Okay, morning, everybody. Gonna go ahead and get started. We may have some other people who, who may be joining us this morning. But wanted to start with. We have a couple of new people who are joining us today at least one that I'm aware of. So Austin, do you want to introduce yourself, please?
My name is Austin Adams. I'm the Deputy County Administrator for Greenlee County. I've been working with Heather on some of our Broadband pieces. And so I'm just trying to get a little more information on where we're going to make sure we're not left behind.
Sounds like a good idea. Sounds like an excellent idea. I think that's what a lot of people on this call are doing these days. Let's see who else do we have? That's new this morning.
Anybody else new this morning? Ricky, I see you're here. And you're of course gonna give us an update of who you are. In a little while.
Good morning, everyone. My apologies for the tardiness. My zoom, decided to do an update the minutes
this morning. Mind
computer's like exactly like, Hey, I'm just gonna update when you gotta do some important. I'll be done later. Well, good morning. Good morning. Good morning, everyone. I want to thank everybody, I wanted to be a good steward of the time. And just make sure to start whenever you want me to get going now. We're gonna
we're gonna do some, some quick updates first, before we get to Ricky for you before you do your presentation.
All right, well, I'm gonna pull up my notes. And I'll be right over here in the corner. And
Kenneth that I see that you had your hand up.
Yes, I am also knew that was
you want to introduce yourself, please? Yeah, sure. My
camera on there. Maybe I'll get my camera on. There we go. Hello, my name is Kenneth Kim, I am with the Arizona Department of Education, specifically the Adult Education Services Division. I am here as an observer primarily to kind of see what's going on. Because Broadband and internet connectivity definitely impacts our students and instructors, particularly in the rural areas. And so making sure that kind of seeing what they have access to making sure that people in those areas know that they have access to this information so that they can apply and we're moving into a new grant cycle. And so definitely want to just have an idea feel for what's kind of happening.
Well, we're gonna have a time slot for the Department of Ed in a little while. Maybe you give us a little more of an update at that time. Sure. Anybody else that's new today? Okay, well, if not, let's just first of all, you want to, as always to thank our sponsors CarFirst Health Plan, Karen's Ziegler, Valley Telecom Group, Kajeet and Triad, so we appreciate their support for the task force. And then let's just get into our updates. Excuse me. So I understand that Erin, you're gonna do the updates for the Broadband office today, right?
Yes, I am just had to find my mouse so I can unmute myself. Thanks so much. My name is Erin Lorandos. I'm the Digital Equity Program Manager for the ACA. And so my side of things was the is the the Digital Equity plan and all of that, but our team also of course, is handling the the BEAD process. And so just a couple of updates from us this morning. The BEAD initial proposal is nearly ready to be fully submitted to NTIA last minute tweaks are happening and that'll be submitted soon. We have a Digital Equity Roundtable Community Roundtable coming up this Tuesday. And I'll drop the link for where you can register for that online.
So that you also have that link in the email that I sent out with a notice of meeting today.
There you go see Steve's on top of it, I don't even have to drop links. It's perfect. So come and join us for that. We are going to talk a bit about the the goals and objectives that we are laying out in the plan. And we would love to have your input and feedback at that time. The whole plan will be up for public comment in early January and will be up for 30 days, so definitely take a look at that same same place that you go to register for the round table and all of that you'll find both the the BEAD initial proposal, as well as where the Digital Equity plan will be posted when it is posted in early January. And as I mentioned that it'll be up for 30 days for public comment, we will definitely be having other opportunities to discuss the plan during that period, as well, I'm sure we'll have an opportunity in this space here, as well as our regularly scheduled roundtables. And then also starting in January with the roundtables, we are going to have a lot of focus on the BEAD challenge process as well as the Digital Equity plan and the process for that. And then my last update and listener questions is just a little plug for the internet for all event that's coming up in January. And I can drop information in that in the chat on that if you don't have it quite yet, Steve, because we are working on the flyer and all of that. But this is going to be this is going to be a lot of panel discussions around all of the different pieces having to do with providing internet for all Arizonans. And so it'd be a really great day, lots of stakeholders, just like yourself will be in that space. And we were really looking forward to that opportunity to share the plans for the future and and hear what's going on already in the state.
Okay, any any other questions for Erin this morning? Going once, going twice. So the Internet for All was one of the things I wanted to chat with you about Erin, but we can talk about that offline. Sounds good. Thank you. Okay. Excuse me, I'm still overcoming a attack of some kind for the last couple of weeks here. So apologize with my caughing in here is interruptive. I don't think Nicole I didn't see Nicolel online this morning? I don't think so. So just actually, I want to check that you all receive an email from me yesterday about the endorsement for ACP? What's happening little email issue and want to make sure everybody got that. So yesterday, I got I got to two. Okay. Now, okay. I'm glad to know that it actually got out. So theoretically, yesterday was the final the deadline to submit. But if you want to check that email, and I also I just want to remind you, which I commented earlier, that usually most of the things that people want now it's with links and contacts and dates, is usually excuse me is usually included in my email. So that makes it easy for you to find all that stuff. I know I quote a lot of stuff in there. But it's a great way to find all the links and contacts and events coming up and all that sort of stuff. So I encourage you to kind of know you're probably like I am and don't read everything that I get. But it will give you kind of a good overview of things that are happening. So with that, just moving on. Aaron, what's the status with the we're hiring? Are you still looking for people to hire? Are you working with the senior Broadband and community engagement? outreach person?
Yes, we are in the process of interviewing folks for those roles at this time.
Okay. Are you accepting more applications or not right now?
If it's if it's still up, then we are absolutely.
Okay. And the State Library, I'm not sure who's on the line with the State Library if you're still looking for Digital Inclusion for digital navigators.
I couldn't report on that, Steve. We have interviews scheduled next week for the digital navigators, we received a great crop of applicants like way more than we've ever received before. So we're doing nine interviews next week and hoping to hire at least two possibly three people. We're still working on advertising for Aaron's former position so that I'm hoping it goes up before the holidays but can't say for sure right now. Okay.
So how many Navigators are you planning to hire?
We're looking to fill about 40 hours and so it's more two or three, they're all part time position. So it's sort of what they can do and how it fits in with the schedule with the others. Okay.
Right. Thank you, Megan.
You're welcome.
Yeah. PJ. PJ, did you have something? Okay. So the other thing? I don't know is Kelley is online, Kelly Boan? Well, just a reminder that I also sent out information about the pole attachment issue. At the last meeting there was discussion, Kelley and and Mala shared information about the about the FCCs hearings that are going to be coming up regarding pole attachment issues. And SHLB shared the ex parte filings with the FCC, that SHLB had had drafted. So I have also included the link for that. And the information for your information. I know that is a big issue for a lot of folks, particularly folks in the rural communities. So you might want to keep track of that. Okay. Can we just a second here? PJ, I'm gonna mute you.
Now, okay. Alrighty, moving on. So, excuse me, as you know, the governor's interagency and community Broadband Advisory Council has a number of working groups, you can still sign up if you are interested to do that. The first two meetings, each of each of the groups, excuse me. Pardon me, meetings one, and two, the recordings are available and again, are in the email that I sent out yesterday. The next meeting is coming up on December the 19th. And if I understand correctly, that that's going to be a joint meeting with all of the task forces, rather than just one specific group. And that information is also available in the email that I sent with the link, the Google Meet link to be able to join that meeting. And then moving on. Erin, you want to just again, remind people about the Community Roundtable? I know you mentioned it earlier. But can you just talk briefly about the December 19? Digital Equity Community Roundtable? Definitely.
So these are monthly, online, roundtables that we host the ACA, basically, as another opportunity to discuss, you know, the current state of of the plan and what our goals are. We are planning to focus this upcoming Tuesday on the goals and objectives that we plan to include kind of a preview before the public comment period, and everything is up for everyone to read. And so, you know, we'll we'll go over those in a bit of detail and take any comments that folks have at that time, where if we're missing something, and you know, you're you're wanting to take an opportunity to let us know, that would be fantastic. And you can register for that. On the I did drop the links just for fun. In the chat,
that's okay. So you don't have to apologize. It's okay. Okay, any questions Barrett about that? Again, on the 19, the Institute for self for local Self Reliance will be holding in a webinar series on the business of tribal Broadband. I thought it'd be an interesting and again, his in my email announcement with the link for that information. Okay, I think we're gonna just jump into excuse me into the presentation today, our digital access resource highlight. And I want to introduce, although he kind of introduced himself last week, and briefly this morning, but I wanted to introduce Ricky white. He's the senior manager with five and white consultancy. And he's going to talk about their strategic approach to enhancing Digital Equity and fostering community empowerment. So with that, Ricky, I'm going to turn it over to you. Do you need to share?
No, no, we're not going to share just one vocal. Hey, Okay, good morning, everyone from Central timezone. Thank you for allowing me to come and speak with you this morning. from Alabama currently, I'm funny, I'm in the States Capitol, dealing with some items that are concerning Broadband and Digital Equity workforce, telehealth so roundabout of meetings today that will allow us to bring some impact right here to the state. So one of the big things as we get started, let me make sure that I give a little bit of homework or a little bit of background. My name is Ricky JY, Jr. And yes, for me, it is important with the junior because my father is senior, and I've earned everything that I have the same way he has, I like to make sure that we you spell my name, I am junior, and there's a difference between us. I've been in the technology space, since literally high school, I was the nerd always play with a mouse more so than I would playing with anything else. So taking technology and applying it with every piece of work opportunity that I've had the operator, not just opportunity, but the chance to expose myself to has always been my foundation, now pushing beyond COVID-19 When every other small business potentially took losses or face declines, our business actually took a turn, because we were so technology forward, all of the conversations we had there were two four with technology we started getting into. And the biggest call that came during COVID was the one that said, hey, we need some help with the Wi Fi thing over here in this community. And I was like, Ah, maybe not. So what that individual did was they called my wife. Yep. Everybody knows what happens when they call your spouse so they call my wife my wife told me go help them out. And helping out that group that nonprofit organization led deeper and deeper into the issues to communities that were affecting underserved unserved public housing authorities just mixed, not necessarily rule, but it started uncovering all of the items that led to the disparities of round low income families and their lack of digital access. Our firm spent about three years retooling and redeveloping everything we knew around Digital Equity, and Broadband. No, we did not come I do not come from a telecom telecom background. But I come from a community, I come from a position to understand, say communities with access to every side of the table. So here we are today. And I come as a senior consultant, more so than just an expert in telecommunications, or expert in Digital Equity. My expertise allows me the ability to be able to cover topics with a level of depth and understanding like Digital Equity and Broadband, or community engagement, or inter governmental affairs and how we can connect those dots together. More importantly, how this can be applied in Arizona. So five core things that we need to consider is the impact on organizations. Engagement with minority serving institutions, and I'm going to come back and unpack with those MSI s are the hub and spoke model for connectivity, right. And that's going to be understanding how you can connect institutions in like MSI schools, housing authorities, and especially libraries. And then looking at a community centric approach, like when we're shifting from this broad infrastructure perspective, and we're tailoring it to how can we have temporary solutions that allow connectivity now, while we work on these longer, more intense infrastructure plans, and then finally, advocacy for minority communities. Now, again, I am from Alabama. I've lived in New York, DC, Tennessee, and multiple places all above and I've spent a lot of time coming to Phoenix with other clients that we have that are in that market. And I just want to say this funny part. I love the guacamole at the Kimpton Hotel. I'm sorry, if it's better, please put it in the chat. And when I'm there in a few weeks, I will go check it out. But it's one of my favorite places when I'm inside of the Arizona community. But starting golf, let's understand this. MSI is minority serving institutions, that is going to be HBCUs historically black colleges and universities HBCUs historically black community colleges PBIS predominantly black institutions. Paul's a PBI. Let's use an example. Let's take the University of Arizona if the University of Arizona enrollment shifts greatly where it may have 51% African And Americans in attendance, they can now be defined or declared as a PBI. What we're seeing in Alabama, we have two institutions, which are really interesting. One is West Alabama, and the other one is the University of Auburn and Montgomery, both has shifted to become PBIS since COVID, due to the rising number of digital enrollment, and other communities. And let me keep going through the list. We also have tribal institutions. And then we have Hispanic serving institutions. There are a few more in the MSI track, but based upon locations, you know, you want to know what's in everybody's state, like you have Asian serving. So the MSS sector in your state is really, really important. Because during COVID, and impulse, the federal government allocated hundreds of millions of dollars exclusively for MSRs, such as the connecting minority communities grant fund ran by NTA. And that funding was meant to give MSI exclusively an opportunity for financial support to enhance Technical Services, technical access, and equipment necessary to be more forward in today's emerging market. The reason why MSA is a critical across any state is that as I go through it, and I mentioned earlier to advocacy to minority communities, the one thing that I have to recognize being a 40 year old African American from Alabama, is that the minority communities are not just exclusive to African American communities, the minority communities have to represent tribal and native minority communities represent veteran women own Asian, Hispanic, right. So when we look at that group, oftentimes what happens in conversations in rooms is that the rooms and leadership, the rooms and conversations don't reflect the audience. So our firm has been tasked to come in and bring a voice a sense of urgency around the community, not being one that may be from each one, but the ability to be able to speak a little bit more forward and aggressive about what may be facing that community serves. So that impact on organizations that we're talking about the BEAD funding, the organizational access. Last week, you guys talked about technical assistance and grant writing, the critical juncture that we see is that in that process of grant development, grant writing, or procurement, low income communities or minority serving communities are oftentimes lumped into grant writing processes, but are not necessarily a part of the technical assistance table, and not a part of the community development team. So when we consider what community engagement looks like, into minority serving communities, or low income families, we need to recognize what the Milken Institute built best was the Milken Institute stated that technical assistance is best served and apply by individuals that directly reflect the community in which they began to serve. So I may not be the best person to go to a rural market, where you have 3% African Americans and 97% non African Americans living in that space to apply technical assistance. But when you go somewhere, non rule such as inner city, and you're in a public housing community, or you may have a 89%, African American base of residence, and then the rest of Excel, we have to understand uniquely how to engage that audience effectively, and what they need based upon their Centricity model. That's gonna go more into our hub and spoke model for connectivity. What we saw during COVID was quick fix solutions. And I say that not from a position of being elitist, or privilege, because I recognize that in my privilege, I can sit in my house that has fiber, and my kids were connected, and my wife worked and I worked, and we had no issues. But we also recognize that so many other communities had things that were written for them that didn't reflect it. So the hub and spoke model says this, let's use this example if you can bear with me. We have 30 buildings, NAU. And this is a real property by the way, it is literally in a U shape 30 buildings, and they are public housing community.
Those 30 buildings have a total of 150 doors, so that's residential units. We could run fibre to that community into let's say, the Rec Center, the leasing office and use it as a model and then run independent fiber to each one of the buildings. And then at the building we can apply one access point per residential unit on a Share network similar to the way some of our houses have mesh networks or your office has one unilateral mesh network. What that would have done is you could have created one internet bill that connected multiple homes that allow them to be able to access educational and Workforce Solutions, while we came up with a longer solution to bring connectivity to each individual property, so if it was $15,000, to bring fiber to the property, and we spent another 20,000, running fiber to the buildings, what we did first off was we could have empowered or hired a small business to have the contract to do the connectivity. Number two, we could use it as a workforce or apprenticeship program for individuals in the community that could be going into the telecommunication space for that level of support. But number three, what we did was we gave an immediate solution, not a hotspot, and why would a hotspot not work? Now I'll give you my background. When my parents split, when I was in second grade, we went and stayed at my grandmother's house who lived into projects a public housing authority community. Those projects are cinderblock. bricks that are 16 inches plus thick. And we didn't have cell phones back then in 19. Oh, God 1989 1990s. Right. Those same locations are in existence right now. So you cannot take a hot spot, no matter the carrier, and place that hot spot in the middle of a building and say, Hey, you're gonna connect to the internet, because the signal isn't penetrating well, that 16 inch block. So what we did was we gave devices not understanding the community in which we served. And I use that example because I wanted you to understand what a hub and spoke model could look like. When we consider what connectivity looks like. Our model, our firm is to do something that can create instant solutions. While we work to complete the risks. It's a band aid effect with a tactical plan. It is triage with a tactical plan. Kids in most locations are a minimum of two years behind with the digital learning or COVID learning loss. And before that, they will already a year and a half. So what our firm learn during COVID and post COVID with the data that we collect, because we do feasibility studies, feasibility studies, with different municipalities different markets across the board, is we took real information, we knew that the study that the school conducted on do you have internet was between March, April and May. And if you understand the minority community, minority communities have a surge in funding per household during what we call income tax season, which meant they may have had connectivity in that period of time. And the minute you got into May and June, service would have been disconnected. And depending on where your community is, you would have had students that may have had year round school or needed additional educational support during the summer. But by the time they get back into school in August, there is no connected solution that goes into understanding of community centric approach and how we can shift it. What we've seen as a company is that infrastructure and I apologize if they're ISPs on the line. This is not a slight towards your your organization by any means whatsoever. This is just a reality of what we are learning and uncovering. And there are other articles all across the web that goes into talking about digital redlining. What we understand is that a households such as mine, would be the target audience for ISP to bring fiber to, because we can readily afford that 75 $99 gig of service that comes in. But as we begin to run infrastructure across and around low income communities, we're losing the impact. We're going to a school and then we're saying there's no fiber to a community. In most cases, schools sit in the middle of low income communities. Libraries sit in the middle of low income communities, which means that a library and a school could become a demark facility to run fiber to the community. So when we approach advocacy, when we look at Hub and Spoke models, when we consider the impact on organizations, what we've learned and what we're continuing to learn is that one of the biggest models we can apply is what happens if we turn MSRs minority serving institutions into community anchors. What happens when the connectivity at those locations can be a model to directly connect to the neighboring and connecting neighborhoods? When we build out models like We may spend $100,000, or 250,000. But we spent 100,000 200,000. And we say we could connect 100 homes 200 homes instantly, while we wait for the next five years of the BEAD money process to be implemented. Because the reality of it is, the B money is great. Arizona is receiving almost a billion dollars, how long would it take for that billion to reach a underserved community? Now add that math with the COVID learning laws and the previous education laws. So by the time we apply this billion dollars into underserved communities, both urban and rural, we're looking at a five to six year educational deficit. So what does that do to our ecosystems? What does that do for workforce? So at our firm, we want to pause and say, What can we do now that connects to solutions that you have? Who has an amazing workforce program? What institution has a workforce program? What nonprofit? Can we partner them together? Can we apply the neighborhood anchor platform and say, everywhere where there's a public housing authority, let's connect that location first as a pilot, so we can get multiple units on? Can we also say when we have minority serving institutions that are near or communities near correctional facilities, we should connect those individuals within that place. Because if we want to reduce recidivism by example, we need to apply Digital Equity to justice impact to individuals, both that are currently incarcerated, and those that have came from incarceration. Because we do not use Digital Equity as a baseline, just like we would do science, technology, engineering and math, it will not work. We believe that Digital Equity becomes a catalyst. And a standard need by Broadband should be a utility for every home, both water sewer power. So in our process, as I close this thing out, our approach with both black and white is to recognize and understand what communities we're talking to. And we've done that work in Alabama, and we're doing more of the work in Alabama. Sometimes I wish I could say the municipalities in which we're doing this for, but everybody understands the politics and the processes. Some went fast, somewhat slow. But we recognize that infrastructure needed a voice of alliances that reflected minority communities, as well as those who speak so heavily for rural communities. And with that being said, we can always apply a temporary solution to both a rule and a man in an urban community rule, use whisper models, apply it let it be in place for 18 months, while ISPs or community ISPs come together to bring connectivity. In urban, let's use multi unit dwelling models. If we can connect communities, we can actually change our COVID learning loss, we can change the way our workforce is being impacted. And across the board, we can actually improve and enhance the socio economic status of all residents in these digitally afflicted communities across your state. Thank you.
Thank you, Ricky. Excuse me. So, questions, comments Shereka.
Hello, Ricky, my name is Shereka Jackson. And so I am a Phoenix native live here in the valley, I will shoot you a message right now. I would love to know what you're doing here in the Phoenix area, and how me as a person in tech of 24 years, as well as the founder of a nonprofit that provides STEM education in the valley, how we could possibly work together. So I guess that wasn't a question more of a statement.
Thank you, I'll put my link profile in there, we should have our contact information. And we can just use a calendar, please schedule a call, whether it's myself also in the works with me. And we can literally talk about some great impacts or some items that we can do to support communities where you are. Okay, thanks.
Other questions or comments for
a question about the when you're looking at, for instance, urban environments? What sort of mapping activities have you conducted and working with schools and other nonprofits and got hung up? So?
Yes, so what we've done the first time we met, we actually did it out of pocket ourselves. And we did it because we were under the impression that it would have went to the greater good. And we waited and we waited and waited, and that mapping process didn't come out the way we wanted it to And so what we ended up doing was we took all of the data we had in our map, and we gave it to the team and NTIA to apply against theirs. Because the reality was that data mapping has to be done almost two to three times based upon the lifestyle or at least interesting life cycle of the community in which you're doing. The urban community is densely populated and has just as much poverty as a rural community, which is more sparse. Mapping requires education, school systems, public housing authorities, and municipalities to work together. That level of mapping needs to be done in conjunction and then applied against an ISPs fiber map that they had to publicly disclose to a municipality when they got their rights there. I'm sorry, what is it? The Crossing rights my my brain just froze on those. And you can also work with utility companies to do a cross comparison. We've worked heavily with one of the utility companies in Alabama, to provide some fiber access or access to it, bringing 2500 mile networks across the state. And what we did was wanting to apply their dark fiber lease model to pick up in locations such as a school. So Paul, to give you an example of that, in Birmingham, Alabama, specifically, Birmingham school system has about 30 schools across the city. Every school in Birmingham is within 1.5 miles of a public housing authority. Every school in Birmingham has a 10 gig dark fiber circuit running to it based upon the Unity fiber or southern link network. So what we learned was, there was fiber everywhere, what we learned was it would have cost $13,000. And one of the locations we mapped as well, to run fiber across the pole vertical, not digging to go to the public housing authorities rec center, that we could apply that model of connecting each building, we pitched it, we presented it, we even brought in larger partners to help do it. And respectfully, we haven't had that movement. That is not a shot on the city of Birmingham. That is just an understanding of the capacity that municipalities have and limitation based upon their teams, or their ability to have consultancies versus ISPs. Because a consultancy like ours, or ISP, that we may know, can't go against a larger is multimillion multinational ISP that's spending millions and lobbying. We encourage municipalities and school systems to do privatize polls, and mapping to ensure that where you're trying to go and buckets can work together. So to close that question out with a more precise answer, if you're a municipality or school system, and you know where all of your schools are, and you call and you ask all of your ISPs to give you their fiber maps. And then you also take all of the little dots where you have your clusters, based upon housing, if you put those maps together on the lands, you will actually have a heat map that gives you true density of where your population needs to be what we've learned, and what we've done is we work with a company called St. and Associates, I love those guys, their 50 year plus engineering firm, they've got some award winning processes with Grant mapping. And what we did was we worked with them instead of running, you know, an extra million dollars and payroll engineers, and they do a great job for all of the municipalities or school systems that call us in to help with mapping processes.
I'm encouraged that you've you've considered the proximity of the schools to the housing locations, because once you start looking at all the other elements with that make up a city, such as parks, trails, you know, bus stations, even bus pickup points, and you're looking at where things are at. And then when you've got the student data to, as well as the school location data, that's when you really start to see the heat maps. And you can start to overlay all those heat maps and say, you know, it's more than just fiber is more than just the internet. And you start to see other services that are needed within the area as well. But you also see possibilities. Definitely municipal possibilities when you start to get to that level of data, so I'm encouraged that you're actually doing that type of mapping, because it's looking at all the resources and what can be maximized.
Definitely. So that level of maximum map mapping also requires some great relationships. So that's why I'm big about working with local institutions, data stations, groups like that in place based organizations. So you can create this level of data, the dangerous the danger in it is when you have this data, you almost have to share it with municipalities or entities in order to get traction. And then what can happen if you're not, if you don't, if you don't have the right gas or size, you can share all of your data, and then you don't get chosen to be the group that can help lead that change. So what we encourage everyone to do is to look at it in this model, that consultancies are here to be a bridge between what you can and cannot do. So just like you call an attorney that speaks legal CPA speak numbers, consultancies are meant to be that position. So every group or organization should have that go to expert that speaks that level of technology like, hey, my router isn't working in my office, my printer, I call my IT guy, well, in this space, IT professionals may not speak community Broadband, IT professionals may not speak Digital Equity. So we just want to be a great voice to organizations across the board, so we can maximize your impact for the individuals that you want to reach.
Kenneth, you had a question in the chat? Do you want to share that?
Yeah, I can just share that. So my question is basically, the hub and spoke model. While that works really well, for urban environments, I'm curious if you know anything about how effective it is for the more rural communities that are a little bit more spread out? Or if there is alternate models that would be more effective in those scenarios.
All right, good, I'm gonna be given almost given away, give it away to goods here. So you Yes, there is a way to directly apply that model, simple hub and spoke, bring power to one location. And then you run distribution channels to send power out. Connectivity works the same way. If I am a military base, and this is a forward operating base, I have to put up a set link back to whatever my JSOC whatever my next location is, that model can work and apply. But we also have to navigate speed. Everything is screaming, you need 100, up 100, down, 100 up or 100 down. Again, I'm going back and telling you how to apply real world examples. I would question how many people are not just homeowners, how many people own rental properties, and then everybody could potentially raise their hand. And then I will say how many people own rental properties and they have tenants that are on Section eight. And then you'll see a hand shift? Well, due to the fact we're property homeowner, property owners, landlords that have section eight, we get an exposure to our tenants. And so what you need to know is this, how many families are running 50 Meg's of dedicated down internet in a house right now, I would tell you, Hey, why don't you sit up here and check your old service. When we think about connectivity, we're going so much at the larger number, that we're missing the fact that we need to get them connected. Some models that are ruled need to do clustered eyes satellite service. And then some models need to do with models that handoff that's why the infrastructure maps that you guys are building need to apply. Also remember this, in most cases, your state has whisk networks up and down his highways that he uses privately, to keep up with traffic. Everywhere when you see a cell phone tie or in a community can directly connect to rule. I believe that rural communities need community with models that feed into traditional ISPs while you make your way to them. That doesn't mean you're going to get 100 up and 100 down. But what it does mean is that we can get you 20 down and five up and you're connected and you can learn and you can apply for a job and you can educate. We have to start with something instead of standing back in our positions of privilege and just talking about it. So yes, Kenneth. It can work and it can be applied. You just need to look at your fiber maps and your tower locations. We've done a model like that here in Alabama. Again, we built it, we designed it and we gave it to the client it is up for the client to then roll it out.
Thank you very much.
Any other questions for Ricky? Thank you, Ricky, it was great to hear you.
Thank you guys for having
one, I just remind you that excuse me last week that we had a presentation from the economic recovery center, and the resources they provide, to be able to utilize consultants, if you're doing community organization planning. Excuse me. And we know that a lot of communities, and I know there's some few communities are online here today that have used a consultants, like Karen Ziegler, who's also online today and have used consultants to do their planning. So if you and I'm trying to be careful here, because I can't promote any one consultant over another here, but just a reminder that if you like what you heard from Ricky, that you can, and you don't have the resources to hire them, hire him, but you think he would be useful for you that you can turn to the economic recovery center for her help with that.
I'm sorry, Steve, I also can chime in on that. Like I said, I've got my wonderful partner in crime here. We also can, in some cases, even working with that, when you call us start with the conversation, we have some external philanthropy models or access to be able to come in, do not let the thought process or the access to the cash or the capital be a limitation was starting the conversation. We've got some really good teams of partners, we have some great projects that we're doing in Alabama, we have some great things. We're willing to understand the depth of what goes on, and then find a way to bridge that conversation together. My mentor teaches me that you don't know anything until you have a conversation. So conversation first, and then go with what happens behind the next.
Right. Okay, thank you, Ricky. Any other quick questions for Ricky before we move on? Okay, so we're gonna get to some updates here in just a minute. But there's a couple of people if you still here. So Aaron MUFA lotto, I believe you are with Comcast. And I don't think we've really heard much from Comcast. Do you want to introduce yourself quickly? Have any comments and we may bring you back for a more extended update on what Comcast is up is about.
Hi, good morning. Yes, I would love to do that. I will warn you I am at home with my daughter that has RSV. So you might hear some little screaming in the Deaf crowd. But um, yeah, so So I'm with Comcast, I'm based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, but oversee Arizona as well. And we've been working with the the office of Broadband to try to identify areas where we could help with expansion efforts. That's, of course, a big goal trying to connect more people to fast high speed internet. So another thing I should also mention, ACP, of course, is an important thing. We've been working on trying to really work on the adoption of internet. What's one thing we've been seen as a lot of people have internet at their home as well, but they just aren't, aren't connected. So we've been trying to work on ways we can get them connected. And if HDP goes away, we still have our 995 a month high speed internet. So always looking for ways we can partner with all of you to try to go to any fairs or anything just to try to connect with more individuals. And if you all do have any questions in the future, happy to talk more extensively on anything as well.
And just a reminder, if you want to reach Aaron, as you know, excuse me, that I do send out the registration list of people who attend today with the contact information. So that's true for anybody who's who's participating on this call. But I just wanted to remind you about that.
And feel free to reach out.
Yeah, so definitely are and I think it'd be good for us to hear more about your footprint here in Arizona, the programs that you've got going on what you're doing with ACP, and so forth. was able to, I'll be in touch with you probably after the first of the year to get an update from you. Yeah,
that sounds great. And we don't have a large footprint in Arizona. Tucson and surrounding areas is our, I guess, the areas we serve, but we're working to expand and happy to talk more about that in the future as well.
Sounds great. Thanks.
Thank you, Steve.
You bet. And then Eric Martinez. I believe you are with Chicanos Por La Causa. And you want to give us a quick update on what's happening with the ACP and other things you guys are into?
Yeah, absolutely. Um, so we've actually gone through a couple kind of like festivals. So we did a big one that was in more in New Mexico while ago, but we've also gone to Tucson, and we kind of had like a senior senator out there. And we gave him like, computer basic internet basic cybersecurity classes.
For just one sec, please. Can you just give people a quick background about the grant that you've received to do ACP promotion?
Oh, yeah, absolutely. So a little bit of our about our grants. We're a team of three here at Chicanos Por La Casa. Our grant allows us to go to different states and allow for the ACP and bring that to the community. From those is California. We have LA County, a couple of counties in Nevada, here in Arizona as well and then a few counties in New Mexico. So our job here is to we're centralist here in Phoenix, but we go out throughout the community here in the southwest. So we're going to be looking to expand here in Utah soon. They're looking to get us out during and get some ACP promotion out there. But around here, I mean, we went to Tucson to the Senior Center, we partnered with the libraries in Yuma did a internet basics and cybersecurity class out there, along with ACP registrations, and then our early childhood development. So we have some centers here in the valley that also are low income and they had a holiday festival when we went out there and tabled to ACP signups as well. Right, so yeah, we've been we've been very active here in the community. And then as well, out in the community, we've been promoting ACP as well.
Great. Thank you. Thank you, Eric. Any questions for Eric? If not, let's move on. Excuse me, I'm always suffering here. Somebody commented that they have our child as our as RSV, and I believe that I do too, and have had it for several weeks now. Anyway, moving on. So Megan, I know you're online. Manga is on leave. Do you want to give us any more updates on what's happening with the State Library today?
Um, well, I don't really have too much else to update. I think Mala is here. I see her there. So I'll defer to her if she has anything.
She's on leave. Okay.
Well, I think I'm focused in on hiring the digital navigators and getting ready for the holidays. And and I think those are the only updates we have today. Thanks.
Okay. All righty and Janet's not here. Anybody from the Department of Ed that wants to do anything else? Any more updates with the Department of Education? Going once, going twice. Okay, Cindy, you're on. You still here?
Yes, I am trying to get my video. Hi, everyone. I'm Cindy Hogan. I'm the chair of the Arizona Digital Inclusion network. We call it Aiden for short. We meet twice a month on Thursdays at noon. And this our next meeting is today at noon. We're going to be talking about kind of preparing ourselves as a group to start reviewing the Digital Equity plan when that releases sounds like in early January, so that we can get a running start at at how to kind of break things apart. And and, yeah, get through that lengthy document. But we're looking forward to the proposals. And I'm really excited about the roundtable that Aaron spoke about so we can learn about the things that are being proposed within the plan. I really looking forward to that. We're also looking at as a group, we're looking at a public awareness initiative and how we can message as a group on the importance of internet For all the the the fact that our society is better off if everybody is connected. And so we're looking at ways to reach people in plain language. So we're having a discussion about that today. And I will put all the information about the meeting, if you want one to attend, just send me an email, and we'll get you on the invite list. Thanks very much.
Thanks, Sandy. Any questions for Cindy? Going once, going twice. Okay, so we just we do have a few minutes left. And again, I just want to remind you that almost everything that you hear about with meetings and events and contacts, presenters, that you're looking for their contact information, or you want to find the links to these various events and activities I tried to cover include everything again, I know, there's I share a lot of information with you. But you will, you know, if you do a quick scan, you'll find things that are coming up that you may want to participate in. So with that, I'm gonna take just a couple more minutes, and then we'll maybe just end the meeting for today. But I would like to do every once in a while with those of you who have been with us for a while, know that we asked people to introduce themselves, and just give a two minute update about who you are, what you do. And if you're looking for any partners, partners, or anything else. And so with that said, I'm gonna put some people on the on the spot here. And Jennifer, do you want it to take or do you want to take just a couple of minutes to share, you know, who you are, what you're doing and so forth.
Right, most certainly. Me Do one thing first. And then two devices at the moment, I just need to do not confuse myself. I'm Jen T. Baker. I work with City of Tucson, and I'm in the city manager's office assisting our Department of Information and Technology with some help on the BEAD challenge and with fiber, rolling out fiber to every premise in the community. I have other hats that I wear in my role. But this is one that I'm I'm here representing today. Right. Thanks for having me.
Thank you, John. Always good to see you. And let's see what else we got here. So Manny, you want to I know you've taught you've kind of introduced yourself in the past, but you have so many things going on. You want to just take another minute.
Sure. Thanks, Steven. Good morning, everyone. My name is Manny Felix, I'm the founder and CEO of AC cyber initiative. And we're a nonprofit focusing on providing cyber and digital literacy to high school students, middle school students as well as educators in the K 12. Space. But we partner with a lot of nonprofits, local and state government organizations, just school districts, pretty much a lot of the organizations that you will represent in, in this call. So a lot of industry corporate relationships as well. So happy to be here just learn more and seeing how we can bring more cyber education to to students.
Great. Thank you, Manny and you are doing some really amazing work. And Rory, I kind of skipped you. But do you want to kind of give us an update what's happened and if anything with you, and with the final mile projects that you're working on, and many
things are happening, so but I'll make it really quick. I think we're over 60 Somethings users in the sun corridor project down in Maryvale. area. And we're still adding more and final mile, pretty much done. We're still adding users we're actually opening up to more towns here shortly that but they're not through final mile. That projects been completed all the way through the through the system. So it just keeps adding more users. They're still expanding. And I'm looking at apparently a my robotics team from Ruth Fisher School, which is a junior middle school that competed to the high school level to sixth place, I guess, this weekend, and got the award for the best most knowledgeable programming staff and which is we send we send one to two programmers out there every week to work with the kids to help them get better. So there that's the highlight for the week. So that's pretty much it.
And Rory, again, thank you for your support and sponsorship and your regular participation in our meetings. Really appreciate it.
No worries.
So a couple of other people if I can put you on the spot Murray Garner Do you want to introduce yourself quickly?
Yes, my name is Marie Garner. I work for Coconino County Health and Human Services. I am a caseworker. And I work on special projects specifically right now for the ACP program.
You want to talk at all just quickly about what you're what you're doing with ACP.
So I am signing up families who qualify for the program. We are basically the first step and then they have to follow through to the second step in which they reach out to their providers and get connected.
Thank you. Thank you, Marie.
Yeah, we're doing a lot of outreach events. And, you know, just sharing the good information of this awesome resource ACC APC has provided.
Right. Thank you. And Teresa Gaul.
Teresa, are you there?
Oh, I'm sorry. I would have made some tea and came back with Oh,
okay. Are you introducing yourself real quickly?
Oh, my name is Teresa gall. I work with Coconino County, special community action special projects, special projects. And yeah, we are doing the ACP navigator pilot program.
You want to say anything more about that?
Yeah, we're just we just now got a full time staff for for the navigator position. So we're, it's like, we're still setting kind of a foundation for the outreach and enrollment events. We've done a lot of outreach though. But not yet a enrollment event. And we've got one planned at the Flagstaff veterans. Center something I forgot to tie in. I'm sorry. Yeah. Cuz veterans are there any veteran with the pension, they're like, automatically qualify. So I thought that would be a good place to start. Our first enrollment event.
Okay, anything else, Teresa?
No, that's it. Thanks to you.
Great, thank you. And Tina, if I booked by pronounce your name correctly. gounder. Gunther? Hi, I'm
a I'm about to go bomba and public and I have been working with Common Sense Media with Elena. So I have been attending a lot of school events to promote, to reach out help parents to sign up for the ACP program. I am the CP navigator. And we have been getting a lot of input, like how they have been paying so much money that this program would be very helpful for them. So it has been quite interesting experience for me.
Okay, well, thank you. Thanks, for you've been attending pretty regularly. Appreciate you. Your being here.
Oh, thank you, Steve. I appreciate ya. Wonderful to hear from everybody. Different different experience. And yeah, awesome experience. Super.
Thank you. So Laurie, I know you're here pretty regular way. But have I heard from you a lot. So do you want to just kind of tell people who you are?
Are you there? Okay. Well, I think we're kind of done for today. We will be meeting next week we will not be meeting on the 28th. So if people will have a break and have some holiday time. Anything else any other announcements that or anything else that people want to share before we we end for the day? Going once, going twice. And I do believe that we are done for today. Thank you. Oh, good to see you, Ricky, thank you for your presentation this morning. And we'll see you all hopefully next week.
