July 11, 2024 AZBSN Digital Access Task Force Recording

10:14PM Jul 14, 2024

Speakers:

Steve Peters

Ilana Lowery

Nicole Umayam

Mark Goldstein

Paul Ross

Shereka Jackson

Mala Muralidharan

Rory Conaway

Barney McCabe

Brenna Leasor

Mallory DeVol

Anthony Garcia

Paul Wagner

Jeff Rose

Matt Dostal

Keywords:

usf

years

people

cybersecurity

services

students

arizona

organizations

broadband

funded

funding

paul

part

work

grant

program

digital

older adults

provide

equity

Okay, we are recording. So good morning. Glad to see you all this morning. Lots of new people today. Very exciting. So, actually what we try to do is any new people that we have, if you would take a minute to introduce yourselves. Mallory, I think you were here last time, but you. Can you remind me. I have a good memory just a little short.

No, yes, I was here. I guess it wasn't last week. It would have been the week before since last week was the fourth with consortia consulting. We're a telecommunications consulting firm. We're working with a lot of tribal entities to work on getting the Digital Equity grants, get their projects, right, the grants, doing a lot of that kind of work.

Great. Thanks, Paul. We're going to introduce you a little bit later. Jonathan, you've been here. Cool. Anybody else that's new today that I'm missing.

Good morning. My name is Anthony Garcia. I'm a network administrator with the Town of Oro Valley joining because there is a plan to install a fiber ring here in Pima County. And Oro Valley is part of Pima County. So I figure any information is pertinent to that would affect us. So. Yeah.

Sounds good.

Okay. So, as usual, anybody else that I've missed? Okay, so as always, I like to thank our sponsors, CareFirst, healthplan, Karen Ziegler, consulting, services, Valley Telecom, Kajeet, and Triad Wireless. So thank you guys. And as many of you know, I'm looking for new sponsors. We need some money, money money, yesterday. So let's talk about the agenda for today. That, excuse me, I wanted to just a reminder for any of you who choose to stay online, that we do try to do kibitzing with colleagues afterwards. And so after the meeting, we stopped the recording. Anybody who wants to stay online, can chat can chat with each other, ask questions, share information, or whatever. It's a strictly informal, no agenda whatsoever. Sometimes we have no body, sometimes we have people and anywhere in between. So you're welcome to stay online if you choose to do that. So I want to talk about three programs that are coming up in the next few weeks of actually working on Believe it or not a cabling advanced agenda for for the or for us. So next week on the at that mentor center, you online by chance, didn't see him. Mitch Corson, with Cisco, had arranged a meeting for me, with his team with a team of folks from Cisco, we had probably an hour and a half a conversation about the resources and, and so forth, and pops possible opportunities for collaboration. So we have arranged, thanks to Mitch, for his team to meet with us next week. And we will probably devote most of the meeting to that discussion. So until they have a lot of opportunity and resources for us to be able to take advantage of. So we're going to be excuse me having that conversation with Cisco. On the 25th. I know you've heard me mentioned many times that we were going to do a municipal network forum. Well, we've changed that from a municipal network forum to a public networks forum. And the reason for and after conversations with a number of people, one of whom I'll mention in just a minute, that we decided that public owned networks have a much broader reach than just municipal networks. And so they include everything from municipal networks, coops, open access networks, tribal, public private partnerships, and other community member owned Broadband networks. And so we really wanted to recognize that there's a lot of those kinds of issues. It's not just municipal networks. So we're going to be doing a forum. And it looks like we're going to be doing an extended forum, it will be in our usual time slot. But it looks like we will probably go until from eight to 930. And possibly longer. Now, let me just share with you. Some of the folks are that we either have or plan to have on the agenda. So we've confirmed Gigi, so many of you know her as the executive director of the American Association for Public Broadband, and she's probably one of the most knowledgeable people in the country. So she is going to be on the panel and kind of really put a perspective on what is what is the public network? What are the issues and challenges about public networks. And then Mark Goldstein, who you all know what at AIC? And, excuse me, and then hopefully, Sandy with the Broadband office, I don't have confirmation for him yet. And then Chris mozzerella, who is a CIO with the city of Tucson, the city of Tucson has opted not to do a public network. And so it'll be interesting to hear from him about what, why they've made that decision. And then, of course, you all probably know Rory can kind of wait, who attends pretty regularly with us with Triad Wireless, to bring an ISP perspective, Dave cross a grave craser crassa. pronouncing his name correctly, who's the project manager for the free public Wi Fi project in the city of Mesa. And then it's been suggested that I look at Mojave Electric Co Op. They're the only Co Op, I believe here in Arizona, that's engaged in in Broadband, and then someone from Indian country. So that's kind of what the lineup is. And hope to get that confirmed, and the initial announcement out tomorrow or Monday at the latest. So just get that on your calendar. I think it'll be a great program. And it's particularly important and particularly timely, timely right now. Because we're all concerned about low cost options, and, and so forth. And so I believe, if I remember correctly, that in the information I saw from Gigi, that there are 600 public networks around the country, which is pretty amazing. And so it's becoming more and more seems to be more and more of an interest. And hopefully, that Sandeep will be here, and to talk about BEAD and public networks. So anyway, that's kind of the plan and then in August, where the beta date to be determined. We have the Strider Dennison, talking about Wycombe. So those that's kind of lineup for the next few weeks. I'm actually ahead of the game these days. So anyway, that's kind of what's happened and coming up in the future. And then, do we have anybody from the Broadband office this morning? And one here. So Nicole, I saw you online. And can you give us kind of an update, please?

Sure. Good morning. I'm Nicole Umayam. I'm the federal program officer for Arizona with Nga. That means I'm the grant administrator for the BEAD and Digital Equity Act programs here in Arizona and resource for all of you. I am always wishing every week that I get to make a big announcement about Arizona's initial proposal. But we're still gonna have to stay tuned for that as the approval process goes through a lengthy federal federal system. And so we don't get to make any announcements quite yet. The Digital Equity capacity grant application is still in review. So we don't get to make announcements for that yet for Arizona, although you may have seen the news about Nevada being the first state to be awarded their Digital Equity capacity grants. So you know, the other ones are rolling through. And that first award unlocked the the announcement of the competitive grants that we get to look for any, any minute now as well as those are required to be posted within within 30 days. So perhaps by our next next meeting, we get to do that. So

Nicole, I know we've talked about this a lot of time, but we have a lot of new people online. Can you just briefly explain the capacity grants and compare competitive brands?

Sure. So in November 2021, the bipartisan infrastructure law was passed, and that established over $65 billion in internet for all funding for Broadband and Digital Equity, X expansion and more if you're considering other state agents or other federal agencies as well. Among those was the Digital Equity Act, which is actually three pots of money, a formula planning grant for states and territories to write Digital Equity plans, a formula state capacity grant, which is then available for states who wrote those plans to to implement the programs that they've identified. So Arizona has a Digital Equity plan. It's up on the brown Then went on the commerce authority website now that you can read, and this application is about how they are going to construct programs to implement some of those high priorities that they identified, including education, including digital services, including capacity at the local level for counties and a lot of exciting stuff. The third pot of money with the Digital Equity Act is what's called the competitive grant. This is available. This is funding available for all sorts of different types of applicants from school districts, local governments, nonprofits, higher education, everybody who's not those states, those state agencies that got the capacity grant can apply for this money to further their own Digital Inclusion work. And so that NOFO, it has not yet been released. But those projects are expected to be funded at between five to $10 million over a series of four years for for those project periods. So dreaming pretty big for some of these, these projects that would work in in tandem with the state programs. There's also a tribal Digital Equity set aside as part of the state of that capacity funding. You can read about those program details in the no phone. Now the whole second half of the NOFA was about the tribal Digital Equity capacity grant and tribal entities are, are eligible for the competitive pot as well. But that's the Digital Equity ACA programs for NTIA. But there are other funding sources as well. Do you have other questions on that program? See,

we've got no. Maybe Maybe anybody else have questions for Nicole?

Oh, I'll put my contact info in the chat as well for new folks and old folks. I always love to hear about what's going on in the on the ground. I did want to highlight that on July 17. The USDA is going to be hosting and Broadband technical assistance webinar. So this is talking about their own USDA programs. But a lot of that information is applicable to Bing planning in general. So I'll put that one in there as well. There's FCC stuff, but I don't think that we Yeah, I think I think I'll leave I'll leave it there with my updates, but happy to connect.

Thanks. Thanks, Nicole. So we'll be on brand. I see you're here this morning. We haven't seen you for a couple of weeks. Can you introduce yourself, please and maybe give us an update on what? What's happening in Congress these days? Hey,

Steve. Yeah, I know. It's been a minute since I've been on. For everyone who I haven't spoken to. My name is Brenna lessor, I'm Tech Policy Counsel with Common Sense Media. We've been tracking a lot of the federal efforts, particularly aligned to ACP. So just as a general update on that, since before the July 4 holiday, kind of the last, I think that a lot of people heard was the the subsequent failed introduction of or I guess, markup of the Catmull spectrum bill that included funding for ACP. The most recent update is that on the House side, that representatives Basinski and Carrie are planning to introduce a house companion legislation to the Luhan, um, Senate bill for ACP, that was supposed to come out today might be a little bit delayed till tomorrow or maybe early next week. They're essentially just trying to get bipartisan like equal numbers of Republicans and Democrats on board trying to get six, six Republicans, six Democrats on board before they introduce it. But that'll be mirroring the Luhan. Bill for ACP for additional funding. And I think the long term strategy is to get that bill or that language attached to the this year's NDAA, the National Defense Authorization Act sense that there's language in there about like national security and spectrum allocation. So that's the latest update, but until we until gets introduced, I guess we will have to wait and see how it goes. Oh,

Ron, are you trade tracking also the discussions about Universal Service Fund changes and people wanting to do away with it and all kinds of stuff like that.

At a high level I am by the majority of my work has been taken up by ACP. I don't know if a lot of you have any. More info about USF? No,

not at USF. I can see if I can check with Amina. She's been following that pretty closely. So I can check with her and try Gotta get something over to you. Maybe for your newsletter.

Yeah. Yeah. Column changes day by day, as we know, with Congress at this point. Okay. So, Mark, I saw just that you added into the chat about the about the tech Council Report. You want to just make a quick comment about that, please. Sure. Thanks, Steve.

Mark Goldstein, so a number of us, Ron shot and John Kelly and I in particular, represent Broadband interests. At the Arizona Technology Council Public Policy Committee, they publish an extensive award winning annual state and federal public policy guide. I have authored the Broadband in FinTech, financial technology and AI and other sections for many years, and so have always worked with at AIC cohorts. In an annual review, that review was done, the deadline was much earlier this year. But the final draft after several iterations, acknowledging the people I listed, in particular in the chat is in and still welcome comments. There will be a kind of final polish review happening from professional editors. And I'm often often often offered one more chance for tweaks on it, but I think it's shaped up pretty well, there was a lot of pressure to make it more concise. Those of you that know me, I can be wordy, perhaps. But it came out well invite you to download it. Here. It's not available on the web, but will be part of the published guide in about two months.

Thank you, Mark. And Mallory, I just saw your note. So you've been following the USF. Do you want to talk about that for a minute?

Because he's made sure that you know, there's not a lot I'm not sure it's it's I am rather new to the call. I'm not sure where everybody is at on that. At this point in time, everything's kind of stalled. That it they still have some cases in some of the smaller courts. But where the supreme court denied wanting to listen, they said that there wasn't, I believe it was that the plaintiffs did not have the correct standing to challenge the case that was taken up with them. And so they because of that the other cases in the lower courts have kind of stalled, waiting to see kind of what they can do to try and change their case enough that it can continue on to the Supreme Court. But at this point since the Supreme Court said they agreed with the lower courts or didn't agree but didn't said that they weren't going to take it up. So far, USF appears to be an okay position.

So now we can you since we do have a lot of new people, many of them probably know what USF is. But can you explain USF quickly, please?

But yeah, so the Universal Service Fund is the how telecom companies can get their funding for the island companies. The there's a small charge on everyone's phone bills, their cell phones, etc. So everyone pays into this fund, and then it is distributed to phone companies in order for the idea is that, especially rural high cost areas can have funding to help them serve all of these areas that probably there's not much of a business case.

So you want to explain also that they the USF funds the earring program.

Yeah. So the USF funds, a lot of the different programs that you're hearing about. Actually, a lot of the large programs that are coming out right now are coming out from Congress. They're mandating it like BEAD and some of those. But USF funds. Oh, goodness, what else did they found there? So if you're, you know, cost company funds that you have all of the like what Steve just said, pretty much most of the stuff that comes from the FCC is going to be funded by the USF in some fashion.

I've seen that there's some discussions and some bills being discussed and who knows what'll happen with Congress these days of trying to get a big tech to contribute to USF and maybe Broadband providers and all kinds of stuff. You know, I think about new out.

I mean, it's not necessarily something new. It's something they've kind of been trying. Sometimes it's included in with the net neutrality stuff. But it so it comes and goes it is does tend to be a political issue, depending on what party is in charge kind of controls whether or not we're caring about it. But the idea would be that those large companies have to contribute so that not the amount that individual consumers are contributing would be lower. In terms of where that's at. I mean, I think they're going to face a lot of pressure. From those large companies, they have a lot of money, they have a lot of lobbyists, I think it's it would be a hard sell, especially in an election year. But you know, depending on how it works out with the election, we might hear more about it next year.

Thanks, Mallory was that Mala? Was that you that wanted to say something?

Uh, yeah, just wanted to add to the fact that the contribution is actually coming from the landline service providers rather than the cell phones. And because of that many, many of us, of course, have normally no longer have landlines, including me. And we saw the contribution factor is going up, because the bases shrinking. So now the contribution factor is almost at 25 to 30% per quarter. And that's really steep for the service providers, and hence, they are protesting and the basis, basis decreasing and the number of services that need to be offered through the USF funding has increased. You know, we there are those four programs through USF that the IRS program, the renewable Health Program, the high cost program, and lifeline all are being funded through the USF funding and hence, the dire need to look at it much more carefully now and try to broaden the pace. So And right now, I think it's duck. Sorry, right now, I think it's stuck in one like it was mentioned that it is stuck in the lower courts, I think the Fifth Circuit or something where it's still not been heard, but at least there is no immediate danger of it going away. But also there is no progress on making it making the base broader.

Okay, thank you, mom. Any questions from our? Okay, if not, we're gonna jump into our program today. I want to introduce Paul Wagner. With the University of Arizona, they've just received a $1 million cybersecurity clinic grant to protect businesses, community nonprofit organizations, from online threats, and to develop students career skills. And so Paul, I'm going to turn it over to you. I don't know if you have a PowerPoint, I'll stop sharing. And if you have anything that you want to share.

Yeah, actually see if I send to them. I'm on the road. I apologize. I was thinking I was going to be on Central Time. And I'm actually on East Coast time. So I'm actually on the road. If you don't have that's not a problem. I can talk to you the whole process anyways. Okay, and I'll introduce myself real quick.

Alright, yep.

Thank you for having me.

My name is Paul Wagner. I'm with the University of Arizona. I'm associate professor of practice than there almost six years now. Prior to that I was in the military for a little over 20 years retired in 2018. So right now there's a couple of initiatives that are going on. The first one is what we're calling the cybersecurity Academy, which is working with Barney and his team at icdi. That's going to focus on K 20 initiatives, a variety of different things to support teachers, one as well as students and kind of navigating what cybersecurity looks like. And then bringing in those other flavors of like artificial intelligence and data science and how they complement each other and the different aspects for those different things. The other part of that is that the Google cybersecurity clinic so kind of build with that is it's a million dollars over six years. So once taxes and everything come out of it, it's not a huge amount of money, but it is definitely enough to get us started. And the nice thing is we're going to pilot in Pima County and southern Arizona, but the goal is really for it to be a statewide cybersecurity. initiative where we can actually provide services throughout the state. And it's for those organizations that want or can't afford to have like a managed service security provider, their own IT staff, stuff like that. So the idea is we'll come in with these nonprofits, governments, small utility companies, k 12, school districts and stuff like that, to be able to provide those risk assessments to see what's going on. And then to provide our recommendations and mitigations. We're working with other partners, we're looking at building out a regional SOC format, working with Ryan Murray and his team. So that'll be a model, once we get everything established, what the procedures, agreements and all that kind of stuff and how we can expand that. They're looking at four to five regional Sox across the state to provide those kinds of services as part of the mitigations. And then the last part of that is looking at developing student led IT services. So again, coming back in and kind of that clinic model like you would see for like legal clinics, or health care clinics that are low cost. But these student lands, one of the problems that we're seeing is that organizations or students are not able to get their first job, because they don't have experience. And they're like, Well, how do I get experience if I can't get that entry level job in cybersecurity. So there's that mismatch, where this allows us to provide that experience right now and like clap space thing, so it's gonna be part of their capstone project. And then over the next year, we're looking at developing what's called a persistent model, which means that it's going to be completely student led with faculty oversight, but they're going to run it like a business. So it'll be like a club, but it's there to provide all of those services for what they need and the different aspects for that. So pretty cool and how it is what we're really looking for right now, this will start in January. So over the next couple of months, we're going to be building out what the model looks like, the training pathways and certifications that are available for free to the students that participate in this. So one is, is there an organization that you know, that would be interested in these services, and I can provide our contact information after this call and get that out there. There's also like an intake form that we have, which is going to provide them with the ability like, this is the type of organization I have this how many employees and this is what we're looking for. And then we'll do the matchmaking and we'll get that. And we have students that are around the world. So it'll be a remote opportunity. And we're also going to have students that are here, here, as in like Arizona, that can provide those face to face services as well. So we're there to kind of meet the client's needs, and how they want to interact, but then also serve the students needs, where we're not going to be able to place an actual clinic, if you will, like that physical situation in everybody's backyard. So providing that remote option, even if they're not in the state of Arizona, or they're in that rural community that they just can't travel to that site, that they can still get that experience and work with the clinic and be able to get that experience necessary to go forward. So that's kind of what we're looking for is like if you know of an organization, please let us know. Like I said, I'll follow up with the contact information, if there's organizations where I feel bad because we there's already been the one asked for money. But we what we want to do is, at some point to be able to provide students with an actual, like minimum wage to be able to do this. We know that there's a lot of students that are out there that are providing for their families going through this process where they have to make a choice between Well, yeah, that's relevant experience, but I can't get paid to do that. So I'm going to have to forego that opportunity. Because I have other responsibilities. We want to try to bridge that gap. So people can get the experience, get that at least minimum wage job to be able to provide for their families and everything else that's going on. Yeah, and I think that's it. So pretty excited. One other thing to note is that we're going through the agreements with Chandler Unified School District. The other thing that we want to do is to be able to pilot high school students doing this as well. So that's working with Janet and her team over at Basha High School and looks like it's going to be part of their CTE program, part of their the internship requirements that goes along with that. So that's going to be a year long process, we're going to look at doing training in the fall semester for them. So they'll get the Google cybersecurity cert. I think we're gonna go with one of the firewall companies that provides their academy services that we're partnered with, and then train them up with a module. So how to conduct a risk assessment. And they're going to do that for the school district. So that's kind of the plan. We'll see how that one goes. But I think that's a really interesting, it's unique, because nobody else does that of all the clinics that are across the country. They're not at the high school level. And I think that's important for our high school students as we grow the cybersecurity programs and stuff like that. So I know there's a lot of pause if you have any questions.

I did share. Patient by the way, Paul, I did find Okay. Appreciate it. Questions for Paul?

This is Shereka. I have a question in regards to when you say organization Are you talking about businesses that need the tech support? And then does those organizations have to pay to be a part of this program? Because I know you have a does have another program where organizations have to pay to be a part of it. Yeah,

so and I want to be careful with the term tech support, because that can mean a lot of different things. So the clinic is funded to do risk vulnerability assessments and security awareness training. So just those three aspects, the IT services in the sock is two separate initiatives that we're building out. But the idea behind all of this, initially, at least from the UA, Paul standpoint, is all free to the client. We don't we're that's where the Google funding comes in. Students are getting their experience, once we get to that kind of persistent model, we may have to reevaluate it, because if organizations aren't, we can't find sponsors, we can't find donors to kind of run the clinic, well, then it may be those low cost solutions, or at cost solutions to be able to provide the students with the ability to get that $15 An hour or whatever it is. Right now, most of the other clinics are through either donor funded grant opportunity, stuff like that. But that's where it is. So those three services, the risk assessment, vulnerability assessment, and security awareness training, free of charge to anybody that wants to do it, small businesses, it's those that actually have a need. So we don't want to get something like I mentioned utility companies where Tucson electric and power, they probably have what they need, right. So I don't want to go after those, it would be good for students to go engage with something of that size. But unless they want to provide the mentorship and like bring students on as like an actual intern, that would be different. We want those organizations that let's say they're putting their router in the bathroom, and leaving it unsecured, and we have to go in and be like, hey, maybe that's not the right location to it. So those simple quick fixes, low to no cost solutions to mitigate that. And let's be realistic, like password protection, not reusing your password, just very basic security. mitigations are typically free, and they're not being implemented the way they should be. So I think we can have a lot of quick wins to secure these organizations, at least in the interim, as they grow, and they mature in their organizations.

Okay, thanks.

So Paul, I probably talked to you about this a little bit. But I think part of our interest is that, as we've been giving lots of people free internet free devices, and so forth, many of them who have never owned a computer, that cybersecurity is an important need for them. And I don't know if there's some opportunities there for us. And particularly, I liked the idea. And we've had some people comment about this previously, about having students help with doing that kind of outreach and helping in addressing that need, is that fit in with you guys at all, or that's not in the in the game plan? Yeah,

so that fits in there, kind of the security and awareness training. The other thing is the statewide cyber readiness grant through the Department of Homeland Security. That's another piece that we're partnering with, because there's a lot of organizations that don't know that the state is providing these free enterprise level services or equipment. So that's another piece to it's like, great, you're handing a 16 year old, a Lamborghini with no driver's license, no risk, no insurance, like, go ahead and have fun, let's hope nothing bad happens. The idea is for us to go on at least inform them of what they need to implement these services, to use them correctly and to be safe. So yeah, that's part of that security awareness and training piece is to go out engage with the community, we're also looking at as part of every year for Cybersecurity Awareness Month is to go out and have kind of campaigns that are built, get the students out there to engage with their communities. And I think that's kind of that peer relationship where people in the community giving back to their communities is much more valuable than Paul coming out and giving his like, Professor class lecture kind of situation, I mean, hearing it from these people that are in the organization or in the communities. And I think that gives back it sees those people as a way of engaging and reaching out. I know where I grew up, it was, I was going to be a farmer, I was going to be a small manufacturing company. Or hopefully I could get out and go to college and I chose the military. And that's the reason that I got out. But I couldn't see anything different. Being a professor at a university was not something that even in the stars for me, because I didn't even know that was even an option. So being able to be that example people being able to see what those opportunities are, I think is also very valuable.

So far, we'll get her before when we first before we actually store it started the meeting. You have John Haas, who's up in northern Arizona. We have a number of other people on this call. that I think would be very We're interested in having a further conversation with you not today about how we can best collaborate with you. I mean, I know there's several other organizations, many of whom you're probably already connected with, who particularly are working with having students do outreach, and so forth. And so it seems to me that bringing folks together and having a conversation would be really helpful. And we've been in conversation with Ryan, at Homeland Security and comp, pep talk with him and, and a number of other organizations.

Yeah, 100%, whatever you need. This isn't a Paul, this isn't a UA thing. I'm a terrible representative of the university because cybersecurity is not a University of Arizona problem. It is a statewide national global problem. And we all need to come together to kind of work ahead. It's too big for one person or one entity to do. So. Definitely.

Sounds like a plan to do that. And while we're here, Barney, do you want to say anything about what you're doing? I know you've presented to us before, but lots of new people do you want to just talk briefly about what you're doing.

I don't actually have a whole lot of updates. I mean, we've got a variety of things going on. As I pointed out, Ash Black is not here, because he's working with a lot of students this summer, on the AI core, where they're putting a lot of students out into the local industry and getting a lot of AI experience there. Otherwise, we've got a whole bunch of things sort of going on in the background, the university, obviously, coming through the financial joys of the last year, sort of reset on, on where we're headed with AI and technologies like what Paul has been presenting on cyber in cybersecurity. So

thanks. Thanks, Barney.

Sure thing.

So any questions for Paul are Barney, anything everybody wants to hear regarding cybersecurity.

This is my lab. Steve. I'm sorry. Sorry, this background noise. I have a little six year old, rambunctious running around the house. Right now just vacation.

So no problem.

I just wanted to know if Paul was aware of FCCS pilot, cybersecurity venture they have, they announced it a few weeks ago. And if and this is a $200 million project spread over three years, it's a pilot project. And it is mainly for schools and libraries for the for cybersecurity, of course. And because through the E Rate program, we've always been asking for funding for cybersecurity, E Rate funds, minimally, the firewalls, but nothing more than that. So they are looking for advanced next generation firewalls, end to end protection, identity protection, authentication, monitoring, detection and response. Those are the kinds of services that are eligible for the pilot program. And there are a lot of other criteria that I won't go into details now. But if Paul, you are interested, we could take this conversation offline and talk about doing a pilot program. We know that, you know, we stand a very, very small chance of getting it this 200 million is nationwide, he did countrywide for us, and for three years. So but they're looking for unique partnerships and unique programs that they can fund. And that can be run as a pilot as a model that can be replicated throughout the country.

Yeah, absolutely. And like you mentioned, John, and John and I are part of like the CFA conversations, we meet monthly for cybersecurity initiatives and stuff like that. So I believe in all the conferences that I've gone to is that Arizona, and the partnerships that we have is already kind of unique. We have a very good ecosystem that's very strong nonprofits, higher education, secondary education, that kind of stuff. So absolutely anything that we can kind of drive this forward, because funding kind of drives the initiatives. Otherwise, it's bootstrapping, and people just get burnt out having we need champions, but we need champions that have the funds and the resources to be able to like carry out those initiatives. So absolutely. Just let me know what you need reach out and we will work through that process.

Oh, no. Do you want to say anything about the cybersecurity awareness that you've been working on? Sure, happy

to. So we have resources. And Paul actually, I didn't realize you were driving but I sent you a little chat. We have resources that are free. For students, you know, up through high school that revolve around cybersecurity, including, in fact, we also use the same analogy about handing kids the key to the car, doing any training or without having, you know, any, any permit or anything like that. So the idea is, you know, at a very young age to start getting kids to realize how important you know, their their data is how important it is to protect their identity. And so, you know, happy to, you know, happy to get with you if you're interested in any of that. But we're so we're also working with the Digital Equity Institute, which is now the digital or is now the Institute for Digital Inclusion, acceleration. Or idea, and so on awareness around.

I'm sorry, we lost you for a minute there.

Why not? Oh, sorry. Yeah, so we have a grant from the Digital Equity Institute, to to do an awareness campaign around online safety and security. So that's going to be launching actually, this week and early next week. So there should be some billboards that you see around some of the communities where the Digital Equity Institute's resource centers are being are being opened. And there'll be a lot of social media. There'll be a couple of TV spots that you might see. So yeah, so that's kind of what we're working on, in partnership with the Institute for Digital Inclusion acceleration.

I like to just tell them quickly who you are.

Oh, sorry. Yeah. I'm Ilana Lowery, and I am the Arizona director for Common Sense Media. I'm sorry, Steve, I always forget to do that. Since I've been on these calls from the beginning. No problem.

And Jeff Rose, you're new to us. And so I apologize if I'm putting you on the spot. But you are doing technology training for older adults. Do you want to say anything about your issues in terms of cybersecurity what you're doing what your needs might be? Yeah,

no worries. Putting me on the spot here. It's quick introduction. My name is Jeff Rose. I work for older adults, technology services or oats from AARP. We provide digital skills training for older adults in a variety of formats and functions. We have a few few programs, I just share about the way we educate older adults on privacy, security, and whatnot. We have a virtual program through our website, it's you know, planet.org. All of our programs are free and open to anyone. In reality, we I'd like to tell people, we never heard anyone coming to our programs to make sure there are older adults. So anyone who'd like to take advantage of it, they're more than welcome to do so. In addition to our website, we also have a hotline, staffed by specially trained individuals to work with older adults, and that hotlines available for anyone to call. Right now it's open Monday through Friday 9am to 8pm. Eastern time, but that's a great way, especially in the world of cybersecurity and privacy, as a resource for older adults to get in touch to kind of talk through some things. So maybe they got an email, that sounds questionable. And they have an opportunity to kind of bounce that off someone to say, hey, is this something that's, that's real? Should I delete it or whatnot. So, again, a great resource in that neighborhood of things. And then we also have a licensing program. And we have several licensed sites in Arizona. And that's where we actually license our curriculum to on the ground organizations to teach in the communities in which they are, again, that's free, everything that we do is free. We have generous support from foundations, government entities, grants, and of course, AARP. But that licensing program. The reason it's really great is it's really designed for those folks who are getting devices brand new or who haven't had experience using devices. And they're able to get those classes in person. And part of the curriculum that organizations often choose to teach is that privacy and cybersecurity information. So, just wanted to share some of those resources. If anyone's interested in learning more, I can pop my information, email address in the chat there. And I'm happy to connect you to any of our resources or or the other parts of the organization that can help you.

Great, thanks, Jeff. Anybody else that's doing work and with cybersecurity or issues before the call, as to you The past

couple of days, I let Sophia out. And then she started going crazy. bird bath and ran downstairs.

It was it was. Yeah. And I

was not sure what was going on. Well, I think I put it up before birds

mute

on the ground. And it couldn't be.

Okay, sorry about that. Actually, I didn't want to mute Brian because he was somebody apart. Why are you still there? Okay, can maybe go on. But Brian Daly is somebody else he might want to connect with. Okay. So I think that's all that. Let's get into just a couple of things. Mala. As I mentioned to you. Do you have any other updates? Things that are going on?

Malia muted.

Sorry, that happens at least once.

A column right.

Yeah, thank you. I'd be real quick. I was at La San Diego lac American Library Association. And sorry, by the way, I'm Mala Muralidharan, and the state direct coordinator for public libraries. I work for the State Library. I was at the American Library Association Annual Conference at San Diego and presented on a panel on behalf of the E Rate Task Force. Along with Molly O'Connor from FCC, and Kenny Hoffman from East Central, they are consulting Eric consultants. And the discussion was mainly on cybersecurity and hotspots, the hotspots NPRM the notice for proposed rulemaking, it came out while we were there. And we so it was a hot topic hotspot. And but the I do want at some stage, Steve, if that's possible, in the next couple of weeks to do a more deep in depth presentation on the hotspots. Because there are a lot of questions that need answering and I need your collective brains to put together what we would like them to think about or consider. But that's, you know, a conversation we can have offline and decide what when you can do it and when the NPRM is due. But I spoke mainly on the tribal Library's participation in the Erie program. As you know, the Erie program has a C C one which and C two c one is internet connectivity to the door. And C two is the internal connections within a library or school. Most of the tribal libraries do get internet access. Wherever, you know we've laid fiber in a lot of places we are in the process of doing this for Navajo Nation, but they do participate and get their internet reimbursed big. But a lot depends on the governance and the structure. Many of them are part of the county library. So they do get funded, or they do apply through the County, the county applies for them on their behalf, because they do not have staffing to do that. Many are independent but are supported historically by their tribal government. And those are the ones that really struggle to get to the application. But even more than the C one the Internet access is there internet connections, that's a whole nother story. Because we don't we are kind of at this stage leaving almost $14 million on the table. If it does not get utilized by 2026, June 30. The C two budget is on a five year lifecycle. And you can apply anytime during those five years. The multiplier is based for libraries, it's based on the square footage for schools, it's based on the student count. So that $4.50 multiplied by the square footage or the number of students as the applicant, maybe but again, because it has the same deadline, the March deadline as the internet access. Many of our libraries and schools do not apply because they cannot or line their needs to the March deadline. Some of them have volunteer IT staff, and they don't they, when they get the real IT staff, the qualified ID staff to assess their needs and apply. It's either too late for the current era title or too early for the next era, it's cycle. They, you know, disasters do not happen with the March deadline. So some libraries, popular library, for example, did have a fire and large part of the library was destroyed. But they they could not wait until the next period cycle to get their library up and running and the Internet access up and running and the internal connections done, they had to use some other money that they could they went on a GoFundMe and use that funding to help. At the same time, many of them need approvals from the tribal council, etc, you know, Library Council in order to do any upgrades. And because it's not fully funded, it's funded to up to the up to 85%, they do have to put in 15% from their own budget to do it. So they do need approvals for that. And that is a problem. So I did get FCCS attention to the fact that they could do a solution to this is a rolling deadline, since they have their own budgets, they're not dipping into anyone else's budget, they have their own budget for five years, they should be allowed to apply. At any time, we are giving them enough advance notice, because the next five year cycle starts only 2026 July. So there is enough time for them to do the whatever needs to be done to get the approvals to do this. And that was my schpeel at ALA. If anyone has any questions on that, I'd be happy to take it if we have time. Now. Otherwise, I'll take it offline, as well. And put my contact in the chat. Thank you.

Any questions from Mama, any other updates that people have? And the announcements. So again, please mark your calendars for the 25th. And you'll be getting more details about that special forum. So we do have a couple of minutes. I know people are leaving, and it's certainly up to you. But since we do have some new people, I'd like to just take a couple of folks, and just for you to do just a quickie. More detail information. John shares, can you tell people who you are, please? Yeah, hi,

my name is John sugars. And I'm with Orbetello communications and the president General Manager and we're a Broadband company that provides services, the city of Maricopa and really a lot of the ropes in active adult communities. But we're starting to spread out our footprint in Pinellas County. Okay, thank you very much. Welcome.

Glad you could join us. Who else do we have here? Still UPS that's still here. Matt Dasco Dostal. You haven't been here? I don't know if you've ever been farming a long time. You want to introduce yourself quickly?

You're Steve. Yeah, I

jump on it. Occasionally. I should be on more admittedly. I've been involved with at AIC for years. It's nice to attend this meeting. I'm the managing director for our telecom division at EBI consulting, which is a environmental and regulatory compliance consulting firm. We work with all the carriers all the major tower companies and all the site development companies within the wireless infrastructure industry. Oh, okay.

I can just jot it down. I'll

send you the slides up. Oh, you want me to Okay. And I grabbed

that chatter is hopefully everyone was able to hear my spiel. Okay.

Okay, sorry about that. Matt, can you kind of just fill us in we went through interruption there.

No worries. As I stated, I'm the managing director for our telecom Division here at EBI consulting. And Evi consulting is a firm out of Boston with a nationwide presence. We provide regulatory compliance, environmental due diligence, eh, and S and RF safety services to the wireless infrastructure industry. Our clients are all the carriers, the major tower companies and all the site development firms that support that ecosystem.

Hey, thanks, Matt. Glad to have you. Joining us all right. You got your handout?

Yes, I do have my hand up, I have an ask. And it's not often that I actually haven't asked. But I do have an ask, does anyone have a contact within the ubiquity organization that I can talk to about training and such because they are near impossible to actually connect to. And I have been trying for over a year, and nobody seems the ones who return any calls or emails or form submissions. So I know you. There's a lot of people here who have different connections, but I'm looking for somebody inside of ubiquity. I can actually have a conversation with anyone can help me that would be great. While

they don't even give a big reason, AI or AI?

Or you.

Sorry, one second. I

can't hear you very well.

Oh, where are you said the company's not real. They don't exist. is what he said? He said, they're AI driven. They're not real. Well, there we go.

I can I just, yeah. If I gotta if I've got to go to New York and actually knock on somebody's physical door, I'm prepared to do that. Because I need to talk to somebody. It's like, just been batting my head up against the virtual walls, so to speak. So I'm still trying, I'm not giving up. But I was just hoping that somebody might have a contact or a way. Yeah, so thanks very much. If you do, please, please.

Okay, any other introductions or comments? Before we end for today? We'll

end up and a little bit early today. Yeah, that little video. Sorry. There we go. All right. Yeah. So Paul, though, there is nobody and keep in mind, I used to consult with a, and I have problems finding anybody that's human, there's nobody. So but you know, we're pretty familiar with the product. So there's something I can help you with letting me know. Oh,

yeah, no, it's I understand the familiarity with the products. I'm just trying to get ahold of somebody within their training arm. Oh, sorry. The prob, the problem there the Yeah, I may end up just posting something on either on Twitter or on LinkedIn and do this big appeal of like, pay of trying to get some of the the talk to me?

Yeah, they don't, you have to know the organization. But it's, it's one of the ways they kept their cost down is that they don't have middle management. They don't have people that, you know, talk to the rest of the world. Assuming you went through their tech support department,

oh, I've tried a few different ways and just reached nothing. So

what, specifically, maybe I could, I could there are a couple of people I might only reach out to, I

want to try and talk to somebody specifically or within their training and certification arm. That's exactly why Why

let me see what like, let me see what I can do. Okay.

All right. Thanks for all.

Right, no worries. Okay, well, I think we're done for today. Give you a few minutes back. And again, I encourage you to attend next week. And we will have a great conversation with Cisco. And some of the great things they're doing. They do have a grant program, and so forth. So I really encourage you to be here next week for that for that presentation. And so with that, unless there's any other announcements or anything I think we're done for today. Thank you all. Thanks, Charlie.

Thank you, everyone for the PVC about

oh, no kibitzing. So I guess we're we're done. Okay.

So Paul, how you doing? getting everything done getting your dissertation done? And well,

I'm now officially a doctoral candidate. Cool.

Congratulations. I got my letter,

either in the last week or just the the week before but yeah, I'm now officially a doctoral candidate. So I am embarking on the research. And so I'm looking forward to doing that. And my goal is to try and have everything researched and written up by Thanksgiving. So Thankfully, I'm ready to go. And so I know I've got many, many, late nights for weekends. 24/7 type deals going on between now and then, as I try and pull together everything that I'm trying to do relating to digital divide and building that conceptual model. So really looking forward to that, I think it's gonna go pretty well. If I can, if I can actually carry out everything that I'm hoping to do, then I think it's really going to be a big add, I've even got a nice domain name reserved. Nothing's on that yet. But when I eventually publish, that's where it'll, it'll be on us on a site. And so I have a nice domain name digital divide in digital divide dot info. And I don't know why managed to secure that. But I was happy as as could be. About three years ago, I registered it. So I'm going to be utilizing that when I can. So it's going to be, I'm going to be dumping so much stuff there. Eventually, it will probably be seated at a probably seem like an avalanche. But right now I've got 700 documents and artifacts that I need to go through as part of my study.

Well, oh, you've been doing research forever and ever. That's, that's your thing. So late night, things are probably you used to, I assume?

Yeah, I would say I've done a lot of that. But you know, I'm utilizing AI as part of my and part of my research. And I can share a lot of that sort of thing eventually as well. You know, how to utilize utilize AI for it in

an educational context. You know, I've got actually a I'm writing I'm writing about three different books right now. I'm trying to write some children's stories. And I've got just a my children's story side of things. I've got, like 70 pages of prompt defined, specified, so it's, it's going to be pretty cool with what I'm gonna come out with in the next few months to next couple of years. Yeah.

So do you sleep like an hour a week?

I sleep when I can, but I do. I do short sleeps and then back to work and short sleeves and back to work. And, you know, it's just, I've got this grand goal of trying to do these things, but let's just say if I could publish all those children's stories I've outlined, I would be the most prolific one of the most prolific children's authors in history. I've actually outlined 694 stories, so I have been busy. So

if you don't mind. I have to take the rest of the day off and take a nap now. Thanks Paul.

No worries no are listening to you makes

me feel like such

an underachiever.

I've got time and I'm putting that time to work. And yeah, I'm actually going to be spending some time on a laser cutter this evening.