Okay, good morning, everybody. Hope you all had a happy had great holidays and happy New Year to everybody. And hopefully it will be a good year for everybody. So moving on this morning. We have anybody new joining us today. Anybody new going once going twice? Okay. Yeah. All righty. Well, good morning, everybody. So first thing off, I want to again, thank our sponsors CareFirst, Arizona, Karen Ziegler consulting, Valley Telecom Group, Kajeet, and triad. And we're hoping that some of you will also step up to do that, this year. So moving on the meeting this morning, we have a lot of things to talk about. So I want to just jump into into the agenda. So first of all our next meetings, so we will be meeting on January the 11th. On January the 18th, you may, if you've saw my email, we are going to be doing a Digital Equity plan, draft proposal study session with the Broadband office and we'll talk about that a little bit more on the 18th. And so that's going to be in in lieu of our regular meeting format, that we're going to be focused on that. And it's going to be an extended meeting, it will be two hours, we have a very long plan. And you'll hear more about that in just a couple of minutes. But I encourage you, you'll get another email and a meeting invite from me probably today or tomorrow with the latest, and encourage you all to attend to a pretty important session for you. And then on the 25th we are not going to be meeting because the internet for all Summit, which you'll also hear more about later, is on January 23 and 24. And we hope that you'll all be there and by that time, we might be tired of hearing about it. So we're going to not meet on the 25th. So that's kind of our schedule coming up for the rest of the month. And with that, I'm going to jump into our updates on the from the Broadband office. And Aaron, I think you're kind of taking the lead on that you were Perla I don't know if Pro was even on the call today. But But Aaron, I think they're kind of taking, you're taking the lead on that. Are you Where are you? We're in a boat? Yep,
I'll do the updates today, Steve. Thank you. So hi, everyone, just in case you don't know who I am yet. I'm Erin Lorandos. I'm the Digital Equity Program Manager with the Arizona Commerce Authority. And I'm happy to provide a couple of updates from the Broadband office this morning. First of all, I just want to acknowledge the hard work that the Broadband office team has done to get all of the BEAD initial proposals in those were in before the end of last year, you may have seen a flurry of articles being posted from various sources that every single state had provided the necessary information back to to NTIA for the BEAD proposal. So that's a great win for us. And then early this year. On the second in fact, we posted the draft version of our Digital Equity plan to our website, which I'm about to drop a link, I'm sure you have seen it in Steve's emails as well. But this is the other half of the the funding that's coming down focused on Digital Equity, we have to write a plan similar to the BEAD proposal for the Digital Equity side of things. And so this is the first draft of that this plan will be up for public comment for 30 days. So you have through the first of February to provide feedback on this document. And as Steve mentioned, it is long, so make yourself a cup of tea and you know, settle in it's it's a good read though, so I hope you enjoy it. And similar to how the feedback worked for the BEAD proposals, there is a feedback form on that website that I just dropped. You can also email us directly at Broadband at az commerce.com with feedback. And then you know same as with the BEAD proposal, we take a look at all of those comments and make changes as necessary to the final document before it gets submitted back to NTIA. And so the process for that is kind of like what you heard about with BEAD we send it back to them and it goes through what they call a curing process for 45 days just to kind of let it sit and marinate and you know, get everybody out. It give everybody time to get it in. And then the final submission is near the end of March. So we'll keep rolling with that. Are there any questions about the D plan before I go on to other updates?
I know it's a I know it's a long document. Can you give us just a little snippet about kind of what all was included in the plan?
Sure. So what this plan aims to do is look at the covered populations that Congress and NTIA defined and so those are, you know, folks living in low income households, older individuals, incarcerated individuals, veterans, individuals with disabilities, individuals with language barriers, and racial or ethnic minorities, which, for our purposes here in the state, we we had to include tribal members in that group, even though we understand that that's not really the the definition, but we wanted to, to be able to fit that large portion of our, our community into the plan, and also rural inhabitants. And so all of those folks face unique challenges when trying to bring them back down. I'm sorry, that's
querque.
Oh, just talking. Okay. Other work going on, totally understandable. Um, so those folks, you know, who find themselves in those groups have historically and continue to have additional barriers when trying to, you know, bridge the digital divide. And so it really speaks directly to solutions for those individuals. But it is meant to, you know, to cover all Arizonans as well. And so how the plan is laid out, there's a lot of information, diving into the unique challenges that those groups face, and also just information about Arizona as a whole. And then we go into our proposed strategies and objectives for addressing those, those needs over the course of the next few years. So there's a section on goals and objectives with various out, you know, actionable steps that we plan to take to to address these issues. And then also, the big part is also a list of organizations and businesses, etc, nonprofits, everybody in the state who also do this work. And so it's called an asset inventory. And so it really goes into the details about how we want to, you know, hopefully work with these organizations. So you know, no one group is going to solve all of these problems, we need to work together. And so it also creates a directory effectively of organizations across the state that that are also doing this work, that part lays the groundwork for the next phase of this, once the D plan gets approved, we find out as a state how much funding we're going to get in the Digital Equity capacity Grant section. And so this is funding that will come directly to the state that we as the administering entity will be able to sub grant out to applicants. And so as we get closer to that part of the process, more information will be shared about what our grant process will look like. But this, you know, the goals and everything are written with the idea that other organizations in the state are going to be applying for that capacity funding and, and working together with us to to accomplish these goals. And then let's see what else is in there? Well, there's 200 pages worth of a lot of other things. But I think those are the big sections to kind of be mindful of at this point. It's, you know, it's a really beautifully laid out plan. You know, we we worked really hard on this, you know, dei Digital Equity Institute was our contractor that helped us do a lot of the research and writing of this, as well as a number of other very important organizations across the state, the state library helped us out a ton. You know, you'll you'll see the list of all the folks who have already had, you know, huge hands and in creating parts of this, but the the point of the public comment, of course, is to make sure that we dotted all our T's crossed all our eyes, you know, made every consideration that you feel we should make. And so, you know, as individuals in the state or representative of organizations who are also doing this work, we hope that you read it with that lens and let us know if there's anything that we need to you know, to be follow up or that you'd like to make comments on or you have ideas about how we can do better so. So that study session that Steve mentioned on the 18th we'll dive into some of those parts but it would be really great if We do plan to attend that to have read it ahead of time so that we can have a constructive conversation during that, I definitely don't just want to, you know, read it during that time, I want it to be a conversation. So, so take some time and take a look at it before then. And we can dive into it at that point. And of course, you can make public comments at any time. Over the course of this 30 days, you don't have to wait for that study session to have happened. In fact, we've already had a couple of comments roll in, so. So that's great to see. And then the only other update that I have, as Steve mentioned, the internet for all Summit is coming up later this month. That's the 23rd and 24th. It is being held in person at the Mesa convention center, up here in the Valley. And we do ask that you register for it, it is a free event. But we just need to know you know, for lunches and space and all of that sort of thing who to expect. So I'm dropping the link to the Eventbrite registration page here. And just a note, when you do go to register, you have to register for day one and day two as like separate registrations. It's a little a little, I don't know if it's complicated, but it we've noticed that a lot of people are registering for the first day, and not as many for the second. So we're wondering if people think they're registered for the whole thing. So that's why I'm bringing it up. So if you do intend to, to come both Tuesday and Wednesday, that week, you'll go through the registration process twice, once for Tuesday, and once for Wednesday to get yourself on that list. Okay.
Before you go on, excuse me, that I did include in the, in my email, the link, and that page, that the page, the ACA page, does have the agenda for those two days. And in particular, if I'm not mistaken, that the second day in particular is focused more on the Digital Equity side, a one is more on Broadband side. Am I correct about that? Um,
yes, there are, there are some not necessarily. It's not necessarily like for one group versus another on either day, there are definitely going to be some Digital Equity pieces throughout the whole thing, and probably some, you know, conversations around the infrastructure side of things around the whole thing. But I think generally, that's a that is a good comment. We do have a lot of really wonderful community spotlights throughout the event as well, which highlight different groups and organizations that are doing some work here in the state that that we feel is a really wonderful, and those kind of bridge that as well. So come for both days, for sure. Although I totally understand that, you know, with travel and being in the valley and all of that, that that might be a consideration. But you can take a look at the if the agenda and make that decision. The governor will be there on day one, as well as the mayor of Mesa and also Sandra Watson from ACA, of course. So we'll have a really good group of people, I'm really looking forward to it. Any questions about that?
I just wanted to say I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt here, but just wanted to say that, you know, we've been meeting virtually for years. And now's the opportunity to meet people face to face and to have a conversation and, and get to know each other personally. So I really encourage you all to attend if for no other reason to connect with people in person.
Agreed I was just having a conversation with one of the panelists that that I'm helping to coordinate yesterday. And we were talking about how great it is that, you know, we have the quickness of having the virtual call, but you know that we're able to meet in person as well. It'd be a great, a great two days worth of conversation for sure.
And I believe, Aaron that there's a hotel nearby of people there is for two nights I think.
So great. Yeah. And actually to that point, we just had a conversation internally this week about we don't have you know, like a relationship with anyone hotel, but we're planning to send out some information kind of like a no before you go about hotel options, restaurant options right there in the Mesa area. There's a lot of really great local restaurants. Right. They're very close. You're also right next to the Mesa Public Library. So you can go take a take a gander over there. I'm always going to you know me, Steve, it really is a really nice little area. It's very walkable. There's a lot of really great opportunities, you know, and since you'll be done early enough in the day where you can get together for dinner with your colleagues afterwards. Yeah, we you know, we hope that people take advantage of that. So, so if you register for the event, you'll get that email from us. Shortly, I don't have an exact ETA on that. But if you do need to stay overnight, it'll have some information about some local hotels, and then also the the local restaurants and things like that. So and I'll drop my email in the chat again, too. If there's questions on any of this, I'm happy to, to get to to the right person, if I'm not the right person, of course, the you know, the the summit really is, you know, it's a partnership between the governor's office and ACA. And so some of those details, you know, are kind of held by different groups. So I'll get you to the right people, if I'm not the right person, but thank you so much for the opportunity. And, you know, again, if there are any questions, I'm happy to answer. Thank you, Steve.
Great. Thank you, Erin. Any questions for Erin? Well, you know, again, we've been talking Digital Equity for a long, long time. And now it's exciting to see this funding coming through and a lot of button, a lot of opportunity and collaboration. So I really encourage you all to try to attend our study session, and also the summit. And again, you'll have all that information, but you should have had it already, but you'll get it again for me. Very sharp. Okay. Anybody else from the Broadband office as anything may want to add? going once going twice, I haven't seen Nicole Are you online now?
Nicole, you have anything that you want to share this morning.
And I apologize. I'm in transit today. So hope my audio is is working. Alright. I did. I did just have one update about NTIA in at the end of December issues.
After you introduce yourself again, please.
Hi there. I'm Nicole Umayam. I'm the federal program officer for Arizona whip NTIA, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. So I am supporting the BEAD and Digital Equity programs during Arizona. Background noise isn't too isn't too loud. I wanted this group to be aware of a recent update that NTIA issued around the uniform guidance. So uniform guidance are really the federal program rules around any sort of funding or federally funded projects, including BEAD and after a public comments process and a lot of feedback about a stakeholders wanted some of that guidance to kind of reflect the guidance around the capital project funds, Broadband efforts. So a little bit less of the stringent requirements for typical federal programs that we'd see. So anyway, this is good news for providers. Some of the updates are that there's actually no program restriction around program income generated from sub recipients. Whereas typically per federal award, a sub awardee or an awardee would be subject to certain guidelines, those are no without restrictions. States are able also able to issue fixed amount sub grids in in their Broadband awards, if that makes sense for the state. So we see that as a win or some some flexibility. Service providers or other awardees are also able to use that funding for network upgrades, which was some people would say was always the case in the guidance, but this makes it more explicitly authorized. So they that if that's part of an application, it doesn't have to be approved by NTA to do those network upgrades. And we also established a tenure interest period for Broadband infrastructure. So before NTIA we have a hard date to Nelly, we put that into writing here, so I'm going to send a link to a blog post that will also link to the official ruling and some more background information there.
Any, any questions for Nicole? Okay, moving on. So actually, Nicole, I don't know if you want to address this or somebody else wants to talk more about it. But there, there is a bill in Congress that I guess is going to be discussed on January the 10th. To extend ACP and you can still submit your endorsements online. It's very simple. Put the link in again, it's very simple to just click on it and and enter your information. It will take Get five minutes to support ACP. Anybody else? Nicole or anybody? Erin, when it still wants to comment on that?
I take that to be you know?
Oh, sorry. That's so Oh, yeah, I, you know, I, you know, I know that NTIA is publicly supportive of, of ACP, but that is the FCCs programs. So we don't NTIA doesn't participate in that outside of information purposes.
Well, I think we all feel that ACP is important that needs to be continued. And so again, we encourage you to take five minutes and, and I will can will put the link in my email for you to to respond again, January, the eighth is, is the deadline. So please do that ASAP. Okay, anything else about that? And Okay, moving on. So ACA, you guys had a couple of positions that were open for senior Broadband, program manager and community engagement. Are those positions filled still fit not quite filled yet? Or? I know you've been interviewing, I believe?
Yeah, we're we're still kind of wrapping up that process. Due to the holidays, things just got a little bit longer than, you know, anticipated, but no further updates than what we provided before on that.
Thank you. And, and Megan, I know you're alive from the State Library. You got a position open? What's happening with that?
We had good morning. I'm Megan Hammond. I'm the library development administrator. We have been recruiting digital navigators and we have identified some finalists.
So we're hoping to have them start on the 15th. And then we'll be posting very soon our Digital Inclusion library consultant position. And as soon as that's up, I will share the link with the group.
Great. Thank you. Any questions for Megan? All righty, so again, you know that the plan has been released the Digital Equity plan and encourage you to check that out. Talked about the summit already talked about the AZ BSN virtual Digital Equity study session. And then the governor's inner agency community Broadband Advisory Council working groups per What do you want to talk about those just quickly? And there's a meetings coming up on the 2930 and 31st? You've been kind of been the point at which you for that for that? Besides Maggie. Are you there? Anyway, anybody else want to talk? So we so the governor's office had created the governor's inter agency community Broadband Advisory Council working groups, those groups our infrastructure and permitting, mapping, outreach, affordability, Digital Inclusion and workforce. There have been, I believe, two meetings of those groups are ready. And then they're coming up again. And again, I included those in my email, with the date and time and they and the links to be able to join the meeting. So you are more than welcome to participate in any of those meetings. Anybody have anything else they want to add about those meetings?
I'm just really quick that the meetings this month will of course be focused on the Digital Equity plan as well. So another opportunity for folks to come in and chat about that if they're interested.
Thank you. Okay, next thing, NTIA is on January the ninth, which is coming up next week is going to be having a webinar on AI and Digital Equity time for community conversation. It's a big issue that a lot of people are now talking about, about what are the implications of AI in regard to Digital Equity. So that webinar is again coming up on January the ninth. And again, I think I included in my email and I will in my update. But I think that will and I know Barney, I've mentioned this to you a little bit earlier. But I think it will be particularly of interest to you. But it is an important issue. And so I encourage you all to participate in that. And with that, any questions or comments about that? If not, let's jump into our digital access resource highlight and I'm pleased to introduce trace Cox Ortega, who was president owner of T and T solutions. And she's also does her consulting, and Tony Chang, who's president and managing partner of netstar, telecom consultant, and partner with TNT. And so, with that, I'm not going to say any more, Tracy, I'm going to turn it over to you. Do you need to share today?
Yeah, I would actually like to let Tony do it physically, as well, I will
stop sharing. And so Tony, welcome. Well, I haven't talked with you, Tracy. And I have had great communication. I just want to, I gotta say one thing, I had great conversation with Tracy. And the reason she's here today is that she blew me out of the water, frankly, with the background and their experience and the work she's doing. And so I just said, Hey, you know, she needs to be here. And particularly, for Broadband office, you guys will be particularly interested in the mapping solution that they have. So with that, I'm going to turn it over to Tracy and our Tony. And it's all yours.
Thank you. Nice to meet you, Steve. Yeah, I'm glad you met. Tracy, she's a pistol. And so thanks for the opportunity to share. And just to give you a kind of a quick, concise direction of kind of what we do, and then I'll show show you some of the tools that we have. So so what we what we do is in simple terms, think of us as a as a Costco of technology. We basically are brokers and consultants that handle all the IT technology for businesses and multifamily, and then also development into large, large fat and family developed single family development. So, so what we do is we have access to pretty much all of the telecom providers around the country, as well as international. Predominantly, predominantly, of course, most of the businesses are the ones that are looking for, you know, lots of bandwidth and all the different services as but in your in your case, actually, congratulations on the funding of the Broadband technology, in Arizona. So, so we represent many different providers. So some companies in some, you know, state and local government, you know, love to be able to get all the quotes and everything else for for all of the providers that are available, rather than maybe working individually. So there are always cases. So Tracy and I both come from working with different providers in our in our history. So so it's nice to be on a neutral side table to help agencies like yours, or businesses and help them save time, you know, and money. This that kind of makes sense. Sure. Yeah. So I will share and the tools, what it does is basically help us help the end user customers to be able to get access to all the services make it a lot easier for us and also a repository of all the information so let me show is
he's bringing that up. Yeah, I'm going to talk about is that I have lived in Arizona almost my entire life. And I lived in the White Mountains and Lakeside for over a decade, I owned a small business I ran Wells Fargo home mortgage from there ended up taking over the whole state. So I'm really very familiar with some of the challenges that people face being in rural areas, I understand the T ones and not having the fiber capabilities. Using the using frontier in certain areas is the only availability that we see. And because of the unique ability that we have with this map to see where things are lit, we can see who the true carrier is. Many carriers will say hey, you know, I'm this great company, and I'm giving you everything that you need, but they're really on the backbone, white labeled under another company. Well, we can see this so that we really know who is that provider? How do we make sure that they can truly give that quality of service and not just say that they can and then unfortunately we find out by somebody skinning their knees, so to speak. So this helps to give us some clarity. I handle technology. And that's what I love. Cloud Backup cybersecurity, all those things. And I partnered with Tony, because he understands telecom with over two decades in the industry on that end, I'm over a decade on this end. And so this map tool we're going to use is called Pathfinder. And what that does is it goes in and it can be very geo specific. Are we looking at a specific address? Because many times we are? Or are we looking at it at a area a general area of a neighborhood? Or are we trying to figure out how are we going to get fiber there? Where's the closest fiber to that point? And what have we been told? And what does that look like from a construction standpoint, and expectation, a cost all of that. And so this has been very, very instrumental. Particularly for me with some of my clients that I've had to deal with, I have a lot of schools in rural areas, very rural areas. As well, as I've dealt with small businesses, I had a Napa Store one time that no matter what service they use, they could not properly connect, because there was too much latency. So we had to use a satellite. So this really helps us to drill that down. So with that, I'd like to know if you guys 20 kids benefit feature this, but then give him an address, give him something you're thinking of an area that you think, hey, this has been a challenge. Or this was one that I already know what's there, but I just want confirmation of that. Whatever that is, don't hesitate to give us an address when she had benefit features this so you can see how it works live in our area. Go ahead, Tony.
Yeah, so this is this is the internet connection point here in Seattle, on the by the Western building was in hotel, that's where pretty much all the providers have all their sites, their colos, and so on. So so this is how we look at what fiber routes and who it belongs to, and who might be there. So we have addresses and shows, you know who's out there. Anybody has an address? I have an address. No, go
ahead. 70 Commercial Street, St. John's, Arizona,
St. John's very well.
That's the city hall.
Commercial St.
St. John's, and it may be s a summer theater It is okay. Sometimes it's spelt out.
It would help if I get some good Internet connection here and there in California. So here we go. We've got Frontier Communications. That is on that. Is that what you guys use currently? Yep. Yeah. So here we go. So that's the location right here. And then we have some near net. Let's see. So there's, this is 10. Let's see where's 70?
So in most cases, Tony, when we're talking about that part of northeastern Arizona frontier is the primary lack. Yeah. And part of the issue that I have experienced when I was working with the Apache, Navajo and Apache, the telecom Broadband with Paul Watson's team, was that people were coming in and saying that they weren't part of frontier, but they really were. So the only thing they were actually controlling was a representation of the last mile. But the the perception they gave was that they were more in control of that. And so it's really about what capability do we have so I'm, I'm not surprised to see frontier, is that the dominant one? So this
one?
Right, sorry.
Thank you for chiming in Rory. I was gonna ask if you're on the call, because I know you have some service up there.
Okay, my apologies. Is that better? Sorry about that. Computers change defaults on you all the time. We have 300 megabit per service service across that whole town. In fact, we had two guys up there yesterday, upgrading adding more equipment on a tower. So I don't understand what this I'm not familiar with this program, but and I'm not sure where the data source is, but we're definitely in that time. loaded with significant resources.
So are you with a different company or
I'm with Triad Wireless? Okay. So
when you're talking about other resources, we have those as well, when we're looking from a cellular satellite. This is more of the terrestrial right here that that he's showing, which is more
understood. But we we were part of a project last year with final mile Broadband. And we brought in 300 megabit per second service across across St. John's, as part of that program. Yeah. And so it's a wire, it's wireless technology.
Yeah. Is that fixed? Wireless? Right?
It is fixed wireless. Oh, great. Yeah. So
we, you know, we put some of that fixed wireless up here. So love to have your information and put it on the on the this platform.
Okay, Katrina is on this call, I'm gonna have her reach out to you and get get our company information.
I think worries question is where is this data being pulled from? So, you know, where is it being sourced? So when companies like triad aren't showing up on this, how do they get their information shared? Yeah,
yeah. So, so there are multiple sources. And, and some of it is they is the brick and mortar sources, where as we, you know, for fixed wireless there, there are of course, plethora of fixed wireless companies that are in certain cities only, right. So so we need to gather those through, through industry, verticals, associations, and so on. So that we can get those information and if people know about us, and then forward, the information to us will add to it, right, so. So it's a, you have the ones that are the largest one, of course, the legs, and then you get into the sea legs, and, and so on. So those are of course a lot easier to, to gather. And then when we get to the individual ones, then it will be more of a manual way of adding.
So really, what it really is, is all of the companies that have some type of national recognition, ensure that we have that information so that we're better at representing them with our clients, potential clients, as well as existing. And then with others, they notify us because they may be just in a specific area. So it's working in tandem with different providers, like Tony was saying, as well as having the FCC information, and then drilling down and being able to see the capability of what's available. So by taking your information, then we can have that added to the map. But when we haven't added to that it is shared equally with those that we also share this capability with. So now your level of visibility wouldn't just be to Tony and I when we're using this map. But it should be in any one utilizing the Pathfinder system itself to be able to see your services and capabilities once they're aware of it. And they can verify the circuit makes sense. Yeah,
except that this all this information is on the FCCs. We find all this information that's
really interesting, because we pulled up the FCC at myself, and another partner that I work with Thomas, and we did not see anything there either. When we looked at that, after Steve asked me, you know, what does this look like compared to the FCC map? And I literally was like, I don't know, let's take a look and find out. So I looked at font. And that was about two weeks ago, and I do not recall that. So I'm gonna double check that. But you know, who knows if they color code it or make it accessible? I don't know.
Yeah, well, right now is not a red fin or Zillow. It would be great to get to that point where we will be Redfin or Zillow of technology, right? Where we can gather all of that data from all the transactions of the real estate and so on. So so so that's where we want to get to Yeah.
Okay, I'm gonna have an RFP look at look this up, because that's a concern that we're in many other cities. You know, I know we do our filings. I know we get. We review it, but I'm fascinated how this didn't pop up. So I am as
well, and that was about two weeks ago. So I can't imagine that there'd be any type but verify that makes sure and then what we'll do also is we'll go back on our end, but I'm
99% sure that it's listed. That's strange. Well, I
was looking at the map as far as the pretty picture. I wasn't reading I was a visual learner.
Yeah, so we'll work on that right. So so these are, these are the provider portfolio. These are just Some of the, you know, some of the one that we posted. So these are contact center providers. And then you know, cloud providers, colocation connectivity. So, you know, you know, we generally, you know, have international providers as well sing SingTel, and so on. So UCaaS will be your Hosted Voice over IP. So these are all, you know, resources for us to go to that to help companies and, and, and organizations. We do a lot of nonprofits as well. Over here in Seattle, our customers, city of Marysville, and city of Black Diamond. So these are some of the portfolios that we have access to, and continually add those to
the Arizona market. I've worked with the Ronald McDonald House, the diocese of Phoenix. I am right now a virtual IT director for the Heard Museum, I helped them with their initiatives, we had an interesting situation with Dell and I was able to get them a $30,000 credit by, as people say, I'm a nice Pitbull, and I had to bear my teeth. But you know, we're here to help represent whatever we can to help. But when we're looking at the telecom and what you guys have going on, at the end of the day, if we could go back to the map, Tony Payne thing is about that map and the capability, we're going to look into what we're always talking about. But, you know, when you're looking at the carriers that we do have in our portfolio, we can see what that representation is. Many times when we're talking about rural Arizona, to Rory is porn, it needs to be more of a wireless than just the terrestrial have something like the frontier, it's not to pick on them, but they are dominant up in the northern Arizona area and other rural areas. So it's about how do we give them that connectivity? How do we give them that capability? How do we ensure that uptime and then ensuring that they understand the safeties that they need to have when that becomes available to them, as well as status items? So there's a lot involved. But with this map, we can at least get in there.
Question. Mark Goldstein, is this map publicly available? I've gone to the URL requires a sign in doesn't have a Create Account option or just one app to be working with you and through you to see this map?
That's correct. Yeah. Is this not not? Not for the public this time? Okay, thank you.
Is that Is it a like subscription based? Like some of the other
there are, they are, they are some
I don't go ahead, oh, I have this error. Please mute.
So this map is through. As he says, We're the Costco Of course, we go somewhere else to be able to get all of these services because we go in and find them for you and find out who the right partner is. So one of the companies we work with is called avant. And Yvonne also has an office here. It used to be an Arizona grown company called Planet one. And they sold off to Yvonne, who's now Chicago headquarter, and they're here. This is something that Tony's company actually helped to develop, then they put it on steroids, created it further. And now it is what it is. And unless you are one of their partner, Agent partners, which is what Tony and I are, then you don't really have access to this because this is considered the wholesale side. So I don't know of a map like this that's publicly available. But to Mark's question, is it available to us through us? Yes. But Mark, we don't charge you for that. We don't have a problem with you saying, hey, what about this? What about that? We're here to help. So we do not have residential capability with this, but we do have business capability with this. So don't let your curiosity stop you from asking questions or having me put in some addresses whatever we can do to be of help. That's really why we're here. You know, Tony, I'd like for you to put in a different address. So it's more related to us here in Arizona. I'm going to have you do the Hyatt downtown which is 150 West Adams Street. Phoenix 85003.
It's Adams with an S Is there a way it's a little bit more live and visible. And then with the Digital Inclusion that we're all having top of mind. And maybe be a guest speaker in June at the RSA cybersecurity conference, and my whole entire presentation is about Digital Inclusion. And when I think Digital Inclusion, I'm thinking about people that need to be able to have the capability of utilizing the internet and having good cybersecurity practices, whether they're visually impaired, hearing impaired. But from being a part of your guyses organization, I'm realizing they're also talking about bridging that gap between rural and non rural areas, and empowering schools for education and people for all the things they need to do and making resources more available. So I really think that as we move forward through the next few years, that Digital Inclusion of allowing people that capability is really going to grow, especially with companies like Reuters, being up there locally, as being able to have the ability to facilitate knowledge, education, representation, and helping that which is a really good benefit to the community, which is why we're here today. But really quickly, I just want him to show you something that's more relevant to us in the Phoenix market. And then if you have any questions, we can go from there. Right?
Is yours Triad. Wireless is always said.
Yes, sorry. Yes,
they are Triad Wireless. So we just put up a your, your other areas, the other areas that you serve.
I'm sorry, you see that again, please. We
just need to update the areas that you serve. This one here shows up right. Your your fixed? Yes, yeah.
Yeah. Because we have a lot of challenges that we're actually in. In fact, we're adding three more towns right now.
We're advertising for you for free here. Right. I
think that's wonderful. Thank you so much. I just just want to make sure people knew they had an option. And we're adding a lot of users out there. So
you got it. No, and I appreciate
that, because I'd like to visit with you afterwards. Because it's important. We represent people with what's available and local.
We have Vaughn hazard has his hand up, Vaughn, you have a question or comment? Yeah, Steve,
thank you very much. So yeah, I just kind of wonder about the longevity and the reliability of the wireless. Because I'm being being told and I that's why the new experts are here to help me understand that is coming off the cellphone towers in some manner. But I'm also glad to see that we're doing it or you're doing it because, you know, the real areas I'm always concerned about are going to then be much easier to make connection. So what do you see as the longevity and the and the future continuation of the wireless internet, often the cell cell towers, if that's how it works?
Now, I'd like to let Rauris because he has the direct experience. I know I have positive feelings and thoughts, but I'd like to just give him a moment to share because he is helping to develop that in the area. Hey, man. Um,
you know, we've been in business 20 years. So I think it's pretty stable. The technology is extremely advanced. And we just we have technologies that have come to come to market that had been in development for 12 years. That's actually what's in St. John's. It, I don't see any issues with it. We're not, I think in this case, we're not on cell towers, we actually built three towers out in St. John's area for the project. But it's as stable as any over the over the fiber that's pulled over telephone poles. And in some cases, I know where it for nine reliability of most of the network now. And we're actually trying to improve that even further. So
that's good news. I'll just make one more short statement. I currently went to wireless internet through a local national provider, because I only had CenturyLink by heart phone wire coming to my house at the area where I live in. In the Tucson area, we were out in the Elgin County area. So I'm having good luck with it. But my son was kind of give me some thoughts. That's why I asked that question. I'm glad you're here there to answer that. Thank you.
We have we have assets in Tucson, just send me your email your address. Let me take a look at it right away. I don't know Dallas.
I'll put in the chat. Thank you. Yeah,
we can do that for you as well. Vaughn just to see what it shows us another address example. But to Lori's point, there are a lot of the different organizations like Cox now CenturyLink is actually lumen. They're looking at expanding the fiber from a terrestrial standpoint but also utilizing the towers, as well as the cell towers. We have a lot of Innovative Products, I don't know how many of you have heard about SD Wan, that creates a redundancy situation, so that if one goes down, the other one automatically picks up. So you maintain that connectivity. There's a lot of different ways that we can help depending on what your critical needs are from a telecom standpoint. I had a doctor that was out in rural and he needed to be able to get 911 calls. So we put in this SD Wan capability using the landline terrestrial as well as a wireless carrier so that he would have no point of failure if someone wants to call in and need his attention. So there's just different ways that we can combine services and help you to get that reliability or if you know, people that need that. So does anyone else have any other questions about the map or how we can be of assistance or any questions have clarity on any of that? Okay, so I'm here. You can ask me questions. Like I said, I don't I went to Nevitt and Hohokam elementaries I went to Gilliland, Junior High Corona del Sol, MCC. So I've been all over and then I've lived in Lakeside. So I really care about what we can do to help our communities as a whole console
funded projects. All right, Tracy over it to hawk middle school when I was on to USD, guaranteed guarantee in 2000. So I'm not trying to get your history across the table here. But I know very clearly what you know what you're talking about there. Yeah,
I got out of school in 85. Um, my little old lady is ongoing. But yeah, so this was I remember when Scottsdale Road was dirt, but anyhow, um, I just want you to know that we do not charge to ask questions. We don't charge for any of this, how we get paid is just like an insurance agent. The carriers pay for our give us a small percentage. And we get paid from that. So there isn't a charge. But we do want to see what we can do to help. It's we do more than just the telecom. I'm here to help you with anything that you have any questions on whether it's cloud, disaster recovery, backup, cybersecurity, I would love I have a thing that I put together for a college about cyber defenders, and it's for their employees to understand basics about cybersecurity. I'm going to share that with Steve. So that if you guys would like to Frankenstein that and push that out for free. It just talks about what phishing is, what's malware, how do you avoid it, and it gives it to them in simple and easy to understand chunks. It's about eight slides, I think because we don't want death by PowerPoint. But I just want you to know, we're here to be of service. And we appreciate the opportunity to showcase how many different organizations we have within our portfolio. I'm excited about talking with Rory because I would really like to talk to him about what he does. Let's get him on that map. And I appreciate everybody's time and attention. And I look forward to continuing being a part of this group. Thank you
very much. This is more okay. Like, I have a one quick question for you on your map. What kind of collaboration outside of major carriers are you guys facilitating to ensure that you have better coverage and better accuracy of the data being represented?
The truth is we run across people like Rory, and then we have to update it through that map system. And then I make a note within my internal matrices in my CRM. But as far as anything beyond that, there just isn't anything that I'm aware of, because I have a national footprint. And I work with the Catholic Diocese across the country. And I run into small organizations or growing organizations that are representing the fixed wireless that no one's really aware of, but the local community. So I run into them, or I see it visible on the map, or word of mouth, and then I research it, but we do like to research it and get to know the local people. Because I think it's good to empower local businesses when possible, and utilize the large national footprint for security and peace of mind security. Not that not technical security. But they say that too. But does that make sense? Yep, completely. But
the question I have also, as you run across these pieces, what what process procedures in place to go back and make sure that the data you had private previously is updated accurate?
Well, the information that we get, let's just say for example, from Rory is we'll have a conversation with him. He's able to provide the documentation that he would need, obviously, to show that it's true and viable. And then we go to the people that now own the Pathfinder tool and ask them to incorporate that in now what that process looks like. I have absolutely no idea for me personally, whether or not they put that In that, in that map, I now know about Rory, I will be talking to him about where his areas of coverage are. And when I'm talking to a client, and what their needs are, I will know what areas of coverage he has. And I will know that he's someone there that's able to service them over and above, potentially, what I see just on that map,
Mark. So this is this is really a reference, you know, a reference tool where we, we sort of know what, who, who are there. And this is not the Bible, where this is what it is. So it's a good question to make sure that that's there. You know, one of our customers, Regis business centers that has now 1400 locations up in Canada, and the US and, and every location that they go to, it used to be the main, you know, the main business cities, like, you know, Chicago and San Francisco, LA, Seattle, and so on. So now they're going into the tier two and tier three locations. And, and so it's important to, for us to know, very quickly, who are the likes and dislikes, they will not use fixed wireless, which is, which is, you know, they should consider it because fixed wireless used to have a different connotation for people, right. But now, it's just, it's so solid. I mean, it's fantastic. I recommend that as a separate option, because it's not wireline to the building. And so, so you're so so. So the bottom line here is it's a, it's a good reference point. And then and then we we then go to the different providers that are, you know, highlighted here. And then we have other sources to basically go and find out what other fixed wireless providers are there. You know, and then there are always local fiber providers like in Wenatchee. in Wenatchee, Washington, for example, they're not listed in here, because they're just one little pocket where the PUD provides the fiber, and then a company then takes that fiber and extend it to that building. So in the little town of Wenatchee, there's a C lac that provides that fiber, right. So. So for example, in Boise, Idaho, there's Serena, Serena has a pretty good size area. But they don't really propagate it that much. And so now they're now on the map. And you know, they're a lot. A lot more public now. So, so then that comes to some personal knowledge as well. Does that make sense? Mark? Yes, it goes. Thank you. Okay.
The only thing I want to add to that, because he's saying that I'm course thinking I have family that's all over northern Arizona, all the way to Tucson, from Body Shop owners to accountants, so they have different business needs. But, you know, like Nextiva is in our backyard. But yeah, they're not really the best one for a lot of our rural communities based on the way in which they deliver some of their services. Some they are. So this does help us to see that. And to understand that but also to, it's about knowing my territory, Mark, honestly, living in Arizona, understanding it and doing due diligence for our community. So it's one of those that if I don't know about it, I don't know about it, but I do my best to know when I can vet the information and make sure that what I'm conveying is transparent. And I say it with integrity. And beyond that, you know, we're here to work together. Right.
Absolutely. Appreciate the transparency. Yeah.
That's crazy. Yeah. And Tony, we need to kind of wrap up, because we have to discuss, so we appreciate your presentation. Any final thoughts? Thank you.
Thank you guys. I appreciate that. And again, I'm very easy to reach I own T and T solutions. I've been an Arizona owned company for five years now. I've won national awards. And one of them was a top digital docent during COVID to help businesses try and go from being in house to going to the home communities and and all that fun stuff. So I have a passion for helping don't be afraid to reach out. Thank you for your time and it was nice meeting everybody. And Tony, can
you stop sharing please?
I'm a sales guy. So so trying to figure out how to stop sharing. Let's see here
okay. It's down in your screen options towards the bottom there's a icon that should say share screen Oh yeah,
when I share it got smaller
That's Tony I think I can do this so okay, see, there you go.
Yeah. You got it. Yeah. Okay
let me try this. Oh, there we go got Mike's
playfully I'm just gonna tease him and say that's why I'm the it girl and he's
okay, so a couple other quick things this morning. I don't think Mala was online. Holly Are you still there and Meghan, you guys have anything more that you want to talk about in the library?
I don't have anything additional Steve and Mala was still on annual leave. Okay. Anything else? Aside from our hiring updates? I don't have anything else. Thank you.
And Karina, are you still online? Do you have anything with the Department of Ed I take ACA BNL Cindy Hogan cam anything with the with Digital Inclusion network
savvy.
Can be okay. Or you have anything else to talk about with? Like we might be having some zoom issues today.
The final vowel stuff is completed. And we're just waiting for Asus or sun corridor to work with us on the next step of that project.
Okay, any other announcements anything else that people want to share? We will do our kibitzing if anybody wants to stay online. I'm going to stop the recording. And
Steve Mark Mark here at AIC Arizona child common information Council first board meeting of the year be next Wednesday, notices going out this weekend for this specific. Okay.
Thank you. Okay.
Thank you all. And we'll see you next week and again, encourage you to attend the summit and also our study session.
