Okay, good morning, everybody in two seconds here and we go. Okay, so good morning. Glad to see you all this morning. I believe that we have some new people this morning. So I want to start with having you folks. Please introduce yourselves. Let's see who we got this morning. Eric Hall. We know you Eric, don't we?
Yes, sir. It's been a couple of weeks. Good morning, everyone. My name is Eric Hall. My wife is also here on the meeting. Melissa Hall. She's the program manager for the for the University of Arizona for the the NTIA. Grant. I was just invited. Just to sit in as a, I guess I would just say a very conscientious technology person. Many years in the Air Force, Air National Guard. Eight years in the in the Navy prior to coming over to Caterpillar, where I'm a mining technology specialist for Caterpillar dealing with autonomy, and a lot of wireless Internet of Things. Technologies.
Thanks, Eric. So we're talking about Halls. Melissa, I know you've been here before. We haven't seen you for a while. Do you want to introduce yourself again, please?
Hi, Steve. Sure. Good morning, everyone. My name is Melissa Hall. And like Eric said, I am the program manager for the NTIA grant through University of Arizona, which is why I haven't been here in a few weeks. It's been reporting reporting months. So things have been busy and conflicting. But I'm happy to be here and make all the connections.
Okay, great. Thank you for being here this morning. And Keith Dennis,
a good morning. My name is Keith Dennis. This is David Miller. We're from Southeastern Arizona Government's Organization. It is the Council of Governments for the four counties. They
see you talking but are you hearing anything?
Oh, okay. It's fine. We can hear. Cochise, Graham Greenlee and Santa Cruz counties is our service area. We're kind of like the PAG, or the mag of southeast Arizona. And we're, I was given the invite by Miss Heather Floyd from Valley telecom. If that name sounds familiar,
We've heard of her.
She suggested that we participate. And so our interest is in onboarding people in completing the ACP participation in the ACP program that we're doing down here as well as bringing more dollars for broadband infrastructure development in our region.
Right. Well, at some other time, Keith, we'd like to get more of a detailed briefing from you about about what you're doing. In the meantime, glad you could join us today. Anybody else. We have? TJ Mitchell?
Yes. Good morning, everyone. I'm Chief of Staff for Maricopa County Supervisor, Bill Gates. And Supervisor Gates has taken an interest in broadband, especially in Maricopa County. So, thanks for having me here. I'm just here to hear to listen and see if there's any way we can help.
Sounds great. Thanks, TJ. Welcome. Anybody else that's new that I missed. Okay. Well, let's jump in and get started. I see. We have several people from the broadband office this morning, Karen glad to see you. Perla glad to see you too. So you guys want to kick off with an update on what's happening? Lots of happening with the broadband office and everything. So can you kind of bring us up to date again? You
Yeah, I'm sorry, Karen, I'll start.
It's all yours.
Thank you. I don't know if you guys can hear me, I keep cutting in and out. But I'm gonna do my best here too. And my son keeps coming in and out too. So no, it was great. But the broadband broadband I do. The initial proposal Volume One is coming close to the end date here where it's going to close for public comment. And we're going to be opening for our initial proposal, Volume Two, we're currently working on the feedback portion of it and making a lot of edits to our document, which is really great. Aside from that, we also have our new digital equity manager coming on board with us, and I'm really, really excited to work with her. And
that is not yet.
I'm not sure if I'm allowed to say who that is actually, um, but I am really excited to work with her. Well, that's good. Yeah. I don't want to give out information if I'm not supposed to. So I'm really excited for that. And, um, let's see, I lost my train of thought there. We have working groups now. We have the working groups starting on October 30. And for those that signed up, there's been an email sent on which working group is meeting on which days and at what time? And if you'd like further information on that, please let me know. Maybe you signed up and you forgot, and I can go ahead and get you on board with that. But Steve has my email. And it's also been shared before on on some of the agenda. So please let me know. And we can get you on board with the working group.
Perla can people still join those groups or are they closed now.
It is closed, we closed it on October 19, to sign up for the working groups, and to schedule a time. But there are a lot of people on there that somebody from your organization possibly signed up. And I've been getting a few emails of people tag teaming it, where they say, Hey, I can't make it. But this person from my office can make it can they join. So it's been really great to be able to collaborate with people in that sense. Nicole, also, I did want to add in it that Nicole has a initial proposal workshop happening on one for the tribes. And then that's happening today at 10am. And then another one at 3pm. And that was just what to look out for in the initial proposal. And so just how you should provide feedback, and it's going to be a really great session. Yeah, that's all the updates I could think of on the spot. But if Karen or crystal want to add anything else,
before we go to Karen, and maybe we don't have the time to do it today, I don't want to put you on the spot. But you guys have been having some sessions with providers. And it'd be interesting to get your thoughts about what the what the concerns are, what the issues are, and so forth. Is that something you can talk about today? Or perhaps at a future meeting?
Perhaps on a future meeting?
Okay. That makes sense. I should have given you a heads up so
I'm real quick. Just what day is the the initial proposal Volume Two being released?
The volume two will be released on November 3.
Perfect. Thank you,
ACA website for pricing.
Thank you, Karen, you have anything you want to add?
I think Perla did a great job.
Okay. Well, I know you guys are busy and lots of stuff happening. Thank you all for all the great work you've been doing. So I don't think anybody else from the office is here today and Nicole doesn't look like she's here today. So anyway, thank you guys. So Perla and Karen for being here today. So excuse me, as Perla mentioned, and it is in the email that I sent out. And if you're seeing my screen, it's also on the screen. The initial proposals 10 o'clock for tribes and three o'clock for for others. And so we encourage you to make sure you attend those sessions. I think they're very important. Okay, let's, let's move on. Anybody else? Milan, can you hang on for the meeting? Are you gonna? You're gonna bug out on us?
Oh, I'm good until nine o'clock. So the next Okay,
well, why don't we just put you through right now then? So that we don't? Don't miss you?
Okay, um, the biggest update I have is the FCC is going to allow Wi Fi on school buses starting this year. All of the rules have,
excuse me, Mike, can you introduce yourself real quick? Yeah,
Milan Eaton. I'm the State eRate Director for schools in Arizona. So and I also manage the broadband special construction for all the schools and libraries in the state, also manage the final mile project in conjunction with the Arizona Rural Schools Association. So I wear three different hats. They're three very different jobs, but I work out of the Department of Education. So first off with ERate, the big change that's coming is that we're going to we're going to be allowed to provide Wi Fi on school buses utilizing ERate funds. They're still working on the actual rules around it, and the submissions. But that's a that's a big change from the past. And that's probably the only change for this year. We're still working on getting cybersecurity E Rate eligible. But hopefully, that'll come in the coming years. For broadband special construction, we have $5 million in state match special construction funds. So any schools and libraries that still are lacking fiber, we can provide funding for them using E Rate funds and state match funds. So if they're an 80% school or library, we can build fiber to them, it won't cost them anything. And we have right at probably $140 million worth of construction money available with our 5 million from the state. So it's a really good investment on the state. Before we put any money into Metro schools, I want to use that money in rural areas to make sure every single rural school and library has a fiber connection. So I'm stressing that real hard this year. And then on our final mile projects, all of them are complete except Grand Canyon school district area within the park. And the Park Service is slowing that one down. But we're still pushing them to get high speed and get to those homes within the Grand Canyon Park. And I think that's about it for me.
Can you just provide a little more background about the final mile project?
final mile project we started up? During COVID. We had many schools in many areas in rural Arizona that had no internet access. So we had school buses delivering packets to areas and students, you know, for teaching. And you know, historically Arizona wants students in a seat with a teacher in front to give classes. Well, we were thrown a loop. So it really impacted the ability of our students to learn. And disproportionately our rural students were severely impacted, since many of them had no internet. So what we did was working with Arizona Rural Schools Association, and the department of education provided the funding we built. We we took the places where we had built fiber into those rural communities to light up the school district, we took an additional pair of fiber, we lit it up and put up some wireless antennas and broadcast wireless signals into those communities so that the students could have high speed internet 100 Meg, over 25 for $10 a month for educational internet. And on top of that, we allowed those vendors to provide commercial internet and anywhere from 25 to $100 a month for you know for regular internet access so they could watch Netflix and have their standard internet access, even in those rural areas where they've never had internet before. So we have 14 communities that we've lit up. Probably the best one was the Civiq area in the White Mountain Apache Tribe. That one there. The school was paying the internet bill for those students at about $50,000 a month. So they had HughesNet. We replaced all that HughesNet for $250,000. We built a wireless network there. And now all of those students plus the rest of the community has high speed internet from Triad. I think Roy is still on the call. But overall he's built that network out And those, that whole community has wireless internet access now, and which they never had before they have. And now they can do a zoom call. But with the HughesNet they couldn't do that because of a geosynchronous satellites, you know, 300 millisecond delay, you can't do a telephone call or a conference call. So today, we have lots and lots of students and communities in rural areas that have access to high speed internet. It's economically, people can work from home. Learning wise, we have students that can work from home. Some school districts have gone to, you know, allowing students with straight A's to take off on Fridays and attend classes from home, which is, you know, a huge benefit. It helps morale, it helps attendance, allowing them to attend school from home if they have straight A's. So, it's been a, we've have some unknown or unforeseen advantages to having these rural access in those areas. So it's been a it's been a huge benefit. And it's Arizona Rural Schools Association and the Department of Ed are to thank Department of Ed, find the funding, Rural Schools Association decided to take the plunge and tackle the problem. So I appreciate both of those, those organizations.
Milan, where do you see for a future for final mile? Are we looking at expanding it more? And we need more funding? Or what's the, what's your thoughts about that?
Well, working with the commerce authority, and with the $900 million worth of funding that we have to bring services to all the rural areas of Arizona, I'm hoping that there's no need for the final mile for them to continue. I'm hoping over the next, you know, three to five years, we provide services to all those rural areas with fiber or fiber with a wireless extension in those areas with that $900 million dollars that we have in our pocket right now. So I'm hopeful that there's no need for that project to continue. If it needs to continue, then I'll go shopping for more money. Okay.
One second, give me a second here.
Okay. All right. So, Rory, do you want to add anything to to what my Milan already said?
No, I think I think you know, we're we've all the projects are built up. There's users on all these little towns and they're still expanding are literally putting people up almost every day. I think we had guys out in the Sonoita last night till eight or nine o'clock last night. So now it's all good.
We're just tell people who you are.
So I'm with Triad wireless, we're a wireless Internet service provider in Arizona, we worked with final mile and built out I think eight towns is what a if I remember right, we're getting ready to expand them. And I'm sorry, expand in terms of the number of users that are attached, basically, final mile helped cover the capital expenditures for companies like ours to go into areas because the capital expenditure made the return on investment too high to go into remote areas. So by providing that we can turn them into a profitable entity and provide low income, low cost internet, to the people that couldn't get that. So that's kind of where it's, that's where it's at, we're actually and again, and I can kind of mention this unless Derek's on here, but the next project we're working with is ASU's project where they believe the funding was provided by the county and some federal through some a federal grant, we're gonna hook it up 1000s of kids for free internet around Maricopa County, that project actually starts tomorrow, the the kickoff barbecue, to get everybody to sign up for that. And I think the first location is about 280 users, the towers and everything are all built so they'll they'll start on that and that's, that's in the eyes of the school district is primarily where it's the focus is to begin with, because that's one of the areas that needs the most help. So that's pretty much it.
Well, I gotta say is, you guys do awesome work. Milan you have been for years and thank you so much for all the work that you've done, helping with bringing millions of dollars in erate funds, as well as the final mile project and and and so forth. So thank you for all that work.
You know, Steve, I absolutely love what I do. And I love the people that I get to work with. It's just, I couldn't enjoy what I do anymore.
Cool. I don't think Karina is on the call today. I thought she was going to join us today. Is there anything else? My Milan that you want to talk about terms of Department of Ed? I know there's been some changes, that they now have the Office of Educational Technology, I believe.
Yeah, I'm, you know, Steve, I don't I don't participate in a lot of stuff, but within the Department of Education. Okay, I do my stuff. And it keeps me busy. So I don't know a lot about it. Sorry. Okay.
Hopefully, Karina. I know, she had been out for a while with some surgery. And so hopefully, we're
back as of yesterday, but I'm sure she's really busy trying to get caught up with everything. So I let her know. We missed her today. Now.
Okey doke. Let's move on. I know, we jumped around a little bit with with our updates. But I didn't want to want to have a meeting without getting an update from Milan since we don't get to see him very often. And so much going on. So with that, let's go back and and get to our resource highlight, as we do every week. And wanted to introduce, hopefully I'll get it right again, Tamara. Tamara, right?
Tamara? Yes, that is Tamara. No, you were right the first time so you're absolutely right.
So she's gonna give us kind of an update on what and who Resound Networks is. She is the state broadband coordinator for that company. And so we want to give her an opportunity to share.
Thank you sure, ready to go.
You have a presention, you do have a presentation. I'm gonna
do. Okay, so let me share my screen real quick. And while I'm doing that, I will tell you who I am. My name is Tamara Rosenberg, and, you know, bless
you before. Before we before we move on. So I apologize. Krystal, I see that you're on with broadband office. Is there anything else that you want to add before we before we move on? No, go ahead. Okay.
All right. Let me from the beginning.
Okay.
Can y'all see my screen? Yep. Okay, perfect. So, my name is Tamara Rosenberg. First of all, I want to thank you, Steve, for giving me the opportunity to speak. It's a little bit of a baptism by fire because I've been with resound for about a month and a half. And this is my first presentation on behalf of resound. So, everyone, be kind, but I welcome any, you know, constructive criticism. So I will thank you for that in advance. I am also not a technology expert. There are there are some things in here that I'm not going to talk about. Technology wise, it's very high level, I can already tell you that someone like Rory is going to jump in and I'm sorry Rory and say, Hey, how are you doing X? And I won't have the answer to that. But I can absolutely find that out and share that out, either through Steve or to the team later on. And finally, I wanted to give a shout out to Heather Floyd who is not here. She is incredibly inclusive. She's also the person who brought me into these meetings. So I heard Keith say earlier that she had said he should she should he should be here. So Heather is doing good work in the background there.
Heather has been has been a regular participant with us, and has just become
this amazing. I'm here to support you. I'm here to see you.
Thank you. All right. So let me just dive right in and tell you a little bit about resound networks. Let's go to the next slide. So resound is exclusively a rural company. We only deal in rural communities. We're about eight years old, and one of the reasons we received that three 303 million and the rural digital Opportunity Fund reverse auction. And part of that is because of our expertise in rural communities and our commitment of up to $500 million on that so We have a really big commitment to building out these networks across the seven states that we're in. And we have our our art off was specifically built around fixed wireless and fiber. So it's, it's it is definitely a little different than a lot of the other art off winners because most of them were focused on either fiber or other technologies that the FCC considered more standard. And we had to jump through a lot of hoops to get that because we had to prove that our systems worked the way we said they weren't. We also support and participate in all federal and local connectivity programs. And in saying that, I wanted to throw out that if there are any state connectivity programs that we should be aware of, and that we can participate in, I invite anyone who has that information to reach out to me and let me know because we'd be a happy participant. So moving right along. So I was going through some of the things on the site, because I am very new to this. And I wanted to really tie back what it is that we're doing that supports the digital access Taskforce. And, you know, the number one thing, of course, is delivering affordable broadband through our work from I'm sorry,
t.
It's, um, so
I'm gonna do it right now. Okay, oh, wait
I can find them here. On this list. There is. Okay. So
no problem. So with this part of the FCC, we are under Article funds, we are building affordable broadband networks throughout throughout the RF area that we were awarded. And we also have a partnership with communities unlimited. And that contract with them allows us to when we go into a community, we can also offer things like, you know, digital, digital training for folks that may not be savvy, we can work with them if there's a need for technology that we can deliver technology to those communities. So that's our partner for delivering on those kinds of projects. And then finally, we just recently contracted with the telecommunications industry registered apprenticeship program, meaning that we will be working with local universities and trade schools, even high schools potentially, to build up the workforce. Because as we all know, on this call, it is very hard to find qualified people to work on these projects, because there's so many going on simultaneously. So we want to contribute to the local economies and build that workforce locally that we can then either I gave an example, the other day on a call that while, you know, we may not be able to hire everybody that we train, we just did locally here. I'm located in New Mexico, and we did a fiber optic certification training, I believe, a year year and a half ago that was paid for with a state grant, there were 12 students in that class. And all 12 of them were hired immediately. Like I don't think there was a single person that didn't have a job either waiting for them or they were getting training based on the job that they were already in. So we know there's an incredible need for that, and we want to be a part of that. So part of the reason why I'm here is this bottom section on this slide is basically what my job is. I am in the process of building those connections and partnerships and support not just at the state and local government and economic development organizations which are the no brainers, but also health care and food insecurity. That is part of our understanding that the best way to know a community is to understand what their holistic needs are. So, you know, for example, I do run one of our local food distributions that has given me insight into everyone in our county. I live In a rural community, that's how I got into broadband in the first place. Because I was looking for better connectivity, so I could do my job better. And we run a local food distribution, where I believe it was, we have about 350 households, and we're serving 200 of those households a month. So there's a real connection between lack of connectivity, poverty, health and wellness. So we want to make sure that we're looking at this holistically. So I'm going very, very fast. And I was going to open it up to questions at the end. But if there's any questions about something specific here, feel free to interrupt me. Otherwise, I'll just keep going. So this, this slide is really not for you guys. Because you all probably know a little bit about what the rural digital Opportunity Fund is, but I thought I'd throw it in there. Because at the bottom of this, you can see what our award actually looks like. We're in seven states, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Arkansas. Currently, Texas is our largest states where we began. So a lot of our art off is built out in Texas, we've got several projects going in New Mexico and get into Arizona in a moment when I get to the next slide, we have $16 million to spend in the state of Arizona with our art off in eight different counties. Even though I'm saying we have those eight counties for art off, it's you know, we're always open to other communities that may need help. And with the advance coming up, and other funding, we can usually find a way to partner using our own funds and come up with a solution. And I just wanted to call out Maricopa County is the largest community that we receive funding for our I'm sorry, the largest funds that we receive for our community. And that's $4.45 million. So this is what our artif looks like. And this map goes back a little I didn't have the ability to change it before this meeting. But the like I said, a lot of Texas is done. So this, this map is about a year old, which is also why I changed out that number to say 500,000. That's just to just be clear, that is our coverage area. We're not saying we have 500,000 customers, but that is our coverage area. So that and that is, like I said mainly in Texas. But let me get a little more granular. And this is what we're going to be doing in Arizona. So I am actively getting out into the field just to make those connections, see what the challenges are in those communities, understand what those communities actually need versus what the FCC has obligate us to obligated us to build so that we can modify as much as we can to serve appropriately in these communities. And this is the actual breakdown of what we're what our plans are for each community, how many locations we'll be serving, and what that support looks like. And just so you know, I'm going to give this entire presentation to Steve to disseminate to all of you. So you will have this if you have any questions and would like to, you know, follow up on any of this. So this is a little bit of a meaningless slide to me personally only because I just started with the company. And I don't know what the actual timelines like what the when the clock started ticking. However, what I can tell you is part of the conversation I had yesterday, is that so if I go back to this slide right here, the plan is that Arizona's year is 2024. So we haven't started our build out, although our engineers have been, you know, working on these plans for a while. So we will be building this out the plan is to have it done by the end of 2024. And that is entirely unofficial. That is just based on the conversation that I had yesterday because they are actively building out our timelines for the next year. Okay, so this is where I said I'm not a technology person, but hopefully this is simple enough for someone like me to explain to more technologically savvy people than myself. So in areas where it makes sense, obviously, we're going to be are dropping fiber. So those are areas that are have enough density in an A census block to build those fiber networks, for the ones that are close enough, but really, there's not enough, not enough density to warrant the cost of fiber, we will be going with millimeter wave small cells. And using the unlicensed spectrum, then, you know, then we get out into our point point technology for those who that have a little bit of density, but they're a little further apart. And then finally, the points point for really Spartan locations where, where things are pretty far away. So I want to get into how that's going to work a little bit based on our partnerships. So we have a lot of partners to make this work and good relationships that we're we're utilizing, but the one that I really wanted to highlight is with Tirana, because Tirana has been working on next generation fixed wireless equipment and systems. And they have come up with some really interesting new technologies. And specifically, one of the ones that's an interesting call out is the non line of sight capabilities. Because that's always been a challenge with many of these technologies in the past that you have to have that direct line of sight otherwise, forget it, it's not going to work. We worked with them on this technology, we were one of their testers, and they used us as a case study. So that's what you see on the right hand side here. And it's a really interest. Like I said, I'm not a technology person. But it is a really interesting video, if you want to watch it. When you get this document there. I did include the link if you want to watch the full video of how this technology works.
And then finally, my biggest ask if you guys hear today is, you know, who should I be partnering with? Are you a potential partner for us? How can we work together to ensure that those areas that are possibly on unserved or underserved and may have fallen through the cracks of all these different programs and plantings and grants and things like that, we want to ensure that they all get covered, covered? So I would love to connect with any and all of you and talk this through a little further. I think this is a really great forum. And I appreciate you so much, Steve, for asking me here today to talk this through. And so with that, I'd say What questions do you have?
So Tamra about a big questions out there. What?
How far along? Are your engineers? With the engineering solutions for Arizona?
Um, that is a question that I need to ask because I know that the plan is to be doing Arizona and 2024. But I don't know what the status is. I know that for pretty much all of our locations, they've done physical site visits. But beyond that part of my job is to reach out to people like you all so that we can start having those conversations early before those belts go start get started.
So I reached out to the Resound networks after the ARDOF awards and Resound couldn't tell me anything at all. They they didn't know anything. So if you're and I'm glad that you're engaged, and I'm glad we have someone at least to talk to that's interested.
Oh, absolutely. And I was listening to everything that you were saying and thinking there. There's definitely some some opportunity there. I don't want to step on Rory's toes at all but but if there are even opportunities for Triad and Resound to work together to help solve things,
oh, no, we don't stop. We don't step on toes. All of the 14 projects that we've done, we put out RFPs to win eight of the 14 So okay, and boy he's done a great job. And Rory is best when it's not a normal or easy install. Rory is probably the best wireless engineer I've ever worked with. He can make it work. I don't care what it is or where it is. Rory has a way of making stuff work no matter what. So if it's a hard install, Rory is the, person to go to because he can he can, he can make anything work.
So how much did you pay him to say that?
Yeah, check is in the mail
Rory is also a pain in the ass because extremely smart engineer wise, and he still running his own company. So you're making tough to deal with sometimes. But he can make anything work anywhere. So if it's complex, I'll go to Rory every time. You know if I have a choice, but all the stuff that I've done, they're all RFP driven. So he's just supposed to have one eight out of the 14. So you guys have been awarded, you have federal money to spend in Arizona, we want to make sure that it gets spent in Arizona. So Oh, absolutely. I will send you an email this morning. We can get together I'd like to meet with your engineers. And I'm sure that Sandeep from the broadband office would probably like to talk to him too. So that we can talk about what the plan is where you're planning on working, because we don't want to spend that $900 million, we have in places that we can't technically spin that 900 million in places that you guys are going to work and get stuff done. We just want to verify that it's actually going to get done, because some of the art of vendors haven't done anything in Arizona. And I don't think they're going to do anything. So those places are gonna get left out.
So and I will tell you, we've run into that in other markets as well. And we have tended to pick up those markets. So if someone comes to us and says, Hey, someone defaulted on their art off, we're like, let's talk, let's see what we can do to get it done. So that is our those are our favorite kinds of projects, because we can come in and solve a problem.
Yeah. And I, as you learn very quickly, I speak very plainly and honestly, and I don't mince words very often. So it's just the way it is. It makes things
absolutely fine with me. So yeah, he said, what you can help us with? Oh, sorry.
No, that's okay. I'm sorry. Go ahead.
Oh, no. I said, Well, you can help us with that. So I know that we've met with Sunday, before I got here. My superiors met with Cindy a few months ago. And they would really like to get in front of him again, and sit down because we are ready to talk about that process. And we want to ensure once again, exactly what you said that we're hitting it in the right spots. And we're not, you know, we're not overbuilding, we're not sort of doing something that doesn't need to be done. You know, I think I was on another call yesterday from New Mexico. And they said, We want to make sure that we're not sending fiber to the rocks. Because there are some areas where, you know, the FCC might say this area needs fiber, and it's like, there's literally nothing there. You know, so we want to make sure that we're, we're following up with all the communities that we are responsible for, and making sure that it is an appropriate build. Yes,
absolutely. Okay. Hi, my Carolyn's an email.
Sorry. Hi, I was just gonna suggest if we want to do another joint meeting with Sandip and yourself and Resound, I think that would be really productive. Yep.
I just want to remind people who you are.
Hi, I'm Karen Ziegler. I'm an independent consultant under contract with ACA to help them with their broadband efforts. So Tamra, I remember you were on the call last time. And we did talk about setting up another meeting. You know what, Sandip? And you know, I said, You and one other ARDOF provider are the only ones that have not defaulted in Arizona. So I think there is some great opportunities, I think of Krystal is still on our call. She's our GIS and data, you know, person. And if we want to set up a meeting with Milan, and bring Krystal along to and take a look at the maps. And like I said, I think really good.
That would be fantastic. Yeah, and the sooner the better, because we're in our planning stages for 2024. Also, so we'd love to meet with you as quickly as possible.
Okay, Karen, since you're here and you have access to send each calendar, you want to set that up for us.
I can, and I'll tell you that we've got our major deadline to get the volume to initial proposal published by next Friday. So it would probably be the week after that.
Okay. All right. Shoot me an invite. I'll be there. Okay.
I will and Tamara. I have your email here on the slide. And so we'll take a look at the availability and send something out for that following week.
That would be fantastic. Yeah, that wouldn't be wonderful. Thanks. Good. Thank you. Thanks.
Can you stop sharing please? Absolutely. Okay, any other questions for Tamara before we move on? Hearing none. Let's see what do we got. So, Mala, you're back. Glad to have you back and Erin Glad to have you back too. So you guys need to give us an update on what's happening with with the State Library and all the great projects you guys are doing.
Erin, do you want to go first? Or do you want me to go first,
I'll just give a real quick update. The reason we're both gone last week was it was the Arizona Library Association Conference. And total attendance for the conference was over 300, which is fantastic. Melissa and I and a number of other state library staff presented on a wide range of topics that are very pertinent to this group. Namely, I'll let Mala talk about the telehealth one because that one was her project. But the one that I was most directly involved in was a state of digital equity in the state of Arizona presentation with a number of sign folks who are in this room like Elena, and let's see who else is here. I can't see everybody on the screen. But in any case, it was a wonderfully attended program. I want to say there was like 50 people in that room, which was pretty amazing. And it it really gave us the opportunity to Oh, yes. And Cindy's here to I didn't see you on the screen. Cindy. Yes, thank you. Um, it gave us an opportunity to speak to, you know, the stakeholders in the libraries that have been doing this work for so long, but maybe didn't have, you know, the awareness of the bigger picture and we were really happy to be able to share that from multiple perspectives. And so I hope that that, you know, Foster's continuing conversation with the library world, which of course, we will ensure that that happens. So Mala, do you want to talk about the telehealth program?
Okay, I've been we we had a presentation on the telehealth pilot projects. We have completed three pilots already one at Arivaca, Ajo, both of those in Pima County. We did one in Tuba City for the tribes. And that was that was an interesting day that day, it was a very windy day, we were running for rocks to hold our fliers down because it was outdoors. But we had a good good attendance more than 150 people attended for that small area that was really good. And we demonstrated the health equipment kits that we have purchased for the libraries. We also we did a live demo with a with a nurse practitioner, the other end and a nurse practitioner at our end as well. And help people understand what the equipment was and how they could do it and how they could have a zoom call with their service protocol service provider. It was interesting to hear some of the folks say that they would they really were happy that we were doing something like this because they had to drive almost an hour to Flagstaff or some other place. They had to meet their doctor a specialist and which meant for those who were on hourly wage, they almost have to take a half a day off in order to do that. And at the same time, no childcare for them at home. So they had to pay for childcare. So that someone takes care of their young ones while they take themselves or their elders to a doctor appointment. So in on the whole, they found that this was a service that they would use. We're partnering with other organizations as well to make it happen to make to continue this project further planning on having like a telehealth Tuesdays or something like that, so that every Tuesday or every Thursday, whatever day the library chooses, they would have a health related programming happen at the library and at the same time, show them the equipment that is available so they could use it. Pima County has partnered with the American Heart Association and have got a couple of boxes or more of blood pressure kits which they have distributed to their libraries, which can also be checked out by the by any patron for the length of time if they were on pre or post doc there, and they can do all this from their home, if they have broadband connectivity at home, or as they can come to the library and do the same thing. So this is what we, we spoke about, we spoke about what we are also planning to do in the future, and how many more libraries we plan to connect to to her to telehealth next year. The other presentation I did was on E Rate for tribal libraries, there's been a lot of focus and emphasis on EDID for tribes. There's a pilot project going on right now. It's been extended again for next year. So the pilot project means that anyone who signs up for this will get one on one assistance from USAC, the administrative company that's running the E Rate program, and they will handhold them to all the stages of the program, which you know, as, as all of us know, is complex. And every, every application runs through almost three fiscal years, the year that they are actually doing their RFP the year that they do the application. And finally the year that they do the billing, so it is complicated. And sometimes we don't have people stay the same person staying right through one application, even. So, it is important for them to get that help that one on one help. And that's what your SEC is going to provide. Also, the new travel order has a lot of benefits for them. The for example, the school and the college library, or university library, if it is serving the public free, of course, is eligible as a public library for either a purposes, academic libraries, otherwise, I'm not eligible for either. Also the floor, that is the minimum that they can get for their internal connections has been raised to 50,000. Which is also good for them, because so far there, they haven't utilized that amount to the internal connections amount is a five year cap, budget cap. And they can every five years it gets renewed. It's based on the number of students or it's based on the square footage of the law of the library that is used for public purposes, for public access. They are the other events that I attended, which is why I was not here. The other conference that I was at was shall be, that's the school's health and libraries broadband coalition. They have their anchor net 11th 11th anchor net Conference in Washington DC. And they it was interesting because they had White House staffers and as well as staffers from some of the Republican and Democratic senators to be a part of the conversation. And sometimes it was a like, you know, it was it was fire in the room, to say the least because of the confrontations. But it was interesting. We also had, you know, several sessions, several battle sessions, the impact of ERate on tribes, USF reforms. That was an interesting session, and we've talked about it quite a lot is a BSN earlier. There. There was also a proposal by Jessica Rosenworcel, the chair for a pilot program on cybersecurity, that she proposed last July. It was a three year pilot for $200 million to support cybersecurity for schools and public libraries. And if adopted, they will open up and a rulemaking process which is an elaborate process that FCC goes through for every change. But the funding would be separate from the E Rate funding. It is not a part of the E Rate funding. It's a part of the three phase three proposals that the chairperson Chairwoman put forth for the learn without limits program. The first one was the Wi Fi access on school buses. The second phase was for funding Wi Fi hotspots to be circulated. And this was through the E Rate funding program and this cyber security islet was the third have learned without limits program. There were several others. Other programs that shall be but I don't think we have the time to go through all of that. So back to you, Steve, unless there are any questions from
one more shout out sorry. Also this week, just highlighting Janet and the Arizona telemedicine programs policy summit that they hosted on Tuesday. That got to meet Tamra in person, which was wonderful. But that was a really well attended event as well. And we were there, the State Library was their booth thing for connect Arizona digital navigators. So that was a great opportunity to get in front of that group as well. So sorry, I will stop talking now. Back to you.
Thanks. Good segue. Cool. Go for it. Anything else you're going to say? While you're speaking?
No, back to your seat.
Okay. So Aaron, you didn't want to add anything more? Any other updates?
No, I'm good. But Holly's on the call. I don't know if she's got anything.
No, I think you all have covered it. Thank you.
All always you guys do amazing work Mala and Milan is one of our heroes in the state that has brought millions of dollars to the state for E Rate funding. And so we are greatly appreciative of their work. So I want to jump back to Elena, and you want to give us a little update on the ACP and information we sent out. But you want to talk about that a little bit. Elena has a lot of times people just don't read stuff with them. So I thought it would be good for her to talk about the latest with ACP.
Oh, yeah, sure, Steve. Thanks. And yes, I will introduce myself before you tell me too. I'm My name is Elena Lowry. And I am the Arizona Regional Director for a nonprofit organization called Common Sense Media. We're a child advocacy organization. And we've focused a lot of our work here in Arizona around the ACP. So we've had very close contact with folks on the Hill. And I just wanted everybody to be aware that a couple of things, there was a letter sent by US Senator Rosen to the White House, asking to extend the funding for ACP and both Senators Kelly and cinema were signers of that letter. It may have worked, because they have allocated in a supplemental funding bill $6 billion to continue the ACP program. However, the chairwoman FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel has already and this is a fact has already said that $7 billion is needed to prevent a lapse in the of the ACP program, before any long term funding pathways like Universal Service Fund are ready to absorb that program. So we estimated that the ACP will need short term funding that lasts until June of 2025. Because that would provide provide time for USF reform court challenges and the regulatory process to expand USF to include ACP. So we're working right now, as many of you are on getting people signed up for the ACP, this is certainly a situation where the more people we sign up, the faster the money, you know, goes, you know, gets used and so there's just a lot happening right now. But the good news is that $6 billion dollars was included in the supplemental funding proposal. We don't know what's going to happen, but at least we know that there was discussion. There's awareness of the need. And, you know, if you have connections in Washington, if you have connections with your senators, you know, your Republican friends, now would be a really good time to to promote and push the need for that extra billion dollars. Certainly thanking, you know, thanking those folks who helped to, you know, to get the course across the finish line, I guess you could say, so to speak, and I do have a copy of the letter. I have a copy of the statement from the White House. I have all of that if anybody's interested. I can put it in the chat.
Any questions for Elena?
Kagan One second here. Okay, Cindy, are you still here? Yep.
Yes, we certainly are. Hi. Yeah. I'm Cindy Cindy Hogan. I'm the chair of the Arizona Digital Inclusion network or Aiden. We're a coalition of digital inclusion practitioners and advocates from across the state working to advance digital equity, and inclusion and close the digital divide in Arizona. And we focus on the elements of digital inclusion beyond broadband and the technology aspects, such as affordable devices, Affordable Internet service, digital skills, technical support, digital navigation, those sorts of things. I can put my email in the chat if you're interested in joining us for our meetings, we meet twice, twice a month on Thursdays at noon. Let me find my chat here. Okay, and I just wanted to this week, or next week, we're going to be well, no, prior to the initial proposal, the be initial proposal, Volume One, we're going to be weighing in on the community anchor institutions of Arizona information that's provided in that in that document, and I just wanted to raise raise awareness with this group. So Arizona, the broadband office has been working with their consultant, they've created a list of what they're considering community anchor institutions in Arizona. And I've downloaded that list. And I can put the link to that to that Excel spreadsheet. So that everybody here, if you're interested, if you're a community anchor, potential institution, you can look at the list to see if if you're on there. And if you think you should be on there, you can you can submit that to the broadband office. So I've I've looked over it. And I think there are a number of things missing. And I think it's really important that we all have a look at it, this font, the funding for one gigabit service to community anchor institutions as part of the bead plan, and they if there's money left over, after all the homes, who don't aren't, who are on and underserved are served this money, this money will go to supporting these institutions. But it's really important to me that we have a complete list whether whether the funding shows up or not, I think it's really important to be stating who is eligible to receive to receive this funding, if that possibility happens. And I would just really like to see, all of us who think we we should have a shot at this on on the list, we never know where the list is going to go. And so you can I'm gonna give you two email address or links. One is to let me say. The first is just to the spreadsheet, what the list looks like, and you can search for organizations on that list. And then the second is where you can upload your your suggestions to the state state broadband offense. So there we go. Thank you so much, Steve. Thanks very much.
Thank you. So John Kelly, I haven't seen you in a while. Is there anything legislative happening? Sessions kind of over if I'm not mistaken?
Oh, yeah, it's over. But it's coming back. And
I'm really like a bad penny.
So I'm John Kelly, a principal in the lobbying firm try advocates. And we do all kinds of different work across all kinds of different policy areas and including broadband, including workforce development, education policy. So that's my introduction. I would say that the number one issue that this group can take back to their organizations is that the Arizona Commerce Authority, which is the loving home for our program program, is up for its sunset review at the legislature this year. And that means the legislature has to affirmatively vote to continue this unique public private partnership opportunity. And you may have all kinds of different thoughts about the Arizona commerce authority and what it does and how it's doing. But the fact of the matter is that if the legislature does not continue it, then I would anticipate there would be a major disruption in our broadband program, they would have to find another home for it. It would it would not be good. So I know that a number of organizations and clients that I workwith are making the preservation, if not some improvement in the court in the commerce authority, a key part of their legislative priority. And I hope all of you will take that to heart as well.
John, do you perceive any potential objections? And the legislature? I know, it's hard to tell who does what. But
yeah, you're always going to have objections, you're always going to have issues, I don't think there's anything that I would call legitimate and real as far as that goes. But that's not necessarily the province in the legislature. So what I would say is the Arizona Auditor General, which is an arm and legislature did a performance audit of the commerce authority. You may have seen some headlines in the last couple of weeks about some of the some of the work that's done to recruit companies to the state and monies that are expended around the Superbowl, or the Phoenix Open or, or any of those kinds of things. So these those kinds of things tend to be a little controversial. But the fact that matter is ACA administers some very key economic development programs for the state. And without it, you're going to have to start all over again, and especially as it relates to broadband, this is a very critical time for this program to get more mature rather than get disrupted. So I just think it's a high priority for our community to make sure that the commerce authority gets continued.
So John, aside from the commerce authority, and whatever issues there are with the commerce authority, are there any who are who are objecting to or concerned about the broadband Office specifically?
No, no, I wouldn't say that. I wouldn't say that, I would say that there is a general concern about federal spending and how much money has been dedicated to these kinds of things from certain quarters. So you're going to run into that in some respects. And I think to the extent that that broadband office, has the ability to be transparent, accountable, and not create controversy is going to make it a lot easier for them. And I think they're well on the way in terms of making those kinds of improvements. So I, I don't, I'm not bringing this up to say that this is inevitable as a problem. But just if you want to know what to worry about, this is something that people can do something about. So if you're interacting with legislators interacting with public policy, this should definitely be on your on your walking around card.
So John, should people be excuse me, contacting the legislature regarding ACA generally, are specifically broadband, if that's where their interest is,
I would say ACA generally, because that's where the broadband program sets. And then and one of the good reasons is because the Broadband Program is a key part of its development, and you don't want that disrupted. Okay.
Any other questions or comments for John? No, Heather, youthful, you follow a lot of that stuff, too. You have any thoughts?
Well, just remember, the Brogden office was codified last year, and they did approve to actually keeping continue on. So I think what John outlined is if there is a problem with the ACA that it will have to find a new home. But there will be a broadband office so that that's good news. But I agree with China, we wouldn't want the disruption at all. It's much better where it is.
Okay, if I, if I could jump in here real quick. This is this is PJ way. Hi, there. I appreciate what you just said. Because I was thinking the same thing that was codified already. So we'd have to find a new home. But obviously, the newest reports that have come out about the state budget shortfall could provide some impacts. So I think this is a an effort that's that is in the interest of maintaining that it is important probably to reach out as much as possible, simply because with budget shortfall, who knows what may be on the table for for changes?
John is
exactly right. PJ, because of the budget current estimates are 400 million budget deficit in the current fiscal year. That's that's certainly digestible at the moment that we don't know what the economic trends are. The field is muddy. I'm sorry.
Go ahead. Oh, I
was just gonna say, Isn't there any been any talk at all about? So if they did away with the Congress authority about who who would pick up that whole, not just the broadband office, but the whole role of economic development?
No, no, and because nobody is really, I think, encountered the issue yet. The legislature is not in session. So we haven't sort of identified that this is going to be a major problem. But if as you look at the fact that the calendars As the the agency has to be renewed, and you go to the legislature, anything to do with the legislature has to get 31 and 16 votes in support. And as we all know, that can sometimes be a challenge. So it's not an inherent problem with ACA, it's an inherent problem with the decision making decision makers and legislature who have to hear from the community about what's important to them. And that's just the general statement. So if this group thinks the broadband office and what ACA does to support the brand office, broadband office is important, then it's important to be heard. And that's the main all the lobbyists in the world marching down to the Capitol. I mean, one thing but never as important as the grassroots, the kinds of companies that are involved in this and community organizations, talking to Republicans and Democrats and, and everything in between. So that's that's just the nature of the beast.
Thanks, John.
I think one thing we can point to, is the broadband office does a great job of making sure there's not duplication of funding. And that is something our legislators would really be interested in hearing. Our office is doing a good job of making sure that any public monies are being used the best that they can be without a duplication. So that's an ace in our pocket.
Okay, thank you, brother. Okay, well, we're about out of time for today is anybody else have anything that they'd like to share quickly?
Steve, Mark Goldstein on the tech Council public policy guide, has posted as a PDF on their site, it's 94 pages, it looks really good. I put the link in the chat earlier in the meeting. It's back there if you scroll back to it. And I did get the final edited version of our work the broadband sections, as a Word document, it evolves a bit once I finally do submit it. So I will now be pulling out the five different the four state in the federal broadband section and making a nice word summary document probably by next week's meeting. But the full guide, the 94 page PDF is on the website now.
Thank you, Mark. And so just Just a reminder, that most of the stuff that we've talked about any events coming up anything related to a lot of the presentations, that I do have that information in the email that I send out with the announcement of the meeting. So I know it's a lot of stuff. And I know that people don't read. But if you want to find the links to meetings, and events and things coming up, and deadlines and all that sort of stuff, you will find most of that in the email that I send out. Take me a lot of time to do that. You better, you got to be reading it.
Steve, don't you also don't you also make This is Kirk, don't you also make that available on the landing page, the ACBS and landing page on the site.
I do have the the well, I don't have all of those links to the meeting announcement page. I do have a lot of those links. But I would strongly recommend that you review that email, I try to keep it as up to date as possible. So anytime anybody sends me information, I review the chat and anything else that I have from people to try to excuse me to share all that information and make it easy to find and find all those links.
And I apologize. I was in another meeting I just get John, is the ACA fundamentally at risk right now. I mean, I hate it. Okay, has just went No, that's good.
Yeah, I wouldn't I don't want to be. I don't want to overstate it. Because I think there's the ACA has a lot of support. What I'm just saying is that there is a permissive decision the legislature has to make to continue the ACA. And given what we've seen with this legislature, particularly with directors nominations, and how destructive some of those conversations can be. I think it's imperative that people like me are talking to people like you all, to say, hey, on your little checklist of things to to talk to your legislators about. And if you're not talking to your legislators, why not? Then this should be one of them.
Right? And Elena? Yeah, I remember when it was first spun out from the Commerce Department, right. And a public private partnership at that point in time. So that's why I get a little confused on you know, the original concept of it being a public private partnership. But now it's being kind of treated like a Department of Commerce again. So just confusing for us non legislative types,
is probably confusing for them too.
So I can't help people in line here, myself and John and Mark in particular, who were involved with when there was a Department of Commerce, and we had conversations with them about broadband at that. And then the commerce authority was created and spun off. And, anyway, and so so the other thing is, John, if I'm not mistaken, isn't the governor, the chair of ACA board? That's correct. Yeah, it's good or bad with today's legislature, but just a point of interest.
Well, thanks, thanks got a little gray for me when they pulled it back underneath the Office of Economic Opportunity in that whole thing and then gave Sandra more responsibility, you know, directly at the state and and, and, you know, I probably Lena probably knows more about you know, those details back in the day than I do and that's especially John does also, but it just seemed he started getting blurred on the private public, public private partnership entity. And then other functions within the states part of Bandra ends up in you know, responsible for and when they moved workforce unit Ross got moved and the whole workforce crowd got moved. I got a little lost in it. Then I'm trying to reengage the workforce groups for both cuz you know, mission critical construction and data centers. And that's a little bit of a of a different kind of thing to navigate right now to
without getting too much inside baseball. Can you make a great point, and I think the governor named Carlos Contreras to be the Director of the Office of Economic Opportunity Office of Economic Opportunity is a state agency is not a public private partnership. And they have to operate on state under state rules, procurement rules, etc. So but they've been basically contracting for administrative support from ACA and administrative support from ACA can be can be challenging, because it's they've got a different set of rules. So that's getting worked out. But what I would tell us is since there was an announcement in the summer about a new build it apprenticeship program around construction, manufacturing construction, there is a hot pursuit interest in the on the part of ovo and building and expanding apprenticeships, when I heard the discussion earlier today about registered telecommunications apprenticeships. I know I've heard that discussion in a number of different venues that the workforce shortages, particularly in fiber optic techs and things like that. There's a huge interest in that on the part of OIO these days. And so there's a lot going on in that in that work. Yeah, and
trying to coordinate with them as part of the navigation issues I'm having trying to figure out who's on first with a lot of that. And nice hat too, by the way, John, nice hat.
Kirk, just just FYI, I have actually I have a call into several people trying to find out because I actually wanted to do a program on workforce development, because it keeps coming up again, and particularly workforce development, as it relates to our interests, particularly in the digital inclusion space. And I'm trying to find, there are lots of organizations, as you know, who are involved in workforce development. What I'm trying to do, and maybe ovo and I do have a column to them also, is the entity that can give us a picture of where, what the what the system looks like, because I know that each of the counties has workforce development boards, and they have to put together a plan that they then submit to the state. And then there's lots of other universities and all these different players out there. And so I was trying to find who who are who's could give us a good overview of what that whole workforce system looks like.
You ever make spaghetti, Steve.
But I have to I have to admit it was a lot clearer when the godmother of workforce aka Rosalyn Boxer was in charge of everything. And I can see she can hurt cats like nobody's business.
She was great. She was great at saying no.
Ross and I were friends for 30 years. We know Ross for the years and years and years. Say wait, my wife and I worked with Ross years and years ago. Anyway. I'm going to end the meeting. I'm going to stop recording if you want for you and I'm sorry, go ahead.
It's Andy Sinclair. Yes, let me just check around here. Sure occupied. So one that kind of dress about workforce development that covers the whole umbrella up all the agencies statewide.
Great, Andy, thank you appreciate that. Yep.
Oh, just want to throw one thing in from, you know, the digital inclusion workforce perspective, part of the conversation should definitely be the high school at the U of A, who, you know, trains our librarians in the state, and similar organizations that have, you know, the digital literacy aspects in their, in their professions not, you know, not to discount the other parts. But, you know, that's a definitely a huge part of the workforce that we're talking about when it comes to digital inclusion. And also just a little shout out to the leadership certificate that's available at ASU through the Marconi society. The Digital Inclusion leadership certificate is an excellent program to look at for folks who are looking for that big 30,000 foot overview of what it all the different parts of it entails.
So I don't have any sense of whether or not their work, the local workforce investment boards, and they're probably called different things in different counties have included a serious discussion about digital inclusion, and, and so forth. And so that's a discussion and I believe that that's going to be addressed also in the digital inclusion plan. Sure, we'll be, but but it would be helpful for us to have that discussion and kind of get a picture of who's who and who's doing what, to the best that we can. But you know, there was so many different groups, not that we have to get down to every library and everything. But where's the big picture that somebody is doing, and I know that the state, the state does have a workforce plan that, again, all of the counties have to submit their county plans. But beyond that, I'm not sure I understand where that is. Well, we Oh certainly is important. And I do have a call in Andy Ridley, about that also. Anyway, I'm going to stop recording if you guys want to hang on and
