Advanced Communications and Information Technology - Joint

The Joint Committee on Advanced Communications technology will come to order welcome everyone here this is an informational meeting which the the legislature hadn't participated in but the pretty much the funding partners I'm sure there's plenty of questions and I'm my co chair Stephen Meeks if you will have any comments. Okay The Senator English is kind of done a lot of of work on broadband and and securities and I would like to give her just a second. Thank you very much chairman of the I'm so glad to see everybody here today and a on and as the chairman said this is really an informational meeting but I think we have talked and talked about broadband for a good while and in and in a short period of time we have a. I had available to us including about a hundred twenty five million that we hope to approve this Friday about four hundred million dollars for broadband broadband is important to every single solitary community here in the state of Arkansas and we as legislators have to be a lot smarter about what's going on and there's so much going on in there so much money out there and so many programs that we need to be really smart to make sure that we make the best use of all the resources that we have out there and that our communities are well served so today this is going to be kind of an informational thing starting where we started a little bit more and we're we're finishing and and with our master plan that we hope to have complex here in the spring thank you. Thank you senator English I would to accept a motion to adopt the the September fourteenth twenty twenty meeting minutes. Motion second of all in favor say aye opposed Like sign thank you members the. Consideration the promotion to adopt the chairs up to approve special expenses incurred by the committee. Motion and second all in favor say aye. All opposed Like sign thank you members we will begin with a presentation on the broadband development and accessibility by secretary Mike Preston. Second. One. Yeah okay. If you will just whenever you get seated introduce yourself in your position. Thank you Mr chairman Mike Preston's secretary commerce and ADC executive director. Stephen Forsey legal counsel for the department commerce as well as the art director for the Arkansas will connect program. All right thank you Mr chairman and representative Meeks and Senator English for for pulling this together and forgive me on the front and I am losing my voice I don't have much less so I'm gonna try and be as is brief as I can to give as much background and I've got the judge porch here to to fill in the blanks and but happy to answer any questions and I'll be back on Friday to talk even more so the save some some breath or what voice I have left. Senator English thank you did a good job of talking about that is a good opportunity for us all to come together and talk about broadband in and where we've been and where we currently stand where we hope to go in the state because I do think it's significant the progress that we've made as a state I know for for many years it was a hot topic in one that people worked on with seemingly little progress for many years and I'd say the one thing out of the pandemic if you can point to a positive coming out of it is the fact that the emphasis on broadband just through that expense exponentially that quick much quicker and we able to put things in motion and this is in our English made reference to with the approval pending approval of another hundred twenty five million on Friday from A. L. C. I will be up to four hundred million dollars in awards and broadband to have years ago that was I was unheard of figure that we would never you know really envision being able to get to but let me back up to twenty nineteen when the governor first announced the the broadband office in conjunction with the department of commerce and is planned for for rule broadband development the state at that time his his goal was to have broadband deployed to every community in Arkansas five hundred citizens or greater by twenty twenty three it was very ambitious plan but one that we were working with the legislature and try to figure out how we would be able to get there. we start out with a small sum of four million dollars seems pretty small compared to the now almost four hundred million that were or at today so uh we have the framework set up in place which I was very for two artists given what was about to happen to our our country into our world with COVID so we had the the the framework set up we were working on rules and trying to get everything in place so that we can have a a process by which to do this well obviously when COVID head the game completely change for for everybody everybody in many different ways including broadband we now saw that knew not only was the you know I need the people had it was you know a life or death a situation for people as we needed for for telemedicine people needed to be able to work people needed it FOR you know for school an education purposes you know let alone the the gaming in streaming of Netflix the that people where I had to do was a quarantine for a long period of time so we saw just how important it was and thank goodness we had that structure set up in place instead of the rule connect I guess we never really change the name to reflect where we are but it's really just Arkansas connect because we kind of took the rule out of it and we knew that there's underserved areas in the entire state rule or not but a lot of this has been focused on a more rural areas as it was set up for us to get some of funding out so very proud of the work that's been done it has been a collaborative effort there are a lot of moving pieces so I think you'll hear a lot of that today hopefully this will give everyone a a broader context of what all is going on in broadband what all is going into it and hello flew we also my old one to marry all this up together and you'll hear from Mister McAllister and his broadband development group who's doing the bigger strategic plan for the state and how we all make this work together in moving forward coming out of it because well we spent Miller spent close to four hundred million dollars by the end of the year we know that we still have work to do and there's still more broadband to be deployed we still have you know another four hundred million dollars in request. sitting in our office to be funded to to get broadband out that's going to help move the needle sun of the infrastructure bill that was just passed will be another mechanism by which we can draw down additional funds so all these pieces working together we're gonna get there I'm confident that in terms of how I look at it is it is an economic developer you know this is the you know I can to the electrification of the State many years ago or what railroads brought to many communities in Arkansas you know the turn of the last century and how that helped the state agency don't have broadband you're not gonna be able to be competitive as a community whether be for business or for people who is paramount that we have this in place and what we're able to do. I will take you through and you have this in front of you so try not to read just to much into the sides But I mentioned we had four million dollars that we started with and we are working to get those funds are deployed to to get broadband to those communities five hundred five hundred or more to make sure everyone was served when COVID hit and we were awarded the chairs funds we knew had an opportunity to place in the broadband money some that money to broadband so couple with the state funds we had is actually four point five million then we had a hundred thirteen point five million and chairs funds for a total of a hundred eighteen million of that represented seventy two excuse me seventy six total projects number of the household to fifty five thousand that were not served previously now included a hundred thirty thousand our Kansans who had access to it now the definition is something I want everyone to to pay attention to and you'll see referred to as broadband what is the definition of broadband in and and it changes over time when we started this it was twenty five three you know upload download with the new cares Act it's now one hundred one hundred so that changes on round one of cares it was all across the board of what could be deployed it could be five or it could be a fixed wireless satellite you know it was by all means now with the cares funds are to Medicare's with the art of funds it is only fiber so that continues to change so again a lot of moving parts to to pay attention to is we're dealing with a lot of federal money in a lot of constraints that come with that so that's something that we pay very close attention to and I know the other folks who are planning to present will also speak to that again this is a partnership we we contract with UAMS I know you'll hear from shortly who ministers the real ID program for the legislature which is important component of this as we move forward but they do all of our technical reviews are auditing on the program and projects as well so there are key component for us so as we get the cares Act funds awarded now the doors everyone is aware that this was you know these funds were very time limited so we're moving extremely quickly to get these these funds. Out the door in the ground and and the broadband service to those one hundred thirty thousand our Kansans. Next slide you'll come to is the American rescue plan of the opera funds this represents round to a into B. of funding through that a total of fifty six awards for a hundred fifty seven million dollars represents thirty five thousand households and approximately eighty seven thousand one hundred seventy nine our Kansans you'll notice that it got a little bit more expensive and this round that's because all this that would to be deployed was fiber which does cost a little bit more and it must be a minimum speeds of one hundred one hundred so well it does get more expensive it allows us to better set the stage for the future as broadband continues to evolve and and and get faster and and needs to withstand more band with coming at the Texas around two AM to be of the American rescue plan funding. so total projects awarded today eight hundred thirty two projects a total of two hundred seventy five million dollars of state and federal funds now the bulk of that is obviously federal funds with about four and a half coming with what we started with there in the very beginning eighty nine thousand plus households were two hundred thirteen thousand our cans and with access now to broadband that do not have a before we have pending in front of the legislature that was presented to peer yesterday an additional list of thirty two projects that are shovel ready that means that they have Story of you and been sent on to you M. S. and per approve the technical review this represents an additional you know approximate hundred twenty five million dollars in projects and I get to slides here think that cover all those projects in total to take me the last slide here that is of the art broadband coverage if you met a map it all together brown one through cares and into a B. and C. is recalling on through our button again that last one is is pending legislative approval on Friday that's what the map looks like in terms of our projects that we're we're we're we're going let that let me pause and try to catch my breath and what little boys I have left in that Stephen chime in here Stephen is I I just wanna say public I appreciate his efforts he came to the part of commerce's or general counsel still wears that hat but when we're setting up the broadband office and COVID hit we needed some very smart people to come in and help write the rules and administer the program and and Stephen was right there to volunteer to to help out and take over and is is taken on the the leadership role in the broadband office in this is done it really a relatively with a small staff at times fluctuating between two and three people to support them we now have some administrative support coming in through our seatac Haggerty contract that it was part of the offer funds we look forward to working with the broadband development group is there processing in in building the state a statewide strategic plan for broadband but I really appreciate of to judge Steven portion all of his efforts not only to be our chief legal counsel but to lead our broadband office and work with so many internet service providers and mares and county judges and alter over Steven to talk about the process of of how we approve and we look at these projects and the reach out that we do and the partnership that we have with the internet service providers as well as the County judges and all the mayors across the state to play a vital role in this so Steven we kick it over. to you. One thank you secretary one of the things that we do is we try our best with the limited amount of us staff that we have to try to reach out to everyone I honestly believe that to get broadband out into the entire state of Arkansas you need two things you need communication. And you need cooperation if you're missing it either one of those then it will not work you need cooperation not only from the I. S. P.'s but with the mayors and the County judges as well we making the point that when we get these applications and we try our best to review them from the standpoint of what will be best for Arkansas what will benefit Arkansas the most we look at how much population that they will cover we look at which which areas are are really the ones in need because we know that FCC data is skewed on that so it makes it a a really a test to try to dig deep to find out exactly what those areas of need R. R. I can submit maybe two or three maps to you and then somebody will will be able to pick out that will I know this area here is not serve so what we do about that well we have BDG that's going to help us with that and I'm not going to come comment too much because he has his own statements to make but one of the things that we want and having this holistic approach is that we want to be able to have some KM disease that is commensurate with what his findings are around the state he's looking at every state I'm in every area in which we get those TMZ's will then no on a broader scale opposed to how we do it now just by application by application of who really is the air areas and the Arkansas that have these needs now with that our process is simple they can go ahead and I'm they must partner. With an icy must partner with a mayor or county judge. And the submit a joint application. We take the application the first thing we do is we review with see what kind of technology you're looking for making sure that there's not any conflicts within it up particularly as it pertains to the federal guidance which the pot of money that we're coming from once we look and find that there's no issues with that we then forward that information over to you a mess the idea child apartment we send it Senate there so they can do a technical review of that area and see whether or not. Their their application is feasible. Once they do that if there's some issues with it we don't automatically kick your application now we let the applicant know that these are the issues that we're having with it and that these are the things that need to be corrected before we can go for so we were very proactive in trying to work with people and trying to get them to understand of what we're looking for in Arkansas and so. If you a mess approves the program. Then we of course will then is approved for funding but will let me back up just one step one of the things we do is we look at their KMC's as well they're KMZ uses their project footprint how many people you're going to serve in that in that project footprint. And sometimes we may give up other competing projects and we look at all of those to make a determination of which project would be best for Arkansas which ones will give us the most bang for the Buck once we have established that then of course running it through you a mess we go ahead and we'll do funding at that point. Now with the funding we have you a mess they're the ones which they explained that they are the monitors up. Dave instituted a portal call Monday dot com. All the receipts go in through that portal. And so and it's understood by our grant agreement as well with these eyes peas that at the end of that project if they have not said expended all the funds that they were allowed it then they give those funds back. We saw what happened with the kit the cures act we did that same process we got money back from different eyes peas which we we reallocated as another grant for another community in the that's our way of trying to be good stewards of the money that we have so that is just not going to waste and this the same way with these are full funds also that any money that they use for a project that goes unexpended there to return to us and then we can do another project for their in the and that's what we're going to do we rely heavily as sort of a boots on the ground as far as them doing exactly what the stated in our application with UAMS UAMS is our boots on the ground to make sure that the equipment that they applied for is being used in the area that he said is going to be used in and for the amount that is going to be of use for so we try to make sure that everything runs accordingly and so far it has worked so. Now when I'm of jump a little bit ahead of the head of little just a little bit of BTG. Once we get that plan that holistic plant. Of the thought is that we're going to be aggressive in carrying that out we know that the you know the art of funds has a time limit on it It secretary presidents talked about so we don't have much time to sit sit back in and not execute that plan once the plan is done I plan on sitting with Lou and sitting with key people to work on an implementation plan that is aggressive in doing so I do With the added of C. tech to help with the administrative part of the rule connect grant that's going to help me free myself up to be able to do more and more out rich with different agencies and communities something that has been lacking something that I've heard from you all and that I respectfully acknowledge. So. We're all learning in this process as we go along Arkansas has made great leaps and bounds in where we work to where we are right now we need to continue to affordable minimum we have things in place to really make Arkansas shine above other areas more so to draw businesses to us as well. We're gonna work work hard and with your support we will be successful. And that's what that's what I have Mr secretary thank you Steven and and we'll just wrap there are no there's a lot of other presenters behind us when I want to monopolize the time but I just want to acknowledge the the partnership of the legislature on this and and I think meetings like this are extremely helpful so you know I think it's good for us to periodically come together to give updates of of where we are and where we currently stand but you know I think we're we're lockstep in this is is the legislatures worked on us as we develop the rules and then the subsequent emergency rules that had to reflect the cares and then the are both of funds obviously the governor's leadership on this and and thinking about broadband prior to the to the pandemic in getting this set up and so we had a structure in place has been important UAMS and what they do for us I know farm bureau has been a very active participant the the electric coops and then happy to bring and abroad to broadband development group as a consultant can help tie us all together to make sure moving in the right direction and again I appreciate the the time and the opportunity to speak here today and happy to answer questions under the flow if you want the rest the presenters to go if we get questions for us Mister chairman I'll to defer back to you on that. We have some in the queue I would ask what level of completion like the care shall I know the funding been there the allocated budget is those round one and round two to be those signs what level of completion are these projects let us Stephen speak specifically to that but it made me think another good point that now that the so much of the Arkansas underflow in we have the infrastructure packages out there what we're seeing is other states starting to emulate what Arkansas has done and set up programs like this so you know not only we kind of in that the shortage of supplies right now everyone knows the supply chain issues or running into but pretty soon it's going to be even shorter supply on labor who is able to do these type of projects so for us the you know we've we've leaned forward because we want to get as many these under contract as we can rather than you know you know how to get to the backline and the end of the queue for other states as they're starting to sign these contracts and do similar work in their state so that supply chain pension labor pains is going to be felt on these projects as well but Stephen can speak to a little bit more about where we stand with some of those cares projects in an Arbor ones on the cares project as I recall we're so we issued out seventy six of sixty four of them are officially completed I've gotten calls us saying that they're ready for the for you a mess to go out there and do the evaluation no project is completed and tell you a mess get their engineers out there to see if Arkansas citizens are getting what they're say they're they're getting from their application so that's a little bit of a slower process because they got a drive through the state to get that but I think well from what I'm hearing we'll be on task to get those remaining ones of the seventy six done but sixty four is the number that we have done is is that cares funding is that in December when is it. In the C. December committed by December and then expended by the end of March okay. all right. The. Representative love. Thank you Mr and for so thank you for the work that you're doing because this is something that is vitally needed I have my I have my own story if and I I live here in Little Rock but. I want to go back to Secretary present something that she said in written and defined broadband. In you were using the one hundred one hundred one hundred up one hundred down hi at this time. Well. I have some questions in regards to that because I'm reviewing some proposals right now to add to submit an application on behalf of Pulaski County. In not to get to any specific details of those proposals however we start when we begin to talk about the affordability price point. And the one hundred up one hundred down. In in reviewing the applications. You know I would say this and just and my own thoughts you know when you begin to talk about sixty seventy eighty ninety Bucks for average our tents and. That's not going to be what I would consider affordable internet service. In so. I guess number one I'm I'm looking for a little guidance on when you all are considering the affordable price point and I know that you know the county judges and mayors about the negotiating that with the provider but number one what are you all looking at on average is an affordable price point four in its service connections in the in DO is the minimum proposal that they can provide or the minimum package and they can provide as far as internet service in these proposals should that minimum should the floor B. one hundred one hundred or can they provide other packages with the and say is twenty five three are fifty five or whatever or is it just you know with this grant is in just one hundred one hundred is the basic. The minimum package. No it you can have various packages on it the way that we read the rule is that you have to offer it to okay to the people you can have packages lower or higher but you're going to have to offer the hundred by a hundred to the people okay this this this what I was. I was thinking about because I was like one hundred one hundred I'm looking at it as like is this affordable to average are tens and nine times out of ten is it's the what I would consider not going to be affordable so okay all right thank you all. Next is senator Hammer and I think you want to recognize a group that is here with us. Thank you Mr point personal privilege please yes thank you was out the whole while going shall we all received emails regarding doing interviews like to ask if you would occur Chris Skadden who is the instructor at lakeside high school for the broadcasting class Chris if you would stand please and you have students back there with you if you would have them stand as well they are actually competing for a C. span documentary competition and you saw other cameras set up out there they need some more interviews in order to help complete their quota so any members of everyone to be interviewed by a friendly media outlet here's your chance right here okay so if you would please give them a little time after this committee meeting so they can have the complete interviews that they need to get thank you all for being here today. Can I ask a question absolutely thank you thank you Mr. Thank you all you've got the number of households listed on your proof on your on your document D. all separate out the number of businesses because I know some areas can't get businesses in such as maybe a local store to put in because they don't have access to the internet to be able to upload you know their their inventory and and all that so do you break out the number of businesses that you provide services to. We don't break it out but of course the businesses there are businesses and many of the footprints that we have they will also get service in there but we've been going strictly by households because the senses information we use in making those calculations is is easier for us to figure out okay and then. How many completed projects did you reference while ago or projects that have been completed sixty four have any of those return money. Yes. I don't recall of which ones but I think we had a total of over four million dollars from the cares that was returned to us and we issued another grant of. That's okay if you can just if you in mind of like to get that maybe the chair would want that sent up to the committee members but I'd like to know the amount of money that's been returned from the completed projects please yes Sir and then. In a previous meeting I voiced concern I noticed that in the shovel ready projects there's a provider and I'll talk to you off line about it they don't have a real good reputation where they're providing service now want to consider when it comes to considering the awards of providers that are going to get more money how much do you weigh into the decision to award based on input that you've gotten from where they're already providing services and whether or not they're doing a good job to the customer base they have a lock. because it when we start issuing these awards I think they understand is not a good business practice to not deliver or not accomplish what they're trying to do now of course there's other issues that may be the cause of it but a feasibility study is what's required of them if they're going to submit a project to was we inspecting you've exercised due diligence on the. And if you haven't and we learned through this process that there's been a problem depending on the problem because we look at it on a case by case basis because every everything's different then that may go into somewhere affect okay and the last question is your very critical publicly about the award that we gave to lose group to be able to do this job at what's your experience been so far that you've been working with lose organization now having been as critical as you were publicly before. Me and BDG we sat down we spoke I'm in full support of BTG we're going to work together. We're going to get as much done as possible to serve the citizens of Arkansas and that is my main focus right now in doing that we we speak regularly ill let me know what's going on and we bounce information off of each other on what is the best way to do things so it at this point he is our consultant and I back him up and I'm going to do whatever I can to make sure this is a success thank you thank you Mr. Thank you senator From here out as a. Spectrum the presenters and trying to get through this I'm going to allow one question a follow up and you can get back in the queue if you have further right now is senator he'll. Thank you Sir now that a that goes into effect after me right now. The secretary Preston of unless you this question may deferred to you A. M. S. I'm not sure but I'm asking you because the last sales the need to when you were the point man and so I wanna start with you how are we doing the funding for these construction projects is that a fund X. amount after so much is completed we funding it up front at the end what is Ark more say a construction draw phase what what phases we have we're going we're not just throwing money at another lot of people getting into this business that do not have the money to operate and go with and we only those people doing the jobs because we I'm trying to see where we're going to be good stewards of the state's money. and we discussed this at length yesterday and in peer currently we are awarding the funds on the front end and then you a mess does come in and as Stephen alluded to earlier they have to submit their receipts and documentation UAMS audits that and pushes forward if if there's any issues or concerns we're working on a proposal now to maybe change that process up a little bit too put it more on a schedule as opposed to the up front as I mentioned we started this it was it was. as fast as we can to get the money out because of the cares had to be deployed in the ground and we wanted to have that done and we want to broadband access immediately so a lot of smaller companies it would have been an issue for them to not be able to have that mechanism but as we look at this this process going forward we always looking for ways to improve it and we've taken those those comments from the Senate yesterday and looking at ways to to improve that hope to have something back to legislature by Friday sale C. K. I would like to work with you on that but I do work at a bank and we don't give you the money up front okay you go to any construction job when the work is complete that's when you get the money if you're doing a farm improvement when you do the work then you get the money if we're gonna be good stewards of the state's money we make sure we take care of it in right now with what it I make sure I heard you were funding up front we are yes Sir. We're not being good stewards of state's money I'm sorry your no other way to put that thank you senator I deal next we will go to representative Cavenaugh. Thank you Mr chair I'm over here my question just really kind of goes to we talk about. Sorry Russia yeah. Okay sorry turn me off so when we talk about the shovel ready prod projects and we're going to serve so many are Kansans can you get us a number of how many of these are cans of had signed up for this broadband once it's been made available to everyone. I'm kind of piggy backing off of what representive love was talking about was the cost ability for the people to be able to tape it to afford it so we can spend all this money and get it out there I'm curious how many are actually signing up for it. I can issue out a letter to our warranties and asked them to submit me their numbers for the various areas and once we get those things I can make sure that I share that with you and rest of the committee members thank you so much. Thank you representative Cavenaugh next is represented right. Thank you Mr there is a two fold question fails You know you mention my it was two hundred seventy five million at up to this point and we had spent now. What I would kinda like to know is. The money that we are actually going into this with is this for our infrastructure. And once we get past that. It's completely off the bone the people that actually want the internet broadband is that right. That's correct a let Stephen time a little bit about the you be the program that you know that option right is something that is is we want to pay attention to to representative Cavenaugh asking questions to make sure the people are playing because we're getting the infrastructure of their we we got to go access so what now what is the adoption rate but there are some programs out there to assist with that are there are programs will within of course he knows the issues is affordability our education those are the top two issues with people taking up our broadband D. E. B. B. program is one that's really good they're offering fifty dollars a month to does that qualify those with low income housing That's a good process because it also allows up to a hundred dollars for things such as a laptop tablet or a desktop we're also having discussions with tennis about a potential for a program that may come forth it'll be in addition to what the E. B. B. has but that is still in in the top phase of it and we're hoping by maybe next month or something in it may be something that we can bring forward what we're looking for those ways to really make of broadband financially. Easy for those who really need it who may be having some financial challenges. For the folks that can't maybe thank that they can't afford this but would like to do this. And it actually is a part of what they're putting in for each household. How will that be paid if the person cannot afford. In other words you know if it cost sixty dollars a month and you got a low income how will that be Page where will that money come from to pay that bill. For them to have free innocent internet service on. Well what we're doing and I'm trying not to get it get ahead of will I've had discussions about with ten if. But if everything works accordingly. Like it should then people will least be able to get possibly up to four months. But. Because we're broadband to take care of it there's it's got to be affordable but I don't see how we can have a absolute Z. zero calls in perpetuity so. If we can get that program going and if if the committees can bless that once we work out the details of it. Then that be something that's going to be real beneficial when for Arkansas and they can use that program with the E. B. B. program as well so that's going to be an added benefit of an additional fifty dollars a month plus what they're giving up from that program once we work out the Kinks and get it set up so there's going to be a cost to broadband on it we're trying to make it easy on them as much as possible. Thank you representative Ryan next is represented right. Thank you Mr chair over here. just a quick a quick question kind of all over present capitals and just the the idea of funding recently I. I build the property and add to this property is a fortune area was kind of on a on a boundary of an underserved area and and served area in the internet service providers happen to run fiber right down the street and I called in and says I've got two competing companies want fiber one with regular co ax now it's you know it's me debating on which which monthly bill do I want to pay it on paper fiber paper co ax. And when I when I called to ask for service This Is Your driveway said seventeen hundred twenty feet off that one will be the cost share to get that service to your house I said okay let let me know how much that costs and I'll back to that in a. The bill that was going to come to me had I called for a fifty four dollar a month service was twenty six thousand dollars to get that service to my to my property so when I did the math starlink is a hundred dollars a month it is twenty one years of service I give a starling for that for that cost so my guess my question would be is of of the money that's been provided for all these expansions of services is or where does that file final mile stop and if that is the case as far as the owner of the property owner would be responsible for that distance is there a cut off point to where we have to go and get that that line to the Director house because we're talking real properties in this house sits on three acres so you build on the backside your properties you have a seventeen hundred twenty foot driveway so any any comment on that. It. It takes anywhere from about fifty two Seventy five thousand dollars to bore a mile fiber and if you have stone that's in there it can go up hi is a over two hundred thousand dollars just to board out there so that didn't surprise me that they would charge you that amount of money just to get you a line in there the best thing to do in that situation is if you're in that area that's a community that's already unserved is to basically apply for grant that will cover that area where would you in and those other underserved areas allow us to evaluate that is that's a large calls when any one person to do it we're we're not rich we we're we're servants on there and so while we have resources available I think the best thing to do is if we get a. Possibly coordinate with one another and we can or maybe let BDG NO exactly what your issue is on that and maybe there's a plan that could be instituted that will cover your needs so people won't have to pay that ridiculous amount of money which I understand why it is but for just a simple consumer for you know I fifty plus dollar package that's a lot. Follow Mister chair just to just the the finite that question if you have a you know in my areas terrain challenges I can see why providers don't want to go into challenging terrain but we're talking about these open areas in south Arkansas or or the rice areas of Arkansas and you have to you know hundred acres and there's ten homes on and there's a single shot right down the middle of it that's an easy run to knock that out and to run fiber straight down that road but if each of these homes are sitting a mile off that road. Or is that individual gonna responsible for those runs down their driveway or is that part of the improvement of this grant money. We'll when we issue a grant and it has a footprint in any respecting those houses within that footprint to have fiber. So all they have to do is be able to come out and connect up to it because your if you're within that footprint in your driveway is extended far from the from the street itself well. We're expecting you to connect those people not say well we didn't know it was that long that's your obligation if it's within the footprint you need to be served. Thank you represent right next to represent Hawks. Thank you Mr I appreciate being close to the end because we've alluded to a lot of these but do you guys FOR C. any other rules changing for the grant process or any changes coming that you guys say that haven't been mentioned or alluded to already. Any rule changes to the yes it to the grants I I mean I'm I'm sure as we get the the guidance from the US department of commerce on the infrastructure bill and what guidelines that has will probably have to update or rules so I think I mean this isn't you and ever changing involving process that the rules will be updated and just to put Senator Hill spoke about we want to you know add in some of protections on the front end as well so there's going to be continue to be changes as we look to improve the program. Nothing specific at this time other than what we're working on with the the Senate in terms of of those up front costs. Thank you gentlemen remove on to to real ID program with Dr Joseph Stanford. Just go ahead entities yourself and you're welcome proceeding yes Sir thank you very much my name's Joe is a Sanford I'm the director of the institute for digital health innovation you may want may want to pull that thing up a little bit closer to you yes there's a better yes thank you very much my name is Joseph Sanford I'm the director for the institute for digital health and innovation at UAMS I also served as the chief clinical informatics officer for UAMS. so I was just here today to speak to you all about you I'm asking the institute's role in broadband in recent history particular including the rule ID program I was also asked if I could speak on some slides that I showed at the connectivity summoned up relating to national broadband maps for those that are not familiar digital health individual health institute encompasses the integration of any digital tool computers mobile phones internet access wearable devices such as your or your I watch or a smart. Blood pressure monitoring tool wait blood pressure glucose control things like that and we look to integrate all of that in the most effective clinical care that we can at the institute we do this through real time interactive video patient consultations and educational and research curriculum overall our goal here is to optimize all of the software devices in human interactions that we can to improve health and wellness. All right so what does that have to do with broadband the broadband backbone is how we deliver the services and so we became interested as an organization and that it starting back in two thousand and three but became particularly interested in two thousand ten when we were awarded hundred two million dollars the top grant to expand out tell you mission telecommunications opportunities. Hi that took the form of the UAMS Ewing program map of which you can see on your screen and it really serves as the core team by which we begin developing technical expertise for broadband deployment of particulars relates to healthcare in particular as it relates to the Arkansas real connect and real broadband ID programs is our team of technical reviewers that we can deploy to projects as needed. this brings me to the rule broadband ID expenses trust fund grant this was approved in April twenty twenty I to help cities incorporated town council as an unincorporated communities conduct broadband due diligence business studies the studies are required for future grant and loan applications it covers a number of eligible costs including full feasibility determinations including economic business plans twenty year financial break even analyses competitive broadband analyses demographic work with comparison to other projects across the state construction plans to maximize return and announces a federal funding opportunities using consultative services as well as legal counsel for those interested in learning more detail are no foe is on our website at I. D. H. I. dot UAMS dot EDU hi this is administered through the state of Arkansas and managed by the institute it had a two million dollar reward budget with in law maximum number of thirty grants with a maximum out per award of seventy five thousand dollars to date we have awarded twenty grants there are none in the hopper we have awarded a one point three million dollars and there is a little over seven hundred twenty six thousand dollars available to spend. Two points that were mentioned earlier what happens if funds are remaining in the process we review that to the same degree in terms of invoicing and expenses on a line item basis and we have had funds referred back to us to be eligible for other broadband grants our role is briefly summarized here on the floor diagram once we get in the know fo similar to the archosaurs fire colleagues in commerce we work with them interactively in order to make sure that they have a all of the questions answered and the best application that they can have before final feasibility is determined so that has a resultant resubmission process and then once it needs for potential approval we draft our legislative recommendation to y'all for award recommendation once or if approval is obtained then we work with them in an interest process to issue the PO to the awarding this follows are you a mess procurement practices and then do the final study review and intermittent monitoring I have spending at four and six months and that process involves getting invoices back comparing against the submitted budget validating those invoices for legitimacy and if we have any questions working with the grantee to identify and resolve and reconcile those and then as I said if there's any remainder I requesting those funds back. For the Arkansas rule connect program which I won't spend much time on the slide because our college of commerce covered this very much in detail we provide two roles we are in a review role for technical feasibility and in a monitoring role I'll call out one discrepancy you may notice that my numbers are on the budget are different than Secretary of Preston's that's because they have the most recent information I was working off of files I had available to me at the time and this is a very active project. So I would defer to them for accuracy in that regard. Our review role is largely as described once Commerce sends us the packet we do a technical feasibility review this involves as judge forged mention several iterations potentially on questions answers to make sure that we understand and agree of the equipment they're proposing to deploy where they'd want proposing to deploy it and that will meet all the necessary objectives of the program and then after that is complete we send it back to the department of commerce for ward. On monitoring this is the more involved process so once the award has been issued we get them set up for the next step in the process of the monitoring that involves creating as judge force mentioned on Monday dot com account to be able to send us files for review among other things we review the project updates invoices comparing to the application of information we gather during the initial meeting and then meet with the authorities on a monthly or quarterly basis to do invoice review so I'll speak a little bit more in the fiscal monitoring in detail what happens is the receipts and invoices submitted by the authorities to our file system usually comes with the spreadsheet of expansion expenses with notes to let us know if there's a substitution of equipment that occurred this happens occasionally due to supply chain issues where switches routers things like that may not be available we validate each of the substitution for appropriateness to make sure that it's going to meet the needs of the project then once we have all of that in order and compared to the original budget list any further discrepancies beyond that that doesn't seem to make sense to a dollar amount say they got a cheaper price on something then they budgeted for we make sure that that's all squared up with all the receipts and then after everything is reconciled and the project is ready to be flagged as complete. We'll send all that to judge fortune at the department of commerce so that there if there is any funding remaining the art program can't requested that back in terms of the site visit that they mentioned that is something that occurs currently at the end of the project that is an in person visit to the site to verify the equipment is installed is performing appropriately and has speed tests that validate that they are achieving the targeted speeds may set out to build. Lastly just to go through the FCC and other data on what the federal government sees us as having for broadband deployment this is the broadband map at broad and mapped out SEC dot gov I pulled up a specific filter on it since the new definition of broadband is one hundred one hundred the only filter they had that was similar was one hundred ten it's kind of a difficult map to read but the take home point is that as of their data for all modalities this is cable fiber fixed wireless satellite and other acct cheating speeds greater than or equal to one hundred ten as of December twenty twenty. Only a twenty six point six percent of the Arkansas population covered had no providers offering the speed. Forty two point four nine percent had only one provider thirty point one five percent had two and only six point seven six percent had three or more providers competing in this space. For the national telecommunications and information administration this is data that I presented to the connectivity summit. broadband services in Arkansas on fixed broadband on the left we have the FCC form four seventy seven which is no provider reporting twenty five three which is again significantly slower than the current one hundred one hundred standard that's at the census block level red is bad in this circumstance that is areas without coverage that data is from early twenty twenty in the middle is a Okowa median speed test below twenty five slash three that is also from early twenty twenty the census tract level for those that are wondering what Oakland is if you ever run speed test dot net that is the speed test service that many people used to test their own internet connection particularly interesting to me this is November twenty nineteen data from Microsoft was they push out software updates to the market offering system which is the most common operating system used and probably the world would certainly America they monitor on their own servers what kind of speech they're sending out to all of these locations and to them this is where seventy five percent of the devices that connect to Microsoft updates or getting speeds below twenty five megabit per second so that is a very interesting real world test of the experienced internet speed. Lastly I because mobile is a growing part of the conversation include some screenshots of this same FCC dataset showing four G. coverage as of may fifteenth of this year for eighteen T. T. mobile and Verizon and the respective company colors. with that I'm happy to answer any questions and thank you very much for your time thank you Sir we have three in the queue Senator Hammer. Thank you Mr. When you all these projects like this hundred twenty four million were being asked to approve those all come by you for review for reading this is that correct yes Sir those would all have technical review by my team. And for those that are repeat offenders wanting more money. You heard the testimony while ago by judge porch that there's consideration that they are providing service somewhere else that is not satisfactory to those that are getting it do you review that or how does that weigh into your recommendation to them that their shovel ready based on past performance or present performance in areas where there providing service given that our review is one of an extremely technical nature for feasibility within the project I don't believe that we wait past performance in our recommendation we look to commerce to make that decision our thank you thank Mr thank you senator Hammer. next is. Representative Ladyman. Thank you Mr we're I have a question about the ID H. I grant you talked about on your first use lives there in you say you were awarded the twenty grants thirty or bailable enters records million dollars still remaining what entities received those grants I mean where those hospitals were those providers who who is who who would apply for those grants yes Sir thank you for the question those grants are going to mostly cities and counties across the state of Arkansas. So they have to stab is a need I mean. What's the primary purpose of that grant the primary purpose of the grant is for these under served communities they don't have to be incorporated communities but underserved groups of people to To apply for future funding down the line for federal grants so that they can define exactly how underserved they are and quantify that so they can take that data and she wanted into a existing grant application to facilitate those. Mr one more quick Paula you can get back in the queue that are thank you I want to representative Cavenaugh. Thank you Mr my question is there in the audit that you do and all these projects how many are not finishing the project as presented that were given the money for. I'm not aware of any that have completely not finished but I don't have that information immediately available so I would have to get with my team to make sure we have many in the final review stage I don't I can't say that there's not any at risk but I'm not aware of any at this time that have failed can you please give us that information yes and my real quick follow up is how come we're only doing the audit at the time that the project is finished why don't we do it during the build out so that if there is an issue we catch it before it becomes a real problem. So when you say audit in this circumstance are you speaking of specifically the site visit or the invoice auditing process both so we do the invoice auditing process throughout it's a monthly or quarterly processes they submit invoices to make sure they're on track in that regard it varies a little bit because some invoices are net thirty net sixty so they're not always turned in on a monthly basis the site visit Process is an expense and in terms of keeping expenses down in the interest of the the overall program budget a final site visit to verify everything is in good working order which deem to be appropriate time. Thank you yes ma'am. The representative makes. Hi Mister I just for a quick question of the purpose of the ID program primarily is to help these entities draw down federal funds do you have any idea how much federal funds we've been able to leverage so far as part of this program. It's good question I'm I'm not a where of any independent federal funds and I say independent deliberately because depending on how you treat cares Act another pastor funds the state you could incorporate those right now maybe. Right bar barring does not like art often USDA and all those any ideas all right those none have been disclosed to us and they would have incentive to do so because there's a potential follow on funding for organizations or groups that you federal funding not thank you. Senator English. Yes thank you so just kind of follow up on our representative makes I think a lot of people don't really didn't remember that we did the role ID with that two million dollars in it with the and that was basically before all this federal money came up after co that started this was right before COVID started so we had two million dollars which would help communities have the expertise that they don't usually have to be able to do the engineering studies and all the things that are required we are going to apply for USDA grant or department of commerce grant or whatever but once that was established in we got those those funds and some of those projects started or those applications started then all of this other federal money came and I'm not sure that too many communities have applied have used those that that information to apply for other federal grants causes other state money was there so but I think that's that's something we've kind of all sort of forgotten in the in the rush of all this other federal money is that before all that money came along we did we had put together that program which will allow communities to be able to get their act together and and have the expertise to be able to apply for a federal grant so what this money is gone all this federal money maybe that but that money is still out there so communities could still do that use those resources. Thank you senator English Senator Hammer. Thank you I think this was representative Cavenaugh that hit on this man to go on of the hundred twenty four million dollar that you determine are shovel ready and the provider groups they're listed on there have any of them or any of them currently in a position that they have not completed their previous work satisfactory to what was the contract terms going into that work they have now. So that I understand your question correctly Sir are you asking is anyone applying for more money with attending project not yet completed that is not satisfactory based on your final investigation your final whatever I'm not aware of that but I can definitely get back to you with specific information okay I'd like to know that because I think that would have some bearing as to whether or not. Me personally would want to vote to give them any more money if they're not good satisfactory standing with you now for the work that they're doing and it's you know been completed not completed as was originally agreed to understood Sir are thank you. Represent Ladyman. Thank you Mr of I have a follow up question on my question earlier the I. D. H. I grants it does have health the US digital health so does it have to be a health connection to that or is that just in general title no Sir that's a general title so that we connect to a hospital or you can just be a local county or city yes Sir that's correct thank. Thank you Sir I see no more in the queue and the we need to for time purposes we need to move on thank you for your presentation the next is the State broadband plan Lou McAllister. With the if you would whenever you get up there. Mr McAllister just introduce yourself and tell everybody who you're with. Your term. I thank you I'm Lou McAllister CEO of broadband building group and I appreciate the invitation to be here today looking for two of this thing with you about what we're doing. You're welcome to proceed okay. First of all what to do thank you many of the members here for their help in getting the project started off and I could go through several names and and what they've done to our to help launch the project and and help us get to the point where we are today in particular senator pitches helped to send Sebastian County get a a meeting scheduled Senator English has been very active in attending meetings and working with us and sending us complaints from other folks in her district who are needing help and and looking for some assistance senator Hammer has has been very helpful insulin County getting meetings scheduled in getting us in front of a lot of the folks down there in a in offering advice we have the pleasure of being with them representative makes a Jones for a at I. economic development conference for we we share the panel representative love in his capacity and last the county was very helpful on some some grant work that we did and studying some of the the census tracts and plaster county the representative Hodges and and I've been speaking about going to northeast Arkansas to Blytheville just by representative Ryan are or scheduling some stuff in his his area representative and and and I are talking about three census tracts and per her area and that we have studied and and how to get service in there Senator Irvin has been of particularly helpful in stone county and her area and and giving us introduced folks so um we're very grateful for the help that that we've had out of members of this body. To get us introduced to get our the word out and get us get us going out there is listening to secretary Preston. Any talk about starting off the four million dollars and how we we're now at about four hundred million dollars with another four hundred million dollars in the pipeline so doing that math really quick and you all can bear with me if I don't get math exactly right that sounds like a two hundred fold increase from four million eight hundred million sounds like two hundred times more. And and it sounds like a lot of money and it is a lot of money But I was thinking about what good internet access seems like it was in twenty years ago in two thousand two thousand and one when good internet access was a fifty six kilobits per second dial up modem. We thought that was pretty fast stuff. Today the the minimum is absolute minimum twenty five megabits that's a No that's a a four hundred. Fold increase and if we go to one hundred by one hundred which is what we're really talking about that's a two thousand fold increase and we have folks all over the place that want and get gigabit per second internet service that's a twenty thousand time increase in twenty years. If we're thinking about the next twenty years where we going to be. What's it gonna be like. That's what we're working on that's what our plan is about and that's why we are are working on this stuff so we are from. Done several things so far we have to get ramped up in our first month so we have engaged with several statewide organizations including chambers the state library the associate counties the municipal levy pay a EA the sheriff's association for Arkansas her on board how we're talking to the the black mayors Association we're trying to get the word out part of this has to do with identifying of certain judge porch was talking about communication and in collaboration and cooperation so we gave this a name we've called this a R. broadband mail this gives everybody a chance to identify with the program and what with what we're trying to accomplish give us all a common language talk on. And that's where we started with this we we have completed the staffing we have to hire a few folks to to help us out with the some of the the tasks we have our logo designed we we have created social media awareness and presence with Facebook and Twitter and link them. And we have created the engineering timeline ensuring processes has begun and we develop the outline for the master plan for what the the the final document will look like in and how that will go forward. I'd like to to. Talk about that a little bit more in that these are just ramp up organizing activities these are done these are behind us and we'll we'll move forward from this So far we have visited nineteen counties. We've interviewed over six hundred folks individually and we have some some Amazing Stories about what people have with their experiences like and some of the stories are are pretty grim frankly if somebody has great internet service at an affordable price from a provider that they love there's no news there. That's easy data defined in there's no news there the the hard data defined are the data we're the stories from negative what I think of this negative negative data. They don't have access they don't have affordability they don't have Desire frankly in some cases to even use the internet. So that's what those interviews are about our farm bureau has been great partner in this so far we've had we're desist ten but we there's hardly a day that goes by that we don't have a farm bureau meeting and some county and they've been terrific partners and leading us to be invited into their counties and speak to their or their members we've reached out to. Probably now every representative and senator in the state asking for help in your districts and we we appreciate that we are talking the county judges and mayors we're with the State Library a group we've been interviewing businesses educators and and again this to get stories We were in a librarian Dardanelle. Excuse me it's hard for me to. To talk about this week's. Exactly We were in a in a library and are now in. A lady was in there on the internet searching for a job. She had our lost her job. she has stage four cancer that she can't get treated. And she was in the library on the internet because she had lost her internet service at home she had signed up with a provider on a under a budget plan that she could afford a thirty dollar a month plan. And about three months into having service she got a bill for over seven hundred dollars. And she called to get a payment plan worked out and get some help and by the time she got that done the bill had grown to over eleven hundred dollars. I'm. There's something about that that strikes me is is not being quite right. there's a a fairness issue an equity issue there that that seems to me to be way out of whack What we're trying to do with our study what what I think we all have the opportunity in this room to do is create accessibility for everybody adopt ability and affordability and those those are the kind of the three the three keys for us the the analysis is very data intensive. It's gap analysis were looking for holes or looking for under served. Not served but we're looking for gaps in affordability as well we studied one census tract where there seems to be a lot of accessibility a lot of of of service. It seems to be a lot of speed since there seems to become competent maybe even competition. But one of the census blocks in that sense is current in that census tract had a median income of twenty three thousand dollars and change in the average price for good internet in that the messages practice about a hundred dollars a month I would suggest to you that that's not affordable. judge portraits talking about affordability a little while ago and on a national basis affordability is generally pegged at between two and three percent of gross income. In Arkansas is we've been interviewing folks in asking about affordability it seems that for our state affordability is probably somewhere between one and one and one and a half percent of median income. Now maybe yeah I don't know why that is exactly but that was just in that one census block got twenty three thousand dollars a year median income that affordability is in the twenty dollar a month range not the hundred dollar a month range. The technical activities that were involved in we we. Did engage a subcontractor called often salon they are a Boston based global telecommunications consulting firm I think the premier telecommunications consulting firm in the world they give us the ability to scale quickly and we want to do this study in six months to every single address in the state. And we needed more horsepower to do that they have that horsepower they are a great engineering firm and technical firm and data analysis firm and that's to we're using as we've gone around the state we've interviewed twelve providers so far I I intend to interview all the providers so far we've got twelve of them as soon as we walk in the room and start talking about what we're doing and why we're doing it they start pulling out their maps and rolling him out and showing us where they're doing work where they've asked for grants where they've been awarded what holes are left what needs are still left in their opinions and I think we're getting great supporting great cooperation out of a provider companies. we've created some databases for the engineering input. and we started an address by address statewide research plan so that we know that when somebody says our care when a provider says an area is served that's fine except that that doesn't tell you if this specific address in that area to survey and I'll give you an example my mother lives in hot springs if you look in her neighborhood our neighborhood is served but if you look at her address it's not served her street is not sure and it's a it's a nice neighborhood but is not served so we're going address by address finding out what providers are actually per provide at an address in what they actually charge for this is very labor intensive and difficult process but were that's what we're doing. And we have developed our high level design timeline. So very quickly I will say that our project is on track we've ramped up our first month we've gotten great great input from a lot of folks and it's really from you are you all helping us out to providers helping us out to non governmental organizations to you know people in the communities it takes a lot of folks to do this and and it's it's going really well and in my opinion and I think we're going to be we're on target to deliver the the master plan the strategy by early April as we've been asked to do. And with that I will stop talking and. We can talk about questions. Thank you Sir Senator Hammer. Thank you a. Quick question and maybe a little little long run that how many how many surveys have you receive back so far because that was you know part of the initial discussion on the bridge on the ground was back getting service back yeah we are we have a little over four hundred in hand right now we've sent out a few thousand and we have about four hundred in hand and we get more every day. Okay Sullivan share your committee Q.. Go ahead. So. The feedback that you're getting just like the example that you just shared and the cost that went up and I'm thinking we should hear about toward a hundred twenty four million dollars what we're being asked and your support around the corner there do you are you communicating the results of your feed back to either UAMS or to Mr porch so as it might have a weighted factor in whether or not we're going to give more money to providers that currently are not satisfying the customer based as it is and I I realize the importance of getting all the stuff out there but at the same time if we get it all out there and then either people can't afford it or the service is not what it's supposed to be we've helped enhance that poor service that that's what I want to know is where do we have a stop gap in there between forty more money based on what you're collecting your data and how's it being shared out so as judge for said he and iron regular communication I cannot say that. Yes I've done that exact thing the way you describe it Senator Hammer in your in your question I think that. given your question that's something we ought to do and and I will take that on to do that a report that the judge for each in real time. What what we have found out Is this so far as we talk writers every provider we talked to. If from their perspective is doing a great job. And. of course of course right but when rent communities talking to their subscribers to their or their customers. Be there might be a there might be a pretty big gap between what the provider thinks they're doing and what their customers think they're doing so I I think that we need to be very mindful of customer satisfaction. Reports or net net promoter kinds of scores. And I think that's something we've got to make sure we're we're factoring in on awards and and and I will take that on to a report that the judge fortune specifically that be great because I want the money to go to the providers that are taking care of people where they ought to and not just anybody else's just grabbed the money and run it absolutely thank you very thank you thank you senator a representative in it. Yes. Thank you Mr chair I have a question it might P. back on what senator just ask Say for instance I have adequate broadband at my residence but may be two or three streets down or maybe another neighborhood that's in close proximity to me might receive it but not receive it is my to have a great. Prabang connection connection what are your what do you plan on doing like quality control like making sure everybody has equal or equality meaning has it has a good broadband experience if I have a good one but my neighbor is not so so what are you all going to do to make sure that is is even all across the board. One of the things that we're doing with with the study is is looking at all the various technologies that are available and and what is it gonna take to be quality service what is what does that mean right in terms of speed and price and and that sort of thing. But at the end of the day we're not going to be the we're not going to be the provider of that service we're going to be the provider ripple report in and I think this is a conversation that that we've had informally with your amongst people who post like Senator English myself or Senator Hammer myself or Secretary Walters or critters. We're. When we we we put grant money out there and we give it to a provider and services created. We need them to have a mechanism in place to track back quality track that customer satisfaction make sure that the delivery is there and I think I think that was addressed by Secretary poor are of Preston and judge port I think we've got to make sure that we double up our efforts on that. Right to make sure that people really are getting what we said they're going to get and what if that speed up that's price of that's quality of that's responsive nis reliability all those things go into that and I think we've got to make sure we have those mechanisms in place. Representative talks. Thank you Mr McAllister first of all want to say thank you for your testimony today and you've really shown the love people through your testimony and I want to appreciate that and your hard work they're doing question is is how can we ensure competition you know. For lower prices how can we see that happen. That's a really interesting question and I think it's a I think it's a I think I think it can be a tricky question as well right now our policy is that we we give one grant and one place to get one thing done we don't want to duplicate spending we don't want to be wasteful right we want to be we want to be good stewards and spend wisely and well. Everybody and everybody agrees with that. The the sort of necessary in result of spending one time is often that we've created a monopoly there. So we don't so by definition we don't have competition there may be a mechanism of where we can revisit that policy or read this at that idea about how we make grants and how we look forward. To an area where we can perhaps create competition because we we need to do sort of in my opinion we need we and us I say we because it's it's all of us but ultimately it comes down to decision makers and policy policy makers really. Are we going to create monopolies and then try to come up with the sword some sort of oversight scheme that manages that sort of stuff so that we get the right quality at the right price where are we going to foster a competitive landscape we're then they become sort of self regulating through competition right and I don't I don't have an exact answer to that today but but I do think that there's a I do think there's a path for it but I don't have the answer today. Sir. Thank you Sir we have no one else in the queue and we have one more presenter and that is Phil hi all with the farm bureau connectivity summit and direction. The cynosure self I don't think you have a power point or anything in this school okay you're welcome to keep this shortness lunchtime I'm told how with Arkansas farm bureau I'm the assistant director of local affairs and rural development without public affairs and government relations team of will post op cheers thank you in committee thank you for having me here today to talk about this I will in the public affairs and government relations departments to advocate on behalf of the hundred ninety thousand members we have an Arkansas farm bureau and we advocate for them on the issues they say are important to them and popping and it's one of those issues this is a copy by a policy handbook. That we work off of and when it comes to broadband members say they want affordable and reliable high speed internet access throughout the state. So with the supported by members. The state legislature and government Arkansas farm bureau organized and hosted the Arkansas connectivity's summit that was held in hospitals on September eighth and a lot of your many of you attended that and the goal of the summit was to bring together stakeholders in the public and private sector to address the lack of connective itty in Arkansas and how to help the state addressed this issue over two hundred fifty people attended this and we had over thirty vendors and sponsors that supported this event. We invited many officials such as Federal Communications Commission commissioner Brendan Carr came down from DC a governor Asa Hutchinson spoke representative congressman French hill also came and spoke at this a commissioner because spoke of the challenges with Bob with Barbie and deployment on the national level he specially spoke of workforce and supply chain issues and I know there's Senator English and Hammer have been working on to workforce development. With that and we also had Dr Joseph Stanford who spoke really of talk about the impact of broadband on healthcare we had amber Gregory from the state libraries talk about how would impasse a libraries and so this is just a way for us to showcase a highlight the gaps and how it affects everyone in Arkansas. And we also had the we invited the Senate and house committees on agriculture and education to hold a joint meeting in which a judge porch gave an update on the part be in office commissioner Brandon Presley from the Mississippi public service commission in Missouri state representative Louise Ricks also gave insight on how this states have addressed this issue respectively. We believe the summit was successful in bringing together these groups who are now working together to better part and S. as in this state. The future direction of Arkansas farm bureau in part be and is to be supportive of the state's plan to hire a consultant to create a master plan to outline how the state can best address this issue the need of a master plan is necessary and outlined in the gaps in broadband coverage as it relates to mapping and service provided the boots on the ground approach. The the pop and development group is taken will allow for more accurate feedback other when I've talked to the State Farm bureaus about this such as in Missouri are what they have taken a similar approach and set at the county level engagement was the best way to approach the broadband issue. And in the timing of this plan cannot be better with the passage of the infrastructure bill and we'll put Arkansas in a better position as it relates to federal funding opportunities farm bureau has offered his help in organizing meetings on the county level and as of today. Our offices and members opposed to the pop and development group in fifteen separate council meetings I members have appreciated having their voices heard by the group in a very supportive of these meetings especially in the rural parts of the state. We will continue to offer assistance and resources to the park and development group in there. Bob and development group in their boots on the ground approach we will also continue to help in any way we can to support the state legislature department of commerce and the governor in connection for your cans and the high speed reliable affordable internet and not that's all I have been happy to take any questions you might have thank you. Appreciate your efforts I see no one in the queue. Really Representative makes and I have talked about this together and a possibility of of having a providers and going around the state with this committee and giving the. Get in our committee to ask questions of providers and and get updates. Thank you to if there's no opposition to that with the Joint Committee we may proceed with that after the holidays and And try to get feedback you know from those providers in the communities that think they're on the really did a good job and I will compare that to what what we come up with the with our master plan and and see what he he has a you know see how those coincide so appreciate the farm bureau's efforts in the US and I appreciate all the members. Get everybody wants to get to lunch so don't forget to the there's some young folks out there I know there's some folks in here that like to be in front of the camera lot more than I do that when they were they would appreciate they would appreciate the are a support in that thank you Sir and thank you members and we are adjourned. Yeah.