The MN Broadband Task Force met today. They heard from Communication Service for the Deaf and The Pew Charitable Trusts and got a view from the frontlines and researchers.

The big news with BEAD is that they have announced their “threshold” bid. That’s the bid that makes them look closer at a bid per location, or ask the bidder to make changes or it might even pragmatically indicate that a project will not get funded – depending on how over the threshold it is. Locations that are not able to lower the bid to meet the BEAD threshold may go to satellite.

1:00 p.m. – 1:10 p.m.   Welcome Teddy Bekele, Chair, Minnesota Governor’s Task Force on Broadband

1:10 p.m. – 1:15 p.m.   Approval of minutes from June and August Task Force meetings

1:15 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.  Communication Service for the Deaf (CSD) with Cameron Papazis, Business Development Manager and Irisa MacAulay, Business Development Associate

• 11 million deaf people in the US – 1.1 million in MN
• There’s a broadband range of supportive needs and solutions. (Signing, lip reading, deaf/blind folks)

Questions:

• Is there software that can translate ASL in real time?
  AI is learning English and it’s not ready for signed languages yet. ASL is totally different from English – a dropped mouth means something and there are no commas.
• My school has an ASL learning program. Are you able to find people when you need them?
  We are well connected and it could possibly help connect others
• How does broadband impact the deaf community?
  CSD applied for IIJA funding and it was cut. That’s how we connected with MN and the Task Force. The deaf community is very reliant on broadband. Who can they connect with to get connections and tech support?

2:00 p.m. – 2:15 p.m.                  Break

2:15 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.                  The Pew Charitable Trusts with Jake Varn, Associate Manager, Broadband Access Initiative

Questions:

• How does the FCC change in 2024 impact the state broadband grant? Are more areas now considered underserved due to the change? Does it impact BEAD in any way?
  It doesn’t. The FCC updated their rules on things that had already happened. BEAD already had the 100/20 definition for broadband.
• Are you seeing more people lift their speed goals? Or just discussion?
  It’s a long-term goal. We see it but without a deadline.
• Is symmetrical becoming a bigger deal?
  It’s important to keep an eye on – especially with growing AI. It may become a requirement to live in modern life. Look at the demands.

3:00 p.m.—3:20 p.m.                  Office of Broadband Development Overview + Updates with Bree Maki, Executive Director, OBD

• Closing out round 7 (Border to Border) and round 2 (Line extension) Progress is being made
• Working with rounds 8-10 and 1-3 too.
• Work with Connection Nation on compliance checks.
• New staff is doing a great job. We see lots of permitting issues getting solved. Maybe she could present here.
• Line Extension round 4 has kicked off on Sept 15. Bidding window will open Sep 26 – after location challenges. Trying to get where BEAD can’t get. Will award $3.5 million.
• Plan to do Line Extension round 5 with funding unspent from Border to Border grants.
• Digital Equity Grant – we’re finalizing the closing. It was all due Sep 6. NIST needs to approve final payment. We reserved a right to regain funding if things change with the feds.
• BEAD (see PPTs)
• Working with NTIA on curing
• As of today – the thresholds for cost is $20,000 per BSL (plus 15 percent – which is actually about $23,000 per BLS) – anything over that is now considered excessive
• We need to get documentation to justify the higher costs.
• For projects that are much larger than $20,000 – it requires an excessive amount of work to justify
• We will work with providers to lower the higher bills. If we can’t get the number under that $23,000 – it will go to satellite.
• Any bid over $10,000 per location will need details to justify cost
• We recognize that $36,000 per location can be legitimate in some areas but it seems that NTIA is not interested in looking too far into it.
• Will have a webinar on Wednesday for more info https://events.gcc.teams.microsoft.com/event/969c8c97-f801-40a8-b890-29dff04f4c0b@eb14b046-24c4-4519-8f26-b89c2159828c
• Over $20k needs to be negotiated below $20k or needs extraordinary circumstances for why the costs are what they are – which is subject to NTIA acceptance of the reason. If NTIA does not accept the reasons cost are higher than their math indicates they should be, we need to negotiate with other applicants. If no provider is interested, the locations could go unfunded.

Questions

• How did the meetings hosted at the end of August/early September go? Did you have many folks from the public attend?
  It went well. Visited several different communities.
• Is accountability built into BEAD for the providers?
  We are using our own processes – and it seems to be working because we ask for more than they might. Full everything has not been released yet, which makes things difficult for the providers.
• How many of our bids were over $23,000?
  Four projects are $20,000. One project is more than $23,000. And 25 projects with bids between $10-20,000.
• Might we be able to shift some of that funding around?
  Probably not. So our final BEAD funding to the state is likely to go down.
• Are there deadlines?
  90 days to review and react for them – so they have until first week of December.

From the chat:

• Thank you Cam and Irisa for your time! As someone who has had limited exposure to community members who are deaf/hard of hearing this was a wonderful and educational presentation. Thanks for asking the question around broadband access, Teddy – as that was what I was going to ask.
• How does the FCC change in 2024 impact the state broadband grant? Are more areas now considered underserved due to the change? Does it impact BEAD in any way?
• Thanks for joining us Jake – great information!
• Way to go OBD team!
• Anything above $10k per BSL needs additional explanation to justify the cost.
• Amazing work, Bree and team!
• How did the meetings hosted at the end of August/early September go? Did you have many folks from the public attend?
• Link to 9/24 webinar: https://events.gcc.teams.microsoft.com/event/969c8c97-f801-40a8-b890-29dff04f4c0b@eb14b046-24c4-451…
• Microsoft Virtual Events Powered by Teams
• Microsoft Virtual Events Powered by Teams
• And the link to the OBD BEAD webpage: https://mn.gov/deed/programs-services/broadband/bead/
• Over $20k needs to be negotiated below $20k or needs extraordinary circumstances for why the costs are what they are – which is subject to NTIA acceptance of the reason. If NTIA does not accept the reasons cost are higher than their math indicates they should be, we need to negotiate with other applicants. If no provider is interested, the locations could go unfunded.
• 9,937 locations
• Thank you Bree and Jenn for all your hard work! I know this has been a very taxing process and difficult on many levels. We are very lucky to have this team in MN!