Okay, so we are recording captions Ron. So we're gonna just jump in and get going here. So first of all, let me see, is there anybody new to joining us this morning? Hasn't been here before?
Okay, that's not the phone. I'm sorry, what?
Can you meet the guy or the person on the phone?
Yeah, sure. Thanks.
All righty. So, again, just just to start us off, oops, for a second here
are we Oh, okay. So to start us off, just again, to thank our sponsors care, first health plan, Arizona, Karen Ziegler, consulting services, Valley Telecom Group Kajeet, and try out and really appreciate their support. So coming up, just a couple of things about next meetings. As you all probably know, next week on the 80, instead of our usual meeting and format, we are going to meet at the same time, but we're going to meet from eight until 10. And that's going to be a study session, or the Digital Equity plan. And we're going to have a lot of input from the Broadband office from Erin, and others at the Broadband office, to give us an overview of that very long, complex plan. So encourage you all to one to make sure you review the plan. Because it's there's a lot of information in there. And you want to come prepared with questions and comments for that study session. And again, it's a study session. So we are encouraging interaction and discussion, rather than just a webinar where we're gonna be talking about you for for two hours. So again, make sure you have that on your calendar, did send out a calendar invite, but please make sure I think it's important. This is an important part of all the funding that's coming down the pike. And you really need to not only know but provide your input. Deadline, Aaron is February one are providing input.
Yep, that's correct.
So I encourage you to do that. And then on the 25th, we are not going to meet hopefully that all of you will attend the the summit that's coming up. And let Erin talk about that in just a little bit. But since that's a two day event, before just the just before our before our regular meeting date, I just thought it didn't make any sense to have a an AZ BSM meeting that day. But I do encourage you all to attend. And excuse me. And hopefully we can all meet. Many of you I have never met face to face. And so I'm kind of looking forward to that. So with that, let's move on to the agenda for today. And so do we have anybody else who has joined us? That's new today? Okay, so let's start off. Aaron, do you want to kick it off with an update from ACA? I'm not sure who else from ACA is on ones?
Sure. No problem. So I'm actually you covered most of what I was going to talk about. The BEAD plan is posted for public comment. I'll drop links.
Can you introduce yourself again, please?
Oh, sorry. Yes, I have Erin Lorandos. I'm the Digital Equity program manager with ACA. And so the Digital Equity plan is posted for public comment on our website. And I'll drop a link here in the chat just momentarily. It as Steve mentioned, it is up for comment through the first of February. That's the 30 days that we are able to put it up because we need to integrate all the comments and feedback that we receive and submit that back to NTIA for the curing period, mid February, and then also coming up as Steve mentioned next week we will have the study session in this space. We also have a our monthly roundtable on the 16th kind of a sin To our situation where we'll kind of go over the D plan and the process for, for submitting public comment, and I'll drop the link there. I just realized that it is not on the website. But But registration is open. So please feel free to come to that as well. And then of course, upcoming, we also have the internet for all Summit, as Steve mentioned on the the 23rd and 24th. And if you haven't registered for that, I can drop links for that as well. It's going to be a great two day session held in person at the Mesa Convention Center. Day one is primarily BEAD and infrastructure kind of things related. However, there are some Digital Equity pieces in that as well. And then day two is primarily Digital Equity conversations. And we have many folks who are in this group, and our contacts presenting and it'll be a great networking opportunity, as well as sharing information about things that are happening all over the state. So I'd be happy to answer any questions. Otherwise, see who else from my team is on for a BEAD update?
Aaron, I'm on Oh, hi. Are you go? Hey, everyone, I'm Krystal Saverse. I'm the Broadband data and GIS analyst with ACA worked closely with Aaron and Aaron, who's also on the call. As far as BEAD updates, Volume One and Volume Two are still in the curing process. So they're still being reviewed by NTIA big items coming down the pipeline are going to be the challenge process. So right now we're in the pre challenge process. But we're still finalizing things with our vendor, our challenge portal vendor and making that material available to people that will be doing challenges such as like, like a guide on how to submit a challenge how to navigate the portal. Also making some materials available. We have a ton of engagement planned for this year, early this year. So those are kind of the big items right now.
Right? So crystal, so crystal, one thing I would ask is that anytime you can give us you know some good advanced notice about upcoming events that we can get up, get the word out. I really appreciate it.
Yeah, absolutely. I believe we're gonna post those to our website soon are still finalizing the dates were actually. So we had some dates in mind. But now we're reaching out to our stakeholders and seeing what days they would prefer that way we can make it a regular cadence.
Thank you. Anybody else from the team online today? Don't think so. Okay, moving on. Thank you and Nicole's not here today, either. I don't think Nicole, are you here. She's not here this morning. Just a quick update. So ACA you guys, were still you had a couple of people that I believe you were interviewing for the senior Broadband Program Manager position. And the engagement outreach specialist. What's the status with those?
No further updates from from last week on those.
Okay. Thank you. So again, as we as you've heard that the plan is Digital Equity plan has been released, please review it, even if you can't make the either the study session or the summit, that you should still review it. And submit your comments again. before February one. It's so some big news. I guess it's big news. And maybe big news is what's happening with ACP. And I know you want to give us a quickie update on the bill that's been submitted. And the wind wind down guidance from the FCC. Sure,
I'd be happy to and I have been putting some links in the chat. And for people who joined late, Steve, you'll have all of that. And so maybe you want to out in your in your note after the meeting. So we do have some interesting news. There has been a bill introduced. It's a $7 billion appropriation bill that basically asks for s Congress to fund ACP for 2024. There has not been a lot of discussions on the hill, budget discussions, etc. None of them have included ACP. And for those of you Oh, first of all, I'm with Common Sense Media. I'm the Arizona director. Sorry, Steve, you were gonna interrupt me and tell me to myself anyway. So we're working really hard. I'm on connectivity and low cost options for families here in Arizona and across the country. So this bill would extend the affordable connectivity program or HCP. For 2024. We don't know where that's gonna go, the bill was just introduced, we do know that there has not been a lot of discussions around extending ACP in any other existing budget discussions or appropriation packages. There's also going to be a USF reform bill that is a more of a long term solution or a long term vehicle to ACP, that will be introduced. But the flip side of all of that, which is all good. The flip side of all of that is as a result of the existing ACP program running out of funds, there is a discussion by the FCC about how to wind the program down until they can figure out how to reiterate it refunded whatever they're going to do. And so there's a couple of things that people need to know about that the money is expected to run out in April. Which means there has to be a wind down, ISPs have to be able to tell their customers, you know that the program's going away. And so in order to do that they need this this timeframe. And right now, there's been some conversation this is not official, this has not been publicly really announced, it's more like, talk is that no new enrollments for ACP will be accepted after January 22, which is just a couple of weeks away. What that means is, is that any, for example, any FCC grantee who got money for the ACP outreach program, they will have to halt their operations, basically, with regard to enrollment to the program. So no new enrollments, we don't know if January 22, is going to be the actual date, but that's the date that's been floating around. So just keep that in the back of your mind. It doesn't mean that that folks who are getting the ACP benefit will stop getting it in January, they will get it probably through April, and ISPs are discussing the possibility of keeping that going for those customers even for a few months after the official program ends. So there is just a lot going on and a lot of information. And we don't know what the final, you know, decision decision is going to be we will definitely keep you posted. We have of you know, we have folks in Washington that are common sense teams, who have been working with Senator Welch's office, and others who have sponsored the bill. There are, you know, in Phoenix alone, just for people who maybe don't understand the magnitude, just in Phoenix, there are over 700,000 people that are using the ACP program. And, you know, that's a lot of 22 million Americans really are signed up and just in our corner of the world. There are some big numbers in rural Arizona, and even in in urban areas of Maricopa County, across the board. So this is not something that we all have to we all have to consider the consequences if this program goes away. And so I can definitely keep Steve posted. He can send out more information. This is a busy week for this particular subject. We just haven't heard anything yet on the actual wind down like this. The FCC has not they're supposed to yesterday, they were supposed to announce the plans. We have not gotten any, any information about what those plans are. So certainly by tomorrow, well, no more. So Sorry, Steve, that was really long and No, no,
I'm glad. I think that was fine. I think that's all my questions for Elena. So I believe that tomorrow on the 12th that NTIA, the National Digital Inclusion Alliance as a community call. It's one o'clock pm eastern time to talk some more about the wind down plans. So I think I sent that out already but I will make sure that I get that. Get that out right away. Okay, anything else anybody else has have anything else they want to say about ACP?
I guess even if they get that funny approved. I mean, I did a calculation with 22 million households that $30 a month, I think, and so on, it's close to $8 billion for one year, I guess. So they would not be able to accept new enroll new enrollees, even if they get that money approved for, you know, for too long, right, they would have to stick with the current people that have it.
Yeah, that that would be that would be correct, Henry, we just don't know when that date would happen. Like, we don't know when they're gonna say, okay, because the issue too is you had an awful lot of money that was going out the door from the FCC to all of the all of the grantees who were working to get people signed up for the program. And so there's questions around what's going to happen to those funds? Will they just sit in escrow? Because those funds were being allocated based on receipts basically. So if you spent the money, if you were a grantee, and you spent some money on enrollment, you got reimbursed, basically. So when the FCC did their grants, it wasn't like they just handed out buckets of money to people to go do this enrollment. It was, show us what you spent, and we'll reimburse you. So if this halts, and there are no new enrollments, the money stops flowing. And they sit on it for now. So yeah, so you're absolutely right. There's there's no extra money, that's going to be out there to continue enrollments, or possibly even to reimburse the existing grantees for the for the enrollment.
We don't know that extends to the BEAD, you know, if we look at it, for sure. Amala. Absolutely, you know, because we are putting all this fiber to the home and you know, giving them connectivity. But if they're not going to get reimbursed for their monthly spending on it, there's no point in having a gig or even 100 Mbps, if it's not going to, if they're not going to be able to pay their bills.
Yeah, what's probably going to happen Mala is that the state is going to have to figure out a way to offer some sort of low cost plan if they want to get any of the BEAD money. Right.
And that that is an extension of the plan or a super imposition over the plan that has already been submitted. Correct. It has lots of precautions, because it's even even with the service providers, they they actually got into markets that they wouldn't have gotten to before. And those are going to stop, you know, because these residents are not going to be able to pay for I don't know, I hope they they'll at least be able to pay for a lower bandwidth, but I'm not quite sure.
Yeah, I mean, the grantees and see if started, sorry, if you if you want me to stop, I can stop. But
this is a really important issue.
So what what we're looking at right now is because, you know, City of Phoenix was it was a grantee. And as were some other folks in Arizona, and so what we're looking at is some kind of bridge, or something that will help people focus on a couple of things. One would be what to ask for and the transition, if ACP goes away? You know, what are 22 million Americans going to transition to? Or in Arizona's case, you know, over a million people across the, you know, across the valley? What, you know, what are what is, you know, should they, what should they be asking their ISPs about? They don't want to be upsold, right. So, they have to know to ask for a low cost plan. And they have to know what speeds they need so that they know what they're paying for. So that's, that's one thing in terms of bridging this transition. And then the other thing is to work with ISPs. And we're lucky in Arizona because most of our larger ISPs do offer some sort of low cost plan, but the state and others are going to have to work with the smaller ISPs, etc. To come up with some kind of not just a low cost plan, but a viable low cost plan that has reliable speeds and that is not, you know, $100 a month or more, they're going to have to figure out a way which which I don't understand because in countries like China, for example, internet is $15 a month, like flat like and it's for like 5g and 5g so I don't you know, so I know it can be done. I just don't know, you know, because I'm not somebody who's involved in a lot of the Broadband, actual physical Broadband discussions. But, you know, there's got to be options and people have to know what those options are and what to ask their ISPs for.
Would you like the ISPs perspective on that particular problem?
I was just gonna suggest on the phone, Rory is we've been talking to Cox and we know that, you know, we know that they're, you know, they've kind of been planning for this wind down, I think, you know, they saw it coming and, and they're, they have a low cost plan. That's not bad. So yes, Rory, tell me, tell me what ISPs are going to do?
Well, first of all, to get down to those price points, we would literally be subsidizing the customers ourselves, not the government, we did a Tete we've had in place since 2012, what we call a $10. Education everywhere program. But that it's a total, it's a total donation level of that there's zero chance of being profitable, anything at that at that price point. So basically, any any event any ISP that does that is doing it, you know, out of the goodness of their heart, not not because they can stay in business. If that was your only plan, you're out of business, we were just working on something with a partner. And that was one of the options on the table and even at $20 a month. You know, it's it's, we can't stay in business bottom line. So the reason China does that is because China owns the entire infrastructure from top to bottom, it's a government subsidized infrastructure. But the one thing they don't tell you, with those plans, if you've ever been to any of the Asian countries, that they tell you, they have fiber everywhere, except it's one meg, two meg per second, because they've oversold it to a level that doesn't make it viable. It's nothing that would fly in the US by any stretch. So like
to stay Point taken. Yeah,
it's realistically the cost of providing service. And keep in mind that it's not just the cost of maintaining the service. It's the cost of the infrastructure, the capital expenditure. I mean, we've spent millions in the last two or three years, just trying to get our networks up to speed because of COVID. And everybody working at home, Cox's spend way more than that, and you have to somehow get that money at some point, you have to get that money back. And that's kind of the the problem is that we're all dealing with capital expenditures, that even even these, there's no fiber program, I don't know if everybody understands, but the ROI return on investment on fiber is a minimum on average as a minimum of 10 years. That's why the government has tried, it has been trying to step in and subsidize it. Because no vendor would put it in if we had to, because we have to, you know, we have to report the stockholders or partners or whatever. And, and the the ROI is so far out there, it has, it doesn't have any value, unless you've got an end game. And then that's where the it's fibers considered infrastructure. So if you're planning on selling your company, it has a higher value in our area, which then wireless by a factor of three or four. Anyway, that's basically the concept. Can it be done if we can get it at a fairly low cost, but not at the speeds that everybody wants? Their here's the, here's the real reality. We've done two deployments. Well, we've done eight towns in the last, you know, last couple of years. And we just did one town where their maximum speed on a good day was seven, eight megabits per second. The we walked in there with 500 megabits per second, and added at a cheaper price. We got maybe six 7% of the of all of the households, because nobody cares about the speed, they only care that they get what they want, what they need to do their their function, which is video streaming, you know, 1012 mag Max, you know, web browsing couple of mag enter email, you know, a mag, who cares? It's, they only care about the reliability, the speed argument is over, nobody would pay for higher speeds. At this point. Nobody wants to at least the vast majority of the users out there.
They still gotta go
have fun. I saw your hand up to get to you. Yeah, this this
short, short, short question. But, Roy, you're talking about 10 year, return on ROI.
I'm averaging it. I mean, obviously it varies, but 10 years. At
that, what am I throw at you for information for me to understand it more clearly. Once all this equipment is being installed and everything's running People are having access to internet extenders. As time goes on, we're talking about service and repair. Is the cost of that coming from what the business plan returns? Or, you know, I would say, profits, etc, to keep that service repaired in order, or are we looking at more government help down the way for service and repair?
Oh, no. Well, here's I mean, here's the actual numbers, the lowest cost place that we we've looked at, we've done an estimate of fiber rollout is $3,000. A house? The the average monthly rate from that customer is $50. That is, by far the lowest, whoever's doing the state numbers right now. My guess is the average is probably running somewhere around 6000 $7,000. And, and, you know, 5060 $70 a month that just doesn't, you know, it doesn't work out that well. And no, that doesn't include the car, you start throwing in all the other operational costs. The app x into their No, it's it's well over 10 years on average.
John Kelly, you had a question in the chat, or Mala? Yeah.
I'm not sure. I can answer John's.
I mean, I, the implication of what you said was that if we don't have an affordability program, that the state wouldn't be able to spend their BEAD dollars is that?
No, it's not? No, it's not that the state won't be able to spend that BEAD dollars, but the BEAD dollars that have been that has been allocated is, is already fixed, right? So if, if they're going to subsidize this pill, the ACP kicks in or till, till the government decides to get its act together. They did is the whole conjecture of what is it going to do when you when you reach a particular multi dwelling household or when it reaches a particular anchor institution, that is not a school or a library, because schools and libraries at least get the rate subsidy, so they can apply for aid, you know, and get the money back for their recurring costs. But with the other anchor institutions that have been included in our BEAD plan, it's just not going to happen. It's not I can't even imagine a multi dwelling place, subsidizing the internet costs for the residents without having any effect on the residents. So I'm
hearing you correctly. What I'm understanding is that we could invest the BEAD money in building out the infrastructure to the community anchor institutions and multi dwelling units, but the customers wouldn't be able to afford us who would be straining that investment?
Right. Okay. Thank you.
I think one a comment, because BEAD was brought up part of our the Arizona Commerce Authority, our volume two, has our criteria for sub grantees receiving BEAD money to have affordable options. I may have misunderstood you more, but I just wanted to put that out there.
No, I that's that's perfectly right. And you're actually taking my point further, because the Rory just spoke about not being affordable to continue, you know, offering that same subsidized rate, you know, beyond a certain, you know, they do need to recover that cost me understand that. So, it's,
we'll think about this, the cost is actually being capitalized up for us. So they're not recovering. The original capitalized cost like in the Roy's projects, his cap cat, his capex is being covered upfront. So what he's doing his monthly recurring costs are paying for the ongoing maintenance and service. To be in the BEAD money, the BEAD money, we're, you know, that BEAD money is a billion dollars to build the network. Once the network is built, the ongoing monthly recurring costs from the customers is to maintain the networks. Now in the rural areas, it costs more to maintain than it does in the metropolitan areas. So so there is going to be a difference in costs. And speaking of ACP ACP looks like it's going to sunset in about four months. So when ACP goes away, we can't expect you know, and we don't want the government, you know, in our lives all the time. We do not want them subsidizing our world forever. We'd rather than stay out of it, and work out a way that our residents can afford reliable internet without the government being in their pocket.
But the only the only catch would be though Milan is there's a huge copay on the on the BEAD funding, you know, we have to carry some percentage of that. And even if that if the percentage is five, or you're still looking at a five year ROI, on average, or better or more.
Right, right, and it's still better than trying to there's no way you could, you could get an ROI if you had to build it yourself. Ever. Yeah.
Yeah. Like you say, $3,000 is about the lowest we've seen the average is closer to about 10 grand per house.
And that depends on the density. So yeah, I mean, 3000 is good.
Okay, yeah, we need to move on. But just a quick question, basically, I guess, to Erin and crystal, and you've sort of addressed this crystal already. But Will there be at the summit, for example, some discussion about what's next, if Congress does not be new ACP
I'll jump in on this. So when we were planning our, our panels, it wasn't quite this far down the path of that. We do have presentations that talk about affordability, digital navigators, things like that. So the idea of ACP will definitely come up. And assuming there is some more guidance one way or another, the folks that are on our panels, we'll be able to address it. However, we did not, you know, really plan a panel around oh, by the way, it's going away on the 26th, which is in three days after the event, just because you know that that information wasn't out there at the time of the planning of the event. So hopefully, we'll know more before the the event and we'll be able to speak to it. And
I asked just a couple of quick questions. One is the 318,000 households that are unserved and underserved in Arizona. Do you know whether those people any how many of those people have a CP right now or anything like that?
I don't, Henry were, the numbers are all over the place. In fact, I was just asking Mala if she happens to know what the number is for Phoenix, because for the state, supposedly it's 506,000 people. That's like, there's, you know, I don't know what the breakdown is. Because the numbers are, you know, they haven't most most folks who are collecting that data are, you know, sharing it for each state, as opposed to I mean, that, you know, there is some county data out there and some specific zip code data, which I have found to be inaccurate. So
I think, yeah, go ahead. Go ahead, Henry. I
was just gonna also ask, does ACP is that used to fund wireless mobile service? as well?
Yes, yes, you ACP benefit belongs to you once you get it. And so if you don't need it, or want it at home, you can use it for your, for your tablet or phone.
You can use it for that, okay.
Henry, they're using it for their phone service. Also. Because it's a bundle, you know, it's a bundle bill, we discovered that, we discovered that we started trying to switch some people over, that they would prefer to use, they're literally using it for their cell phone bill. And then claiming the data on the phone. They're hot hotspot functionality is eligible for ACP.
And, and to Atlanta's point, the the data that we get is only a partial zip code. So the data is shared on the ACP claim tracker, but it's only a partial code, so you can kind of sort of know which county but not exactly, because it's not a full zip code. So they don't share that information.
So we need to we need to move on. Obviously, this is going to be a continuing topic of discussion, partially depending on what Congress does and the guidance from the FCC and, and so forth. And so, of course, with Congress, it's hard to tell what they're going to do these days, but, but nonetheless,
I think it's pretty easy.
Okay, John. So, John, we're going to actually come back to you if we have some time here. But I did want to get to Our presenter this morning. Excuse me, where did that go? So I wanted to introduce Peter Costa. And Peter contacted me actually, about AZ BSN partner partnering with them on a workforce grab that they are working on. And so there is he's a CEO and co founder of ball two technologies that correct, Peter. And so, Peter is going to give us an update on what about about Bell two and the workforce development programs that they have, and specifically relating to Broadband deployment. So with that, Peter, I'm going to turn it over to you. Do you need to share?
Yes, please.
Okay. Okay, it's all yours, Peter.
Theater, where do you go?
Oh, theater. Where do you go?
Think he disconnected himself on accident?
Well, we're waiting for him to come back. Milan, it's good to see you. Don't get to see you very often. Good to be saying. Okay, was there Yes.
Did I get kicked out? I mean, my internet went out. I'm, I'm currently at Tolleson High School. We're just about to kick off our upskilling program with the high school here. So finding a spot so. But let me go ahead and see if I could share my screen now. Okay.
Okay, there you go.
There we go. See here. All right. So my name is Peter Costa, I'm the CEO and co founder of Baltic technologies. We are a social impact company, a technology company. And our mission is to accelerate the development of a skilled workforce and increase access to high quality jobs. We're based here in Phoenix. And we've, we've been working with a lot of different community partners and employers to really increase access to a lot of these high quality upcoming jobs that we're seeing from multiple industries. So I wanted to talk a little bit about where we're, right now we're applying our technology and program more in the advanced manufacturing, semiconductor aerospace sector. But we've been doing some researching over the past couple months around, how do we support the Broadband industry in and using our technology and some of our best practices that we've developed over time. So some of these figures you're might be aware of, but 25% of the workforce of employees are over 55 and leaving the workforce. And then I think the FDA is published some data that around 205,000 fiber technicians are needed to be trained within the next five years. Right now, those estimates around 2800 full time technicians and Arizona what we'll need. And the big challenge that we've seen, over the last couple of years that we've been utilizing our program is around accessibility. Our our technology, our company is really trying to find scalable solutions that increase access and the we've talked with over 100 different individuals. Many of them want access to these these jobs, but they face multiple barriers in accessing training. So the things that we hear from people is coordinating work and families with class schedules. Having limited funds cover the schooling costs. This might not be tuition, but it could be something like a computer, or transportation or any of the other costs associated with attending a training class. The other challenges we hear is around transportation or location challenges, especially when we get to rural areas of the state can be challenging for people to be able to commute to to a college or technical school. And then lastly, many of the people that want these jobs are more of a hands on type. And they struggle in a traditional classroom, classroom learning environment. And so really what we've done is we're creating solutions to help bridge those gaps to help both employers and individuals develop the skills that they need to be successful. And so the solution that we developed, it goes across three different areas. The first part is attracting and developing a diverse and equitable equitable workforce. With and then I'm gonna go over our certified training program, and then how we've helped facilitate on the job training. So to tract and develop a diverse and equitable workforce, we've been working with some great partners, we've developed a virtual reality application to promote 21st century jobs. So this is a VR career exploration experience. We worked with Maricopa Community Colleges and Chicanos Por La Casa. And we develop basically it's like a simulation or like a video game that shows people what it's like to work in a semiconductor fab. And in an aerospace facility. Right now that's being promoted. The training, one of the programs that's been promoted is the Quickstart. Boot Camps. If you're not familiar with the Maricopa County, Maricopa Community College Quickstart boot camps or attend a boot camp that gives people the essential skills that they need to get started in semiconductor and aerospace, it's a 10 day in person boot camp. We're also using this to promote our upskilling program that we're running for advanced manufacturing, and sort for collaborating with, with these different partners to do that. And then we also have the capacity to kind of add on to these VR, this VR career exploration. So in the future, if we could find a sponsor that wanted to put a basically an experience where you're seeing what it's like to be a fiber technician or working in the Broadband industry, we'd be able to do that. And this is a little demo of what it looks like you got the VR headset on, and you're inside of a semiconductor fab. And you can see all these robots running around you and and you actually do a task of trying to get this semiconductor equipment turned off. And I say the big feedback that is that we get from participants that go through this is like, wow, this is so cool. I had no idea that building computer chips was like this, it looks like Star Wars. And so it's a really great way to shine light on the different opportunities in that area. So the second is a certified training program. So we've been we've been delivering a industry 4.0 certification course, for advanced manufacturing over the last about year. It's been very successful. And it's a it's a scalable way to help develop a workforce. Our plans are, how do we how do we started implementing this in the Broadband industry. And so essentially, our it's our upskill program that we have. It's a turnkey online learning platform. In it, we're developing a hands on lab with an interactive digital guide to kind of help facilitate in person training. We give the individuals access to subject matter experts, tutors. And then in it we also provide tools for interview prep, resume prep and employer prep. Where we try to focus our efforts is more around. We're a technology platform that's enabling other groups to become the training provider, we try not to consider ourselves as the training program provider. So the different partners that we're working on developing this, this upskilling program is with community partners. So we're working with groups like Chicanos Por La casa, fresh start and other nonprofits help enable them to become basically the training guide. This is really important because what we've heard from the different nonprofits is when they have people come through their organizations and are looking for job training. They'll send them to a college program, or they send them to a training program, and then they lose sight of that person. If that person doesn't complete the course, they don't know why. Many times it could be curriculum related where maybe they're having challenges. They they're afraid to approach the instructor about something. And so those could be one of the reasons why they don't complete the course. But other reasons are things outside of the coursework. Could be, hey, I don't have a computer, I don't have internet. My family member was in the hospital. These are all things that we've heard directly from participants in our programs. And so the nonprofit ends up becoming the champion, the guide that helps them through the coursework, and addresses all of those challenges that an individual might face when trying to get access training, other places that we've looked at as community centers, like libraries, or areas that are embedded into these local communities, religious institutions and the municipalities. And so we provide basically a turnkey solution that enables these community partners to become essentially the training guide. And we're there to assist in in many of those components. We also allow employers to use the same technology to upskill and train their workers. This is great, because you can have employers that take in people that maybe don't have a lot of experience, but they can quickly upskill them and train them so that way, they can be ready for the job. And then lastly, for education, being able to provide our technology platform to groups like Tolleson, high school, is a is a great way that we can enable this type of training. And then we can also partner with community colleges and universities, technical schools, and other groups that might be in the education space.
And so that platform that we built, it's an online learning management system. So we have a lot of really great content, we have some simulations, we're using chat GPT, as a powered as a learning assistant. We're building our curriculum in both English and Spanish. And then what's great about it, it's self paced. So sometimes people will have to go through a certain material, it will take them a little longer. We don't do tests at the end of the week, or anything like that, it's more around, we really focus on mastery. So individuals have to get close to 100% on all the different quizzes and assessments that they take. And at the very end, they take a certification course that they have to get 70% or over. This is within the advanced manufacturing program. And then we're looking at how do we implement that into the Broadband sector. And then, in this coursework, we do have one on one office hours with our SMEs. So at any time somebody is stuck, they can schedule a one on one meeting with with somebody and they can help work, they can help them work through those different challenges that they might be facing. So in that, we're also going to be developing a hands on lab, where we're thinking about putting this effort is around cable splicing and testing, and then around safety. So we'd actually send a, a hands on lab that somebody could use, and then we have a technology that we've developed, which is an interactive guide, that would help essentially bring the expert to that person that's doing a hands on lab, so they can do it with by themselves, or they can do it with somebody that's there to assist them. And then we in this model, we also do a train the trainer. So we do an onboarding workshop, we allow those who's ever who's ever guiding that person through the training, they can track progress of the participants, we provide them basically a guide on how to do resume and interview prep, how to prepare and integrate successfully with an employer. And then those folks that are doing the training, they always have access to our, our team if they need assistance in in facilitating that, that program within their organization. And then the last area where we focus on is on the on the job training. This has been another thing that has been highlighted around once somebody's on the job, how do they continue to, to train and and develop and become successful. So over the past few years, we've developed an application that's called super dark. Super dark is essentially a knowledge sharing platform for the hands on workforce. What we've done is built something that allows somebody to an expert to quickly capture all of their all their information. This could be training, this could be standard operating procedures, it could be troubleshooting guides and best practices. And then somebody that's new on the on the team or somebody that's might not be as experienced can access all of those step by step instructions in order to reduce errors that happen on the worksite in order to decrease any potential safety violations. And ultimately it's it helps to Train and upskill the workforce on the job. And this is just a little demo of what super Doc is. So we have, it's a kind of think of it like YouTube on steroids. So it's small, little micro content that's developed by the companies themselves. And we can use videos and images in order to clarify things. But we also use augmented reality technology as well, where you could bring in 3d scans of an environment, this could be like a drone scan, you could bring in BIM models, or cat CAD models, and be able to bring all those different types of 3d objects into into that environment. And so that's kind of an end to end solution of what we're providing. Currently, we're supporting the Advanced Manufacturing semiconductor and aerospace industries. We're collaborating with mechanical accounts to Honeywell aerospace and talls in high school. So this semester, we have a number of students here at Tolleson high school that are going to be going through our certification course. They were working with Jag, which is called, which is jobs for Arizona graduates. Jag is going to be helping assisting those students through the coursework. And then at the end of the course, they receive a certification. And Honeywell Aerospace is going to be providing interviews with all of the candidates. So that way they can be hired and start working at Honeywell after they graduate. The great part about this is that it doesn't require them to go to college immediately, they can start earning a living wage. And then if they want to start going to community college or university down the road, they're now in a in a position where they can start doing that. Our previous participants have been placed in top tier semiconductor and aerospace companies. Some of the people that went through a program that either had no job experience at all, or in this industry, like working as restaurant line cooks, things like that. Some folks were located in very rural areas, others had no college experience, and many of them are earning minimum wage. They completed our program and about three to eight weeks. They're now all earning over a 60k year in these in these big employers. And so it was life changing for every single one of them. And so now our our mission is how do we scale that effort and augment the work that is happening already? We consider ourselves to be more of the how do we help scale all the efforts that that people are currently doing to to upskill and train our next generation workforce? And that is my presentation. Happy answer any questions that people might have? So
Marilyn, I think you had a question for Peter.
Oh, yes, Maryland. Do you require trainees to have a high school diploma to complete the program? No, we don't. We are we are an employer led training program. So it's more around the employer. Is the employer ready to hire somebody that might not have those qualifications? For us from a funding mechanism? If there's if there is a funding mechanism to pay for that training, then we're happy to facilitate that to essentially anybody.
All right, thanks. Thank you, Peter. Appreciate it.
Yeah, thank you. So I'll put my Here's my email.
I'm Dr. Charlie, you will have a question or comment. Question,
Peter. Very good, very timely, very interesting. Our firm consults with the Career and Technical Education District Consortium, which has 14 C 10s. All around the state. Have you had any interaction with them yet? Are you feeling like you have any momentum with them? I'd love to make that connection, if you haven't.
Thank you. Appreciate it. We've been in in engaged with some of the CTE programs on the advanced manufacturing side. But the the fiber Broadband is something that's pretty new for us. So, Pat, we'd love to receive any type introductions of yours.
I'll definitely help with that. And then the other part is, I know this has come up with the Office for economic opportunity. Carlos Contreras, the director, he's been talking about the need and fiber in particular and also advanced manufacturing. Have you had interactions with Oh, at this point? Yes.
We've met with Carlos multiple times and provide them an update and I think we've worked with Kullu Wilson. So some of the folks that The state level more than once again, more in like that advanced manufacturing semiconductor side. So any anything outside of that is very helpful for us. No,
I think the C 10 opportunities is a really good one for you. So thank you very much. Okay.
Great. Thank you.
Other questions for Peter? Yes.
Hi, it's Andy Sinclair, and with the Arizona department of economic security. And I'm always looking for non traditional ways to reduce poverty throughout Arizona. And I love your program, by the way. Can an individual get involved with your program? Or how can a community action agency get involved with your program?
So the anybody, for us, anybody can get involved with the program. For us, it's just around identifying the funding mechanism. So some of the funding sources that we've seen as its could be like employer lead, it could be community, community lead, or it could be from different grant fundings, for example, the the funds that we received to do this project with TAs in high school, it was at K grant that Chicanos Por La Casa received, and essentially, they're coming in as being kind of a wraparound services, and we're, we're being the training provider or the training provider, in this role. So I think it's, we can be creative in and how that funding mechanism works.
For was good, we'll be in contact. Okay. Other questions.
Other questions for Peter?
Yeah, I was just gonna ask Peter, what is the approximate cost per student to go through the training program?
So for our, it, it depends on the like, whether it's the employer or something that when we're working with the employer, it's a little more, it's a little, there's less resources required. And so we've seen that price point around like, $2,000 a person to go through that program, when we get to something that's a little more elaborate, like requiring the hands on labs. Our price point is somewhere we're trying to keep below the 5k. Mark, this is kind of where in the Broadband area, we're trying to figure out what is the total cost that the facilitator
Alright, so it's getting to be about time to end this meeting. And I know we haven't gotten to some of the updates from from Mala, and, and others. But I did want to just make one comment, Peter did contact me about partnering for his EPSN partnering with him specifically to do what we were just doing, which is to help get the word out, and to help develop relationships and partnerships, who, who they could connect with and so forth. So we're in the process of figuring out what that might look like. Peter, if you could send your presentation to me, and I'll share it with the group. Okay. Okay. So, Peter, anything else you want to comment on? Before we infer it before you your presentation today? I'll
just just say quickly about that grant. It's, it's a private nonprofit. It's the families and workers fund. It's an infrastructure and climate grant. And so we're collaborating with Chicanos Por La Casa on this grant. And we're looking just for partners, this could be employer partners is a big one, we always try to be focused on employer led program. But anybody from government or nonprofits that are looking to help support our efforts, feel free to reach out to me and I'd be happy to talk about what we're trying to do with the grant timelines kind of quick. We have to submit it by next week. But it's a pretty simple, simple grant. So
could you stop sharing, please?
So thank you, everybody.
So a number of you have already bailed Maryland. Are you kind of representing the Department of Ed these days for us?
Um, no, I would not. I would not say that. I mean, I, I work specifically with adult education services. So we're just looking at ways to opportunity to integrate I, I'm working I am working with the agency and we're meeting later this week to kind of integrate those but I'm definitely not speaking for any.
I want to put your time and put you on the spot. So anything else real quickly, Mala? Do you have any quick things I know we've lost a lot of people already. But you have anything that you want to share quickly. Are you still there? Apparently not. So. So I think we're I think we're about done. Milan, do you have? Are you still on? I think we lost him too. So I think we're, I think we're about done for today. I want to is there anybody who has any announcements or anything that they want to make before we enter today?
So Steven, Steve, I put a link in the chat to a bill House Bill 2265, which was introduced yesterday by Representative Elise Ortiz to create a Broadband commission. And I don't know where that's coming from. Maybe somebody on this call knows where this idea generated from, but I'd be interested in any feedback from this august group, when people can have a chance to take a look at it.
Interesting. Yeah. Be interesting to find out. Who introduced that bill? John, do you know represent
representative Ortiz? She's a freshman legislator. Okay, democratic democratic legislator.
Okay. Have you had any contact with him yet? John or not?
With her? No, not not. I'm still not on this bill yet. No.
Yeah. So John? I'm sorry.
Just looking at this bill? I mean, just glancing at it. Um, is she asking for the state to to just collect data? Or is she asking to, actually you have some kind of input as to the service that providers are supposed to? It
sounds like so if you're familiar, Rory, with how the corporation commission kind of oversees, obviously, they regulate the public utilities, but there's an aspect of the function that includes making sure that our energy systems are resilient, and that they're providing equitable services and things like that, I think that's what she's getting at is just that there's transparency and visibility to that information, not necessarily control or regulation. But it's a new, it's a new concept for me. So I don't know exactly where she's coming from, or most legislators don't come up with these ideas on their own. It's coming from some place. And I don't know what place it's coming from. So that's what's interesting to me.
I think this is coming from the bigger providers, because this is very, this would be extremely onerous for the smaller providers. As I'm reading through it, it's it's not a good thing for the smaller companies. Well,
it'd be unusual for the bigger providers to go to a member of the minority in the legislature to run a bill like this. So I don't you maybe right, I just, I just don't know, it's unusual. So it
may it may be also coming from companies that are planning and coming into Arizona.
So I'll be meeting with her on this and a couple other issues, in short order. So I'll find out as much as I can. I just figured with this the reach of this group. It'd be interesting to get perspective and to put it on your radar screen. John,
somebody asked if you could read post, the link.
Will do so. Yeah, this, John, hey, if you do find out any more information, do you have my email address?
I believe I do through either the mandatory registration process.
I'll throw it in there real quick. But I've got a couple of we deal with a couple of lobbyists. I'm gonna ask, put a feeler out to them to today and see what they what they know about this. Okay,
well, they're not as good as me, Rory. But that's okay. I'm
sure. Oh, John, I apologize. Is that exactly what you do? That's what I do. Well, the John, we
we need to have lunch, John. We on your lunch schedule? I'll take you out. So please, good.
Fortune. Unfortunately, we really didn't get time to have John really do a good update on what's happening legislatively?
Well, let me just say that the governor did mention Broadband interessei The state speech and I can't remember the last time that's actually happened. So that's a good sign. The big issue I think everybody's got to watch out for and I reached out to my island separately, is we had a $2 billion surplus last year, we have a $1 billion deficit, approximately coming into this new fiscal year. And I'm concerned like things like the rate matching grant program, which got 5 million last year, that's potentially going to be clawed back. other state agencies are going to be clawed back. But the number one issue that I mentioned on the HVAC call yesterday, is that there are several legislators who are proposing to eliminate the Arizona Commerce Authority, which is where the state Broadband office sits, and they don't have an alternative. So I think that's going to be one of the things the business community is very unified and support and there's letter circulating to support AC A I just want to make sure that this group knows that that's going to be something that the legislature is it's a leverage conversation. The legislature is trying to leverage the governor to support things you wouldn't otherwise support. So it's just, you know, it's good all politics, but it's it's important. So.
Okay, anything else? No. Okay. I think we're kind of done for today. I'm going to stop the recording and if anybody wants to continue to to Kibbutz for a little bit. If not, I think we're probably done for today.
