March 14, 2024 AZBSN Digital Access Task Force Recording

1:58AM Mar 15, 2024

Speakers:

Steve Peters

Mark Goldstein

Shereka Jackson

Mala Muralidharan

Henry Goldberg

Holly Henly

Karen Ziegler

Megan Hammond

John Haas

EJ John

Chris Becenti

MItchell Gorsen

Keywords:

broadband

cybersecurity

tribal

program

people

tribal communities

tribes

broadband connectivity

library

bead

internet

provide

arizona

funding

happening

fcc

meetings

put

usf

asu

Okay, we are recording. Good morning, everybody. We have anybody new joining us this morning besides Chris. So we're going to hear from a little bit later. The rest of you have been here. So anyway, good morning. Oops, this. Alrighty. So first of all, I want to thank our sponsors again, their first health plan, Karen Ziegler, consulting services, Valley Telecom Group Kajeet. And try it. And Karen, you want to tell people who you are? Most people know you, but just a little bit about the service as you guys have been? You've been providing a long, long time.

Yeah, sure, Steve. Yeah, I think Everybody pretty much knows me. Retired from the state of Arizona, and have a long history and public safety and public safety communications, started the rural Broadband initiative under a Doa with the help of all of this team and AZ BSN, I think what's out shoot of some of the work we did back then. So now just provide consulting services to rural communities for Broadband infrastructure development, Grant, writing grants, post award management, and I'm a retired retired CFOs. So I do provide financial services to some of the other rural communities in Arizona as well.

Right. Karen has been a longtime partner and of course, has been a great supporter and sponsor, a parent, as always, we appreciate your friendship, participation and support.

Thank you. One of the things that that one of the results of that plan that you spearheaded, was the setting up of the Broadband office. Kudos to you.

Thank you, Mala Yes, I always say, you know, the work we did back then was, and you know, I know Steve and Mark Goldstein, and all of the other team. They were there way before me. But we did all this with no money. And so now there's all this kind of money here. So it's just a very different environment today than it was back then.

There's more money for everything from planning to actual implementation. Yeah, world has changed a lot since then. Okay, we're gonna move on today. And we're gonna have a little bit of a different meeting today. The folks from the Broadband office team are not available this morning. As I mentioned earlier, they have a another meeting that they're all attending. So they will not be joining us today. But we'll be hearing some from someone else here in just a minute. But just a couple of quick things regarding the Broadband office. One is that they have request a office of Broadband office RFQ, working for Broadband and Digital Equity consulting and management services. If you're interested, they do have an RFQ. I put the link here and on this web page in my email that I sent out, and we'll also put it in the chat. Mark, do you want to comment on that at all?

Oh, sure. This is the second time that ACA has solicited last time was really more for larger firms to do mapping and other elements of the grant process. This is more a general call for what I view as a team of consultants that they can draw on in the I imagine next two years, as BEAD applications are invited and evaluated and other elements of the programmer may manage. So I am putting a link in the chat. You have to request there's a form from that link that you request a copy of the RFQ. So questions due by March 15 14. And applications by April 1.

Okay, thank you, Mark. So a couple of quick thing other quick things with about ACA. They are holding challenge process and Broadband office hours. And again, the link to that information is in my email. And again, I just want to remind you that a lot of things that we talked about today, events and things that are happening, I try to include all of those in my newsletter. So that You can find the links to times locations, contact information, and all that kind of good stuff. So just a reminder makes it a lot easier than trying to track it through through the chat. Okay, moving on. So I don't believe Nicole was here this morning.

I think Nicole is out this week. But I was just going to ask you, I absolutely love the way you lay everything out and all the different, you know, meetings, but it's Can you add the Oh, you do have it. They're wonderful. I was an ask if you can add the Broadband Advisory Council group meetings. You

have it. Thank you. I do have it. Again that time, and I'll get to that in just a second. But I do want to introduce of we fortunately, at AIC for board meeting yesterday, Chris Chris, present the who's the NTIA, tribal Broadband connectivity programs specialist was at that meeting, and I invited him to be here today to tell us about who he is and what he does and what's happening in terms of the Broadband, the tribal Broadband connectivity program. So with that, Chris, I'm going to turn it over to you. If you need to share anything I can. I'd be glad to stop sharing.

Oh, no, you're fine. I can actually provide everything verbally. Thank you so much for the invitation, Steve.

You bet.

Good morning, everyone. My name is Christopher Basanti federal program officer slash Broadband Program Specialist with the tribal Broadband connectivity program here at NTIA been with the program for just close to three actually at three years now. And had been supporting them in multiple ways. One of the things I'm also part of within the team is also a part of the mapping team. So with that, just wanted to just kind of provide everyone with a brief update with where we're at and what's going on within the tribal Broadband connectivity program. So with that, we have actually completed round one awards towards the end of last year, that state of Arizona has 22 tribes of that 13 tribes have been awarded, which roughly came out to a total of over 10 $10 million that has been provided I'm sorry, wait, I'm forgetting my number off the top of my head, over 100 million has been allocated to the state of Arizona. So a little bit different. That's like, yeah, apologies. And then, of course, one of the things I just wanted to share with everyone is that currently we're in the application window for round two, because there's going to be a second round of funding for the tribal Broadband connectivity program. The original application was set to the application window was set to close in the month of January. But because of the way ACP has been the news with ACP, there was an extension granted for the application window from January to next week, Friday, March 22. So we're hoping folks that didn't think about our Well, I mean, we didn't know that the ACP was going to be ending or the week possibly be sunsetting as early as April. So of course, we wanted to provide an opportunity for folks to apply for Broadband use and adoption funding to help maybe cover and subsidize some of the monthly recurring cost with the tribal Broadband connectivity program, because there is seven different layers of prioritization. And the second one on the list is actually using adoption, which also includes subsidy for monthly recurring cost. So with that the tribal Broadband connectivity program team is actually available and providing technical assistance. If you want, I read and put in the chat that our our email, which is going to be TCP, no flow to@ntia.gov. And if you have any questions, or if you need have need any technical assistance, please, by all means, go ahead and email us. We we have a turnaround time within less than half a day to try and get get your spots. And if it does require technical assistance, we try to get those knocked out within two days. But because of how close the window is, well, the application window next Friday. Definitely happy to answer any questions anybody may have right now. And with that, I just want to just thank you. Thank you again, Steve for the invitation.

Yeah. Great to have you, Chris. Any questions for Chris? Well, it's fortuitous that, Chris, that we met Chris yesterday and that he's here this morning, because as you know, we're going to be hearing shortly from EJ, John. And so it's It's perfect timing. So great. Glad you could join us, Chris. Absolutely. Anytime.

Thank you again once, once again for the invitation, Steve, your bet.

So moving on the governor's interagency and community Broadband Advisory Council, working group meetings are scheduled for March 25. At 130, for infrastructure permitting, they have combined a number of their workgroups to single meetings, so that the infrastructure permitting and mapping group is going to meet March 25, at 130. And again, this is all in my newsletter, so it'll be easy for you to find. And then also on March 25, at three o'clock, this Digital Inclusion, and then march 29, at 130 is the workforce team. So you're all welcome to participate in any or all of those teams. And then moving on Mark, you want to just talk about, well, march 25. Arizona internet for all is hosting the state Broadband in Arizona. It's a live event from 11 to one at the flint Foundation. And Mark is going to be representing AZ BSN and ATI C. So Mark, do you want to say anything more about that?

Oh, sure. This is a live only event. I'm not sure it's even being recorded for posterity. It is limited to 50 attendees. So I did just put the link in the chat. It is free and includes lunch it has to national speakers drew Garner, who many of us are familiar with from his days with common sense. Now at the Benton Institute, Gigi sown who was a candidate for chair of the FCC, who didn't make it through Congress is also at the Benton foundation. Beyond that Ilana Lowery, Sandeep Gaumukh, and I will speak apparently, on a panel, I haven't seen a full program development. But there'll be five speakers to our meeting over lunch. And if you're interested, I guess I recommend registering sooner rather than later due to the cap on attendance of 50 people.

And I did send out a separate announcement about that yesterday. So again, you'll have that link if you're interested in and want to participate. But as Mark said, it's 50 people. And so if you're interested, now's the time to sign up. Anything more about that? If not, let's just move on to our presentation this morning. And we're Well, we're glad to have EJ, EJ. John has been attending our meetings pretty regularly. And we're glad to have your participation. Vijay. He's a senior research analyst with American Indian policy institute. And I have asked him to he's presented to us some time ago. But I've asked him to give us an update on what the American Indian policy institute is, what they're doing, and particularly what's happening from a Broadband perspective. And Chris, I was going to ask you, and after EJ presents that you might have some additional perspective on what's happening in Indian country these days. So with that, EJ, I'm going to turn it over to you do you need to share?

Um, I might, I might just share like one thing on our website. But that's about it.

That's all yours if you need to. Alright.

Well, thank you all. Again, my name is EJ. John, it's good to see you all this morning. Like Steve said, I'm a senior research analyst here at the American Indian policy institute, and American Indian policy institute AAPI. For short. We've been here at ASU. We've been as we were established back in 2006. And our institute has kind of covered different subject areas relating to tribal nations. Depending on who the director was at the time, that's kind of what our institute would focus on. So like, we've done work in environmental sustainability kind of work. We've also done Economic Development, Research for economic development. But right now under our current director, Dr. Tracy Morris, we've really been focusing on Broadband and internet connectivity for tribal nations. So as part of that work, we Released a research study back in 2018. Let me see if I can share that really quick.

And are you able to see that? Yes. Okay. So this is on our website aapa.asu.edu mapa, don't link in the chat later on. But this is a quick summary about a study that we did in 2019. That was based on a survey of ASU students who were from tribal communities. And we asked them about their internet situations, asked him about how they primarily access the Internet, what kind of devices they use, and things like that. So generally, from our study, we found that this, okay. Here's some of the big stats that we got from this study, we saw that 18% of the students that we talked to had no internet access at home, about 1/3 of them 33% used the internet primarily on their cell phones, and 49% of them use a land based internet provider, out of the ones who did have service at home, of course, and then 31% reported having spotty or no internet connection through their smartphones. So I think because a lot of tribal communities are, so rule and just kind of so so far away from fiber, middle mile and things like that. There's always been connectivity issues in Indian country. And so this is what we found in 2018. And this is a study that we conducted, not knowing that, you know, the pandemic would hit a couple months afterwards after this. So once the pandemic hit, there was a real focus on tribal around just internet connectivity in general, for all communities. So our study became a big part of getting a baseline of needs of Indian country at that time. And that kind of really accelerated our work here at AAPI. To really start focusing on Broadband. And I think that's when we really kind of became some one of the one of the experts, at least, for tribal Broadband connectivity. So that's just a little bit of background in our current Broadband work. But, as I mentioned before, we've we also, we've also been doing work in here at the university to just kind of bring more attention to the surrounding issues of Broadband connectivity. So that's things like tribal land status and permitting things dealing with like data sovereignty, and tribal sovereignty in general. And also just other forms of general development on tribal lands and what needs to happen for that. We recently moved here, ASU to the Sandra Day O'Connor School of Law, and with the School of Law, we're hoping to focus more on that data sovereignty part of tribal Broadband, to really focus on how tribes can implement the new networks that they're building right now, to start developing policies to reflect their values and what they want to see out of out of these new technologies and the new connections coming to their communities. So that's really exciting. And we're getting ready to enter some into some collaborations with the Law School here at ASU and with some other tribal organizations, such as National Congress, American Indians, to put out some more research and more work in those areas. So we're really looking forward to that. But besides that, I think generally across Indian country, of course, you know, I can't really speak on behalf of individual tribes and what they're working on. But I think just generally, I can say that everyone is really working hard to implement funding that they've been awarded over the past couple of years. In the process of carrying out their tribal, like Mr. Since he talked about the tribal Broadband connectivity program. You know, just following the the grant obligations that come with that in the billing obligations that come with that. Some tribes are getting ready to apply for the second round of that, that grant. Tribes are also preparing to apply to the newest round of reconnect funding, and reconnect funding is a great resource because it's something that benefits rural areas, which a lot of our tribal communities are located in. And another thing that a lot of tribes are dealing with is ACP. The ACP, of course, helps a lot of individual tribal members connect to the internet and to afford internet. But it also had kind of this secondary benefit, where it helped sustain a lot of the smaller tribal yo networks. Because tribe, we tribal, small tribal ISPs were able to sign up their community members to receive internet and also get some of that ACP money back to help go towards their networks. So it's, not only are people losing their connection, but it's it may also affect some of our tribal ISPs as well, the loss of the ACP. So that's something that tribes are thinking about how they're going to address, how they're going to continue to keep people signed up and keep internet affordable. And then the big thing that tribes are working on right now is the BEAD program. Here in Arizona, of course, they're working with the with the ACA, the Congress authority, making sure that tribal plans, Broadband plans and tribal needs are included in all the BEAD planning and that tribal, tribal VSLs are also accurate on the on the state map that was just published. So once that challenge process opens up, tomorrow, I think tribes will be some of the organizations who are going to take a look at that and review and make sure that all of those VSOs are accurate in their areas, as well as the community anchor institutions, just to make sure that those are all accurate too. So yeah, that's that's kind of the general overview. I think that tried to run into a lot of the same issues that the non tribal communities are running into things like pricing for materials, looking for Broadband technicians, people who, who not only work on the infrastructure, but you know, setting up like the Broadband offices or setting up what you need to establish ISP, or even just producing some of the basic government rules and regulations that you might need to start up that small tribal network. So that's not just something here in Arizona, but it's something nationwide, that tribes across the country are, are now working through and making sure that they get those things up and running to keep up with the funding awards that they might have gotten. If they didn't get funding, tribes are still looking to figure out how they can fully fund projects that are out there to make sure that they're able to take advantage of all the Broadband Opportunities that are around right now. So um, so that's, that's quick update. I can take any questions or if you have any more. Do

you want, sharing? Okay. Yeah, sure. Any questions? Chris, are you still here? Maybe Todd.

On the numbers that from the ASU study in 2019? Has there been conversations on having it again, since post COVID? Because those numbers were pre COVID. So I'm just curious on how they were impacted during COVID? Because they were not even in school to have access, and how that impacted their education. Yeah.

So from from our anterior aapa. We are talking about doing a follow up study to to our 2019 report. We just haven't figured out the best time or haven't gotten the resources to carry out on the scale that we want to carry it out. So we do want to do it. We just hope that we can do it fairly soon, just trying to work through everything that's needed for that. But we did see, I think last year, the GAO put out their own report on tribal Broadband. And in their report, they looked at some data from the FTC and some of the early data coming out of NTIA and stuff like that. And they found that the numbers were still kind of the same. It's it was still around that like 30% Internet connectivity rate among tribal communities. They found that like bones were still kind of the primary way people access internet and tribal communities. So just based on what the GAO found last year, those numbers seem like they're still kind of the same. So that's a big reason why also we want to make sure to follow up on that.

I have a question or maybe an idea, too. Has there been any work on trying to develop a peer to peer connection, much like a social network so that it'd be easier to create a volunteer, mentor environment to connect people, because then rather than a survey, you're getting people using and connecting and helping others use and connect? Because as our Broadband capabilities grow, this could be a great model.

Yeah, there is. There's a couple of tribal internet experts out there who come together a couple of times a year. And they host the host this thing called the tribal Broadband bootcamp. And what they really try to do is they bring anyone who's interested in Broadband in to kind of have hands on experience with the technology, you know, but but there's a fiber cable look like? What does the Ethernet cable look like? What is what's the equipment like, and then they also have like a group discussions on some of the policy considerations and other topics like that it's like a two to three day training meeting that they hold a couple of times a year. But through those meetings, it's really been building like a good network of people nationwide, who are working in tribal Broadband. So out of that group, I'd say there's maybe maybe about 100 people or so who are in that group right now. And there's emails and you know, social media groups that are out there, that they that they contribute to that we're a part of that as well at APA. So yeah, there there is stuff like that coming starting to pop up and help us inform our work to.

Great, thank you.

Chris, do you have anything that you'd like to have any other perspective?

Yeah, no, definitely great report, one of the things I would like to emphasize on is the FCCs Broadband data collection with that a lot of the rural communities as well as tribal communities have been realizing that some of the speeds as well as the service providers that are providing available availability, fabric locations, some of them are challenging those, because one of the things that we've noticed in the West thing we've been trying to at least provide, at least what this message is, keep in mind, if if if the BDC is not reflecting the correct speeds and say like you have a provider that's saying they're providing 25, three speeds, that area that that location will not be able to be funded through the any federal funding, at least with the tribal Broadband connectivity program, because it's technically served with what the 25 three speeds are with the tribal Broadband connectivity program. But if, for instance, if that Broadband service location is missing from the map, again, that's one thing that we're encouraging everyone to start, just double check in is making sure all the locations are there. So for instance, if if you're being served by 25, three now and you wanted to pursue something like BEAD, which is, which is there, qualifying the speeds is 100 by 20, then again, just need to be sure that the BDC is actually correctly defining what current speeds are available at those locations. And then supply chain supply chain issues was definitely another hot topic. And the other topic that tech that's on a lot of top of mind right now is cybersecurity. So those three are definitely hot topics right now.

Yeah, cybersecurity, especially. Tribes often operate, own and operate businesses. And those businesses are always subject to cybersecurity threats. So that's always a major topic for people who work for those tribal enterprises. For the mapping issue, it wouldn't be nice if there was one map that allowed all challenges. But, you know, if you want to challenge the fabric location, you got to go to the FCC map. And if you want to challenge the speed performance application, you got to go to your state's BEAD challenge map. What I really like about what ACN is doing is that they've said that they're saving all of their, you know, challenge correspondents, whatever you submit to that portal, they save so at least it's a place you can document, you know, challenge, or you can document speed challenges, speed performance challenges, so that might be useful in future to maybe the FTC adds that adds that feature to their map, you know, you can just transfer it over or something. But yeah, I think you know, we're still in the beginning phases of these mapping efforts. So hopefully you get smoothed out in the end, we can have a real accurate resource for this kind of information.

Other questions for EJ or Chris? So one question I have is how are you going? What do you perceive on how people are beginning to address the issue of Digital Equity? And of course, we have a Digital Equity plan for the state. But what are you seeing on on tribal lands, about people being able to use the technology that they are now beginning to get access to?

Well, a lot of people, even though there's a lack of connectivity, people do have experience using the internet, you know, they go to school, they go to work, they use it on their phones, but there's still a lot of education has to be done. For people who didn't have that daily access, like, like I did, when I grew up, I had fairly regular access to the internet. And, you know, I grew up kind of knowing like, what an email looks like, what, what a what a spam, email looks like, or, I grew up knowing that like, you know, the X on the corner of a window means to COVID something, you know, just stuff like that basic stuff like that goes towards a lot through like education for community members who are using this technology for the first time. Another part of the equity efforts is probably affordability. Internet access in tribal communities, is usually more expensive than what you would pay here in the metro area. Because for a long time, the only thing you get was like satellite internet, for example. And satellite internet is something that's usually costly. Or if you're using cell phone hotspot, like you're going for that big data plan. So people have always paid a lot for Internet in rural tribal communities. So affordability, education are some big points that are a part of the Digital Equity work in tribal lands. And it's hard to it's hard to reach people because not everyone has internet. And if your information campaign is based on online outreach, you know, you're not going to reach those people. So yet to get kind of creative in tribal communities, things like newspaper billboards are good ways to go. Radio stations are a huge resource. People still listen to am FM radio stations regularly for information. And also just in person community gathering kind of stuff like booths, presentations, still are a good way to go.

So we hope to have John is one of our co chairs have a long delinquent the effort to create a cybersecurity Alliance, and really looking at what are the issues regarding cybersecurity, and how do we address those issues? You know, there's lots of cybersecurity technology. And, and before Elena reminds me that we're talking about cyber safety and security. And we've tried to make that distinction. And that cybersecurity really speaks to security networks and technology and so forth, versus how people use the technology safely, and so forth. And so we really need to be looking at and making sure that we're clear that we need to address both of those, both of those issues, and even to find another term. And again, people remind me all the time, that cybersecurity for a lot of people's like, What the hell does that mean? But the challenge so I guess part of my question is, as we hopefully get crankin on this cybersecurity group here, that, that if you have any thoughts about? So how do we so the big challenge of what I think we're going to be looking at is how what's the strategy for how we're going to provide cybersecurity. So, you know, we're signing up people, do we provide cybersecurity at that time, ISPs and what are they doing? local community organizations? Do you guys have any thoughts about what we should be doing or looking at in terms of cybersecurity, cyber safety and security, I should say?

Well, for tribes, we've been kind of approaching that from the data sovereignty viewpoint, where tribal nations are their own sovereign governments, and they collect information on their UNDER CITIZENS on the members that they want to protect, including, you know, cultural information, language information. So these are all things that tribes are always trying to make sure that they handle carefully and a big part of that is cybersecurity. Right? How do we make sure that we control who acts is all of this information? But a big part of that is also just developing policy. So we at APA had kind of focus on the governor The Art of cybersecurity just helping leadership kind of think through what's what goes into a data sovereignty, cybersecurity policy, like, a lot of people kind of get focused on the technology, where it kind of it kind of it's intimidating, right to think of like, all the different technologies that are out there and potential threats, but we tried to have them kind of zoom out from that, from that level of thinking to think more like, Okay, first, you know, categorize identify the data that is important to you, and then start thinking about who has access to and stuff like that and started developing, you know, just general policies around that. So that's, that's kind of how we're approaching that. And that's kind of where our expertise is in data or in policy. So when it comes to like individual community members, that's something that we haven't done a ton of work in, but it's probably something that we can develop policies to help address, Hill communities address as well. So yeah, that's that's something that we're trying to figure out the best way to approach to.

Chris, do you want to add anything more to that? Sure.

I mean, there's, there's a couple instances where I've seen some of the tribes out there utilize some of the TCP funding to do like, weekly, if not monthly workshops for community members. So for instance, it's not just like for their own personal use. And again, with what John had mentioned before, just identifying things that look a little fishy, if you will, and trying to stay away from those sites. One of the things they also incorporated as well as like telemarketing scams. So whenever you receive a call and send or receive a call, or Texans, somebody calls, or somebody does a follow up call and says, Hey, I got locked out of my email. That was my email before. Can you give me that six digit code? And oh, okay, perfect, thank you so much. Or there's even been some instances where they're using AI now, to make someone sound like a family member, and sound like they're actually being held captive, which is wild. And I've seen some of these like, on like, YouTube videos. So it's definitely evolving in terms of just cybersecurity and it's expanding to phone calls, and even just text messages and emails. So it's a wide variety. But as far as what some of the communities are doing, they're just gather hosting an array of different workshops, depending on their, the the folks attending. So if you have folks that have that aren't so technologically suave, they, I mean, they want to just provide, hey, how do you set up an email account? How do you access the internet? And then there's also levels of like, if, if you if you're more advanced, just kind of toying around with the idea of what you can do to help protect the family. So there's there's definitely some options out there and some instances and examples we've seen.

So Chris, is your organization with NTIA providing any funding for cybersecurity?

Definitely, it is actually built into the tribal Broadband connectivity Nofal round two.

So what does that look like? What kinds of things are they looking for? It's

a variety of things. And each of us are subject matter experts in I hate to say I have to usually defer to the our cybersecurity experts within the tribal Broadband connectivity team. We do have a couple of webinars on the Broadband USA website for the tribal Broadband or the T BCP, NOFA. Two, which actually provides a high overview of what you can utilize the funding for and how you implement it. So I will definitely have to defer it to the to the video of the webinar that was completed, I think, a month and a half ago.

There's also a cybersecurity tribal cybersecurity grant from Sousa. I don't know the details about it, but I remember coming across that about a month or two ago as well.

And just so you guys know that the Arizona Homeland Security and the Air National Guard as a partnership with the Arizona Department of Education, and is providing cybersecurity support to local well to local governments, as well as to local schools and libraries and other entities. And so it's free.

Steve Mitch from Cisco, global cybersecurity round two grant application was extended. This is from the NTIA application deadline. Round two was March 29.

Okay. Thanks, Mitch. Anything else for EJ and, and Chris? Great. Well, thanks EJ. Good job, Chris. Thank you for being here. Hopefully we'll see you right your ROI. Like to include you record, Roy. Unfortunately, Nicole's not here today, but she tries to attend fairly regularly to

anytime, Steve, again. Thank you so much for the invitation.

You bet. Your bag. Oh, yeah.

Thanks, everyone. I'll put my email in the in the chat.

Super. Thanks to Jay. So moving on. Mala Do you want to give us an update on what's happening with the library?

I'd be happy to have

several parts of federal stuff happening.

I'd be happy to give you as much update as I'm keeping track of this. Holly want to go first? Holly, for the statewide?

No, I think that you and Megan can report for the State Library this morning. Thanks.

Okay. Thank you. For it, we are in the in the throes of the application. Working towards the deadline, march 27. Wednesday is the deadline for this round of ERate applications. For those who are new to this ERate reimburse schools and libraries with for the Internet and their internal connection costs. And they are reimbursed at the rate of the NSLP data that is the National School Lunch Program data. So the schools provide that school lunch program data of how many children are on school lunch, and the libraries in that neighborhood use that school lunch number for calculating their discount as well. Currently, the deadline for RFPs to do their own to do for the libraries and schools to do their own contracts are asked, but state master contracts are available both for Category One that internet as well as for Category Two for internal connections. Category One is done by the State Procurement Office and category two master contracts are done by the Mojave cooperative purchasing. And if you don't happen to find it on their websites, please contact me. I will send you the links to the contracts that are currently valid, valid E Rate contract. And Melinda and I are helping applicants through the process. Right now schools and libraries, either atrium versus almost 85 million a year. We apply for about 100 100 and 5 million every year and based on the NSLP that our reimbursements are about 85 million. We're also working on a special project and Navajo Nation chapterhouse library sites having fiber installed this has been going on for the last three to four years. And the challenges include permitting, and overall stability and issues like that. They have completed fiber installation in almost 15 of those chapter houses right now the rest are in the process of having it done. It's a slow process, but it is it's ongoing. The Affordable connectivity act on March 4, the FCC put out a notice that April will be the last full month of benefit under the under this program. They've already stopped accepting new applications as of February 7. We have more than 522,000 households in Arizona who are on the program and who are likely to be jeopardized. If this doesn't continue, there is of course, a lot of noise at the federal level to try to continue the program but even if they do, which at this stage seems highly remote. But even if it does happen, there will be a cap that you know in the reimbursement timeline, which means at least for a couple of months. These households will have to pay pay their full internet costs. Or forego it. Don't know which is going to happen first. But that's what is likely to happen. And we'll wait the watch how this progresses. But the good news is that there has been about 191 co sponsors for the extension, and I'll put that in the chat. Once I'm done talking, it's hr 6929. That's the bill. And let's, let's wait and watch what happens. Of course, the the usual, you know, things that that people are talking about is that it this will undermine the BEAD program, though $42.5 billion BEAD program, many of those will be supported by the ACP household, many of which are going to support the SAP households to continue their recording internet. Fast, there's no point in getting internet to the door if they can pay for it to continue it. And many of the FCC outreach grants 240 of them are also in can't be continued unless this program continues. Service providers also are going to be affected by it. So let's wait and watch and see how it goes. In the meanwhile, the universal service funds update. Senator Cruz has put forth an eight page blueprint for USF and how it needs to be reformed. And that, of course, includes some things like duplic, avoiding duplication between programs like the Lifeline and the hotspot lending program, because some of the Lifeline customers are also getting hot hotspots through their schools. And that that is a duplication. According to Senator Cruz. Of course, the you know, the counter argument is that there are so many people within a family that needs internet access, it slows it down. Lifeline is really not meant to support Homework Help. It's meant to do what it says it's lifeline, you know, for any emergencies and things like that. So, again, that's one of the the arguments that Senator Cruz has put forward. He also wants to stop subsidizing legal telephone companies, which have been in existence for legacy telephone companies, which have been there for a long, long time, and who have recovered all of us so far, but again, it is it that is one more argument. And he wants target us to target low income groups who are not adopting internet so far, rather than target households that are augmenting the internet that they already have. So those are kinds of the arguments that are on that blueprint for USF shall be has already, you know, almost a year ago, put out a research study called the on USF reforms, call us forward. Again, I'll put that link also. In the chat once I'm done talking,

you might just tell people who shall be is shall

be is the school's health library Broadband is a coalition is a member based a member driven organization with almost I want to say 400 members right now from all of the stakeholders for Broadband, which includes schools, libraries, health, it also includes service providers. In that group, there is a lot of work that Shelby is doing at a national level. And, you know, it does have a lot of influence on what's happening with FCC and with your sec. I don't know if you've had a chance to look at this. But for the BEAD optimization. At Shelby, we had a presentation on the Vernon bolt model. Very, very interesting model. It was done in Virginia. And what the study does is the cost of fiber or connectivity let me call it connectivity rather than fiber. It looks At different modules where you can connect by fibers, certain percentage of the households unserved and so and underserved, and then using satellite or any other spectrum or any other technologies to connect the rest, and it does a combination of those to give you a model that could best utilize the funding to its optimum. So you if you increase a you could decrease B or increase C or you know, some combination of it, to get to serving the underserved and the most numbers of households that are unserved or underserved using a formula and that that tool is a very interesting tool to look at. And again, I'll put that also in the chat. Once I'm done talking. Sanborn maps. I've also done a series of webinars, they're all archived and anyone can watch it, it doesn't need any membership or anything to watch it. And they are also doing similar kind of study using data. Broadband geospatial experts have actually come up with strategies to utilize the funding to the maximum. So and as far as telehealth is concerned, I did a I did do a presentation yesterday, along with NLM. This was organized by the Southwest Telehealth Resource Center Michaelis here we had Elizabeth krupinski. spearhead this what they called it called as a virtual conference we had about at its peak, maybe 65 to 70 attendees, and about 47 of them stayed till the very end for to our conference session. So it was good. We talked about my presentation was on our pilot projects and on continuing telehealth through service through the libraries. Yavapai County is now planning on doing something similar. I think Cory is here may be able to talk a little bit more about it if he's ready. But that's what's happening right now. Back to you, Steve, unless there are any questions for me.

Any questions for Mala?

Yeah, question Mala on the USF that Senator Cruz proposed, as you talked about an article a day or two ago? He is proposing something much bigger in terms of the rate that it be funded not by FCC, but by Congress. Did you see that?

Yes. And it's going to be hard for for it's going to be years before something like that can happen even if it gets accepted? Because your SEC has a mechanism that is tried and tested and has gone through a lot of iterations as well as in a modification modifications, it's going to be hard to administer this through the federal probe through any other federal program, like the Treasury, for example, if I think that's what was the question?

Yeah, well, I'm, it's a strange thing, because I don't know where they would get the money from they're already short on money for other things. So I don't know exactly what he's talking about there. But seeming to imply that,

you know, his whole idea was, is about reducing waste, fraud and abuse. If we look at it over the years, the way we use for fraud and abuse in this program has been less than 3%. You know, which is very, very marginal. You know, and many of those who have had who, who have been detected to do any waste, fraud or abuse have had to pay back even years later. So I'm not quite sure what the solution is now be chasing something that really, you know, we could avoid chasing and put our our funds somewhere else, you know, and the problem the the problem with the UCF fund USF fund right now is that the base is so small, that it cannot accommodate you know, the hotspot lending and things like that. It's going to be another additional $200 million, at least, you know, to add to of the era program in order to be able to subsidize it. Cyber security, I don't think it's a problem because that is another thing that is going to be an addition to the current spending on E Rate. Because the current category two funding is not spent fully. And category two funding depends on the library's square footage as well as the students in a school. And the amount that is available that is unspent and left on the table could easily be utilized for cybersecurity, and it's a budget gap for each organization. So they're not spending anyone else's money. Every library spends its own out of its own budget, and the school spent out of its own budget. So the worked properly. This This could, cybersecurity could become a part of it and could be worked well through the program. But hotspot lending does need to be augmented with additional funding or increasing the USF base.

So Mala is there any other key issues that Shelby's worried about, regarding Senator Cruz's proposal,

they plan to rebut or, you know, to send something, a letter, at least to the Congress to say, take a look at our USF forward study, we have analyzed the various options that are available, we have suggested different ways in which to deal with it. So, you know, that's what Shelby is planning to do. Of course, Shelby is also working on, you know, different rules and regulations to guide people about polls, which really needs attention right now, before the BEAD money becomes available, because once BEAD funding is made available, it'd be too late to try to make rules and regulations about hanging fiber from poles and who owns the Poles who, whose job it is to make sure that the poles can withstand the fiber because in most cases, digging is not a good not a cost effective option. Hanging pose, or hanging fiber on poles is a is more isn't it more inexpensive option, of course, you know, if they are unable to do Wi Fi in certain areas or satellite using the spectrum and other areas. So this needs to be done now. So we're working again, on trying to get a group together that can study the issues of what's happening with I mean, who can who what the rules should be on hanging fiber poles.

Okay, thanks, Mala. As always, you do a great job and really appreciate your updates on what's happening at the federal level. Now, we've asked a number of folks who have other meetings today. Megan, do you have anything else you want to add? Regarding the State Library?

I do. Thank you. I'm making him in the library development administrator at the State Library. And we are our new Digital Inclusion library consultant. Aaron successor will be starting on Monday and so I have to introduce him to the group next Thursday.

Can you announce that now? Where are you?

I'd like to wait till next week, but we are very excited.

Okay. Sounds like a plan. So let's, let's move on. Mike, do you want to give us an update with what's happened with telemedicine?

Sure, just briefly, I also have to jump off here but several of us from the telemedicine program have attended the first I think ever tribal health literacy Summit. Last few days, it's on his third day today. And lots of great information, of course, about health literacy there but some really impactful discussion of the determinants of health that indigenous people, there are some sometimes just more pronounced, I think in terms of the barriers that are faced to access services, and so, Broadband and connectivity, you know, are critical to just many aspects, not just just telehealth, of enabling, you know, out access to a lot of different services that are that are important to the communities. And so anyone that was that's that was really excited really impactful. Thank you Mala for the opportunity provided on on the telephone libraries that there. And like so did you have to go but really appreciate it. Just one last thing. I'll say I really appreciated the discussion by EJ and Chris this morning. And like, I don't know if they're still on but would like to connect with them. So I dropped my email on the job for disconnect. So thanks very much.

Okay. Thanks. My appreciate it. Any quick questions for Mike before you? Great. Thanks, Mike. Appreciate you being here. So before we move on, well, most of our folks are already gone. But, Caroline, would you like to introduce yourself real quickly?

Hi, Caroline kabaah. They work for the State Historic Preservation Office. As an archaeology compliance specialist. One of my the agencies that I review projects for is NTIA. Another ones FCC actually, much gets mentioned a lot. And as these programs will be moving forward, and project areas will be developed, will be part of the environmental team that is reviewing for cultural resources and historic properties. So just want to be a face that you recognize that if anything happens going forward, you can feel free to reach out to me.

Sounds great. Thanks, Caroline. Thanks for joining us today. Well, I think we're, I think we're kind of down for today. A lot of folks have bailed out have conflicting meetings. But so I'm going to stop recording. And then if anybody wants to chat, and if not, I think we're kind of done for today.

I'm Steve, Cindy asked me to give the Aiden update this week. And just to share the let's see Arizona Digital Inclusion network. It meets every other Thursday. We're meeting today to talk about life after ACP and if you would like to attend, just send an email to AZ Digital inclusion@gmail.com. And she'll get you an invite.

Right. Thanks, man. Yeah, I thought I went how I was gonna do that. And then so that's fine. Thank you.