Legislature(2023 - 2024)BARNES 124
02/15/2023 03:15 PM House LABOR & COMMERCE
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| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| Presentation(s): Overview from State of Alaska Broadband | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
| + | TELECONFERENCED | ||
| + | TELECONFERENCED |
ALASKA STATE LEGISLATURE
HOUSE LABOR AND COMMERCE STANDING COMMITTEE
February 15, 2023
3:16 p.m.
DRAFT
MEMBERS PRESENT
Representative Jesse Sumner, Chair
Representative Mike Prax
Representative Dan Saddler
Representative Stanley Wright
Representative Ashley Carrick
Representative Zack Fields
MEMBERS ABSENT
Representative Justin Ruffridge, Vice Chair
COMMITTEE CALENDAR
PRESENTATION(S): OVERVIEW FROM STATE OF ALASKA BROADBAND
- HEARD
PREVIOUS COMMITTEE ACTION
No previous action to record
WITNESS REGISTER
THOMAS LOCHNER, Director
Alaska Broadband Office
Department of Commerce, Community, and Economic Development
Anchorage, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Gave a PowerPoint presentation titled
"Alaska Broadband Office Update."
ACTION NARRATIVE
3:16:07 PM
CHAIR JESSE SUMNER called the House Labor and Commerce Standing
Committee meeting to order at 3:16 p.m. Representatives Prax,
Carrick, and Sumner were present at the call to order.
Representatives Wright, Saddler, and Fields arrived as the
meeting was in progress.
^PRESENTATION(S): OVERVIEW FROM STATE OF ALASKA BROADBAND
PRESENTATION(S): OVERVIEW FROM STATE OF ALASKA BROADBAND
3:16:40 PM
CHAIR SUMNER announced that the only order of business would be
a presentation, titled "Overview from State of Alaska
Broadband."
3:17:37 PM
THOMAS LOCHNER, Director, Alaska Office of Broadband, Department
of Commerce, Community, and Economic Development, began his
PowerPoint [hard copy included in the committee packet] and
stated that the Alaska Office of Broadband was formed in
September of 2022. He continued to slide 2 and gave an overview
of the department hierarchy and positions. The office currently
has three of its four positions filled and is continuing its
work in setting up and becoming effective. On slide 3, he gave
a brief overview of the Broadband Advisory Board, which includes
members of the public, government officials, and various other
representatives from different parts of Alaska business and
industry.
MR. LOCHNER continued to slides 4 and 5 and stated that the
majority of funding for the Alaska Office of Broadband would
come from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, with $42
billion being allocated to broadband equity, access, and
deployment (BEAD) throughout the United States. He stated that
the money will go to the states for usage in grants to build
broadband infrastructure in areas without access to broadband.
He stated that the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act also
allocated $640 million for administrative costs associated with
the set-up of programs and offices needed to administer the
grants.
3:21:23 PM
MR. LOCHNER moved to slide 6 and gave an overview of digital
equity, inclusion, and literacy. There are three types of
grants coming from the federal government to work on these
issues: planning, capacity, and competitive grants. He said
that Alaska has been awarded a grant of $567,800 for planning
and that the latter two grant awards are pending. He stated
that the grants are focused on helping populations who may have
less access or ability to navigate an increasingly digital world
overcome those obstacles. He gave an example of how someone
being released from incarceration now after 20 years would be
met with many types of technology that they have had yet to
experience.
MR. LOCHNER continued with slide 7 and gave an overview of the
funding and disbursement of the allocated $42 billion. He
stated that there would be a minimum $100 million allocation for
all 50 states, and 10 percent of the $42 billion would be
allocated for "high cost" areas in the U.S. He gave the
definitions of service for broadband in relation to download and
upload speeds: unserved is less than 25 megabytes per second
(Mbps) download and 3 Mbps upload, and underserved is less than
100 Mbps download and 20 Mbps upload.
3:23:58 PM
MR. LOCHNER continued to slide 8 and provided a timeline for the
grants and funding plans. He stated that the Alaska Broadband
Office must submit a 5-year action plan, an initial proposal,
and a final proposal to the National Telecommunications and
Information Administration. The goal of the Alaska Broadband
Office is to have the plans ready by June 15th, July 31st, and
November 30th, respectively.
3:26:24 PM
MR. LOCHNER continued to slides 9 through 16, reiterating the
definitions of broadband access and showing several maps with
evaluations on the current status of broadband across Alaska.
He stated that 28.9 percent of communities in the state are
served. All communities served by broadband are on fiber
systems. He said that the current microwave systems do not meet
the threshold of 100 over 20 Mbps required to be considered
served. He continued that the federal government is involved in
bringing broadband to another 20.6 percent of Alaska's
communities through programs such as United States Department of
Agriculture (USDA) Connect Program and the National
Telecommunications and Information Administration's (NTIA's)
Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program. After the completion of
those projects, 50.6 percent of Alaska's communities will still
be under or unserved.
3:29:19 PM
MR. LOCHNER moved to slides 17 through 19, showing maps with
possible layouts for broadband projects that would reduce the
number of communities not being served by broadband. He said
the plans have been published online so that the Alaska
Broadband Office can receive feedback on the most accurate
places to lay down the broadband lines.
3:31:13 PM
MR. LOCHNER continued to slides 20 and 21, outlining the next
steps for the 5-year action plan. He stated that the Alaska
Broadband Office broke down the requirements into three broad
categories: Outreach, Network, and Logistics. The office has
completed 40, 60, and 70 percent of its goal for each category,
respectively. He said that the primary grant criteria is worth
75 percent of the score for the Notice of Funding Opportunity,
which includes efficient use of BEAD funding, affordability for
consumers, and fair labor practices. The secondary criteria is
whether the project will be completed on time, and other
criteria include network design, operating costs, Native
bidders, and carrier neutral and fair pricing practices.
3:34:44 PM
REPRESENTATIVE FIELDS asked if there would be any solutions for
parts of urban areas experiencing speeds lower than the category
the community is considered to be for purposes of broadband
deployment.
MR. LOCHNER answered that a particular location within a served
area receiving lower than slow speeds would still be lower on
the list for funding due to the location still being within a
served community.
REPRESENTATIVE FIELDS asked if there was any data showing
disconnect between the speeds that certain people within urban
communities experience versus the speeds that they are
theoretically supposed to experience.
MR. LOCHNER answered that the Alaska Broadband Office has a
speed test available on its website and it wants people to
submit their results so that it can collect such data.
3:37:01 PM
REPRESENTATIVE WRIGHT asked if the BEAD funding was a one-time
grant or if it would be recurring.
MR. LOCHNER answered that the BEAD funding is a one-time grant
as a part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, as well
as the grants from USDA and NTIA. He added that the Federal
Communications Commission (FCC) does provide recurring grants.
In response to a follow-up question, he said that he is unsure
whether the federal funding will be enough to cover the entire
cost of the planned projects.
REPRESENTATIVE WRIGHT asked whether there would be opportunities
for matched funding from different municipalities.
MR. LOCHNER answered that the Notice of Funding Opportunity
requires a 25 percent match, although for some rural high-cost
locations that match requirement is waived.
3:39:57 PM
REPRESENTATIVE PRAX asked if it was correct that the Alaska
Broadband Office planned to use both fiber optic and microwave
cables.
MR. LOCHNER answered that the office is "technology agnostic"
but must meet certain speed and latency requirements. In
response to Representative Prax's concern about spending money
on a technology that could become quickly outdated, he said that
the office is developing an "operations and maintenance" model.
REPRESENTATIVE PRAX asked what the permitting process for laying
down fiber optic cables would look like.
MR. LOCHNER answered that he is working closely with the
Department of Natural Resources to ensure that the Alaska
Broadband Office has the necessary permitting for whatever type
of land the fiber optic cables go across.
3:45:09 PM
REPRESENTATIVE SADDLER asked if the BEAD funding was solely
targeted at the "covered populations" listed on slide 6.
MR. LOCHNER answered that the projects would benefit all
Alaskans. In response to a follow-up question, he said that the
focus of the funding was making sure that all communities are
covered regardless of their population, with the caveat that
each project would need to be sustainable.
REPRESENTATIVE SADDLER asked why satellite Internet was not on
the provided maps as a consideration for providing broadband to
Alaska communities.
MR. LOCHNER answered that geosynchronous satellites are unable
to meet the federal government's speed or latency requirements.
He added that low Earth orbit satellites such as the ones used
by Starlink also do not meet these standards, although they are
a useful stopgap.
3:48:55 PM
REPRESENTATIVE WRIGHT asked if there would be a point in time at
which Starlink would be able to provide 1 gigabyte (GB) over 1
GB speeds.
MR. LOCHNER answered Starlink is "magical" for those that have
previously been without any type of Internet previously,
although it does have several limitations. In response to a
follow-up question, he said that the project would have to be
completed within four years to keep funding, with the
possibility of a one-year extension.
3:50:38 PM
CHAIR SUMNER asked how much money the federal government would
allocate to Alaska for the purpose of building broadband.
MR. LOCHNER answered that it is too early to know for sure.
3:51:24 PM
REPRESENTATIVE SADDLER asked whether it would make sense for the
State of Alaska to wait until satellite Internet technology
improves before making investments in broadband for rural Alaska
in order to lower the cost.
MR. LOCHNER responded that in order to receive the federal
funding, the state must do what the federal government is
incentivizing the state to do.
3:52:17 PM
ADJOURNMENT
There being no further business before the committee, the House
Labor and Commerce Committee meeting was adjourned at 3:52 p.m.
| Document Name | Date/Time | Subjects |
|---|---|---|
| Alaska Broadband Office Presentation H L&C 02-15-23.pdf |
HL&C 2/15/2023 3:15:00 PM |