecom providers, as is the case. Now,
that's right, so that's, you know, that's part of the contribution or form efforts. Like I said, it's hard to predict whether or not those. Efforts are going to be supported by the incoming administration because of its relationship to tech. It's really hard to say. I mean, you know, I think it can go two ways. It could be depending on which tech companies are impacted, it might go forward, and it might be a way to change the contribution process. But it's, you know, it's really at this point, it's, it's unclear whether or not those types of proposals will go forward. I know that incoming Chair car had been supportive of having platforms pay into the USF program. I don't know if that concept still has support, but we'll see.
So we'll come back just second Amina, but Mallory, do you have anything that you want to add? There's still a lot of other issues out there, and we're going to have more discussions about this at future meetings. But Mallory, is there anything that you want to add?
I don't think so. I think Amina hit of the nail on the head on most of the issues. You know, right now there's a lot of uncertainty, where, at one point people thought there was, you know, it was maybe fairly certain. So now we'll just kind of see how things go. And I don't think I have anything to add on those topics. No.
Thank you. Did anybody have anything else? Amina, did you have anything else that you wanted to talk about?
Just add, you know, during the last trump administration, I think that, you know, there were some, there's some direction from the White House on telecom issues and tech issues. But oftentimes what we saw was that the like agencies of like importance, so the FCC or the FTC, NTIA, whoever was in charge at those agencies, had kind of a broad mandate to operate as they wanted to. And so I think that, you know, for those of us that are going to be advocating for particular issues related to broadband, any outreach that you can make to you know, the incoming Chair, I think will be really valuable, because in in all likelihood, not on every issue, but I think on Many issues, they're going to have a lot of say over what happens. So putting effort into that outreach will probably be valuable.
Is there an expectation that the NTIA leadership will change?
I think so. I haven't seen and maybe others have. I mean, I feel like every day, we get an update on who might be part of the incoming administration, but I haven't seen who would be, you know, replacing Alan Davidson, and how quickly they would do that.
I saw one of his posts that he was saying he didn't expect that he was going anywhere, but anything can happen. And of course, then the other thing, and of course, you mentioned the previous Trump administration, but we do have another player in the game right now, which, of course, is Elon Musk. And maybe a push to look at more use of alternative technologies as a result of his participation and other telecom issues that maybe has gotten less focus in the past, that may get more focused again. Who knows? Right?
I think that's right. I would fully expect, you know, that, like satellite, would get a renewed focus. I fully expect that, like I said, I think spectrum will probably get the you know, Spectrum authority, and moving forward with spectrum auctions, will probably get a renewed focus. So I do, I think that's that's right, that like, I think there's going to be particular priorities that are going to come from the advisors that are surrounding the incoming president. So I, I would expect to be to see that happened. I think that you know, so where, where would that impact some of the like, current work that's being done on broadband? I think it could. That's, that's why I say could impact bead if plans aren't already out there, or if. There is, like a rewriting of language, like I find it, it's difficult because so much of it is already done. The other place where I think it could impact is, you know, in the in whatever language comes out of Congress related to USF, so like rejiggering of priorities for the high cost Fund, which, you know, is not capex, right? So this is ongoing support. So I think it like that could be a pretty big shift and a big change. I think, you know, obviously spectrum authority and and spectrum auctions, which ones go first, how how they're actually managed? I think those could be impacted. And then when it comes to affordable broadband, it'll be interesting to see. If we've already seen in some of the proposals around changes to ACP or inclusion affordable broadband in the USF reform process, a prioritization of rural communities, obviously, the cost to reach rural communities is higher, and if there is a preference or a priority given to Satellite, then the cost would be even higher. So, like, I think that there, it's yet to be seen, but it, you know, that could also be a vehicle where we see a preference for satellite and funding for satellite in the language. But like I said, it's yet to be seen.
Okay, Mina, thank you. And we know that there's lots of issues. And of course, this is going to be changing from day to day. We could do this tomorrow, and it could be, like, totally different
than today. Yeah, exactly, exactly. I mean, I feel like, you know, certainly come January or February, I think we'll have, like, a better sense of the lay of the land, and we'll happy to update folks, because I think priorities will be more obvious, and we'll have a better sense of, you know, what will be on the table at that point.
But the one thing that we all need to keep an eye on is the USF fund, because that's an important fund for a lot of different programs, particularly E Rate. So we do need to make sure that we keep up on that issue.
That's absolute. That's a guarantee, right? Like there will be activity and changes to the USF fund, I think, in the next year ahead. And you know, whether that's just at the FCC by, you know, reversing some of the reforms that chair Rosenworcel made, or through Congress, where they start to take a more aggressive step forward with their contribution reform process and potentially other changes to USF and statute or at the court. And I think all of those three are are in play, in progress and likely to happen to some extent.
Thank you. Amina, great, great overview. Really appreciate it. And again, we'll be doing more of these sessions, and we'll look forward to your participation,
if I might. Steve, yeah, go ahead. Gordon, of immediate impact would be the story I saw breaking in the Arizona Central on the incompetence and damages caused by the fiber optic companies working up in the Phoenix area, Scottsdale and Maricopa County. Did you see that article I sent over by Apple news?
I did Gordon. We couldn't. I don't have an account with with several I can read it
whether it has, it's it bears on that issue of who is going to be installing all this fiber, you know, how is that going to get done? And here's this story out of Maricopa County, where just vast incompetence has resulted in terrific, horrific damages in the millions, you know, for Salt River Project and the other power utilities and damages. And it's just crazy. You know, they have people working well outside of OSHA regs and 14 hour days and Georgia plates, and they could subcontract subcontractors from everywhere to do this. And my God, you know, this is the money we're talking about, the billion dollars. Now, this was related to power infrastructure as I think I understand it, gig company, yeah,
thanks, Gordon. So I want to do a couple of quick things. So had I say you're still. Online. And I wanted to just quickly introduce you to Michelle Simon, who is also on the call. Michelle is the director of the Pima County Office of Digital Inclusion. And Michelle, I think you and that might want to connect and see if there's some ways, and particularly the project you got going on with telehealth and the libraries.
Nice to meet you, Michelle,
are you still there? Michelle, Michelle, are you there? Okay, well, anyway, Ed, we'll, we'll make sure that you and Michelle get connected, it might be some some benefit there. So with that, Anthony, you're still online. Anthony, you want to give us a quickie update on anything that's happening with the State Library and some of the work you're doing.
Hey, Steve, good to be here. Not too much to update. We do have a new person starting with us in December, our library technology specialist. So we're hoping to get him going and introduce him to the group, hopefully early December. Outside of that, not too much else going on right now. Okay,
thank you, Mark. You want to do a quickie about Kirk's upcoming event and the ACA providers group.
Sure. Thanks, Steve ATIC, the telecom Council has had a periodically meeting broadband provider working group, mostly at Kirk's Big Data southwest conferences. So on December 5, we will have a breakout session at his all day conference, their access to the broadband provider working group session is free for broadband providers and and tangential parties to that there is A special registration link for just registering for that session. It will be both on site and remote. We'll sort out who needs remote access from the registrations. But there is also for A, T, I, C and A, C, B, s, n participants, a, 50% off discount code for the entire day. It covers data centers, AI, to some extent, broadband, but not certainly focused on broadband or digital equity that we do here, but may be of interest to some of you.
Okay, thank you, Mark. And again, that information is available in my newsletter with the links to be able to participate any other announcements that anybody might have, going once, going twice. Ed, thank you again for being here. Very exciting program what you're working on.
Thank thank you much for the invite, and let me know when the next meeting is. I've
added you to my list. You'll you'll get regular announcements about our meetings.
Thank you much. Nice to meet everybody.
Anything else that anybody wants to wants to share? Well, I'm sorry, go ahead. Oh, this
is Christy in yapai County, with the library district. We're going to be, we're going to be hosting a digital equity workshop on December 4, at 10am so if anybody's interested, we're we're writing the digital equity plan up here. And if anybody's interested with partnering or participating in that, more than welcome to attend that. Okay,
this is, this is tomorrow. And I just want to give a I wanted to give a shout out to Christy, because the work they're doing up there is, is really impressive. They're very well organized. And I had the chance to attend one of them a few months ago, the first one they did. And really helpful and great best practices.
Okay, thank you. Yeah,
Steve, can I send you a flyer for that workshop so people? Thanks
absolutely much, and please do that soon, because I'll be sending out my update here pretty soon. And of course, we have Thanksgiving coming up, so we want to get that out before the holiday.
Absolutely get that to you right away.
Well, I'm going to stop recording just again. I. Hope you all have a safe and great Thanksgiving. Don't overeat, or you'll have to call the fire department, but thank you all for being here. I'm going to stop recording and.