June 13, 2024 AZBSN Digital Access Task Force Recording

4:38PM Jun 14, 2024

Speakers:

Steve Peters

Nicole Umayam

Mark Goldstein

Erin Lorandos

Mala Muralidharan

Henry Goldberg

Rory Conaway

EJ John

Jeff Sobotka

Kyle Hildebrand

Kristi King

Laura Etter

Denise Shorey

Keywords:

arizona

work

bead

fiber

network

broadband

infrastructure

grant

state

planning

talk

libraries

happening

information

navajo county

aps

application

share

schools

erin

Okay, good morning, everybody. Welcome. To get going. We got a lot of exciting stuff to talk about today. Hopefully our other presenters will be here but glad to see Kyle this morning. And Kyle, I'm not going to introduce you now because you're going to get to do that in just a little while. Sounds good. But I do have a couple of new people. Nicole, I haven't seen you in a while. Glad to have you back. Let's see, where did she go?

Say Kristi, would you like to introduce yourself, please?

Sure. So I'm the Public Services Librarian over at you have a Yavapi County for library districts. I've been working with Cory Christians on the BEAD initiative with the rebuttals, and on the digital navigation aspect of that.

Great, welcome. Glad to have you join us. We have anybody else who's new today. Laura, I don't know if we've seen you in a long time. You want to introduce yourself quickly?

Sure. Good morning, Laura Etter my work with the Sun Corridor network as their deputy director and also with the Maricopa County Broadband project with ASU and government affairs. So doing a lot of stuff in the Broadband space. And yes, it is rare that I am on at eight o'clock in the morning.

Okay, well, glad to have you have you back. We haven't had you or Derek in quite a while. So I'm so glad to have you here. Thank you. So let's go ahead and, and get started. And, as always like to thank our sponsors CareFirst, Arizona, Karen Ziegler, consulting services, Valley Telecom Group Kajeet and Triad Wireless, we appreciate their support. And any of you who would like to step up and be sponsors, we can definitely use your money. To be quite frank. Okay. So have an interesting agenda this morning. In keeping with our kind of our new kind of format, we have actually two presenters, at least hopefully, we'll have our folks from, from T Mobile will be online, but I want to talk about a couple of quick things. Excuse me. So just a reminder, if you have not taken the time to fill out our online form, it would be great for you to do that. So we have all your contact information. So please take a minute, there's a link in the email that I send out all the time for you to be able to do that. Lab, the next thing is, which many of you know that after the meeting, we stopped the recording. And we have informal kibitzing with colleagues, sometimes we have nobody, sometimes we have a couple people. Sometimes we have 10 people that just an informal opportunity to share information to ask questions and so forth. And so again, it's it's just an opportunity, sometimes we don't get a lot of time for interaction. So that's kind of that. Moving on, that we're looking at some future programs, we're going to be doing a I'm working on putting together a panel on municipal networks, or public networks. We're trying to look at that we want to that might be even be a series, but we want to look at what is the municipal or publicly owned network? What are the pros and cons? How do you relate to to ISPs, funding and all kinds of things like that. So anyway, that's going to be coming up. Hopefully in a few weeks, we're going to be doing one on telehealth on workforce. Another one that's really important for me, and I want to actually do a group discussion about sustainability. So as we roll out a lot of our Digital Equity money that what happens when that money's gone. And so how are we going to deal with that, including in that is what other kinds of funding sources are available to help you to find additional funding for your Digital Equity programs. There's issues about low cost options and other topics that may, may come up. So those are just some of the things that we're working on for the future. And with that, Erin I'm going to turn it over to you to give us an update on what's happening with the Broadband office. Awesome. Thanks

so much. And I do apologize for having to step away for a second. But of course, the landscapers would come at exactly the same time that that session starts. So um, for anyone who I don't know on this call, my name is Erin Lorandos. And I am the Digital Equity program manager at the Arizona Commerce Authority. Were the administering entity for both the BEAD and the Digital Equity programs here in Arizona. Not a ton to update folks on have been out for a couple of weeks because we were on one of our engagement tour. sojourns across the state. And then last week, we I was attending the the rural STEM Summit down in Tucson, which was a fantastic group of STEM Educators and folks like that, so it was able to present about the BEAD and Digital Equity programs there. So updates from the office, we are, we have wrapped up the challenge process and are in that rebuttal and adjudication phase, we're still on track for the timelines. But But folks in this group may be aware of where we had planned to create the project area maps and all of that later this summer. So we'll be sharing that as that becomes Mala it was, um, as that information becomes firmed up, we'll be able to share more of that. And we are still on track for the sub grant process for the BEAD program to kick off in the fall. However, all of that is based on when the NTIA does approve our volume two, which has not happened yet. So we're still waiting on that. On the Digital Equity side of things, we have submitted our application for our capacity grant, which is the pot of money that we will be able to use to implement the Digital Equity plan, which was approved back in April. For folks who maybe haven't seen that I'll drop some links in the chat here momentarily for where you can find all of that information and read all of the approved and posted plans, etc. Same thing kind of at the mercy of NTIA being approved for all of that before we can move into the next steps. But I will highlight for this group that we are hosting our monthly webinars, the Digital Equity roundtable will be held next Tuesday. And you know, if things get moving along, we'll be able to share more more than but we plan to continue doing that monthly so that, you know anyone who would like to attend can get those, those updates as they come over the summer for the Digital Equity piece. We do plan on doing some work, getting folks ready to apply for potential sub grants, again, that is planned to be led out in the fall. But you know, we have to wait for approval and all of that kind of thing first. Let's see what else. I think those are all my updates at this time unless there are any questions that anyone has.

So Erin, can you explain a little bit more about the subgrantee process and sub grantees versus contracting with other organizations? Can you talk a little more about where we are with that process?

For BEAD or for Digital Equity,

Digital Equity.

Okay, so, um, every state is doing this process a little bit differently. Here in Arizona, we are intending to do primarily, you know, sub grants, we are holding back the, you know, administration and evaluation set asides that we're allowed to do to run our office. And you know, make sure that that piece is all taken care of. But just due to ACA procurement guidelines, we we put everything out for a sub grant through a formal process. And so as those things are detailed and approved, we'll be able to share more but you know, we'll we'll be able to, to, you know, distribute money basically that way. So we're looking for applications from organizations that their work aligns with the goals and objectives that are in the plan. So it's always a good idea to take a look at at that piece and see where your work might fit in and start to think about what a potential application might look like. We do have a little survey that's out right now, which I can share the link to as well. It's not required, but just you know, if you are already thinking about what a potential application might look like, you can kind of give us an idea of what you might be thinking about. But again, it's not a requirement or anything like that for for application. We're just trying to get a lay of the land.

So Erin, excuse me. So we're things about that one is so subrant to an organization, and then they can do a sub grant or a contract with other organizations they partner with, for example, there

will be space for there will be space for partnerships, some of those details are still a little TBD, just because we haven't gotten our plans approved.

One of the things I've been looking at, had conversations with some organizations in do we know yet about what the reporting requirements are going to be for sub grantees. So,

yeah, these are federal grants that were, you know, that we were applying for. So, um, you know, reporting, and all of that is maybe a bit more rigorous than then other grants that you've done for. For that piece, I would definitely, at this point, encourage folks to take a look at the NOFO. There's some information about that in there. Just, you know, again, because the states are ultimately doing that reporting, you're rolling up into what we're reporting, we're going to make it as easy as possible. But there are a big question

about reporting. Steve.

I'm sorry, you say that again?

Do you have a specific question?

So my question is that, that as we all know that what she's she's referring to is that reporting for federal grants can be very daunting. And part of my concern is that many smaller organizations don't have the capacity to do all of that reporting. So one of the things I've been looking at, for example, is are there some larger entities who have that capacity to manage those grants, who can then contract with other organizations who may not have that requirement to do all of that reporting? So I understand what that whole process is? Do we know what that looks like today? Because I'm concerned that a lot of work, I will,

I will say that, I will say that the, you know, the scary level of federal reporting is directly with the administrative entity. So that would be the Arizona Commerce Authority, they are the grantee, they are responsible for that, that high level of federal reporting, during the sub grant process, that, you know, the state is essentially going to have their own sub awardees for this funding. So there are still you know, a lot of information that gets rolled up, as Erin mentioned, into her reporting, but I would for entities that are expecting to apply, I would not, you know, you should not anticipate a level as though you are a federal awardee. So we don't we don't need to have that much fear. It is, you know, it is federal funding that we're accountable to report and use effectively. But, you know, this shouldn't dissuade anyone from participating. Of course, you know, a will, these would have to work in alignment with the grant grant expectations of the ACA. But that federal level of, you know, reporting, use of federal funds, that certifications, the semiannual reporting and technical performance reporting, that is the responsibility of the ACA as the grantee. So try to make it a little less scary. You know, I know the ACA is going to do everything they can to make sure that it's a fair and equitable application process that is available to all different types of organizations.

And I believe, thank you, Nicole. And we may have some other updates. And I'll get back to you in just a minute. But, Erin, I believe you're planning to do are you planning to do workshops or just webinars to talk about that process? Once you're, you kind of have it in place?

Yep. So our monthly webinars will start to touch on that as things start to get approved, and we move into those stages.

Okay. Thank you. Any questions for Erin before we move on?

Mark here? So at yesterday's ATIC board meeting, which was unfortunately, terminated by a technical glitch, with Zoom, about 70 minutes, and we did hear from Heather, that ISPs have been invited to believe a July 15 BEAD working session, and I just wondered if you'd say something about that for any that are interested or may think they should be invited to that and so on.

Are you I'm sorry, I had to miss yesterday's ATIC meeting. Was this the the in person forum that ACA is hosting? Is that what that's in reference to?

I believe, so. Yes, on July 15.

So we are hosting in person forums for both with local government and ISPs to get some of that face time and be able to answer, you know, any questions that folks have, I don't have all the details of that event in front of me. But whatever you heard yesterday is definitely right on track. Our engagement manager, unfortunately, I don't believe she's on the call today, otherwise, I could go to her but

a lot of conference of those who weren't?

Okay. So I did actually, one of the links that I posted, was for the engagement tour, and invitations to local government and ISP, in person forums would come directly to, you know, eligible participants emails, we have a really great list for, for contacts for those locations.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. This audience might like to also hear about that upcoming opportunity. Definitely.

Okay, I see your EJ hand up.

Yeah, it is. Good to me, Erin. And good morning, everyone. I saw that the tribal writing roundtable a couple days ago, was was canceled. I'm just wondering, that's planning if that's planned to be rescheduled anytime soon. So

and thank you for bringing that up. Actually, all of the BEAD related webinars were canceled this month, across the board, just due to the stage of the process we're at, we really didn't have anything that was salient to share, other than what you've already been hearing. So so that's why the Digital Equity one is going to happen next week. And feel free of course, as always to attend that one. But all of the BEAD, brown tables were canceled this month. Okay, thanks. Yep, of course. And sorry for the late notice on that, but it was. It's not a busy month.

Okay, any other questions for Erin? If not, are you on the call? Would you introduce yourself? And do you have anything else that you'd want to talk about?

Good morning. I'm Nicole Umayam. I'm the federal program officer for Arizona with Nga, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. So I'm the grant administrator for Arizona's BEAD and Digital Equity Act programs and support NTIA and other our other initiatives as well. You know, Erin mentioned that, you know a little bit about the big progress, you know, I will just have to have to state that Arizona's initial proposal Volume Two has not been approved yet. Neither has the Digital Equity capacity grant application been approved. But, you know, we'll give you some updates as soon as you know, as we have a status change on both of those items. But I'm just really proud of the work that the Broadband office has done to be really patient in these processes and be on top of the ongoing residual incomes and you know, the challenges that can come with being a federal grantee or applicants to a federal program. We don't have a lot of major updates from QA at this point, but I did want to highlight a recent annual report from the Office of Minority Broadband initiatives. This, you know, amongst a lot of other great coordination that they do to uplift minority communities. They also award a think of it as a digital program, the connecting minority communities program. There are four awardees here in Arizona. I know we've featured some of them before. And this this report actually highlights the bulk of two of those awardees Denae College and the tunnel awesome community college as well. And I know we've had Dr. Carter on here from you've Arizona and and Paul with Phoenix College as well. So it's really great to see their hard work to find at a national level. So I'll go ahead and, and and share that one in there. There's a lot of movements and a lot of momentum around permitting for BEAD. And I've talked at previous meetings about what some of that coordination looks like. We don't quite have public facing documents outside of what is shared with the Broadband offices and our partners at state and federal agencies. But that is in the works. I think we can expect to see a lot more movement there here in Arizona. And this isn't quite right event to this group. But in July, a bunch of federal agencies and state Broadband directors are coming to Phoenix, why they chose Phoenix in July, I really can't say it. But to start a lot of these important discussions and then specifically about how permitting processes are going to be flowing through the BEAD, through the BEAD program during implementation, because we know that that can really take quite a bit of time and will require a lot of upfront planning and especially isolating some areas that we want to to have some coordination on it ahead of time.

And Nicole, is that something that will be open to others or not?

It is open only to federal partners who are presenting and the state Broadband offices. I have had some discussions with Sandeep about, hey, this would be a perfect time to engage Arizona partners around permitting and Broadband and take take advantage of having some, you know, experts here in Phoenix. You know, it's, it's gonna be hot. But, you know, it should be a lot of great information that's there. So, you know, as soon as I hear a little bit more from the Broadband office and how they want to coordinate, we can certainly extend an invitation out to to other stakeholders.

Sounds great. Thanks for the call. Anything else? I think that's questions for Nicole. Okay, moving on. So Denise Sheree, would you like to introduce yourself quickly?

Hello, puppy.

Denise, are you there?

Okay. I'm here. Sorry. Sorry. Okay. I'm struggling with the mute button, I guess. So I am with the Brennan group, which has been hired to work with the city of Tucson, on their Broadband initiative, and will just be sitting in to get to know and make sure that we are working with you and aligning and doing all the things that a municipality needs to do to bring fiber to all of the residents in in their city.

Great. Thanks, Denise. Glad you could join us.

Thank you.

Is there anybody else? Grant Evans, you want to introduce yourself quickly?

Hi, my name is Grant Evans. I'm a capital projects manager at Navajo County.

That right, thank you, Steve. Thanks for Thanks for joining us. Is there anybody else I've missed? It's new. I believe in that. So let's, let's go ahead and get get going here with our program. So I actually Mala Oh, do you want to do a quick update? I know you've got probably got some other things to talk about. But do you want to just give a quick update about the cybersecurity cybersecurity project?

Yes, absolutely not a problem. The Cyber cyber security pilot program got approved. On June 6, by FCC. The FCC commissioners voted three to two foreign against it. And while we're moving forward with the the official order that will be published later this month. Some of the FAQs on this questions that I have been asked and I'm planning to do a presentation on this. For our librarians pretty soon our county librarians pretty soon. Cybersecurity has tools have, you know been eligible in its bare minimum, the basic firewalls have been eligible during ie I mean for the ERate applicants, but this project is to give more robust network security as is needed now because of the number of incidents that have been reported and networks that have been compromised of late. So, you know, at the at the request of many stakeholders, FCC decided to go ahead with the cybersecurity pilot program. And some of the some, some of the criticism that was in that that was put in our original For the draft application were addressed. But there were some others that were not. So let me go through these a little bit in detail in the pilot timeframe is for three years. That was one of those that was in contention, because we said a three year pilot program and the reporting one year after that, and by the time they decide, you know, whether what amounts and what services would be eligible and who was eligible, etc, etc, it's got to be at least five years, we need this now, or we needed it yesterday, or the day before. But again, they that was not taken into account. So it is still going to be a three year pilot program, they haven't yet announced the window when it would be open, but at least the one thing that they agreed to, is not to open it during the school vacation time, or during this peak time for libraries when we are doing summer reading programs. So it's likely to be announced to start to the for the window to open in the fall. That's as much as we know, that's as close a date that I have. Why did the FCC decide to launch a separate, you know, cyber pilot program, instead of just adding those services to the evade eligible services. It was primarily because they wanted to, you know, be they wanted to consider the costs, the cost, according to them was unknown. And the tools, they wanted to also experiment with different tools, different libraries and schools. And they, they wanted to be good stewards of the money. That's basically it, you know, and this is going to be funded not from Erie dollars, but from the Universal Service Fund, which again, is in contention. So but it this is, this is going to be funded, the pilot is going to be funded from the Universal Service Fund, it's a $200 million pilot program, total amount that is available, and it would be distributed to the eligible mean. It's a competitive grant, of course, but it will be the eligible entities or schools, libraries, and a consortium of schools and libraries. Even if they have applied for a credit or not so far, they are eligible as long as they are a school or a library, or a consortium, the to the amounts that the funding amounts would be based on three $13.60 per student with a minimum of 15,000 and a maximum of 1.5 million for a school or a district. So with with that amount, you know that there's going to be a limited amount of schools or libraries that are likely to be funded. For a library, the minimum amount is $15,000. With the end with a system that has more than 11 sites, or branches, or entities that have joined together, they will be eligible for a maximum of 175,000. And you don't really need to take down all of this, I will send Steve, a file that he can add to the minutes of this meeting. And that will be posted on the ACB SN site. What tools would be eligible? So the the tools, they are looking for looking into four major categories. The first one is the advanced next generation firewalls. The second is endpoint protection. The third is identity protection. And the fourth is authentication, that is monitoring, detection of intrusion and response to the intrusion. So those are the four areas advanced network advanced next generation firewalls, endpoint protection, identity protection, and authentication, monitoring, detection and response. And under these categories, they haven't specified any particular product or service. Those are broad areas and any and those anything that falls into those four categories would be eligible again, because this is a pilot program, they're not going into specifics. They want to study it and see, you know, what works best and what it would cost. The program application. It's cell is very similar to ERate application except for one thing that is the very first step, the very first step is that the applicants will do a pre application, they will take, they will apply for the program by completing a new Form or Form 484, which will be completed on the USAC site online application portal site. And the information requested there is kind of a broad description of the proposal for the pilot project, the risks the cybersecurity risks that are going to be addressed. If there are consortiums or groups that are joining together to do this names and contact information for those what kind of services are you planning to request and estimate of the cost. So this will be the preliminary application of part one. And then they will make a FCC will make a selection from the from the preliminary group. And they will request those that are selected to do a part two application. And that part two application will have significant information on the current net network vulnerabilities describing any unauthorized network access that has taken place that you are trying to address an incident response and those kinds of things, you know, and again, just so this is one more question that we put to FCC at this time, saying that we really do want this data to be public, you know, you're you, if you're vulnerable, you really don't want, you know, a cyber attacker to know your vulnerable areas. And they promised to redact those kinds of information, if that is gone, if this would be published later. So how are they going to select participants for this pilot project? Of course, the first thing is, the importance will be given to tribal schools and libraries. From those coming from low income communities, they want a wide geographic distribution. They want applicants who are more resource challenged, that means that means you have not you have very little resource to apply, they will help, of course, those applicants that seek their help in going through an application process. If the number of applicants exceeds the 200 million budget, which is certainly well, they will start with the highest discount band, which is 90%, and then work their way down to a lower discount bands. The discount percentage is based on the NSLP data as is with the rec program. The rest of the process is very, very similar to the EDA program, you you apply and do

a bid and get responses, the most competitive of them price being the highest weightage will be selected will be the bid response that would be selected. Then they file the form 471, which tells USAC what you're going to apply for. And then the next stage is the invoicing stage. The only difference is that an E Rate you apply one year at a time for this pilot project, you will apply for all three years of the pilot in that one application.

Well, we need to we need to move on.

i Yeah, that I was going to tell you, I'm done. And if there are any questions, I'd be happy to answer them.

Okay, thank you. Maja probably hearing more just just a reminder for everybody that our Arizona Department of Homeland Security, along with the Air National Guard and others have also been providing cybersecurity support and resources to schools and libraries and government entities around the state. They're doing a great job. And one of the things that I don't have time to get into it today but helping to get the word out to schools that have not been taken advantage of those resources, particularly the small school smaller schools and school districts and rural communities. So I don't want to take any more time on that today. And I want to move on to our key presentation this morning. And I want to say so most of you have probably heard it way in some way, shape or form about the i 1090. And I 40 middle mile initiative here in the state, and we're going to be hearing about more about that in just a minute. But there are a couple of people on this call. Well, there's many people on this call, but a couple of people in particular, who have been particularly significant in getting that project going, one of which is Karen Ziegler, and Theron, thank you for all the work you did, she did a pulmonary Broadband plan that led to the creation of that project. And one of the other people who I'm going to ask to do an introduction of our key presenter this morning, is somebody, you know, a lot of times, late night hosts, a man who doesn't need any introduction. But many of you know, Jeff Sobotka, who was our former Broadband manager with the state of Arizona, who was very instrumental in getting this project going. And then Laura, adder with sun corridor network, who have been very instrumental. And there's probably others that I should probably recognize, but those three people in particular. And so I'm going to turn it over to Jeff to introduce Kyle Hildebrand. So Jeff, it's all yours, a Steve,

thank you for giving us this opportunity to speak I still think back to the very first one of these calls during the pandemic, and just the look of sheer terror on everyone's face. And everybody seems a little bit more relaxed and happy to see the work that we've done. I'm here to introduce Cole Hildebrand. And Kyle is a founder of x squared, the company that I work for. He's also, quite frankly, more importantly, one of the most well rounded, impressive people that I've ever worked with. He's out of Omaha, Nebraska, we're in addition to everything else, he is a former rancher. And He's a board member on a couple of different conservation groups and affordable housing groups. Pals military background, which is probably minimized and his LinkedIn profile is impressive, is anything that you'll see in a Netflix movie. He's somebody who has multiple deployments to the Balkans in the Middle East, during some of the heaviest fighting that we had. He's been in the industry for over 22 years. And he's been appointed to the FCC Consumer Advisory Commission more than once. And he's somebody that that I am very excited to partner with and work with, as we do our different projects throughout the state here with BEAD and others. And I'm very excited to hear Cal speak about this. Sandeep and I actually had the opportunity last week to get up in front of the National Governors Association, to talk a little bit about this project and the governance and how it's moving forward. And I think that this is very cutting edge and how things are done. I've heard about other states and what they've done. But, you know, this is something that seems to work for everyone. And we hope that we'll continue that way. So again, I'd like to introduce Kyle Hildebrand from x squared and vivacity. So

Jeff, I'm sorry, I should have introduced you, besides being a farmer or farmer, Broadband manager, but you are vice president for opacity if I'm not mistaken.

Yeah, it's Sam. Thank you.

Okay, Kyle, you're on. Alright. Thanks, Steve.

Can you hear me?

I can, and you want to share your share? Yep, I'm gonna stop sharing. So you're welcome to go ahead and share whenever you're ready. I'm

going to give it a whirl here. And then we'll see if everyone can see.

I'm sharing the wrong screen.

We're seeing it. So.

All right. Well, I just was gonna have you see the whole thing in.

Maybe, if you're on that screen, if you click on Display Settings, you can swap which view we see on this swap Presenter View, or you go then we'll see the big one.

Thank you for the technical support.

Digital navigator in action.

valuable skill. All right. So there we are. Um, so Jeff, really appreciate the kind introduction much too kind. So, one of the things I wanted to talk about today was, you know, not just, you know, you know, the things that are happening on the interstate corridors throughout Arizona, the middle mile infrastructure, but some of the other opportunities that that those wanting to provide services to end And users in the state of Arizona can can take take on as a as a resource and maybe utilize in during future endeavors during during BEAD applications or things like that. So, so I'm going to talk about a whole bunch of things. But really, the moral of the story is once they, once they start to overlay on top of each other, you start to see some pretty important things start to happen. And those things are really the things that support Digital Equity and access for all and education, public services, telehealth all those things that are probably near and dear to everybody who's sitting on this call. So with that, I'm just going to jump into it. And at Steve's insistence, I added a little a little love slide about x squared technology. I don't want this to be any any type of self promotion or marketing or anything like that, because this presentation is really meant to be about, you know, what's available to support the citizens of Arizona. X squared technology is a company where a design, build, operate, maintain and commercialize firm. We typically work with our clients, whether that's public or private in a turnkey model. eastward technology is owned by by voracity, it's our parent company, it's owned by Columbia capital, who focuses purely on telecommunications and media infrastructure companies. Not that that's that important, but what it does is they've created by basmati to bring together a fiber infrastructure DB OMC company, and a wireless infrastructure companies called the Terra consulting group who does you know, just about anything and everything as it relates to to wireless infrastructure. Within the markets that we serve, our our value that we bring is we we support open access, you know, we believe in a competitively neutral infrastructure, we're not an infrastructure owner, we're not a carrier or service provider, we really want to reduce the barriers to expansion for all those, you know, ISPs and user providers that are out there. We are model eliminates us from any level of conflict of interest, because we're not advocating on you know, the, on behalf of one group or the other, we just want to see infrastructure put in place that supports, you know, all of the different users and applications throughout the state or whatever region where it's working. The, you know, in Arizona, x squared really started, we did some strategic planning about eight years ago, and we said, you know, this area is in need of help, we think our services can work. And so we started working in earnest, quite a while ago, with the Arizona Hospital and Health Care Association, that morphed into quite a few different things. Right now, there are four commercialization clients in the state, I believe, within the next 60 days, there'll be a couple of more. And what that does is it just starts to put a picture together that creates infrastructure, that's, that's open and available to all. So I don't want to get too too tied into what we do, you know, we'll design it and build it, we'll maintain it for the long haul. And we'll commercialize it and help offset some of those costs, and get some of that, you know, excess capacity into the hands of those who, who can really use it. And that's those existing internet service providers and, and new ones who are looking to go into areas that are completely unserved or even underserved. Alright, so the Arizona Department of Transportation has, you know, they have right away corridor assets, and, you know, primarily for transportation, but there's other things that it needed. So, you know, through some foresight with the Arizona Commerce Authority, and the sun corridor network, and Arizona, transparent Arizona, D. O T, they really started to put together a concept a while back, and what they wanted to do was, you know, while they needed to have infrastructure in place to support Intelligent Transportation, and data sharing amongst, you know, the Transportation Group, they said, how can we serve Arizona, and you've probably all heard that story. But what it is, is it's finally coming to fruition and now it's, it's really out there and available. So as we sit here today, the I 19 portion from the Galus to basically Tucson has been constructed and it's in place, as well as I 17 from Phoenix to Flagstaff. And when I say infrastructure, what that is it's it's five conduits that are available and roughly 144 fibers that are available for service providers to use under long term indefeasible Right of use agreements. I 40 West which is defined from Flagstaff all the way to the California border following the I 40 corridor will be under construction within the next 60 days. It's already completely designed and permitted. And shortly after that I 40 East will follow. So it starts to put, it starts to put a lot of middle mile infrastructure to support programs that are that are essential to, you know, the future of Arizona, such as what's going to be happening with the BEAD program. The although, you know, everything's not done and it doesn't happen all at the same time, you know, some of these key corridors that are ready for use, you know, they're, they're available right now. And, you know, we can we can have those discussions, and we can help the help the interested party start planning and what does that look like, from where do you connect to it? How do you connect to it? How do you regenerate because there are regeneration facilities available for fiber users along there, or for someone who wanted to have, you know, a larger, a larger network, there's those conduits available, all the conduits are capable of holding a 432 cable, our role in that is that we have a 25 year contract, to design or to operate, maintain and commercialize. So we'll be providing all the maintenance, emergency restoration, and everything that goes along with that, as well as you know, facilitating the agreements for all of the end users who will want to use that infrastructure. It is a unique, you know, as a unique situation, and Arizona was very, you know, very smart in the way they started to look at this, and multiple agencies coming together, to do all of the things that that are important to all of us. So, you know, all of these assets right now, whether in development, or currently in the ground and available for use, you know, there's something that I think everyone in the state of Arizona should be proud of, because it's, it's really a, you know, an example of, you know, government agencies working together and doing things very smartly. So, on the on the grand scheme of things, you know, the map here kind of shows what's in place that the darker is what's in place, or is in construction, and everything else along i 10. And I and I 40 West, you know, is planned and, and will be constructed over the next five years. All right, let's go to the next slide. I bring this up, because we have a contract with APS to market their fiber, if they have fiber that's available, it can be a primary route, or I've done it route, it starts to play in very well especially up in, you know, up in that I 40 corridor, providing redundancy for you know, someone who would want to use their as I'm gonna do T fiber or one of the next projects that's, that's really near and dear to me that I that I want to talk about. So, you know, APS, while much of its aerial fiber, and it was very purpose built for their own use, they were they were also available to install excess capacity, especially in the last five or six years, where they looked at it and said, Hey, how can we how can we help, and they made that fiber available. So you know, if you think about maps, that overlay this on the one you just just saw a minute ago, and it starts to put in, you know, infrastructure that's really available to a lot of different user groups that are out there who could use it, both now and into the future.

Then there's another route that many of you may not be aware of, or maybe you are, that's currently under construction. This is a brand new fiber out from, you know, south of Albuquerque in New Mexico all the way to South around Coolidge. In, you know, the southern metro Phoenix, I guess. So this is a new route, it's Ariel, that the owner who was southwest power and then sold to pattern energy, they really wanted to put up something that could help all of the existing ISPs that are out there, you know, give them another opportunity to expand their operations. And so this is aerial infrastructure, it's being put on transmission towers, and it's going to turn into I think, a very, very important redundant path for many of the users who are working in you know, Southern Arizona over the over the next few years. So this will be completed 2025 There they have it available right now for you know, reserving those fibers for someone who's out there who might want to use it, they'll they'll lease the whole route or, or portions of their out, whatever, whatever works. They need a small portion of fibers for their own, but they put in a lot more to support, support the communities and service providers that are on along the way. So then we get into Navajo County, which is you know, everybody knows where Navajo County is, but this is a this is a project where, you know, the county board was was very fourth right in their thinking and said, Hey, we need to figure out how to support these underserved areas within within Navajo County. So let's 110 miles, essentially runs from Joseph city right on i 40 over to Holbrook all the way down to the the Apache County Line kinda by McNary. And then the spur that goes over to Heber Overgaard. And so this, this while it's not a complete redundant ring is going to provide the initial basis for a county wide middle mile that will support BEAD applications and all sorts of other end user services such as telehealth. This is really a springboard for a lot of things that can happen into this county and Navajo County taking their their destiny into their own hands said, hey, you know, we, we have some money available to us. Through ARPA, we have some money of our own, and we start to start to pull that together and figure out how do we do that. And in doing so, they also were able to connect, you know, their own facilities. So this is, this is a network infrastructure that's under construction right now. It's available, as soon as it's complete, we've been working with a lot of different folks and talking about how, how this will work into their network, network transport planning. And so this is one of those things that I as a, you know, as a, you know, industry, you know, someone who follows it closely, and is, you know, really believes in what the power of this infrastructure can, can deliver. This is one that's pretty, pretty near and dear to our heart. And I'm gonna keep talking about Navajo County a little bit. But you know, you can, you can read a lot of the things that are out there and a lot of the benefits that that can happen. But if you look at the total population that can be served just through just through this piece of infrastructure, with with areas that were completely underserved or unserved, before, when there were providers in the area, who were you know, just didn't have the didn't have the business model, I suppose to, to support a large expansion will now be able to use this backbone, and expand their services into other areas, it also attract new service providers who want to move into areas that are that are very remote or, or typically underserved. There's, you know, originally when, when x squared started looking into Arizona expansion, we started partnering with summit healthcare, and we looked at looked at how does, you know, how does that use case for telehealth and just sharing information between their facilities within Navajo County? What did that do? And how would that benefit? And it was very obvious, and it wasn't so, you know, several years later, when when Navajo County, you know, started thinking about how do we, how do we deploy this on our own does do things like that start to start to come together. So overall, you know, I, I, the, the message that I want to leave with all of you is that, you know, you're very fortunate to live in a place where, you know, there's there's a lot of thinking there are groups like this there. There's, you know, the Arizona Commerce Authority in the governor's office and the Department transportation and Suncor networking, and all these different groups starting to collaborate starting to work together to deliver this model of infrastructure that's available on a first come first serve Open Access competitively neutral basis, you know, to, to make all of these things available. And when you start to piece these networks together, you can cover a lot of distance, and you can, you know, achieve a lot of different goals. So, you know, as you're, as you're working throughout the state of Arizona, and doing the good work that everyone does every day to support Digital Equity and access for all this, these are, these are assets that are available to you. And they're certainly available to all of the different ISPs and service providers that are out there to support their their business expansion goals, particularly as it pertains to, to BEAD funding. You know, Navajo County, I mentioned, it's in construction. And I saw grant Evans was on here, and he spoke at this event with with Governor Hobbs. But this was really a event, you know, the groundbreaking ceremony where it kicked off something that was very special for this county, and, you know, will go on for decades to come and continue to serve all the residents of that part of Arizona, whether it's through the just the residual of economic development, or actually being able to support a backbone that will eventually bring fiber directly to their homes and schools and businesses. So with that, I I open up for questions. If you have any questions, I'm happy to happy to answer.

Any questions?

Okay. Kyle did on the APS network. You mentioned are you managing the fiber on that network and releasing it commercial like you will be on the other middle mile fiber for a dot?

Yeah, good question. We don't do we don't provide any of the maintenance operations for that network. work. That's all provided, just because it's tied to their electrical grid by APS, but we are the commercialization we act as their agent so that we can, you know, get numbers in front of folks who are thinking about it and negotiate and work through all those things to get an agreement in place. So, yeah, we can make we have that available to us to bring to the end user.

Okay, so is the APs in the sun Xia. Navajo County are those aerial fiber and

so Cinzia is aerial fiber on transmission lines. So it's 125 to 150 feet in the air, I think is what it is, I could be wrong, I might have to go check that. APS is a combination of underground transmission and distribution lines. So that's mostly aerial. Navajo County is 100%. Underground, which we kind of considered the gold standard when it when it works for for putting in infrastructure to make it, you know, the most reliable and resilient that it can be.

Yeah, I see. I see.

Sorry, Kyle, I had a question. On that map that you showed for the 110, mild mild fiber optic for Navajo County. That did not include Winslow, I was just wondering, is that going to be covered by another fiber optic? Or? Sure.

So that's a good question. That with you know, it's probably a better question for the county to answer but but for the the funding that was available, they they utilize all of their funding to build what they had. So they got partway to Winslow but what that Heartway does is that provides a connection to APS his network, which will provide backhaul and outside connectivity to their network, either as primary or redundancy until I 40, East Arizona D O T infrastructure is in place. So when is low will be you know, served by the Arizona D O T infrastructure. Certainly before Safehold would be so that was it was it was planned. And there was a lot of thought that went into it by a lot of different folks. So that's just how it worked out with the funding that was available. You

other questions for Kyle?

Kyle? When are they going to start putting together the programs to be able to use this fiber

that they are there in place today? So a phone call to me or an email, we'll get that started? And we can, you know, we can start the process of you know, getting, you know, getting things in front of you such as what are the what are the economics look like? Where are the actual access points? Where can you access that network, but with all the maps and, and design infrastructure and design drawings so that you understand that so all of these are all of these are available now. The only ones that are complete at this bone in time is the INI t and i 17. And I 40 West Navajo County will be soon on its heels.

Okay, I put my email address in case they sent you my email address. We could you please send me your contact information?

Absolutely. I can do that.

So Laura, I saw your comment in the chat. Do you want to just talk briefly? sun corridor and some corridors rolling? And all of this stuff, please? Yeah.

So second quarter network is Arizona's research and education work. So we support nonprofit government education, any sort of community anchor institution, but not residential. So we actually are partnering obviously with ADA, and then es two on this project and very excited to be able to figure out how to support the communities along these builds. And combine that with what we're doing in other areas of the state as well. I will say this project in and of itself from a national research and education network standpoint is seen as a very cool, very unique, innovative partnership with government and education and just in general something that people are looking to figure out how they can replicate so we're seeing and this project has seen in a very very positive light.

Yeah, that's Oh, you bet. Sorry about that see?

A problem. So so a couple of things. One is, this is amazing. Now And as you have many of you know that there are other networks in the state. And so for those of us who have been involved in talking about this for, I don't know, 20 years, 25 years, it's very exciting to see what's happening here in Arizona, and the foresight of some of our, some of our people like Sam corridor, and Karen and, and others. So it's very exciting what's happening here in Arizona. And any other questions or comments about her Kyle, or about this project, before we move on? Hearing none, we're gonna move on. So we were supposed to hear from T Mobile today and don't know what happened to them, they had to not show up and so on, kind of disappointed about that. But I have shared in my email with you several times about their, their million dollar or their template. Project to provide free internet and devices to students around around the state. And so it is available only to schools and, and to students that is not available for other entities and organizations. However, I did when I first sent this out, several weeks ago, it was my error, that there was a deadline to be able to apply for that program. That is not the case, it is open to anybody at any time to be able to apply. So I'm disappointed that you aren't here today. But life goes on. So Mala Do we have any other library updates that you want to make today?

No, I just wanted to probably share with Aaron as help about the stem event that we both went to. It was really, really a good event, I didn't expect that we would have that much of networking happen and the need for the workforce development and STEM areas is now or it should have been done two years ago. The this it was, this is the conference really didn't focus just on STEM. And Aaron, please feel free to jump in whenever you can. It was more on STEM, steam and stream. The stem of course, is our traditional science, technology, engineering and math and then steam, we added art to it and then now reading as well. So it's become stream. And it's it was awesome to see how emoji this you know, the different emerging technologies help towards it. You know, a simple example is kind of using Minecraft, you know, to try and improve the skills, the reading skills, the skills of, you know, planning, your math, you know, planning, building constructions and things like that was literally mind boggling. I never imagined that Minecraft could be used for something like that, you know, not much into video games, but this seemed really exciting kind of discussion. Steve Zastava from Arizona tech council was there talked about you know, we had discussions at lunch and other times on the BEAD allocation and the NTIA and the USDA grants and the sustainability part that Steve you were offering offer, often referring to the exhibitors and sponsors had tables at lunch so people could choose which table they could come to and you know who they discuss with Ritika Darwin, you all have had some opportunity to meet with her or have discussions with her from Arizona Western College talked about the workforce challenges and the need for the workforce. Now instant carriers and steam carriers especially in biosciences, aerospace, telecommunications and the training that curriculum that they are doing right now. Was was a part of the Hirscher presentation. We also had a very interesting session with GAO, the Government Accounting Office who wanted to hear about the challenges that we faced in federal grant and that was such an interactive session. Uh, you know, there wasn't a not a second of silence, you know, people had their hands up waiting to be called to speak. And they talked about the grant writing burden that we had for the smaller entities, especially small libraries and schools and nonprofits that did not have grant writers. Although, you know, Arizona first provides a kind of service for us, but the burden that it had not only on grant writing on transesterification on the evaluation, and there was a talk about the need for basic templates for grant writing, so that the smaller applicants could could apply. Lisa Lewis, our Israeli President spoke about the role of libraries, and our LSTA grants in coding makerspace, robotics and other things. And our partnerships with Cytec festival as well as the Arizona Science Center. Of course, Aaron spoke beautifully about the BEAD and D grant funding. And the sub granting process I did make a lot of contacts with that was my summary of STEM conference.

Yeah, we just, I would just echo everything Mala said. And also, one thing that I really loved about it was the opportunity to kind of cross pollinate if you will, right. We I specifically hit it in my presentation, but I heard a bunch of other people talking about it to just kind of reminding people, right that like, you might be in STEM education, or you might be in education in general. But there's all of this other stuff that relates and breaking down those silos is so important, because, you know, I know we talk about it a lot in here, right? Where it's like, this group is so great, but who else should we be talking to? Who should who should hear this? You know, this, these updates as well, right. And so that was a really common theme as well that I just wanted to highlight, but Mala hit on everything else? And I would, I would say, this is only the second time that this conference has happened. And it increased by 50%. So you know, on track, right, like, that is? That's a lot of people. I think there was close to 150 people there this year, there was just under 100. Last year, I think it was. So you know, this is a great space to be in for anyone who is looking for other places to be.

Great. Thanks, Erin. So I have a couple of other quick announcements. And then we're about about out of time. So first of all, and I recorded this many times, and the information is in my newsletter. But on the 26th. There's a workforce outreach summit for southern Arizona, here in Tucson, at the Job Corps. And it is free. The information on how to register is in the newsletter, you need to call Vaughn Croft to register there is no online registration. But it's so they're going to have a great deal. A great many speakers talking about what's happening with workforce, particularly in the southern Arizona area. So I encourage you to think about that. Second, and we reported this last week. But just a reminder that there's a workforce grant opportunity, site Tech Institute, teamed up with pipeline Arizona, and the Center for the future of Arizona to vote for a Department of Labor grant to develop or expand out of school time programs, workforce development and support services. If you're interested in that grant, you need to contact Dr. Jeremy abandoned or who is I guess he I'm not sure if he's president or exactly what his title is with the Westside Tech Institute, and his mouth and his information and contact information also is in my newsletter. So those are just a couple of things. I'm sure there's probably others. But I wanted to particularly remind you about those things. Are there any other announcements? I don't believe John Kelly's online.

Yes. Steve. Steve Mark, I was gonna recap briefly what we heard from John at the ATSC. Board meeting yesterday about the Arizona budget and the legislature and the governor. So we do run out of fiscal authority at the end of the month. Without a new budget in place and adopted and signed off that would lead to major disruptions. There is now a floated package that was apparently negotiated between the governor's office And the bipartisan sides of the legislature that has the opportunity to move forward. It seeks to address the $1.4 billion shortfall between the current fiscal year ending this month and next fiscal year by sweeping money in a variety of cuts. So the most salient of those for this audience are several things happening at Commerce. There apparently was $24 million. I'm not sure what it was a name specifically in Broadband funding from the state to commerce, that was not for BEAD support that does come from the feds and flow through, but rather kind of an open pocket book for investments such as more middle mile fiber, that money is swept in the proposed budget 24 million from commerce. Commerce also had 50 some odd million dollars in what was called a closing fund or Incentive Fund, to get businesses to locate here and do this pass past support of bringing business leaders here for sporting events and other things. They got some blowback, that 50 plus million has been swept. And also there had been $5 million. I don't believe at Commerce, malo will know this. For E Rate, support for infrastructure builds, they purportedly swept half of the 5,000,002 and a half million. But as malo reported yesterday, most of that money has already been spent. And so the impact of that may be minimal. So those were a few things we heard from John Kelly, yesterday that I thought this audience might find also of interest.

Good. Thank you, Mark, for that for that update. And while you're at it, Mark, you want to just talk briefly about the tech Council project that you're working on? Sure.

The tech Council publishes a elaborate and award winning annual state and federal public policy guide. I added several sections of those including Broadband. In past years, we've reached out through this group and at AIC and other places we're input. One or two years we've actually had live work shopping sessions on it. But I am a steep I posted last week, the file Steve has now put the file online of last year's version of the Broadband state and federal. I am looking for input as I announced a week ago by June 17. Because the deadlines have all been moved up this year to the end of June. And I leave on vacation on June 25. I have to incorporate all input and submit my complete draft before I leave on June 25. So I have said a June 17 deadline for feedback and that feedback should come in the form of a it can be discreet notes if they're kind of simple notes, but the preference is to markup the Word document and send me the markups for interpretation. Commerce Authority has actually asked for a working session with them. And that is scheduled for next week. Brett galley key Keith Watson and Sandeep will meet with the myself and a few tech council people to get their thoughts and concerns and issues accommodated.

Thanks, Mark. So I'm going to be working on our response and recommendations. A lot of it is going to be pretty similar to what we included last year. But if any of you have anything that you want to talk about, you can contact me or mark because as he said he wants us on the 17th. So I got a lot of work to do. But anyway, that document is available and you can submit your recommendations but again, we have a fairly short window. So if you want to include anything, now is the time to do that.

And specifically if Mala is still on Mala there are some numbers about past e rate of success and funding that we should certainly update if not other language about eraser, you know, maybe its expansion to cybersecurity, but there are a few things from the library community that I'll connect directly with you to freshen up.

Absolutely, Mark. I looked at it, and I did feel the need for updating it. And I'll get back with you.

Thank you.

Okay. Any other questions or comments? Any other announcements for today? Apparently, we are done for today then. Thank you all for being here. And, Kyle, I don't know if you're still online. But thank you and Jeff, good to see you. And thanks for being here today too. Thank you.