March 6, 2025 AZBSN Digital Access Task Force Video

9:39PM Mar 6, 2025

Speakers:

Steve Peters

Mark Goldstein

Erin Lorandos

Paul Ross

Mala Muralidharan

Henry Goldberg

Rory Conaway

Kelley Boan

Kelly Krusee

Anthony Constantini

Gordon Fuller

Jared Bodine

Michael Kendall

Will Osborne

Deanna Conrad

Larissa Organist

Keywords:

Digital divide

broadband access

sub grants

NTIA

Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill

E-Rate

USF

spectrum issues

digital equity

community engagement

internet lending program

T-Mobile network

dissertation research

grant funding

public wireless.

Okay. Okay, good morning, everybody. Thank you for being here. I wish people would couple in a little earlier, but that's way it goes. Excuse me. So want to start as we always do, with welcoming any new people who are joining us. And just so you know, the agenda later today, we've done this before, is we're going to have people give people an opportunity to share more about who they are and what they're doing. That's a big part of what we're about. And so it's a good opportunity for people to find out who's doing what and how they can connect with them. But want to start. Will you want to start with just introducing yourself who you are?

I'm Will Osborne. I am the Community Development Program Manager for the southeastern Arizona governments organization sigo. We are Council, council of governments that represents the fourth southeastern most counties in Arizona.

Great. We haven't seen anybody from from you guys in a long time. So glad to have you here. And Deanna, I think you've been here before, but if you want to just remind people, I always tell people, have a good memory, just a little short. Yeah, it's good

to see you again. Steve. My name is Deanna Conrad. I'm with Fortinet. We are a cyber security company. The reason this this meeting, interests me is because broadband is a huge topic across our customers. John and I work together. He's on the call as well, and we have a lot of conversations around broadband with with the state agencies. Okay,

thanks for having us. You bet. Okay, so let's see who else have we got here? Anybody else who's new this morning, going once, going twice? Okay, well, so let me talk a little bit about the agenda this morning. Those of you who have been with us before know that on occasion, we take some time. I didn't. I didn't schedule a big presentation today, mostly because all the people that I wanted to present this morning were not available. Oops, can't do that, and so we will do that again next week, but a couple of things. First of all, I just want to remind you that I do send out my newsletter, which you all should get, and I know, like everybody, you might scan through it and see what's of interest to you, which certainly makes sense, but usually when we talk about things and put links into the chat or whatever, but I also try to capture those and put them into the newsletter, and so it's a good way to keep up with is a good follow up to the meeting. So as you know, I do. I do include the recording of the meeting. I include the chat transcript and all of that sort of stuff. So if you've either missed the meeting or you heard something that you want to go back and listen to or follow up on that that information, most of it's generally in my newsletter. So here's the agenda for today. Up we'll get our usual updates from the broadband office and the Department of Education, and then we're going to hear from Paul Ross, who you all know most of you have been attending pretty regularly. Know Paul, who's associate vice president CEO CIO at Phoenix College, but he's also a doctoral student at Grand Canyon University, and he is doing a research study on solutions and barriers to closing the digital divide, and so he's just going to give us. He's not ready to share results, as he told me, but, but at least can talk more about what that study is and how you could help him. So you'll be hearing about that, and then again, you want to call my guy might be you get your elevator speech ready for you to share who you are, what you do, and a little more detail than just the brief introduction. So that's kind of the agenda for today. I do want to remind everybody that on May 20 through the 22nd that NDIA, the National Digital Inclusion Alliance, will have a be having their net Inclusion Conference here in Arizona, which is a great thing. That's a big national conference, and they're going to be having their conference here at wildfires pass at the Gila River Indian Community and and they are looking for sponsors. So I do have information in the newsletter. And if you think you might be interested in being a sponsor, please either contact me or contact them and. That I let them know that you think that's a great idea for you. So Erin, I don't know if you want to share anything more about about the conference,

I just want to give a plug for everyone to consider attending. It has been a really great opportunity over the last couple of years for me, personally, to you know, to get to know people who are doing this work across the country. And as a librarian, you know, I'm all about borrowing and not reinventing the wheel, so it's really great to hear what other folks are doing and, and I've made some really good friends, you know, across the entire country just by attending that conference. And it is, you know, it's a wide range of people. It's people who work in government, but a lot of nonprofits, and you know the the folks who have boots on the ground doing this amazing work, so I would highly recommend it.

Great. Thanks. Anybody else want to say anything about the conference? If not, we encourage you all to go and again, if you got some money in your pocket and you want to be a sponsor, I'm sure they would greatly appreciate it. Okay, so moving on. And I mentioned Paul Ross, and he might want to say something more about it, but Paul did a great video, AC broadband, closing the digital divide, a wired, wireless and digital. Great job, Paul and the link is available, and please, I'm sure he won't mind if you share that link to anybody and everybody. Are you? Are you connected? Now, Paul, looked like you were in your car. Paul, are you there? Well, you may not be okay. Well, moving on, let's get started with our regular agenda. So we're glad as always, to have Erin lorando. So you just heard with the ACA Digital Equity program manager and Kelly cruci Who is the broadband Community Engagement Manager. So what you guys want to go first?

Rock paper scissors. Kelly, go ahead. Erin. All right. Good morning again, everyone. Officially, my name is Erin Lorandos, and I am the Digital Equity program manager. I get to work with Kelly and all of the other folks in the state broadband office, which is housed at ACA. And of course, our office administers both the bead and Digital Equity programs, in addition to a number of other infrastructure investments across the state. So my updates on the de side are that last week, last week Thursday, in fact, one week ago today, we were finally able to share our sub grant information for the capacity grant that we've been allocated as a state as a reminder for folks in this group, we have been allocated just over $16 million to basically do what we said We wanted to do in the Digital Equity plan, and because we have so many great organizations, you know, in this space and opportunity to increase capacity for those organizations work, one of the main ways that we're implementing our plan is By offering sub grants. And so the the the process and the requirements have been posted on our website now, and we are not accepting applications quite yet, though we wanted to ensure that we had the opportunity to really connect back with all of those organizations through, you know, stakeholder meetings like this, and through our public meetings that we'll be hosting to make sure that everybody knows that this is coming. And so we will be accepting applications may 1 through June 30. So this month and next month is really the opportunity to, you know, reread the Digital Equity plan. If it's been a minute, you know, it's only been approved for a year, so I'm sure it's still on everyone's bedside table, right? But, you know, to re to reconnect with the plan. Think through what you're offering, what you'd like to offer, see how those ideas might line up with the goals and objectives in the plan. And then finally, you know, take a look at the subgrant requirements and consider applying. And we know that a number of organizations, you know, have a process internally to even be able to apply for any grant, let alone a federal sub grant. So we wanted to make that runway nice and long. So to that end, we will be hosting two round tables to again, you know, share this information publicly, answer any questions that folks have, and the first one of those is coming up on Tuesday, March 11, at two o'clock, and you can register through our website. There will be a second one on Tuesday, April 8, at two o'clock. The content that I'm going to be sharing. Um, will be the same in both of those sessions, so please just come to the one that makes the most sense for you and your schedule. We will also be collecting any questions that are asked and posting those with their answers on our website as well. And so to that end, while we're not technically in a procurement right now for the for the Digital Equity piece, because we've shared that information, we're sort of in that same, you know, that same mode of operation that you've heard of from the bead side of things, where everything really needs to be public, right? And so that's why we're, we're doing our big shares throughout those community roundtables to make sure everyone has the same information. So I have dropped the link for the de page in the chat, which is where you'll find, links to our plan, links to the NOFO that we're responding to, the timeline. All of that sub grant information is all on there, and I will put my email in the chat as well, if there are any questions, I'm happy to answer right now. But again, you know, like we really do, encourage people to take a look at the content first come to the webinar, you know, and get all the same information as everybody else.

Any questions for Erin? So Erin, you, if you would, again, I know you've explained this before, but there's some there's grantee sub grantees that will contract directly with you, and then those folks can also subcontract with other organizations.

Yes, you're now

that works, please? Yeah, sure.

So I just want to make one thing really clear. First, there is, from the federal definition lens, a difference between sub grantee and subcontractor or contractor. And we are looking at sub grantees in this Okay, so I just want to make that piece clear. It's a little bit different of a relationship between the the money holder and the money getter. For those two, as far as the federal government is concerned. So this is definitely a sub grant program. These are not contracts necessarily. Obviously, we will be signing agreements with the sub grantees. But it's it's just a different a different meaning. So I just wanted to make that part clear, but to answer your your question, we are the, the the main applicant in the capacity grant program. So the state has designated ACA and the state broadband office as the entity who is eligible to apply for this funding and carry out the plan. We are going to be sub granting a large portion of our money to implement the plan. The sub grantees can sub sub grant or work with other partners, etc, but the main relationship is NTIA to us. Us to that initial layer of sub grantee.

Okay, any questions about that?

And just so folks know too, when we get to those webinars, there have been quite a number of helpful infographics and really like pretty things that have come out from the from NTIA that will be part of, you know, what we what we kind of go over and share. So some of those relationships will become more clear. The most important piece with that is, you know, obviously we have to report up to NTIA, our sub grantees report to us, but that's kind of the last official layer for the reporting pieces. So the sub, sub grantees, or any partners you know that aren't directly the applicant, the the the requirements are different for those lower, and I won't say lower, because that sounds horrible, but like those, those secondary or tertiary relationships that get established. So that's kind of where it gets a little fuzzy, and that's why I like infographics. So we'll share that sort of stuff when we when we have our round tables.

So Erin, if I understand correctly, that, and one of the important things to know is we have a lot of great organizations, but many of them are small and are not in a position to apply for a, quote, federal grant and to do all the reporting, and so being a sub, sub grantee may be giving them an opportunity who otherwise couldn't apply for funding. Am I correct about that or not?

Yeah, that is a good thing to think about. You know, those relationships obviously will need to be established. And, you know, we do kind of want to know what the plan is for that, because, again, we have to basically everything is tied back to the goals and objectives, right? So, like, ultimately, we want to make sure that that work that is happening is going to get those items checked off, right? Um. Um, but, you know, the partnerships is definitely a way for organizations to work together, to pool resources to, you know, increase individual organizations capacity, etc. So I would say, yeah, that that is a an accurate statement, the the process, when you take a look at it, I really hope that we have created an accessible process that doesn't scare organizations away, because we do know that there are a lot of organizations who probably have not been part of federal grant programs. I think the thing that I would share on that side is, remember, I'm the buffer before you get to the federal government. So you know, you're, you're working with me and our team, and then I get to translate that into federal reporting. So there's that piece as well. And you'll, you'll see, when you click into the the application we have shared, you know, basic timelines for what reporting will look like based on the project, of course, and what those requirements are going to be. Ultimately, the federal government wants to know how many people in which covered populations your project served. And you know, is it moving the needle on the goals and objectives in your state's Digital Equity plan. So those are, those are the really important things to keep in mind. I just wanted to acknowledge Mala asked a question in the chat regarding the timeline for awarding the sub grants and the start of the work period. And I just wanted to touch on that briefly. So this this process is set by the federal government. So when we applied for the capacity grant, you know, after we got approved for that, which didn't happen until December of last year, so just a couple months ago, it the our period of performance started January 1 of 2025 that date started a nine month clock for our office to get back to the federal government regarding our sub grantees, anything that was left kind of up to the process that in our application, And because such a large portion of our capacity dollars were intended to be sub granted out, we do have quite a lot of money, that is, as far as the federal government is concerned, not tied to a specific program yet. So that nine months is our opportunity to basically fill out some forms that will tell the federal government, this is exactly where this dollar is going to go. This is what project this dollar connects to. This is who is the sub grantee that's going to get that dollar and go off and spend it on that project. Okay, so we have that nine months to get all that back. We don't actually have access to draw down the funds that have yet to be tied to a specific project. So we want to get that back as soon as we can, but we have up to nine months to do it. At that point, when I send that form back to the federal government, they still have another layer of approvals. Not to say, Oh, yes, this organization, but not that one that's up to us, but they do have to go through and, you know, check our math again. Make sure everything is as tied to a project. Really. Make sure, you know, one more opportunity to ask us questions about how we want to do things, those curing conversations you've probably heard us talk about, so at that point, I don't know, once I turn that form back in, there isn't a timeline for that final approval to happen. Okay, it could be really quick. It could take some time. And I'm saying that to say that until we get that final approval, we as a state, can't move into actually giving out any funding or anything like that. So we are, in all likelihood, still looking at the end of this calendar year, you know, just to be totally frank, before we get that next level of approval. And that's assuming, assuming everything moves once it's back with the federal government. And of course, all of this is based on, you know, availability of funds, potential changes to programs. We don't know what any of that looks like at this point. So I say all of that to say this money is not necessarily going to hit, you know, the bank accounts of these organizations who are applying until, you know, much later, right? Because it's just going to take that long, possibly, to get our next level of approval. So we will work with the sub grantees on that, you know, period of performance for the. A sub grantee project, and all of that, that will all be defined. But I can't tell you right now it's going to start, you know, June 30 or something like that, that that isn't known information at this point. Kelly, I see your question too, who will be responsible for issuing RFPs questions to get the actual work done? So that's a great question. So the applications that we're going to be asking for are it, is that right? So we have our goals and objectives laid out in the plan, we are looking for organizations in the state to propose projects and programs that respond to those goals and objectives. Okay, so the application that I'm looking to receive from organizations between May 1 and june 30 is that this is the program that's going to satisfy goal three, objective five, whatever it is. You know, I'm making that up, obviously, but so, so to answer that question, this is the level that establishes the programs to show you know how the actual work is going to get

done. Okay, any, any other questions for Erin,

and I just wanted to let folks know I am going to, I'm going to grab those two questions and make sure that I share that same information I was already planning to. But you know, I will take these two questions to our round table as well. Okay, so thank you for those,

and again, we encourage you guys to attend at least one of those round tables.

Yeah, and they will be the same, and we will post the questions and answers, so don't feel like you have to come to both if you don't

want to. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. So Kelly, you want to give us a little bit on what's happening with bead.

Sure. Good morning. Apologies for no camera this morning in transit. So updates with bead, as you all know, tomorrow the application window closes at 11:59pm and also sorry, let me do what Steve always asks me to do when I forget. Kelly cruci Community Engagement Manager with the state broadband office, so that again, that window is closing tomorrow night at 11:59pm Arizona time. Luckily, that is two days before clocks change for the rest of the country, but that is tomorrow night. We are seeing lots of activity in the portal with applications coming in, which is exciting. We will have some information to share probably late next week with stakeholders. We can, you know, send an email out with information about the applications that have been received, so we're monitoring that as they come in, and then we hope to, again late next week, be able to share some high level details about, you know, applications that have come in, and what that looks like for us as a state. Also, other news in the office you might have been hearing things, Sandip Bhowmick, our state broadband director has resigned, and his last day is tomorrow. We do have an interim director in place, and that is Keith Watkins, our Senior Vice President at the commerce authority. He has been working closely with Sandip for years, and has been a part of the evolution of the broadband programs and bead so he will be taking Sandip place and helping us in the interim while the new director is selected. So that's a big news update from our office, and wanted to share that make sure everyone knows things will continue as usual, and any questions, of course, bring them to the office, send us an email, and I now await your questions.

So I hadn't heard that about Sandy. That's interesting.

Yes, it is. It's it's big news. Yeah, yes. So you know, of course, we're all sad to hear that, but excited for him and what's next, which he hasn't shared much about. He's a very private individual, but we're excited for him and excited for us at new opportunities with the new director.

Cool. Okay, well, thank you. Any questions for Kelly. So Kelly, you kind of already addresses that we do. We don't know yet how many people have applied at this point, and I guess we can wait another week or so after, when everything closes tomorrow, to find out, you know, who's who's applying, and at least how many people are applying in the state,

right? You know what is public right now that we do share on the website and and maybe Erin can share the link for me. Um. I is trying to think of the location in the language, we do share how many people have been approved to apply. So there is a list on our website, and I think it's at 3132 folks. So it lists the names of who has like pre registered and been approved to apply. So that is that list is public, and it's on the website, and I will try to help Erin find that location. It's on the pre registration page, Erin,

I'm trying to get there myself. Thank you.

But like you said, Steve, next week we will have, and I'm saying late next week, because I think it's going to take some time to go through the numbers, but have an idea of how many applications have been received, what that looks like for the project areas. Try to provide some detail as far as what that looks like for the state.

Yeah, that'll be great Kelly, because certainly one question that I have, and I'm sure others do, is, so how good a coverage are we going to be getting of people applying for grants? So we'll wait to wait for that update in

the next week. I just wanted to follow up on what Kelly just shared. So the link that I just shared that says Arizona bead registration, if you scroll down just passed where it says, Start pre registration, you can click into a downloadable file of the approved pre qualified applicants. So it did downloads like a PDF when you click on that link.

Okay, thank you. Thank you. Any questions for Erin or Kelly? So moving on. I don't believe Nicole is here this morning, so I just want to make a couple of things. I just got a note from Reed Sharkey, who has presented to us about bead with the Benton Institute, about what's happening in Washington, and he couldn't be here today. He did provide me a link. And we do want to do this. As you know, we've been doing a series on what we know, what we think we know, and what we don't know about what's happening in Washington. So we do want to do another installment of that next week. I will just say that, at least, from what I'm seeing, that there's, there's probably a bunch of activity happening in Congress at this point about bead. I don't from what I'm seeing and anybody else who's following this, please correct me if I'm mistaken, but I don't see that there's a movement to do away with bead, but there's a lot of complaints about why money has not been sent yet to too many regulations, bead regulations and so forth. And so there's a lot of talk about, how can they change the reduce regulations and requirements to help expedite getting bead out the door. So I'm going to be expecting in the next few weeks that we're going to see a lot of activity happening in Congress. I have not seen, and I don't know again, if anybody else has seen a lot of talk yet about doing away with the Digital Equity money at this point. So at least at this point, that seems to still be on track. But again, we have new NTIA administrators, we have new FCC chair and so forth. So we're going to all just kind of wait and see. So I don't know Erin or anybody else have any other perspective are get my off track here.

I mean, I think it's kind of the same as everything else, you know, until we're told not to do something, we're going to keep doing it. So we are business as usual, as Kelly said,

Yeah, okay, thanks. Thanks. Erin. Steve,

Mark, yeah. Mark,

I just posted a link to a Benton summary of a Wall Street Journal announcement that the new Commerce Secretary is seemingly expected to make some significant bead change announcements anytime, and it talks just a little About what areas that might cover, which is technology acceptable, environmental, labor force, letter of credit, things, things like that. There's one other thing happening in the Senate, where there is now a new bipartisan proposal to make federal broadband grants non taxable. There have been several efforts in the last few years at that, but you know, all the ISPs I know are certainly concerned about having to pay 21% of the grant funding as an income tax on those grants and. So something to watch is the potential of that legislation to advance through the Senate, House and President that might make grant funding, including bead a non taxable grant.

Great. Thanks. Mark, yes, that is another issue. And then I was hoping to do it today, but our folks weren't available to talk about spectrum. Lot of discussion about spectrum and any change and changes that might take place regarding spectrum issues, sale of spectrum, and so forth, and so there's a lot of discussion about that. So probably next week, we will have an update on what's happening in that space. Hey,

Steve, this is Kelly bone, yeah, Kelly, I just posted the link in the chat to the angry Energy and Commerce Committee. They had a hearing yesterday on, quote, fixing bead and USF close quotes. I sat through the whole thing, but only because I get paid to but there is, there are summaries of all. You can download the the the presentations made by the committee members and also by the four witnesses. And if you want to, you can sit and watch the whole thing there. The chairman of the committee has introduced a bill to quote, fix, close, quote, bead. It basically is trying to rewrite the language that the Act had in it in the first place. I'm not handicapping any of these as to how successful they will or will not be, but if you want to, you know, take a look at that link. You can at least get the talking points.

Thank you, Kelly. And so what you raise, the other point, which is an important issue, is the USF. And so while we're talking about USF, it's a good transition to Mala to our state library administrator E Rate administrator, who also follows a lot of what's happening in Washington. So Mala,

Steve, you did the introduction for me, because I always forget to do that. But just to add to what Mark and Kelly said, you know, the the the things that they're concerned about bead, one of the other things that they're concerned about is, at least, I'm happy that they are not saying, Do away with it. And this, you know, things like that. Doge is not cutting bead, not yet. So they they want to address the rate regulation too, in addition to everything else that Mark was talking about, you know, the the rate regulation and that offering the low cost option for rural areas. So they're concerned about that. The vendors are concerned about it. Now I'm not talking about the government's concern, but here it's the vendors are concerned about having to offer that low cost option to rural areas. The merger also of Verizon and frontier. We've got to watch what that's going to do to bead The other issue is also about the matching requirements. You know, that's another concern. I mean, these are all concerns that are they're not solutions. Or, you know, we had Doug Dawson, who, who has his blog post, got pots and pans, a really interesting blog post for anyone interested in telecom related topics. I follow him on that, and one of the things he was talking about was, that some of these service providers may not pursue bead. They just want to tighten their focus on the current markets, and they may not pursue bead for the reasons that we just spoke about. You know, they they opted some of them after opted out of ARD of and now it's that seems more lucrative than bead to them because of the reporting requirements and the timeline and all of those kind of things. So let's, let's see, you know between the government's concern in trying to get the shovels on the ground, and the concerns of the service providers. We've got to see where the match is going to be and what this finally turns out to be. You know, we've been waiting for this for. A while now, and hopefully, you know, it'll all iron itself out. I'm just waiting for that to happen regarding USF, which was the other thing that you spoke about, there is going to be the hearing on March 26 of course there's, there's a lot of support from various organizations, Shelby, schools, libraries, health, broadband coalition, cosin, which is the committee for school networks. ALA, all of them have provided information to to Supreme Court for the hearing on March 26 so we really have to just wait and see what happens and what what options they will look at there was, interestingly, they were. The other organization that weighed in was a tribal entity in South Dakota talking about their tribe. It's the, if I'm saying pronouncing it right, olata su tribe and I'll put the name on in the chat soon as I'm done talking, Erin is the only person I've seen who can talk and type at put things in the chat at the same time. I can't do it. So this tribe has described their poverty level as being almost 50% as compared to the poverty rate in the rest of the average poverty rate in the rest of the US being 12.5% now I don't know where they got their numbers from. Being a librarian, I always like to know where these numbers come from, but they argue that the USF programs are critical to address the their conditions and their subs. The USF subsidies have directly benefited their tribal community. So hopefully that will carry some weight. Because, you know, it is a tribal entity that is talking about it. So let's, let's wait and see what happens. Other Other than that, I am working again on the the E Rate deadlines. Application deadline is March 26 so all our libraries and schools have to meet that deadline for the year starting July 120, 25 to june 30. 2026, Shelby is in transition. John widhausen has stepped down as the Shelby is stepping down. He's still in the overlap period. He's stepping down March 10 is when the new direct Executive Director, Joey web vendor, vendor, is taking up the reins today. Interestingly, there is a webinar at 9am I'll put the link in the chat momentarily, and that's right after our meeting. This is hosted by gigabit libraries. They host these webinars every other Thursday. It's run by the International Federation of library associations. It's an international organization, and they and the John wind housing is going to talk about Shelby then and now. So it's going to be interesting to see what that is, what he has to say. And here's the link to that webinar. So that's all I have. Steve, okay, thanks.

Mala, so Mala, maybe you or Mark, I thought I saw a broadband breakfast announcement that there is a coalition of broadband providers who are actually supportive of USF, but obviously feel that there needs to be some decisions about how it's going to be funded. Did I see that correctly?

Yes, the rates are really high for them. In the next quarter, it's going to be almost 20 I mean, sorry, 39% if I'm not mistaken, at least that's where it's guided. It was 36 the last quarter. So they do. They are interested in alternate mechanisms to fund the USF, but the USF itself, they are very supportive of, yeah.

Okay, any questions for. Mala. Okay, moving on quickly, Anthony, do you have anything with the State Library that you want to share?

No, I think Mala pretty much covered it. Thank you.

Okay. And Michael Kendall, anything new with the Department

of Ed? Well, let's see again. This is Michael Kendall. I am the broadband slash infrastructure project manager for Arizona Department of Education. Far as anything new, not a lot to report this past week, but last week, you did ask me to provide a little more detail on what we do in our office and and what our focus is. Did you want me to share that? Sure? Okay, well, a big focus for us is the special construction and if you're not familiar, that is the upfront, one time, non reoccurring costs for Category One construction items. And in our office, we, you know, we support all of the requesters who are seeking state matching funds for that category one work from from cradle to grave, everything from, we have a pre approval process that either representatives from the schools or their E Rate consultants submit, and they get that from our website. So we are directing them from step one all the way through final payment, through the process, and then as they as those, for those that get PREA funding approval, we assist them through their processes is as they go through their 470s 470 ones, and then, especially with the 470 ones, making sure that all of their all the monies are in the FR ends are clearly, clearly stated and and make sure that what they are requesting is applicable to, you know, state, state matching funds, which we administrate, and then from there, and then later, a little later, as we go into construction, our office facilitates, basically bi Weekly touch points. Currently, we have five projects that I am administ, facilitating the meetings on. And they're basically construction touch points where we meet with the school representatives, the rate consultants, general contractor, and then usually, of course, the carriers are involved, because most, most of our work involves, you know, fiber pulls, conduit, trenching, that type of stuff. Again, that upfront on time, cost, and then ultimately, After successful completion of the project, we verified that all the work is done, and then, and then pay the bill. And so again, the focus on that special construction, the state matching funds, and in general, along the way, we assist the, you know, the schools and the E Rate consultants with anything they need. For example, if they're having difficulty getting a right of way permit with the Arizona Land Department, you know, we, and we recently have done that, assist with, you know, helping them get permits or or even permits with other organizations, you know, with all the different municipalities they have to deal with, you know, where we can we pitch in and help out. So that's kind of an overview or of what our focus is here at ad in our office.

Great. Thank you, Michael. Any questions for Michael, yeah, how much

funding is available for these E Rate special construction projects this year? You haven't heard about, haven't heard about funding since, no, I

don't know. I don't know if I'm prepared to share the exact amount of that, but I will share there are state matching funds, and then there's also ACC dollars. You know, you we've got two buckets of money without whether we're dealing with but that's what, that's what happens at the very beginning of the process, is that the requesters submit a pre funding request, and then we in our office confirm whether or not we do have funding available. So as far as the exact number in our in our funding, I don't know if I'm ready to share that right now, okay,

but it's all funding. It's all funding from the state. And the ACC said the

Arizona gets are two buckets of money. So we've got, we've got different dollars that we work with, you know, in our office, it's all about, you know, focusing on, on, on those allocated dollars, you know, for the state matching funds, and it's usually a very small percentage relative to the overall construction costs, but, you know, every little bit else, right? And that's the piece we focus. Son,

any other questions for Michael? Okay, so moving on quickly. So first of all, Rory, I see that you are online. I didn't know if you were going to be here today. You want to give us just a quickie update, and then we'll schedule some additional time for you to talk about the changes happening with you. Are you still there? Rory, maybe not. Okay, so Jared, I know we do this almost every week. But I think that the project that you're doing is so important. Can you just give us another quickie update on what's happening with the wireless project you got you guys are doing? Please? Sure, you

bet. Yeah, we're always happy to talk about it. So to make sure that internet accessibility is available to more people, we've got a new program. We're calling the internet lending program. And we have devices that we've already gone out and purchased and obtained, and we lend these out to individuals who might not have the right credit checks or the right other financial circumstances to get them online, because we own the devices we need them back when people are done, we ask for a $50 security deposit, which is, I know, a little hard for some people, but it's enough to make sure that they give the device back. And then after that, it's $35 a month, flat rate, unlimited internet, no data caps, no overage fees, no tax even, I mean, it's literally just flat 35 and nothing else, and they can be on this program as long as they're interested. This is using the T Mobile network, so anyone can use it anywhere there's a T Mobile signal. There is no geofencing or limitations in where you're located. As long as you have a T Mobile signal, we're not monitoring your signal. We're not monitoring your data usage. So you know, it's pretty much unfettered Internet access at a very affordable rate, with no contract terms or any other responsibilities.

Great. Thank you. Great project. And again, it is statewide, so basically, anybody anywhere in the state.

And I'll put the link to to our form to get more information on the chat. It's really easy. If you know our website, it's a Z st.org/internet, and I'll put that in the chat as well, and

I'll also include that in my newsletter. Thank you. Thanks. Jared, great job. So Paul, are you there? Paul Ross, yes, I am here. Hello. So it looks like you're not in your car anymore, or maybe you are still but no,

I'm not in my car. I went and found another location. So,

so Paul, you want to just give us a quickie overview again of the research project and what you I'm

doing as part of my dissertation, I'm actually writing my Introduce

yourself, please. Yeah, sorry.

Steve Paul Ross, I'm with Phoenix College. I'm the AVP CIO. I'm conducting a dissertation. My PhD is in general psychology, with teaching and learning and, sorry, Learning and Technology. And so part of that is I'm developing a conceptual model of the digital divide, and that includes looking at all facets of the digital divide. And so I've spent a couple of years working on this, and I'm at the point of where I'm looking for people to participate in interviews. And I'll drop drop a piece into the chat right now, which is a link to the the consent form, which then kicks off the process for interviews. But basically, I'm trying to look for people to interview who have experience in the field. And you all being part of this group, you will see that on the information that's part of the qualifying factor. So But basically, what I'm trying to do is I'm trying to create this conceptual model. It's going to be a highly detailed and interactive model. And I've looked at every digital divide related theory model in existence, basically. And the model that I'm anticipating creating is going to be probably one of the most extensive models available, because it looks at it from a whole variety of perspectives, and by looking at different perspectives, I'm able to drill in from the end user standpoint, through to legislators, legislators and and also the technology aspect, because a lot of models actually don't include the technology component. In it. So I'm merging two worlds here, at least, to try and create a conceptual model. So my plan is to actually conduct the interviews in the next few weeks, and then hopefully in about three months, be completely done with my PhD, and to be able to then publish my dissertation, and at that point is when I'll be able to share the full set of results and the information. I will also be doing something different, and that is when it's time for my PhD defense. I will invite you all here to my PhD defense, and it'll be an online or it can be an in person experience, but it will be an experience. It won't be just providing some basic data. I'm going to make it an experience. And so I'm doing this program through GCU, and you know, I've been actively involved in the digital divide efforts for quite some time, and especially here in Arizona, since about 2020, so. But that's my quick update. Steve. Thank you.

Thanks, Paul. So those of you who have been around with us for quite a while know that Paul is doing God knows what. I always tease him, and got a text from him this morning, at four o'clock in the morning saying he was going to be here this morning. So it kind of reinforced all my thoughts about whether or not you actually get to sleep at all.

You're speaking to my digital twin right now. Paul's actually asleep. Thank you.

Thanks, Paul. So Rory, are you there or not? Rory Conaway,

yeah, yeah.

Sorry. So, Rory, I wasn't sure if you're going to be here today, but can you just give us a quickie on your current news?

So Triad Wireless has we've sold the I've sold the company to a company called wi fiber, who's based out of Utah. Wi fiber is a larger entity in the middle of a multi acquisition process. This one of the areas that we didn't cover very well was fiber. And so by working up with wi fiber, then we'll have the we have. We now have the ability to deploy fiber as they've as they they've already done some I am still this. I'm going to be the CTO with the new company for the next couple of years. So we'll, you know, so I'm not going anywhere, and Phoenix staff is staying as as it is and then. But we are expanding. We are now a sister, brother company to a company called tri state, who's based out of Boulder, up in Boulder So, and they also cover Laughlin. So we're already expanding our Phoenix, our Arizona footprint, from that, that standpoint. So that's pretty much the status. Pretty exciting. Rory, yeah, so my wife's happy, so that's what matters. Well, you've

been a long time supporter with us, with the with AC BSN, so we always greatly appreciate your friendship and partnership with us.

Oh, you're well, thank you. So appreciate that. How

is why fiber spelled Rory? How do you spell it's

W, I, dash, f, i, B, E, R, okay, that's basically going to be the parent company, but tri state and Triad Wireless are still considered. Are basically DBAs, so we're underneath the parent corporation now,

okay, well, I'm going to stop sharing, and I'd like to just open it up and hear from a few of you about who you are and what you're doing. Larissa, you want to start please just give us a couple of minutes about who you are and what your organization is doing.

Sure thing. I'm I'm happy to share. I'm actually very I'm actually very happy about it. I My name is Louisa organist, and I'm the new digital navigator here at Copa health. I'm operating out of our Florian office in Mesa. My role is to help all of our members who need help to build their confidence and skills and using digital tools and technology. This includes assisting them with Device Setup internet getting helping them to get internet access, learn how to safely use applications, be able to access phones and other technology that they need, learning how to safely use applications and then navigating online resources that. Can enhance their daily lives, and this allows them to engage in telehealth and other activities that we all just take for granted in the in the world today. You know, teaching them how to use Zoom and other ways of communicating thereby, you know, once again, enriching their lives and helping them to have a fuller life and be able to have more opportunities.

Great. Thanks, Larissa. Any questions for Larissa? Going once, going twice? Okay, so will Osborne,

good morning, everybody. I'm Will Osborne, southeastern Arizona, governments organization, community development, program manager. I dropped in the chat, but basically, what our organization does is helps responsible entities do environmental record reviews or environmental review records. We also help with acquiring grants. Our capacity, we're looking at adding some staff. We've lost a few folks in the last six months. My area generally doesn't focus on broadband, but the economic development office within our organization does, but that person isn't on board yet in terms of the broadband stuff, so I will probably be reaching out to him to let him know about this opportunity to share and get more information. I really appreciate all of you. I do have to drop off, though for another meeting, and look forward to hearing more from you guys in the future.

Sure will I know you gotta go just quickly. How many communities do you serve?

We serve 14 communities in Graham, Greenlee, Cochise and Santa Cruz counties, including Nogales in our southwestern corner, Douglas in our southeastern corner, Duncan and Clifton and the Northeast and all the way over to Pima town and Thatcher and Safford, and to some extent, the San Carlos tribe of Apache and our northwest corner and all that's in between. So I mean, we, we serve a lot of communities, mostly with community development block grants, is where my focus is but this is an interesting topic to me. I would though probably be looking to have Kevin Fowler, our economic development program manager, follow up and get on board with this effort.

Sounds good. Thanks Will thanks for being here this morning. Thank all of you. Good to meet you. Take care. Okay, so, just anybody else who So, Kirk, I see you're online for a change. Can you hear me? Are you doing other stuff? Kirk, are you there? I know he multitask all the time on our meetings, as many of you all do. Gordon, you have something you wanted to talk about briefly this morning?

Well, thanks, Steve. Well, yeah, I've probably understated it in the past, but I'm sort of available. We we're looking for grant, we have a nonprofit. We're looking for consulting work. What's the background? I guess you guys have heard me speak before. I'm certainly a disability advocate. I always think of that as my passion contribution, and in this area, I'm sort of unique. My actual background includes being a visionary designer, virtual reality tools, technologies, the world's first digital twin of the metaverse for video conferencing in a little town of Silicon Valley and Palo Alto, serving Stanford, including artificial intelligent wildlife. And the trains were running. It was really something. And ever since then, I working in augmented reality, and I work on a project disability history. We're hoping to preserve the stories of people in the United States and their experiences with disability over the decades. We've been doing this for over 15 years. For 15 years, I've been interested in how augmented reality and what will be called 6g will transform how we compute and how we interact with the world around us. As a blind person myself, I'm quite aware of the shortcomings of the built environment, and so far as providing the knowledge and information I need about where I find accessibility. But it's not only true for myself, it's true for people who are chair users and people who have limited energy for various reasons. So if we could, in fact, instrument our communities, so we have spatial computing, the ability to precisely map where you are in the community, and we do it in a community based infrastructure. I served on the board of a community owned cooperative right there in. Palo Alto, California, of all things, and I understand the governance of those things. I've taken public three companies. Have a background as a technology analyst for Bloomberg. I'm available, guys and gals, and other than that, my wife and her family are calling us back to Hawaii. So if if indeed, I could stay in my home state a little longer, I'd be ever so delighted. So get, get back to me, let me know what we can do. As I said, I'm an artist. I've been working in the conceptual art field of how we can create engaging experiences. And the tools that are coming over the next five years will will change everything, how we look at computing, how we how we inter interact with each other and the places around us. And to me, that's the thing that's been most overlooked, is community. That's where we live, that's where we have our relationships, that's where so much about us is based. And yet everything's been up in the clouds, through these gateways controlled by, dare I say, predators. So all of that being said, let's bring it home, folks. We can get ahead of this curve. We don't have to bow down to any big tech companies. We could home brew this stuff up out of the infrastructure and spare parts laying around right now. I say let's do it. Thanks.

Thanks. Gordon, Hey Mark, so we never really hear from you. You've always been so quiet, but you're usually not. So why don't you just tell people who you are?

Well, okay, Mark Goldstein, I've had a career in engineering and engineering management the 70s through the early 90s. I struck out on my own in 92 and that was when I hooked up with Ted Craver and the whole G speed statewide economic development that led to the foundation of something called AIC i, which in 9495 became a t i c so been involved with broadband policy since 92 and my own company the same 33 or so years, I do a variety of broadband strategic and grant development activities, both directly for clients and through a firm called Grant Management Associates, some of you may know or remember Brad Zerby. He brought me into that company where I also lead teams doing lots of different chips act and broadband grant development. I am currently chair for the second time, of the Arizona telecom and information Council, which many of you do participate in. I just did complete a Pennsylvania bead grant a few weeks ago. Had big wins last year, following a middle mile grant win, an $89 million win for quintillion in Alaska, we got a reconnect grant and through a tribal partner, a NTIA tbcp Round two award. What else am I working on? I am working on two chips act grants right now, due in April, and they're in a slice of the chips act called public wireless Supply Chain Innovation Fund. And that's all about something called or ran Not, not many of you probably know what that is. It's open random access, radio access networks where 5g and arguably, then 6g predominantly, will use these standards to have interoperable equipment. Right now, you often have components in a in a 4g 5g system that are all from the same manufacturer because they don't play well with others or Ran is a big initiative for a kind of standard sub component interoperability, and that's been a little new to me. I've done a couple of those chips act grants in round two did help a client of Grant Management Associates win a $44 million chip sack grant, working on a telecom Loan Program application, also in Pennsylvania, working on a bead application or two in Alaska, and that's what I do,

pretty amazing, Mark, and you've been a real leader and facilitator and advocate for broadband, Digital Inclusion and all that. On a good stuff. Well, you and I go back out, I don't know, 3040, years with a T, I C and so forth. So really appreciate all the leadership and support you've been providing over the years.

Thanks, Steve and back at you.

Okay. Anybody else want to share anything this morning, going once, going twice. Well, I guess we've been sort of into our kippets in phase, even though I've left the the recording running, but that's all right. Uh, anybody else have anything Ed? Do you want to say anything?

Pretty much good morning and still in the caregiver mode. I'll have more to report next month.

Hey, Ed and I also go back. I don't know how many years add, 30 years, 40 years, something like that, 2001 yeah,

when we were Time Time flies. Yes, indeed. Well, we're still flying. Yeah, thanks for the good meeting.

Thanks. So, anything else anybody else wants to share before we're done for today? Once going twice? Okay? Well, thank you all, and hopefully we'll see you next week. Always this all as always, pump. It's pretty amazing. I don't know now I know how you got everything done. You're up all night. What do you get? About three more sleep tonight. That's

what happens. You get technologists and also librarians, and they're in the space. You never know what you're going to get. I.