December 5, 2024 AZBSN Digital Access Task Force Recording
7:52PM Dec 5, 2024
Speakers:
Steve Peters
Ilana Lowery
Erin Lorandos
Paul Ross
Mala Muralidharan
John Haas
Kelly Krusee
Judy Sulltrop
Kelly Mukherjee
Gordon Fuller
Jason Tamura
Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom
Coral Evans
Morgan Guilbeau
Keywords:
new introductions
digital access
rural broadband
FCC changes
spectrum policy
rural connectivity
spectrum sharing
satellite constellations
security concerns
supply chain
USF reform
BED funding
ACP updates
community impact
technology evolution
Okay? I want to do a couple of quick introductions of a couple of new people, and then we'll jump right into Erin, are you going to be okay if we're going to put Morgan on first, you're going to be okay with that?
Me, Erin, yeah, definitely, yeah. We're good.
Yeah, she's she's going to have to get out of here pretty quickly. So I'm just going to go ahead and get started this morning. We have a couple of really good presentations. As you may know, those of you who attended last week may know that we had a, excuse me, we started a discussion on what's happening in Washington, and Judy soltrip has arranged to have Morgan here. And Judy, I'm going to ask you to introduce Morgan in just a minute, but as the she reminded me that we need to make be clear with everybody, there's a caveat that there's things we know, things we don't know, things we think we know, and that's changing from day to day. So anyway, just wanted to make that caveat. So if we can just do a couple of quick presentation, quick introductions, and then we'll go ahead and get started. I think we have one or two new people. Sharon, want to introduce yourself? Please
Sure. Hi. My name is Sharon Tewksbury bloom. I'm located in Flagstaff, Arizona, and I met Erin at the rural policy forum and expressed an interest in learning more about what's going on with digital access throughout the state, but particularly in rural areas and northern Arizona. And I run my own business as a professional facilitator. Great.
Thank you. Thanks for joining us this morning. So coral, you want to introduce yourself? Please.
Hello, everyone. Coral Evans, Northern Arizona, Director for us, Senator
Mark Kelly,
we have a great turnout from, excuse me from the senator's office this morning. I appreciate that, Judy, for your help with that. Anybody else that's new today? Okay, well, with that, I'm going to turn it over Morgan to Judy if you want to introduce Morgan real quickly, and then we'll just go ahead and get get started.
Hi, good morning, everyone. I want to introduce Morgan gillbrow. She is my colleague in DC. She is the the senators liaison, legislative liaison for all things rural broadband, and she is here today to give us an update on what she knows and everything in flux. So take it away. Morgan. Hey.
Thanks. Judy, thanks. Judy,
awesome. Okay, well, lovely to join all of you, all, all of you guys virtually today, happy to be connected. And as Judy mentioned, I am the senators legislative assistant here in DC, handling, among other things, all things telecom and rural broadband. So happy to provide kind of an update of what things are looking at looking like now, and as we head into a new Congress, a new administration there, as Steve did, caveat being there's a lot we still don't know. There's a lot in flux, so but happy to provide kind of an update on some things we do so kind of I'll touch on a number of things. The first some news out of the incoming President Trump's transition related to some you know, nominations, personnel changes, as well as some changes that we expect to see coming out of the Commerce Committee under incoming Chair crews. We'll look at what we've been hearing from Brendan Carr about what FCC might be focusing on, and then I have some updates on rip and replace ACP and bead so diving on in. And folks have questions, I have to jump at 1030 today, but I'm always happy to jump on the phone. I'll drop my email in the chat as well as my work phone if anybody has questions or wants to discuss further. And then obviously, Judy and coral are here from the senators team as well. We're always are involved. Our emails are always open. That being said. So when it comes to the FCC, kind of personnel changes, and most of you will probably already know this, President Trump has indicated that he plans to have Brendan Carr become the new chair of the FCC. I. A current FCC chair, Rosen worse so has already said that she plans to observe tradition and step down on the day that incoming President Trump is sworn in, and then he will then designate breanan car to take over leadership. There have also been rumors kind of circulating that Commissioner Starks intends to leave the FCC he is currently. This has been kind of a rumor for a little bit, but he's placing increasing pressure from leader Schumer to stay on temporarily, at least, to kind of help ensure that the Commission stays dead locked, at least to make it a little bit harder for car to and for the upcoming administration to kind of implement any of their immediate changes. Try to delay some things as as much as we can. As long as Star Gomez stay on cars, ability to carry out his agenda will be pretty limited, so that's something to keep an eye on. And NTIA, there hasn't been an announcement yet on who the incoming Trump administration intends to lead the NTIA, if Al and Davidson will stay, I think that might be pretty surprising, given so much of the recent criticism that the bead program and NTIA has faced related to bead and movementation, but it is something to keep an eye on when it comes to the Commerce Committee. And there's a lot that will kind of be changing on commerce in the Commerce Committee, but I'm focusing specifically on kind of like the telecom space. But obviously commerce handles many other things as well. So in looking at what reporting has said, Cruz has indicated that his priorities for this Congress will be job creation and reducing regulation. But there are some other things that he said to indicate kind of what his priorities will be in the telecom and tech space, especially with regards to spectrum, AI and broadband. When it comes to spectrum, Cruz has said that he wants to get more wireless, wireless spectrum that's currently reserved for the government into the hands of the private sector. He has introduced legislation that would mandate the auction of a considerable amount of spectrum that is raising red flags for the current administration's number of agencies, including DoD given Senator Kelly's position on the Senate Armed Services Committee. This is something that we'll be watching very closely and share concerns about making sure that no efforts to auction off spectrum will impact defense or intelligence capabilities above all, though, Cruz has indicated that one of his top priorities will mean reauthorizing the FCC ability, the authority to auction off spectrum that has been really there's bipartisan support for reinstating that auction authority. However, it has really been kind of used as a bargaining chip.
I think that, yeah, Katrina, can you please mute level of mainstream
perfect, so we'll see. But that is definitely a priority across the board, to reinstate that auction authority. When it comes to AI Cruz's contribution is really his focus so far has been on non consensual. Non consensual. Ai enabled images and the force takedown of those. He had a bill that I believe was passed on the floor on Tuesday, but he's made some progress on this. This is likely to continue to be a priority of his next year. And then on broadband, he Senator Cruz has promised to really dig into NTIA efforts when it comes to bead. So this is something that we're paying very close attention to. There's been a lot of noise around bead the bead program being targeted by the Department of government efficiency, Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy committee, I don't even know what we call it. It's the organization that doesn't have any legislative power. Anyways, Senator Ernst has targeted bead for so it's something that we're she's recommended to bead be one of the cost cutting mechanisms that Doge uses. So we're, we're concerned about that given obviously the significant impact that bead has will have in the state, will continue to fight. For every dollar that Arizona has been allocated to make sure that it does come and is implemented in the state of Arizona, Senator Cruz has said specifically, when it comes to bead that he wants to look into rate regulation unionized workforce and as he says, dei labor requirements, as well as climate change assessments and excess, excessive per location costs. So those are some things that will be he has indicated his concerns with already, and that will be following closely. Those are some things that will be happening in commerce. When it comes to FCC, we're kind of looking at what reporting has come out about what Commissioner car has indicated his interests and priorities to be. He is ready to hit the ground running, and just this week, was speaking at a panel where he discussed wanting to move aggressively on USF reform as well as jump starting spectrum policy. So we anticipate there to be a lot of movement happening pretty quickly coming out of the FCC. One of the things that he specifically said was that requiring tech companies to pay into USF is, and I quote, something that is definitely worth taking a look at, so that, from our perspective, is good news, and I'll talk a little bit about Senator Kelly's efforts on USF reform in a moment. But he has also emphasized that USF should adopt tech neutral provisions to make room for fixed wireless and satellite. So obviously, Commissioner car is very close with Elon Musk, and has been very vocal about his concerns about the Biden administration's efforts to restrict funding for Starlink. And so we anticipate that to be a priority of Commissioner cars moving forward, whether that be with regard to bead USF or other kind of telecommunications and broadband funding sources. So again, something else to keep in mind, especially given that fiber really continues to be what we consider to be the gold standard, making sure people are connected and making sure that we're not sacrificing that technology in pursuit of funding star Lake Commissioner, car has also indicated his support for what he calls a balanced approach on spectrum. So making sure he has he has highlighted that under President Trump's first term, the FCC was very successful in conflicts over spectrum when it came to competing with federal users, but that these efforts have really been stymied under the Biden administration, so we anticipate a continued focus on that When it comes to the Democrats that will continue on to the commission. FCC. Commissioner Anna Gomez said that she will continue to look for places of bipartisan agreement. She has highlighted robo calls as a potential issue where we can find collaboration. And Commissioner Starks has indicated his focus will continue to be connecting underserved populations. That's what we can anticipate. A few things to come out of the FCC when it comes to a couple priorities that we're continuing to work on. Rip and replace is big one obviously huge impact in Arizona. Conversations are happening for a long time. The real focus has been on tying rip and replace and ACP together. At this point, we know that that's not feasible right now, and we really need to get there's a lot of bipartisan support for funding the rip and replace shortfall. So there's been some momentum towards attaching funding for rip and replace either to the disaster supplemental or the NDAA, both of which will need to be passed in the next about three weeks. So that is not locked in at this point, but momentum is positive in securing that funding. Obviously ACP, that's not going to happen right now. We will have to kind of refocus our efforts on ACP in the new year and in a new Congress, which I know is disappointing to probably all of us, but is going to continue to be a priority of a lot of us on the Hill to make sure that we're getting this funding. One of the things that you know is important to the senator, to myself and to a lot of us, is making sure that ACP is funded in a sustainable. So that it's not reliant on annual appropriations. So making So, as I'm sure many of you already know, the idea here, and kind of what a lot of people think is that this needs ACP, needs to really be rolled into the USF, and likely, kind of replace or in conjunction with the Lifeline program. Those conversations are happening going back to the positives that we can expect out of FCC commissioner car his interest in revising the USF will hopefully benefit ACP in the long run. This is something that Senator Lu Hans team is working really, really closely on the USF reform working group has kind of fallen stagnant. The senator Kelly is not a part of that working group, but we do get regular updates from their teams, but are hoping to kind of reinvigorate that effort in the new year with the focus on USF in terms of what Senator Kelly is working on in this space, we he has introduced a bipartisan bill with senators Mullen Crapo, Risch, Braun, Holly and Kramer this Congress, s3, 321, it's the lowering broadband costs for consumers Act. This bill has done a lot of work in addressing USF funding mechanism reforms, so and I'm happy to drop afterwards some information about our bill. Specifically in the chat we're having conversations about the best ways to kind of continue to pursue this effort in the new Congress. But specifically our bill, it would require big companies, tech companies, to help pay for the USF obviously, as you all know, FCC funds broadband expansion through assessments on like telephone calls and landline telephone service providers, but broadband service providers and what we termed edge providers. So like big tech companies, do not pay into the USF and the way, but they benefit from it. So we would amend the funding mechanism to assess broadband providers and edge providers to help pay for the USF, that is the USF slash ACP. And then lastly, bead as I mentioned, there's been a lot of noise about bead funding being clawed back, about changes to the rules being made in order to benefit the frankly, Elon Musk, all of these things are concerns that we're paying very close attention to. We've been in touch with, I, you know, in regular contact with the governor's office, with ACA. I think I'm sure there's some folks from ACA on here
with Sandip, so making sure that ACA has all the resources that they need to get this money out the door, and we'll continue to work and serve as liaison with NTIA as challenges arise, but we're really excited to see These broadband investments be deployed in Arizona, and we'll continue to fight for them as we move forward. That was a lot that I just threw at you. So if anybody has questions, I have a few minutes before I have to jump off. I can't promise to have answers. But wanted to, more than anything, introduce myself, open myself up as a resource, as folks have questions. And if there's anything that the senator can do, or that I can do to you know, have conversations about the stuff that y'all are working on. Happy to do so moving forward. But I will kind of toss it back over to you. Steve Judy or coral, I don't know if there's anything else you want to add, but that's it from me. Ilana, it's s3 321, here. I'll drop it in the chat right now. Where did it go? I
can you tell me what rip and replace me?
Yes, on the phone, rip and replace is a program to tear out and replace telecommunications infrastructure that is owned by Chinese telecom companies so ZTE and Huawei, a lot of smaller rural providers had a lot of this infrastructure in their networks, and it's deemed a national security and communication security risk, and so Congress required a. The removal of that infrastructure, and originally it was funded at, I believe, 3 billion. I can't remember what it was funded at originally, but there was much more of this infrastructure in place than was originally anticipated. So there wasn't enough funding to complete the tearing out and replacing of the infrastructure. So Congress is working to fund that shortfall and
tomorrow. Yeah, one of the things I mentioned it was also there was a lot, lot of large national carriers that were that had a lot of that Huawei equipment for our back hall. So it wasn't just rural, it was was proliferated through our network.
Question questions for Morgan.
Morgan, this is Mala from the State Library, Arizona State Library. I work on the E Rate program for for public libraries, and we are gathering stories from the ground on. You know how the USF funds and E Rate? E Rate is funded through the USF funds, how they have benefited the community? I if you pass on your email when I gather these stories, I can send them to you, because they will be really valuable. They are from the actual consumers of E Rate in our through our libraries. I'll see if I can gather some from schools as well, because we have schools and libraries as a consortium, and many of our applications for E grade that would
be great. I'll drop my email in the chat so everybody has pardon me, so everybody has it too, and feel free to reach out, or, you know, happy to answer other questions or talk further anybody else?
So Morgan is there? Can they claw back the bead money? Guess I understood that pretty much now that it's all pretty much been committed. Can Can they still claw that back? And then, of course, there's the Digital Equity money, and and where is that at this point in time, you know again, we not that we know, but what your thoughts might be about that. Um,
I don't so I do not have a lot of good answers on this. Unfortunately, there are a lot of questions that have arisen. Incoming President Trump has indicated that he's interested in using this process called impoundment to essentially use his executive distinction and executive powers to claw back funding that Congress has appropriated. It has it. There are a lot of restrictions on this, and there's a lot of questions, open questions about whether he can actually do this. I know we have like the Congressional Research Service is putting together briefings to explain whether or not this can actually happen. I think there's a lot of questions about its constitutionality, its legality, we don't really know. Bead has just been one of the things that's been highlighted, because it's an easy target. I'm hoping and hopeful that, because funds have been allocated. There's distinctions between like the allocation, the obligation and the expenditure, and at what point in time impoundment can still happen. There's a lot of open questions, so unfortunately, I don't really know in terms of Digital Equity. So my understanding that incoming Chair Cruz has similarly expressed a lot of concerns about some of these other pots of funding, but there's a lot of open questions about what can actually be done in terms of whether these funds can be recaptured and what's going to be targeted. We don't really know, but we'll be continuing to to track. And it looks like Ilana, you might have some insight from NTIA,
yeah, hi everybody. It's Ilana. From comments. Ilana, sorry, that's okay. Maureen, yeah, it's the fun. So on the call yesterday, the question, of course, came up and and they said that, you know, wasn't likely that the Digital Equity money would be clawed back, and that the bead funding is basically, you know, a statute and was approved. And you know, they don't know if there's a a tool or something that could be. Used to claw back the money, and they're hoping, yes, Erin, the parts of the Digital Equity that have been allocated, yeah. So, yeah, like you said, nobody really knows, but they did bring up the same, you know, the same issue, and they did say that the de money that was allocated probably wouldn't be touched, but who knows.
Okay, so Erin, I know. I mean, Morgan, I know you're kind of out of time here today, Morgan has asked that we include her on our meeting notices and that she will try to be here when she can. And we're going to continue these sessions at this point, because it's everything, as you heard, is very much in flux at this point, and what we know today and what we know tomorrow could change dramatically. But Morgan, really thank you for the time for being here today. You did a great job of giving us a good update on what's happening.
Thank you. Good to see everybody. I, like I said, dropped my email in the chat. So if there are any other questions, feel free to reach out or happy to just talk about what you guys are doing on the ground in Arizona. And Judy and coral are here too. Judy, thanks for having getting me to come. Steve, thanks for everything.
Thank you. I
have to jump, but hope everybody is a great rest of the
day. Okay, thanks, Morgan, so a couple of quick things before I forget. I try to remind people every time that, and I think coro, you asked about this after every meeting, I do send out the recording of the meeting, the transcript, the chat and the attendance list, so that you will have access to all of that information. And we do that every week. And then the second thing is that if you are interested in getting the chat before I send it out, you can download it to your computer. If you go to chat, and at the very top, there's three ellipses, and if you click on those, you can download the chat to your computer. So I know some people because we put links and stuff in that. And related to that is that I do try to include in my newsletter all the time anything that people share about meetings coming up, announcements and things like that, with the links to make it easier for people to find that. So I just wanted to remind you about that. So with that, let's move on. Let me see here, just real quickly, Bryan, do you have to drop off? Or can you hang on for a few minutes while we get an update from Erin?
Yeah, I can hang on. No problem. Sounds
good. So Erin, why don't we go back to you and you and Kelly and give us an update on what's happening with the broadband office?
Sure thing. Thanks, Steve. I'm actually going to let Kelly go first, because there's more on the bead side of things than there is on de
Thanks, Erin, good morning, everyone. My name is Kelly cruci I'm the Community Engagement Manager from the state broadband office at the Arizona Commerce Authority. So we just got some great updates, which was very helpful from Senator Kelly's office. They have been great partners and advocates for Arizona and working closely with us. We appreciate all of their efforts and really hoping some good will come out of these, these conversations, because, as everybody's saying, there's a lot of unknowns right now. And as of now, we are, we are still moving forward with plans as they are. And so what I want to share today are our plans. Some of our plans are, are changing. So couple of things. First and foremost, we have a new website. This is part of the governor's initiative for broadband, and she had, I think a press release is coming out today, but our website is live, and it's the connect all Arizona. I'll put a link in the chat right now, and this is where the broadband and bead and anything related to broadband and also Digital Equity lives. So it's on this website. Our old URL does redirect to this so it's still like nothing on your end is changing. You will be redirected to this new site. And just want to share that. So it's, it's a beautiful site that's something that the governor's office has been working on with us for a while. Excited to launch that. And then, as this is is launching also we are in the middle right now, or not in the middle, but started about a month ago, the pre registration process. So that continues, and I'll put a link in. Here for that website, which also remains the same, that pre registration so that it opened on November 4, and a date that has changed in the application window process is when that window opens. Originally, it was going to be December 20, and just yesterday we were it was approved to push that to January 6. So the website has been updated. Our materials have been updated. What this means is doesn't change anything with pre registration that remains the same. But the date that the window for the bead application that will now open on January six and then the close date for that window is now 30 days. So it was 30 days before that pushes it now to January, February 5 is when that first application, the round one of applications, will close the January six to February 5 is what we're looking at there. So we are updating timelines and getting all of our communications ready to send those out this week, regarding that date change, but this pushes it back to you after the holidays with when it will open. And then biggest questions after this are, when will the final project areas be released? When will the guidance documents be released? And those will be released before the application window opens. We're really pushing to release those right before the holidays, so that there's a little bit of time to take a look at those, so that when that application windows opens on the sixth people will have had some time to dig into those materials. So I think those are my two big things, the website and that date change. Definitely want to know if there's any questions from the group.
Questions for Kelly. So Kelly, I have a couple of questions. One is that in some states, providers have decided that they don't want to participate and be because of too many requirements and challenges and so forth? What are we hearing from the providers here in Arizona in terms of participation and bead
good question, and as of now, we're not hearing that at all. We so we are hosting office hours on Tuesdays and to answer questions about that pre registration process, help with the nuts and bolts of that. And you know, we're getting a lot of good questions. We're seeing a good number of ISPs register in the pre registration portal. So, you know, giving us signs indicating that so far, like we have not had any ISPs tell us we're not interested. We're not going to be applying during market sounding we had a lot of good feedback and input and a lot of meetings with ISPs, so there is definite interest, and we're seeing that in those pre registration numbers. So at this time, those aren't things that we are hearing, but we are keeping an eye on that too, and also really trying to make sure that we are pushing information out to ISPs to make sure that they've got what they need and and hopefully having conversations with us to let us know if that is something that's going to be happening. But we haven't heard that yet.
And then a second question is about threshold or alternative technologies. Can you talk about that at all.
As far as what I could speak to is applying. I know that round one is focused on the fiber, but, but we also want, you know, anyone who is interested in applying for that the alternative technologies. We want those applications to come in whenever they can. So Round two is focused on the alternative, but we don't want anyone to miss an opportunity. So we want those applications to come in fiber and alternative technology.
Okay, thank you. Any other questions for Kelly, going once, going twice? Mike, did you have something serious? So moving on. Then, Erin, can you give us a quick update on what's happening with the
yes, very quick, nothing's changed. We're still waiting for our final approval from NTIA on our application. You know, all signs still keep us on that end of the year, beginning of next year timeline. You know, there's been obviously a lot of movement in that area, just because NTIA is, you know, dealing with both the state capacity applications and also the National the competitive applications that were open at the same time. So I don't have any real updates other other than that, we're still, you know, in conversations, and we actually had a few more curing items coming. These were from NIST, which is the last piece of the the approval puzzle. Yeah, so, you know, it's all the budget side of things and making sure that that that pieces is correct. And so I'm optimistic that we're still on the same timeline, you know, to get approval by, you know, the end of this year, early next year. But I don't have any specific dates for folks who know the, you know, the next pieces of that puzzle will be us announcing our sub grant process and all of that. We do hope to have at least a two month runway for that window to open, though, so even if we get you know that application approved at the final hour, it's not like the application for the sub grants is going to open January 1, so we'll have plenty of time to talk about next steps once we have that approval. And once we have that approval, we have nine months to get back to NTIA and let them know what all of the exact, you know, sub awardees will be, all of the bigger you know, the statewide agency projects things like that, and so we'll be able to share all of that once we get that approval and move into those next
steps. Okay, questions, comments for for Erin, going once, going twice. Okay, thank you, Erin, always good to see you. Ella and Kelly, thank you for being here today. It's good to see you, and thanks for the bead update. Okay, moving on. Excuse me. So we have another presentation today. One of the issues that is before Washington at this at this time is talking about the spectrum, and so I want to turn it over to our next presenter. Excuse me. Are you there, Bryan?
I am here. Yeah, thank you. So
there's Bryan Daly, VP for, excuse me, for at&t, and he's also very engaged with a lot of other issues regarding cyber security and so forth. So with that, Bryan, I'm not going to say anymore. I'm going to turn it over to you and give people a little more background about you, and then just whatever you want to share with us. Sure.
Yeah, thank you again. Just as an introduction, I'm Bryan Daly. My day job is with AT and T, I do support a number of other efforts, though. You know, in my role at AT and T, including a member of the FCC technological Advisory Council and the FCC communication security reliability and interoperability council as well, I look at a broad variety of topics, including the evolution of technology from 5g to 6g look at security related topics, as Steve mentioned, as well as industry standards and The evolution of industry standards to support the technology evolution. So what I'd like to talk about today is just a little bit on, on the spectrum where we are and where we may be headed. I think Morgan's presentation gave a bit of insight into some of that, especially with the with the change that we're going to see within the FCC itself. One of the main problems we've had on Spectrum policy in the US over the past couple of years now is that the FCC auction authority actually expired back in 2023 I think was October of 2023 and Congress has not reauthorized the FCC to auction off spectrum. So things have been in pretty much of a standstill regarding spectrum since that time and until such time as Congress comes back and gives the option authority back to the FCC so that they can auction off spectrum, you know, to wireless operators. Not much is going to happen within within the commission and within commission spectrum policy that said, there are a few things that have happened recently that are notable. First, the FCC has approved Space X to construct, deploy and operate their gen two satellite constellations. And that's important, because what what it does is provide. Provides supplemental coverage from space for mobile operators. In this case, T Mobile to use SpaceX satellites to do direct to handset services. And this didn't require new spectrum. It's actually use it utilizing T Mobile spectrum, one of the old personal communication services spectrum allocations that T Mobile has, but it does at least provide the authority to go ahead and move forward with that there are other satellite constellations being put into orbit in order to support direct to handset services, including AST, which has relationships with both AT and T and Verizon. They FCC is also issuing a proposed rule making there is a band up at 37 gigahertz, which is, you know, getting up there in the high, higher frequency ranges that is currently utilized by the DOD, and what wireless operators would like to do is to share that band between the commercial users, as well as the Department of Defense and the DoD issued a report that says, yeah, what their operations are in that band, they can share it with commercial users and the Federal users, and giving them priority over a portion of that band so that they make sure they will use that portion of the band spectrum sharing itself is one of the hot topics in the industry right now, because spectrum is a very scarce resource. There's, there's not a lot of large blocks of spectrum that are available that can be dedicated to wireless broadband services. So how do how do we get over that problem? One of the ways is to look at areas where spectrum can be shared between incumbent users that have the licenses for that spectrum and new wireless broadband services the CBRs band is one of the bands that initially did Spectrum sharing, and the FCC is using that as a showcase to look at Spectrum sharing in other bands as well. There is a open docket that will be released soon, to look at the CBRs band and see how we can increase the utility of that band by increasing the power limits that that are currently restricted in that band. And this will allow more full power rights, more like you have on on regular cell phones and have a better customer experience on that band. It's believed once they provide more more opening up the power limitations that currently exist on this band. Some of the other things you know, as mentioned, you know, looking forward, obviously, we're going to have a new FCC, a new FCC commissioner. And you know, the the question will be, What? What? What does that mean? As as we move forward, if we look at Brendan Carr, and assuming that, you know, he will be the FCC Chairman after the new administration comes in. He has been a strong advocate of policies to promote the deployment of 5g and other advanced wireless services. He was vocal about the need to expedite the roll out of 5g infrastructure and making more spectrum available for commercial use to facilitate the deployment. When you look at spectrum, all spectrum is not created equal. We have what is known as low band spectrum, mid band spectrum and high band spectrum and and each area of spectrum, and let me see if I can share this chart with you here.
Let's see,
sometimes I have problems sharing in zoom, but let me, let me give this a shot and see if this works. Can you see that? Okay, so, so the low band spectrum is on the left side. The high band spectrum is on the right side of this screen, and in the middle is what's known as mid band spectrum. When you look at the low band spectrum that's typically used for wide cover. Gene ubiquitous coverage and, and, you know, it has good propagation characteristics, carry the signal so that you can get wide coverage and and support, you know, the the typical mobility services that you see today on the far right hand side, I'm sorry.
Oh, sorry. Sorry,
yeah, on the on the far right hand side, you'll see what's known as upper gigahertz, or even into the terahertz frequency ranges. And there's a lot of buzz about this. And the reason there's a lot of buzz about this is because there's a lot of spectrum available up in up in that range, because there's not a lot of users up there. Well, getting a lot of a lot of spectrum up in those ranges means you can have very high capacity and support very high data rates, because you have a have more spectrum available. The problem with it is those higher frequencies don't penetrate very well, or don't travel very far. So they're they're not going to penetrate in building very easily, and you're not going to get long distance coverage for those frequencies. So they're very specialized uses for those very high frequencies, even as in you get into the upper mid band gear, gigahertz frequencies, you do run into some of the challenges of propagation. You know, physics always wins, and propagation, you know, being the challenge will will dictate, you know, what type of services could be supported within a given frequency range, there is a sweet spot right in the middle and in that mid band range, the seven to 24 gigahertz, in that range where you have a good blend of capacity and coverage, you can you get pretty good chunks of spectrum available, and that spectrum that's in those ranges do propagate well enough to get you good capacity and good coverage for mobility users, and there's a lot of focus going forward on how we can get mid band spectrum in order to support the capacity and coverage that that are needed, especially as we move higher and have more broadband. I should talk a bit about fixed wireless access. When you look at these mid and upper mid band spectrum allocations, many of these are moving towards supporting fixed wireless access because of the challenges that you have with propagation and and and and the deployments of those upper mid band spectrum and upper gigahertz spectrum. So some of the fixed wireless offerings that you're seeing from the various operators today make use of those, those upper, upper mid band spectrum allocations that that are made available and are held by those wireless operators. And you know, again, if it's not a mobility it's really focused on the fixed wireless access, so you don't have to worry so much about the propagation as as you would if it were a true mobility type service. So so that's where we see some of those applications being as well. So go going back to what I was discussing, discussing about Brendan car. So mid band spectrum is, is one of the area we would see the new commission, emphasizing the importance of that again, balancing that coverage and capacity. Again, I think we need to see if we do get the FCC auction authority reallocated, and then how that would fit into what spectrum might be available and auctioned off in the future. Some of the other areas, obviously, are rural connectivity. You know, Brendan Carr has highlighted the importance of ensuring rural and underserved areas are not left behind in the 5g roll out and initiatives to extend wireless service to those regions and and as I mentioned, Spectrum sharing is is one of the other hot areas that's being discussed within within the industry right now. And that, again. Is to look at ways to share spectrum between users. And let me give you one example of spectrum is between DOD users, and more specifically, DOD radar systems, which operate in some of these gigahertz ranges and wireless services. Radars don't transmit continuously in the same direction all the time. You know, typically, when you look at a radar dish, it's rotating in order to, you know, have the beam go out and detect whatever you know the radar is trying to detect. Well, that means there's a whole lot of area that currently is that wouldn't be within that radar beam. And the wave spectrum sharing would work is when the radar is not transmitting, the wireless services can use it. When the radar would be transmitting, you would turn off the wireless services while that radar is transmitting. So that's, you know, a very simplistic way of the of how Spectrum sharing would work for that particular use case. But there's other use cases besides radar systems that spectrum sharing Could, could be used as well. So let me. Let me stop there. I see a couple of questions in the chat, potentially, yeah, I see Paul mentioned increasing power limits would greatly improve use of CBRs. Yeah, exactly, especially to handsets and home routers, etc. That that's exactly. And yes, the radar in coastal areas, because we have exclusion zones right now on coastal areas, because many of the Navy installations and Navy ships on in coastal areas do have radar transmissions that you know would would fall under this.
I have a quick question, if I may. Gordon Fuller, Tucson, I've represented the inventors and the patents for years the multi spectral company, ultra wide band Ultra wideband. I'm interested in it for spatial computing, particularly inside of communities and indoors. And I'm wondering what might happen with Ultra wideband, and where that fits into this picture.
You know, that's not an area of my expertise, and I haven't looked at it in a while. I know there in the past, there's been a lot of excitement and discussions around Ultra wideband and ultra wideband solutions, but to be honest, that's not something I've looked at recently, and I haven't heard much about that recently in any of the circles I've been in. So if you want to drop me a note, I can do some research for you, Gordon and see if I can get some information on that.
Thank you very much. I think it could be the great way for mesh networks to work from our cell phones, particularly in disasters when the Internet is down.
Yeah, please drop me an email. I'd like to talk with you more about that. I'll put my email in the chat.
So Bryan, what do you see about and what we think that the FCC might address in terms of all the satellites now that are being launched, obviously, Starlink, and I believe Amazon, and not sure who else is launching satellites at this point. Yeah, AST.
AST is the other big one. There's, yeah,
so is there going to be any limits or restrictions, or that's, that's all going to be wide open, or what's your perspective? It's a lot of satellites.
It's a lot of satellites. And I know there's a lot of concerns in management of the of the satellite constellations, and, you know, collision and avoidance and so forth. The other big thing you know, from our perspective, is interference with ground, terrestrial networks. You know, especially when we're talking about direct to direct to handset. And when I say direct to device or direct to handset, what I mean is that your your cell phone that you have today would work from a cell tower in the sky. It would use the same frequencies, it would use the same communication protocols and so forth that that your handset would use for the terrestrial network, only the cell tower is, is, you know, 100 whatever, miles up in the sky, instead of being, you know, on the ground. So that obviously has a lot of interference considerations. You know, how? How do you make sure that that satellite network doesn't interfere with the terrestrial network? Because interference with terrestrial network, obviously, is going to reduce capacity. It's going to cause major problems with with the with the terrestrial network. So that's, that's one area that. Has to be engineered carefully as those satellite constellations are deployed. Then you have the whole question about your your regulatory services, such as 911 for example, as being one. If you're in a satellite coverage area and you dial 911 how do you get that call routed to the proper public safety answering point that that needs to handle that call so that, again, is another one of the issues. You know, the regulatory services that are that are required by mobile devices and mobile operators, how do we make sure that these satellite services will be able to support those and and make sure that there is no degradation of those services as as we, you know, transition to the satellite and, yeah, you're right. I think there needs to be close coordination between the satellite operators, the mobile operators and the regulatory bodies to make sure that, you know, it's not the Wild Wild West, just deploy satellites and go for it, but it's done structure, you know, in a structured manner, and that the services that We have today are continuous across the new satellite environments.
Other questions for Bryan, so Bryan, one other question for me is so I know security is a big area of focus for you. Can you talk a little bit about security with all of this new technology. And of course, what again, might have happened or not happened with the FCC?
Yeah, well, I think security is, is always going to be front and front and center, no matter which FCC commissioner you have. You know, obviously, you know, when I saw in the chat. You know, we've heard recently about the this security breach from from China on some of the older equipment and some of the things. I can't talk too much about that, because that's still an ongoing investigation, and working with the FCC and even Congress on that. But you know, we've seen in recent days where there's been suggestions that you even use encrypted applications and over the top services to provide better encryption level of service end to end. And you know, whether we need to go that far or not, you know, I think there's still a lot of lot of discussions on that, but yes, we have to, we have to make sure security is front and center. Certainly, you know, we we talked about the rip and replace program. I think there's, you know, still work to be done to make sure that the supply chain security is intact. And we have, you know, a trusted supply chain for deployment of equipment within the networks. I think when we look at what's, what's known as the open radio access network, or open ran initiatives that are being done, those are being done to help with the supply chain and bring new entrance into the supply chain, so there's more options available to operators to deploy equipment. I asked Morgan one of the questions about the wireless Innovation Fund, which was meant to spur innovation in that area. And that's, you know, again, one of the questions that's outstanding is, what happens with that under under the new administration, under NTIA will at wireless innovation fund that's meant to enhance our supply chain. Will that continue or not? So that's another outstanding question. But yes, security, I think will always be front and center. I don't see that changing. In fact, I probably will say there'll be more emphasis on it, given, you know, more of the America first themes that we hear. And you know, we'll we'll see where it goes.
Other questions for Brian. So John Haas, you want to talk a little bit. You've been sharing a couple of things in the in the chat.
Sure, next week, we have DHS and CISA, since it started out with some concerns about security, they are hosting a workshop, and this is meant for people of all flavors, education, health care, people that may not have. Have as much awareness as perhaps the people on this call, but some people here could benefit from learning. It's a three hour workshop held at Embry Riddle, but hosted by DHS and CISA on physical and cyber security. So if you're in the area and next Wednesday, come join it will be only real time in person, not hybrid.
Hey, John, you might tell people, because I'm not sure everybody on this call knows what CISA is.
Ah, yeah. So the critical infrastructure security agency is a part of DHS, and they are focused primarily on the cyber security of critical infrastructure and communications, by golly, is one of those critical infrastructures. Other critical infrastructures, of course, include electrical water, natural gas, telecommunications, transportation, retail, there's 16 of them. And I think voting was the most recent critical infrastructure added. I think that was in 2017 so those are the areas that they're focused. Okay,
thank you, John. Anything else that anybody wants to share this morning, we're getting about out of time for day. Mala, do you have anything else that you want to give us an update about you? Kind of track all this stuff happening? Yeah, not happening. This case might be
That's true. Almost everything has been shared, except one thing that I noticed that we didn't share, and that is that the Supreme Court has agreed to review the Fifth Circuit decision that declared the federal USF unconstitutional. They plan on allocating an hour for oral arguments, and the parties will submit briefs addressed to both, you know, the merit of the case, as well as the questions the that arose about the non constitution, constitutionality of the USF funds. So we have to wait and see. I don't have a date when this is going to happen, unless anyone else has seen it somewhere else, but this is, this is a real precedent, and we are glad that they are listening to it, you know, listening to the oral arguments. God knows what the results are going to be. But hopefully, yeah, hopefully that at least the by listening to it, they are going to hear the arguments for and against. So let's, let's hope it there's some movement in that area. Yeah, um, yeah. Other than that, I don't have any other updates that have not been discussed so far.
Okay, thanks, Mama.
I have one, if that's all right. Steve Gordon, go ahead, just real quick. Today is the second day of what's called Site tech, and that's being done out of my former town of Palo Alto, California. And you've never really quite had the picture of what 10 minutes in the future is going to look like. This is the best place to find out this is a all the blind technologists from around the world gathered together showcasing what AI and assistive technology can do and will become so if you're looking for a crash course that makes you fully knowledgeable and embracing of the concept of what any of these communications technologies will evolve to do for us as humans. I'll just put forward one of the themes of the conference, and that is, we believe people in the future will recognize people with disabilities in their contributions to using these technologies will be the innovators for the future. So I certainly feel that way. Anyway, Kay Lopez putting the link in, and definitely it's up on YouTube. It'll be there all of the conference yesterday's was astonishing. I have to say, I'm very much a techie, but some of the things that were showcased are just going to change the world for everybody, not just people that are blind, but these ideas mean that all of us will have an incredible new tool at our disposal with AI and the integration of these things. Check it out.
Thanks, Gordon. I was going to send that out, but then it started, I guess today, yesterday or today, so but it is going to be available online on an ongoing basis, if I'm not mistaken,
like, like seeing site s, I G, H T, Siri will insist that it's site s, I T, E, like a website, but no site s, I G, H T, tech, T, E, C, H, all one word, boom, you're in. Okay, no registration required.
Okay, any other announcements for today going on? Anthony, do you have anything that you want to update us on regarding the State Library?
No. Steve, not. Not any updates today.
Okay, Kelly, anything else you want to talk about Kelly Mukherjee. Hey,
good morning, everyone. Like always, we are always looking for community impact stories. So if anyone has any to share as one, we continue to interview, on average, every one to two weeks, we have a wonderful story about Gordon Fuller, and as you saw, Mala is collecting some stories to also add to as one. So we are happy to share your positive impact stories to help the community understand all the great work that you're doing. So if you would like to work with me on that, please feel free to reach out. I can put my contact information in the chat. Thanks, Steve,
sure.
So give me a check in here. Okay, anybody else have anything that they want to, want to share, if not, I believe we are done for today, so we have one more meeting before the end of the year, and then we will be off for a few weeks for everybody to enjoy their holidays. And I guess nobody wants to meet on Christmas Day and New Year's Day. I can see Paul. Appreciate that. Paul, you want to give us any updates on what the latest with you. You got you always have so many interesting things going on. I
have just finalized my survey for my PhD, so I will be sending you an email later today, Steve, and then we'll be able to distribute that. I'm looking to interview about 20 to 30 people. I'm developing a conceptual model of the digital divide. And right now, I've made around about 450 components. It'll be the most comprehensive model of the digital divide that's ever been mapped out. And just to give you a little bit of an insight, I've analyzed 788 hours of video for 5.4 million transcribed words as part of my study to date. So that's what I'm working on. But you know, there's always good things around the corner too.
So Paul, I always say I don't know how you sleep at all, with all the research that you do and all the writing and everything else, how you ever find time to sleep and or take time off for that matter. Yeah, that's true. Actually, Paul, maybe you want to talk to us next week with more detail about what you're working on.
I could certainly do that.
Okay, I'll talk to you offline. Let's talk about that. Okay, any other questions, comments, thoughts that people have, if not I believe we are done for today. I.