October 3, 2024 AZBSN Digital Access Task Force Recording
6:01PM Oct 3, 2024
Speakers:
Steve Peters
Mark Goldstein
Paul Ross
Michelle Simon
Karen Ziegler
Matthew Suchodolski
Kelly Mukherjee
Mallory DeVol
Gordon Fuller
Dana Cardenas
Rene Guillen
Erin Pawlus
Robin Mislevy
Halianna Piller
Moosh Ansari
Keywords:
digital equity
broadband challenges
disabled community
telehealth access
business incubator
workforce development
federal updates
public networks
AI inclusion
tribal grants
telecom regulations
digital inclusion week
telecom providers
rural broadband
grant applications
Okay, good morning, everybody. Glad to see you today. It's been a couple of weeks since we last gathered. I was hiding out in Costa Rica for for a few weeks. So glad, glad to be back and to get cranking again, as I was mentioning, a number of our key people that tend pretty regularly will not be here today. They are at a conference in Washington, DC, and actually they are on a panel. So it's very exciting, because it's good national panel for them. So we're certainly glad to to have them take that leadership role. So I wanted to start this morning as we normally do, there's some folks who we haven't seen for a while are are new to us. So Renee, can I ask you to please introduce yourself and let people know who you are.
Sure. Thank you. I am. I am not ready for prime time this morning at 805, otherwise, I turn my camera on as well. I was wrestling around to get kids to school and whatnot, but, but yeah, thank you, Steve. My name is Renee Guillen, and I'm a deputy director at the League of Arizona cities and towns. We're a membership organization where we have all 91 incorporated cities and towns as our our members. And, you know, I think in terms of the broadband, high speed internet, digital equity space, you know, we're trying to do our best to, you know, serve as a resource, both in terms of disseminating information as well as, you know, communicating information and staying on top of developments happening in the state. And just happy to be here and you know, looking to learn. Thank you.
Our relationship Renee, with your organization, goes back probably 20 years.
Oh, wow. Okay, yeah. Well, good. Well, then hopefully we can keep the collaboration going for another 20 Yeah.
And Erin, can you please introduce yourself again, please?
Oh, sure. I'll go into a little more detail, and I'm glad I'm also not the only one not ready for prime time. But my name is Erin Pawlus. I'm the administrator of the Arizona Talking Book Library, so I think you all know Mala. We are another branch of the Arizona State library, archives and public records, and the Arizona Talking Book Library serves individuals who can't read standard print. So this could include someone who is legally blind or low vision, has a physical limitation that would prevent them from comfortably holding a book or turning pages, and also reading disabilities like dyslexia would qualify them for service. And we provide reading materials in audio and Braille formats.
So there you go. Gordon, another partner for you,
and just an open invitation. Contact me if you ever want to tour. We are located in Phoenix. Sounds
great. Thanks. Thanks for joining us. Sure. Thank you, Robin. I know you've been here before, but could you introduce yourself, please? Robin. Mislevy, yes,
Robin. Mislevy, with TW Communication. Sorry, there's construction happening at my house. Okay?
And moosh, is that that I pronounce that correctly?
Okay, all right. Well, let's, let's go ahead and get started with our agenda today. As I mentioned, a number of our folks won't be here this morning, so I don't believe we have anybody from the broadband office here today. So we're just going to maybe our meeting will actually be a little bit shorter today. So I wanted to just touch base for a second. We had tentatively planned to do a excuse me, a meeting today on the on the challenges of the disabled community and how it relates to broadband and digital inclusion, and one of the people we wanted to include in the discussion this morning, unfortunately, could not be here today, and so we plan to do that in the future, as I've had a chance to talk with a lot of folks, many of you already know. Gordon. Are you there? I. Uh, well, many of you have met Gordon like he was on the call a little while ago. Gordon is blind and has become a regular participant with us, and gotten to be pretty good friends. And so as we've had some discussions, it really became pretty clear that it was a population that we have not really had much discussion about. And as I've been learning about it, it's really a lot of issues and a lot of challenges for our disabled community. And so I'm thinking that within the next couple of weeks that we're actually going to start a series of discussions on how do we address the broadband of digital equity needs, how it impacts the disabled community, people with disabilities, if I'm correct, Gordon and so that's kind of The plan, though, for the next few weeks to actually have a series of discussions about that topic. So moving on. I just want to remind everybody that, excuse me, that I, as you probably all know, that I do send out my newsletter every week, although this week was a little late, but I do send out my newsletter that has information about different events and activities and things like that. And so some of the times we talk about things in this meeting, and if they're not already in the newsletter, when I send out next week's newsletter, it will include any events and announcements and things like that, so it makes it easy to find all of that contact information. So moving on and again. Excuse me. The again. The broadband office is not represented today. I don't believe that Cole was here either, from NTIA, so we're just going to move on to our presentation this morning.
Oh, Steve, someone's typing is pretty loud and coming through.
Yeah. Who's that? Who's typing, please?
I think it's Heather
guys. I thought I came in muted. Thank you, Karen.
Okay, so did I miss anybody who's new to us today? Apparently not okay. So I want to just go ahead and start with our presentation and introduce Mallory Duvall, who is a consultant with consortia consulting. She was actually scheduled to present a few weeks ago and had a family crisis and and couldn't be with us. So I just want to Mallory has been pretty regularly attending our meetings, and we're glad to have her and so Mallory, I'm just going to turn it over to you and let you do whatever you want to do. Are you going to share? Do I need to stop sharing? Yes,
I have a short little slideshow, just kind of to give some information. Okay, to remember how to do all that. Now I
let's see, there we go. So while she's doing that, Jonathan, I'll be in touch with you and follow up with you about doing a presentation for us. Sounds good. Thank you.
I'm there we go. Okay, can everybody see this? Yes, see my screen. There we go. Okay, perfect. So like Steve said, my name is Mallory Duvall. I am a consultant with consortia consulting, and so I'm going to give you, my goal is to give you kind of a little background about us, because we are a very small company. I'm sure most people haven't heard of us. And then to give you a little bit of digital equity information and how we're going about digital equity, I know at this point so many people have heard about digital equity, so not go into a lot of detail, but talk about, you know, some of the high level things. So consortium Consulting has been around for 33 years. It was started by four people who worked in the telecom industry. Decided to start their their own consulting firm because they believed, or they saw through their work that rural companies, specifically telephone companies at the time were not getting the same resources that I think most of them actually came from at&t. Maybe they were all at&t Originally, those rural companies did not have access to the kind of resources that companies like at&t, Cox, Verizon, those kind of. Companies can hire tons and tons of people, so they came together and decided they were going to help rural companies. This happened in Nebraska, kind of Lincoln, Omaha, Nebraska, and they did a lot of work with originally, Nebraska and South Dakota companies. We still do a lot of work with them, but we are much beyond that. The industry has obviously changed quite a bit. Most people don't have home phones anymore. You have your your cell phone, or maybe you have a VoIP phone. My office phone is VoIP, and my I have a personal cell phone, so I but I don't have a home phone. So most of these telephone companies, or telecommunication companies have really become more broadband providers, and there are so many more broadband providers nowadays that aren't even in the telephone business. They're just straight up broadband providers. So we now work with all of these as well as telephone companies still for all the regulatory issues, financial issues and things that they have, but we really, at this point, it's broadband companies, and we still focus on the smaller, more rural companies, and giving them access to the kind of knowledge that we can have by gathering our group of, I think we're about 2122 people, so that they're not having to hire All of us. And if you've been involved in telecommunications, broadband, any of the regulated stuff, you would realize that it's highly regulated. There's a lot of rules, a lot of things that they have to port on. And some of these companies are so small they only have maybe three or four employees, and that can consist of the people doing the outside plant work, their office work, everything they don't have the time or the manpower or the money, really, to pay, to hire people to handle all of this stuff. So that's where we come in. We come in and we help them navigate all of the crazy FCC orders, help them with their financial planning, etc, to help them be able to compete in today's industry. So kind of what I've already said, a little bit, we have financial solutions, regulatory support, business development and training and education go into those a little more so financial solutions, so for if you're a regulated Telecom, maybe that is forecasts and cost studies. Those are required by the FCC if you partake in certain aspects of the Universal Service Fund The they give you money to help serve high cost areas. So we can help you with those even if you're not regulated, though, we do a lot of we can do pricing analysis. We look at your budgets. We do a lot of analysis on your bottom line to see where you're at. A big issue right now, with a lot of small companies, is offering cable. Cable is very expensive for these companies to offer. Not everybody understands how that is all set up, but they have to, you know, for carrying certain channels, they're paying certain amounts, and specifically, like ESPN is incredibly expensive for them to offer. Most phone companies or telecommunications broadband companies that offer cable like straight up old school cable, not streaming, they're probably losing money on that service entirely, and so we see a lot more wanting some analysis done as they look to branch out and no longer offer cable, maybe they're offering it streaming. There's different services, some different items like that, but obviously you're still going to have people interested in cable, so they have to be prepared to have that backup information for all those that are like, I like cable. I don't understand streaming, not you know, digital equity, we're talking about digital education. That's another piece regulatory support. As I mentioned, there's a lot of regulations surrounding broadband. You talked about getting these, the bead money, digital equity grants. You get any kind of money from the government, it's going to come with a lot of little, little things that they're going to require you to do, reporting, filing, I mean, lots of things well beyond the grants. Everybody's excited about grants right now. You get the money. You're like, yes, we're going to build the network. We're going to do these programs. You know, especially the federal government, there's going to be a lot of requirements, and there are some at the state level too, depending on what state you're in and how that works. Business Development, this is where we're looking like, I said there's, you know, the cable things. People are interested in finding out how they're going to if you're not going to offer cable, how are you going to compete, and different things along those lines. So we can do a lot of that analysis. We will help you. We do board presentations. We will help you meet with your boards to understand all of that. So. Okay, let's training and education. So this, we can create videos that a lot of our clients so mostly broadband providers can use to help train their employees to meet certain requirements, or many of them use it to put on their local channels, on their you know, Facebook, website, wherever, to educate their customers on how to do things. It's a it's a great tool for the digital literacy, getting to understand how they need to do certain things, how they need to, like ACP, before it was taken away, was a one that people, a lot of times, didn't understand how the entire process was going to work. So we can put these trainings together, like I said, both for your your employees and for your customers. And we, you know, training can be done on just about anything that you think needs to be done. We've done all sorts of stuff, from cooperatives to, gosh, I said, ACP, and there's some the broadband labels are coming out, and those are going to, those have training requirements, a lot of different items. So now that's over. Digital equity came out with the digital Equity Act of 2021, which was part of the infrastructure and Investment Act II J that's been, that's a very big deal, at least in my, my realm. It's, you know, an FCC order. Nobody really wants to read it. Trust me, I've done it. You don't want to. But basically, the goal of that was, you want to promote digital equity and inclusion, so that all the communities can have access to and be able to use the full benefits of broadband and all of the digital opportunities that are out there. This the digital Equity Act consisted of three parts. There was the state digital equity planning grant, the equity capacity grant, and then the digital equity competitive grants. And then there are also tribal set asides that are not decided by the states for both the competitive and the capacity grant, and they have their own requirements. So the state planning grants that was for states to put together their digital equity plan, and those are in the process of getting approved now, the deadline for submitting those is obviously passed because they're getting approved. Now competitive grants were the deadline, I believe was the 23rd September, 23 so that deadline has also passed. The capacity grants those deadlines, it's going to depend on when your state's planning grant gets approved. I was hoping Erin would be on today, because I know she could give a lot of specific updates to the Arizona situation and where they're at, but the Arizona plan has been approved, so the capacity grants for triangle set aside. Since that is done directly through the NTIA, those have a different those are not going through the states. So that portal opened on September 25 and it will be open through February 7 of 2025 those are going to be accepted and approved on a rolling basis. So generally speaking, it's probably better if you get it done early, but it's going to be done just as is as we can be. They have a separate pool of funding directly for that portion, so it will not impact what states have.
Like I said your day this Arizona State electric plan has been approved. You have 16 point 1 million to distribute. The state is working through all of their processes. I not sure if they've actually released a date. I haven't seen one when they might start accepting any kind of applications. And Steve, I'm not sure if you know that. That's kind of where I was hoping Aaron might jump in, since they're in the kind of the open process of of talking to people and getting things set up. So we can help you with writing grants, even if you're not a broadband provider, but our main focus with these grants at this point in time, we are focusing a lot on helping tribal nations set up their networks, beyond the actual building of the networks so many people right now, even if They got the tribal connectivity fund grants, that was given out before. You know they're they're focused right now on getting their engineers, getting their materials. They're going to build these great networks. Unfortunately, what most of them have not thought about, or many of them, is how they're going to run it, how they're going to do all of the regulatory work, everything that's going to happen after the network is built, after it gets turned on. So for consortia, that is where we are currently trying to focus is help. We do have some clients already that are tribal, that already have their networks built, but we do. We are trying to help others who are new to this process. And we're looking to partner with anyone who is working with tribes to set up these processes, because we do have a lot of the experience working with broadband providers all the regulations that are coming with them. And again, grants, we can definitely help with grants, whether that be for tribal or not, since that is something we do. So that's my my little family. You can see where we're all in Nebraska, or my husband is born and raised in Nebraska. I was not, but he has, of course, it's football season, so we're, of course, going to be wearing. Never ask. And so if anyone has questions, I would love to get in touch with you. I'd love to make as many connections as you can. We we are truly here as a resource. Whether you fall directly under the broadband provider, you're working with broadband, anything like that. You know we can help with that, and we'd love to, so I'd love to connect with anyone. Um, does anybody have any questions? I know it was kind of quick. It was not too detailed, trying to keep it kind of short and sweet today.
So Mallory, are you working with municipalities? Mostly, yes. I mean, I understood what you were just saying. But well,
not most. We do work with municipals. It depends on the state. Some states do not allow municipals to get into broadband. Some states do. For instance, Iowa is a state that does allow you to do it. We have many, many municipal clients there, but I believe Nebraska is one the speaking of Nebraska, that does not let them. So we don't have municipals there. Some of these are just small, rural telecoms that are owned. Some of them used to be family owned. Some of them are still family owned. There's cooperatives, you know, just the rural parts of the country that that not everyone thinks about. But yes, we do work with municipalities.
Any other questions for Mallory? Going once? Going twice? Well, Mallory, thank you for being here this morning. It was very informative, and maybe you'll find some partners out of this. Yeah,
that's, you know, just looking for people to connect. We want to be that resource as everybody continues getting, getting their funding and trying for their funding, and the fund is just beginning with the capacity grant stuff. So I'm impressed by the people who said they already got their they got their grant in on the competitive fund, because that was a very short timeline between when they gave the information and when the due date was. So that's that's great. They had their stuff together. Yeah,
Michelle, I know sent me the list. Do you have a list of the people here in Arizona who applied up in Noah band? Are
you talking to me or Michelle to you. I have seen it. I don't know offhand how many ended up applying. I actually was at in Arizona last week, and I actually got to meet Erin and Mala in person at the National Tribal telecommunications conference that was last week in Phoenix, and she talked about, she said something about how many there were, and I can't remember. Now,
okay, Michelle, do you have you have that list? I believe aren't you?
Yes, I sure do. Now I can't confirm that they actually push the submit button. Okay, but these are the organizations that were included in the ACA letter of support. So there's Rio Salado Community College.
Can I somebody's having
a good time? Idea? Technical Assistance partnership of Arizona, the city of Douglas, Dene, college, Compy dot, U of A and, of course, Pima County. And we did push the submit button. So I will tell you that.
So Michelle, while you're talking about it, you want to Mallory, would you mind stopping? Stop sharing, please.
Yep.
Well, stop and then ask me what I want to share.
There we go. Okay, so give me just a second here. Gallery. Okay, so Michelle, do you want to just tell people quickly what you applied for?
Sure? Pima County, we applied for. It is a regional application, Southern Arizona, regional telehealth Access Program, inclusive of. Cruz, Pima County, Santa Cruz, Cochise, Graham and Greenlee counties to further the efforts of telehealth access and digital health navigators across that region, and we had a lot of great partners that are working with us on that United Way literacy connect all of the health departments, TMC, letters of support from El Rio, you know? So we have a lot of good organizations that came to the table to help us to develop that application. So we're pretty excited about it. If we get funded. Awesome for us.
Okay, thank you. Michelle moosh, could you introduce yourself and then you also have put a note in the chat you can't hear you, doesn't
look like you're mute. Muted, but okay, we'll come back to you. Maybe you'll be you'll be alive soon, and also, while we're at it, Halianana Could you introduce yourself please? Did I pronounce that correctly?
It's Halianana , yeah. So I'm a coordinator and workforce opportunities and outcomes department at Pima Community College, and usually Victoria Clark, she's my director. She's usually here, but she's out on vacation, so I'm stepping in for her. And yeah, it's been really informative. Glad I was able to come good.
We're glad you could be here, and you're welcome to to attend on a regular basis if you would like so so moving on. I think you probably all know that, or maybe know that digital inclusion week starts next week, I believe. And we have several people. And so Michelle, I'm going to go back to you, since you got a really great initiative going on. And Kelly, you may have some stuff that you want to add also, and shereka too, but Michelle, do you want to step up again? Oh
sure. I Digital Inclusion week is the week of October, 7 through the 11th. If you haven't looked at the information about what digital inclusion week is or how to promote it. Please look at digital and National Digital Inclusion Alliance's website for information. There it is the one time during the year where we highlight digital inclusion by making sure that all of our stakeholders are high level stakeholders are aware that this is something valuable and that they should put their attention towards. So yesterday, we had the Board of Supervisors in Pima County did a proclamation for Pima County, you know, digital inclusion week in Pima County, and we also will be kicking off a digital navigator program and a learn to earn series of basic computer classes during Digital Inclusion week. Now those two programs are being supported by Comcast. Comcast gave Pima County $25,000 grant and 100 laptops. So in that learn to earn series of classes. If an individual completes the five classes, they earn the laptop that they use during the class and and so, you know, basically we're helping to we're focusing on all of the target populations that are associated with the digital Equity Act. And so we're excited to get started, and I believe it will just grow from there.
As most of you know, Michelle and Pima County are rock stars in the state and doing some really awesome work here. So again, congratulations, Michelle Kelly, do you have anything you want to talk about in terms of digital inclusion week?
Hi everyone. Kelly muggerjee from ASU enterprise technology. I first want to ditto what Steve just said about Michelle Simon being a rock star. She certainly is, and we love partnering with Pima County through her at ASU. I just wanted to, I just put a flyer in the chat. So for digital inclusion week next week, idea is hosting a summit. It's virtual, and everyone is welcome to attend. It's free, and if you. Happen to have gotten and ordered a t shirt through the through the Arizona Digital Inclusion network. Those are ready for pickup today and tomorrow. If you did not get one, I think we will. I think through Aiden, we will coordinate another maybe t shirt sale, but that would be through Cindy Hogan and and Marianna through aztret so. But anyways, wanted to remind you that T shirt pickups are today and tomorrow. If you need any information, Marianna is really the person to contact, but I do have it too. So if, if you need it, just please feel free to reach out to me. I'll help you get the information that you need. Thanks. Steve and Kelly
mentioned the summit coming up next week, and I did include that in the newsletter, it is virtual. They're going to highlight, I think that is it five organizations that they're going to be that are going to be sharing there.
There's so many, Steve, I just put a flyer in the chat. You'll notice that there are lots. There's like, a huge list of speakers. It's going to be five minute Lightning Rounds, so you'll get to hear from so many great leaders across Arizona. So yeah, that's all I know.
Okay, thanks, Kelly. Anybody else got something happening during Digital Inclusion week?
There's this, I don't know if you can hear me or not. We can alright. I fixed my audio. So, as I mentioned in the chat that the Navajo tribal utility authority, and for those that are unaware, we are the primary provider of utility services for the Navajo tribe in Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. And we do, you know, electric, gas, water, wastewater, and most importantly for me, telecom. And so I got an opportunity to apply for that. It's not something that we normally get into, because we are an infrastructure company, and our primary focus is building these digital highways and roads, basically fiber tower. But we got an opportunity to help build a business incubator. One of the things that I've noticed since I've been in the Southwest, and I'm from Iowa, so it's one of those things where it's a little different in the Midwest compared to the southwest, but I wanted to to, I guess, give, give the Navajos an opportunity to to build businesses for themselves. And so we built a business incubator, or we will, assuming we get part of if we get funded to help, not just with legal help, but we can help them develop business plans for whatever bid. There's so much opportunity out here, and I noticed a lot of people aren't capitalizing on it because they don't know where to start. And luckily for NTUA, we have a massive data center in Shiprock, New Mexico, and but this program is it goes beyond the Navajo Nation, is really even nationwide. Anyone that want to participate is allowed to, but we can help, including giving, you know, those that need, like computers. So part of our grant includes, you know, providing Chromebooks, and also, I believe, for the term, which would be four years of free internet even at their house, because a lot of the times, you know, yeah, they could come to our data center, and we would have space for them, but if they want to, or if they don't have the means to get to Shiprock, we would be, in part, as part of that grant, providing free internet for the term of the grant, and in that time, and really what we would like to see is normally a business, it, it, you'll know within two or three years whether it's going to be successful or if it's going to crash. And if we can show tribal entities, or tribe well, not tribal entities, but tribal constituents, how they can build their own small businesses. It, you know, it can really spur economic development on the nation, or at least, that's our hope. You know, I, before I became a employee of the Navajo tribal utility authority, I started a small business back in in 2003 1003 and luckily, I had the the support to show me, you know, how to write a business plan, you know, to get legal help, to get financial help, and all that. And it was a great success. And I want, I want to give that up. To the Navajo residents of the of the state of Arizona, and we are partnering with another of nationwide firm called universal services, universal network services, and they would actually be doing a majority of the the training for us. And they're a nationwide company, and they're they've got their their fingers and everything, but I think this would be a great partnership, and we hope we can help the Navajo people.
Great. Well, glad you're here today. Moosh, actually, would like to have you be a highlighted we do presentation like you heard from Mallory as Farney, where we highlight particular things, and you got so much going on, it'd be great to hear more about about the work you're doing.
Yeah, and I, you know, we've got multiple like, since I've been with NT way for three years, but I was their consultant since 2000 and I wrote the original BTOP grant back in 2009 American Recovery Reinvestment Act, and actually helped launch broadband on Navajo. And so I know their history well, even though I've only been an employee of theirs for last three years and Mallory, I'd love to touch base with you, because I've got contacts every year everywhere in the US for my consulting days?
Yeah, no, definitely that would, that would be great the Navajo, although we haven't worked with them, I know they have a great system set up.
It's, I don't want to take credit for that, because it's the smart people that do all the real work. But yeah, I could definitely help you, because when I was a consultant, we had multiple consultant, we had multiple tribes for, you know, me and my dad literally just started a company. Next thing you know, we've got all these tribes. And mainly our bread and butter are the municipals in, as Mallory mentioned, Iowa was one of the first places to do to really get in the fiber business. And this is back in the late 80s, early 90s, and so nobody really knew what fiber was back then. And go to all these little towns and talk to mayors and council members, and most of them showed us the door because they didn't understand. But you know what, some of those people came back 1520, years later and said, Hey, we remember you. You told us about some weird piece of glass where he could do communications, and they ended up hiring us, like, 15 years later, wow,
yeah, it's, it's definitely expanded a lot in Iowa, and say, the last, I don't know, 10 years or so, with the small towns you can, you can get really good internet in many small towns in the Midwest. And I don't think everybody recognizes that.
You know, in Iowa, we had a company back in the early 90s transfer their manufacture. It was a Chinese firm that actually moved manufacturing to Cedar Falls, Iowa, because they only needed two things, fast communications and cheap land. And, you know, at a time when things were leaving the United States. It was such a feel good story that we got a Chinese company to come and set a plant in the United States, in Iowa, of all places. Yeah,
we actually have, we've done work with Cedar Falls.
I know them. Well, yeah.
Well, I'm going to let you guys connect off one sorry,
I'll send you my contact information.
Sounds like they got a lot to talk about. Dana, you look like you were getting ready. You wanted to say something. So you want just tell us who you are, real quick.
I am so sorry. I joined at the very beginning, and because I was in commute, I lost my signal. So I apologize, but I'm Dana Cardenas. I work for Star Technologies Corporation in Mesa, Arizona, and I'm their vice president of business development, and I'm happy to be here. I think I've, I've been on before we provide interoperability for network systems, from radio connectivity, LT, fiberg networks to satellite, SATCOM systems. That's kind of a little bit about what we do. But really the the bigger thing is, is that we've we've got three sectors, military defense, our homeland security, which is really providing connectivity for first responders, and also our commercial sector, so we're providing connectivity for the largest farmland down in Yuma County, the largest automated, I should say, farmland in in the world, 160,000 acres, over 45 farms down in Yuma county. And we have a lot of eyes on us, because agriculture and as you know, with different things that are currently happening, as you see with the hurricanes and climate change, it's really important for us to be able to support our ag sectors, especially here in Arizona. So I would love to share, anytime you guys would like us to to give you kind of a little bit more of an idea of how that connectivity works, but I appreciate you guys having me on and if there's anything that anyone needs, I know that before I got cut off, I did put my contact information in the chat. I am really moosh. I would really like to connect with you also, if you'd like, I did put my contact information in the chat. So if you'd like to send your information, I'd like to talk to you about some other things that we're doing in the I know that you're up in the Navajo Nation, doing great work. I'd like to talk to you about some things that some ideas that we had here with San Carlos and auction community and the Gila River community as well.
Sounds wonderful. I'm going to put in my contact information. I'm going to put my cell phone number, because I'm never in the office. But also, you know, if I do get the opportunity to present, I would love to introduce our Deputy General Manager of telecommunications. He's my boss. He's much nicer and friendlier than me, and he Excel. He's actually in Phoenix right now for another grant, not a great opportunity, but I believe there's a conference going on in Phoenix right now, so he's down there for that. Thank you.
Great. Thanks. Thanks. Moosh, so Renee, if I could put you on the spot for just a second where I would appreciate you being here. Can you kind of give us a your perspective on how the municipalities are doing in their planning and getting ready for the broadband of grants and so forth.
Sure, I can't really give a, probably not a full, thorough answer. So, you know, because those patients mostly anecdotal, but you know, I think we're going to see a mixed bag. I mean, from some of the conversations I've had, most of the mayors, I mean, I think most are looking at the private sector to be the ones, you know, whether that's an ISP or some nonprofit or some coalition, to really put in, to be the sub grantees that actually do the work. And that makes sense, given that you know, well, as far as I'm aware, not prohibited in Arizona. You really don't have cities getting into the telecom game, and so for the most part, they prefer to keep that way. However, I had heard from some rural communities where either because, you know, they see it as a great opportunity, or, frankly, because maybe they have a bad history with their local ISP, where they are concerned about making sure that it is done and done right in a way that that ultimately will benefit their community for for years to come. So I've heard little rumblings about some of our smaller but more sophisticated communities seeking to be, you know, actively engaged with, you know, private sector partners, to, you know, to pursue, you know, funds for a service area or what have you. So I don't know if that's the level of detail you're looking for. I mean, the reality is, you know, we have, you know, some of our smallest cities are, you know, 400 500 people, all the way up to Phoenix of 1.5 million. So, you know, we are all over the map. But I would say, generally speaking, most cities and towns have, you know, because we haven't traditionally been in the telecom ISP space there. That's what I would expect most to to adhere to, you know, once you know, rubber meets the road.
Yeah. So, Renee, are you seeing in some of these smaller communities that they may be interested, but they just don't have the knowledge and resources to be able to get into the game?
Um, no, not necessarily. I think the ones that do want to have taken upon themselves to start making connections. So I think so. And again, this is just off of a smattering of conversations with with mayors and managers. So those that are looking to be engaged recognize their shortcomings and are looking to build coalitions to, you know, fill in the gaps that they see within their own skill set. So at least so far, I haven't heard. So they may be out there, but I haven't been approached by someone saying, hey, Renee. Really want to be directly involved in this, but we don't know. Could you help connect me? I haven't had that outreach yet. Okay,
so I know you've been actively involved with the broadband office, but are there any things that Arizona needs to do to help the local communities, particularly the smaller communities, to relate to the question I was just asking you any perspectives on what else we need to do or not do, or
Yes, and you know, it's one that I have been involved in, but we haven't really landed on any answers. So it is. It's the question of workforce, I guess, to just directly answer your question, that's the that is probably the biggest concern I have from the municipal side. And I know it's a concern for counties. I don't know if it's as big for them as it is for me and so, so you know what I mean with that most directly is you have this, I don't know. You know irony that the cities that are best prepared to handle an influx of encroachment permits and right of way encroachment permits and utility applications and undergrounding operations, and, you know, reviewing those permits or reviewing those applications and doing on site inspections and all that the city's best prepared to do that are our most urbanized cities, which also tend to have the least or lowest amount of unserved or underserved, right? So there's that irony that the talent to meet the incoming bead dollars isn't really in the areas that will be getting bead dollars and and so for me, that translates into sort of two concerns. How do we get is there a workforce available in the remote parts of Arizona to do this work? If not, how do we get it there? And then two, recognizing that in a lot of ways, if these funds are truly achieve their goal, in some ways, it's one time money for one time work, right? And so a lot of cities, especially post Great Recession, have no desire about staffing up and then having to terminate people. Right that nobody wants to be the person who has to fire people. So I say that to say there is a small group of us that have been working to try to think around these issues. And you know, one aspect is that the reality is that if you're doing broadband work for government, you might as well just call it right of way work, right? What I've talked to people in the field, right is that you know whether it's a whether it's a conduit, a water pipe, a sewer pipe, from a regulatory perspective, from the city, it's generally the same. It is someone, an outside entity, wants access to your land, your property, to put something underground. So that's something we've been exploring. About that idea of like, well, let's maybe not think about broadband workforce and just right of way workforce so that there is ongoing work for these people. But now I'm probably rambling, but that to me, Steve is the biggest concern is, do we know what that workload is going to look like, and is that workforce there to do it so that that doesn't become a choke point?
And we do know there are several organizations who are already looking at that issue, Renee, and you may be familiar with them, since you have been involved with some of the discussions, and if not actually, we might do another session on on workforce, because that is, obviously has been a big issue.
Yeah, I'd love to follow up and talk more about that, because, yeah, I've had some conversations, both on the academic side and on the private side, but yeah, maybe we need to do a little coordinating and bring all the brains together. Yeah.
So the other thing Renee is that some months ago I had so I had wanted to do a meeting. Part of our meeting was a discussion about public networks, pros and cons, models and so forth. And I actually need to get back on track and get that done. And would really like to have you participate in that discussion, so I'll follow up with you afterwards, and maybe we can get our heads together on some things. Yeah, sounds good. Okay, well, great. I'm glad you. You joined us, Renee and Matthew, it's good to see you again. Want to introduce for those of you who don't know. Matthew suka doski, did I pronounce it correctly? Matthew, yes, did
fine. Thank you. Matthew sachidolski, thank
you for the intro. Then forgive me for showing up late, but I thought I'd just listen in very intriguing conversation.
Well, Matthew is with the USDA and is kind of their telecom guy. And Matthew, do you have anything, any updates or things coming up that you want to share with people
at this present time? I do not okay.
Alrighty, so a couple of quick things, and then we'll just get down because, well, does anybody have anything else that they'd like to share with us today,
sir, this is Moosh Sorry to interrupt. I just want to thank Matthew. He's also our representative on a USDA grant that I had submitted back in 220, 22 or 23 and he's a wonderful person. And thanks, Matt.
Okay, thank you. So anybody have anything else that they'd like to share so if a couple of things, I have also been in conversation with some folks, and wanting to get a an overview. There's lots of stuff happen at the federal level, some of which may be related to the election coming up, and people are posturing, but I'm trying to get it, get a handle on what exactly or you're smiling. But there's lots of stuff that thought things going on at the federal level, some of which is, who knows what? You know, we haven't heard a lot recently about about the Universal Service Fund, but there's a number of things happening. So I'm hoping next week that we will get a good overview of what's happening at the federal level that people need to know about. And of course, Mallory, you probably know some of that also, since that's your your bailiwick. So we'll talk. So talk some more about that. So that's the first thing. The second thing, which I mentioned earlier, is that, and Gordon, I believe you're you're online there. So I've been in touch with Gordon, in particular about wanting to do a forum on people with disabilities, and particularly how, then how broadband and digital inclusion impacts that that population and what their needs might be. So those are just a couple of things that are coming up. Does anybody have any other events that they're working on that they want to share with people we're going to get done earlier and Erin, I'm going to try and catch you right after this meeting. I need a favor from you, so I will try to catch you if you're going to be available.
Steve, Dana,
I'm sorry, who is that?
It's Dana. Go ahead.
I was
wondering if, if no opposed, on this zoom today, could you possibly send out a roster with contact information for everyone? I know that we kind of throw it in the chat, but if no one's opposed, if you have that,
I do that. That's why I asked people to register, because I do send out the attendance list of people who registered for this meeting. So I appreciate that. Thank you. And that's exactly the reason, is that people you know speak and and people want to connect and so forth. So yes, that will happen. So Paul, you got your hand raised,
yes. I just wanted to say that a couple of weeks ago, I had the opportunity to have a booth at the Abilities Expo in Phoenix area, and we put on a display of the 3d printing, and got to talk to a lot of people about that. One thing that I just wanted to share, though, was that there was a lot of interest in the type of technology. People had heard about things but had not necessarily seen it and so and I'm wondering if that might also apply to some of our efforts around telecommunications, and it's just part of getting the word out to other audiences. But over three days, I spoke to probably about 400 people and basically gave them very short micro PD sessions. When I say micro, I'm talking about five minute PD on what 3d printing is laser etching and engraving, and just the resources that are available through through the through the Phoenix area. But yeah, it's just, it was an audience that I hadn't been necessarily engaged with previously, but they I, I was surprised that the amount of people who just said, you know, I've heard a lot about 3d printing, but I've never actually seen it. I. And then you got to show it and also talk about, well, it's connected to Wi Fi and broadband. So you know, all these issues, all these topics, are connected in ways that we just have to be flexible to see and take advantage of when we get the opportunity. Yeah,
Gordon, are you still there?
Gordon is still here, and, yes, there's another partner for you. Oh, absolutely, you know the truth. The truth of things is that it's all about inclusion, and that includes everyone. And the truth is that people with disabilities are in many ways defining of the challenges that exist with telecommunications and other assistive and adaptive technologies. They don't necessarily reach the people for whom it's intended. It's often become, just as you probably saw in the exhibits at adapt, it's it's kind of a narrow niche of modified equipments and things like that, but for the most part, if things were just designed better for all of us, it's just a misery to kind of suffer through. Well, I don't know, setting up a Comcast system, just to put a name to it. You know, same for any of these things. It's very complicated, and that's where the AIS will come in. And so therefore, better knowing human beings. And as I always like to say, getting the full spec on human beings makes all the difference. If you include all of humanity from cradle to grave, and think about how this thing might be used, worked or approached naturally by a natural human being, you're really on the right track. That's the investment of our creative and knowledge and intelligence that makes a huge difference. And so I commend anyone and everyone looking at this in a more open, broad way about how we we include people, you know, even if their language is different, or if they're sensory, cognitive or physical disabilities or impairments might get in the way, we can find ways to adapt and make things better. That's what we humans are good at.
So I was actually, as I've been looking at doing this, this session on people with disabilities, that I've have talked with several folks who are involved with AI, and they said, you know, we really haven't been looking at AI and that population, and it's something that we should be looking at. And I know that sort of came up after with my discussion with Gordon, and so that's one going to be part of that discussion is where, where does AI intersect with people with disabilities, and does it provide some additional opportunities that we haven't really thought about or addressed within this group. I'm sure there's others. There's people all over I'm sure we're dealing with some stuff.
Well, we're going to make we're going to make evangelists of you all. I'm part of a group who's been working on Smart City initiatives around the world with the understanding and idea that the accessibility is the first order of a business for everyone in a community. What we learned during the pandemic, with 140 countries participating under a UN Habitat grant and program, is that the virus was very dangerous to our community, but our governments turned out to be the worst challenge that we face. They don't know we exist many cases. And, and the ham handed approach to emergency response, resource distribution, you know, even medical care had become disastrous. And so we're very aware of the work that needs to be done. And, and the AI assistive aspect of it, overlaid on the broadband technology is, you know, 10 minutes into the future, right? Thank you.
Thanks, Gordon. And obviously we'll be in touch about getting that that session sent up. Okay. Thanks, Steve, go ahead. Karen.
Um, so I know ACA wasn't able to be here today for their update, but if anyone hasn't seen it yet, they did post the proposed project areas on the ACA site. So I think there's 66 Michelle, correct me if I'm wrong, 66 project areas tribal and non tribal. So if you haven't seen it, I recommend everybody to go on there and look at it. Local governments, tribal entities and ISPs are able to provide feedback. And I think it closes the feedback period, or the market sounding closes November 7. So just wanted to let everybody know that that is available for review.
Thanks for reminding me, Karen. And actually, the information about that is also in my newsletter with a link so you can go online if you want to provide that kind of input. Okay, anything. Else for today. I believe we might be done. We're done early. You're going to get some time back.
Thanks everyone.
Bye moosh. Thanks for joining us today.
Thank you. Yeah.
Look forward to bringing my boss next time. He's you know, he has even more information. He's an old timer. He's been building networks for a variety of cellular companies in the past, mainly Verizon, AT and T but he's very familiar with fiber of the home projects as well, and just a wealth of knowledge. Brian Thompson is his name, by the way.
Well, I will get you added to our email list so that you'll get the notices of future meetings and and we'll schedule maybe I'll even talk to you about present. Excuse me presenting next week. So that sounds wonderful.
Thank you so much for that. So next week, come actually on vacation, but I could definitely do it on the the following.
Well,
I'll be I'll definitely be in touch.
Thank you so much. Ellery,
thank you for presenting today. I think it was really informative. Sounds like you got some people who want to have some conversation with you?
Yeah. Thank you for the opportunity. You bet,
okay, if there's nothing else. Thank you all for being here today, and hopefully we'll see you next week. Thank you. Matthew, was good to see you again. We haven't seen you in a while. I know you're busy.
Quick question, Steve, you know, with the competitive grant, and maybe I just didn't read it, do you know what the timeline is for them to do a review on that?
I don't know. Did
they share that at all? I didn't see it anywhere, so I wasn't mark, they
never commit to a specific timeline. Paul, you'd be lucky if it was four months. That would be best case.
Well, the last time I went for the grant that I currently have it, it took two years.
It won't take that long, but four to six months would be my estimate. Okay, all
right, yeah, I just know there was a lot of work that went into pressing that submit button. So, yeah, yep, yeah, all right,
it will depend how oversubscribed it is, you know, if it's Oh,
it'll be oversubscribed, just like every all the other I know, but there's a
difference between 2x and 10x oversubscribed. So, yeah.