Legislature(2023 - 2024)SENATE FINANCE 532
03/01/2024 09:00 AM Senate FINANCE
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| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| Update from the Alaska Broadband Office | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
| + | TELECONFERENCED | ||
| + | TELECONFERENCED |
SENATE FINANCE COMMITTEE
March 1, 2024
9:01 a.m.
9:01:55 AM
CALL TO ORDER
Co-Chair Stedman called the Senate Finance Committee
meeting to order at 9:01 a.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT
Senator Donny Olson, Co-Chair
Senator Bert Stedman, Co-Chair
Senator Click Bishop
Senator Jesse Kiehl
Senator Kelly Merrick
Senator David Wilson
MEMBERS ABSENT
Senator Lyman Hoffman, Co-Chair
ALSO PRESENT
Thomas Lochner, Director, Alaska Broadband Office
SUMMARY
^UPDATE FROM THE ALASKA BROADBAND OFFICE
9:03:13 AM
THOMAS LOCHNER, DIRECTOR, ALASKA BROADBAND OFFICE,
discussed the presentation, "Alaska Broadband Office,
Broadband and Digital Equity Update" (copy on file).
Mr. Lochner addressed slide 2, "Alaska Broadband Office
Mission":
Facilitate access to the full benefits of broadband
for all Alaskans with improved quality of service and
lower costs.
Mr. Lochner discussed slide 3, "Alaska Broadband Office":
Director: Thomas Lochner
Administrative Specialist: Kalynn Himes
Tribal Liaison: Melissa Kookesh
Deputy Director: Lisa Von Bargen
Mr. Lochner detailed his 23 years in the telecommunications
field. He provided a background of the experience and
duties of his team.
9:06:40 AM
Mr. Lochner pointed to slide 4, "Division of Community and
Regional Affairs":
Division of Community and Regional Affairs
•Grant Administration
•Mapping Analytics and Data Resources
Department of Natural Resources
•Office of Project Management and Permitting
•Mining, Land and Water
Department of Transportation and Public Facilities
•Project Coordination
•Permitting
Department of Environmental Conservation
•Permitting
Mr. Lochner spoke to the work of the office to streamline
the permitting process for efficiency.
9:08:17 AM
Mr. Lochner discussed slide 5, "Major Accomplishments":
State of Alaska Digital Equity Plan
•Evaluates the status of Digital Equity among
eight covered populations
•Submitted January 27, 2024
•This makes the State eligible for an allocation
of the $1.44 billion Digital Equity Capacity
Grant funds
Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) State
Challenge Process
•Creates a portal and process for Alaskans to
challenge the internet speeds at their location
•Submitted November 3, 2023
•This gives Alaskans a voice in where the
infrastructure will be built
BEAD Broadband Grant Program
•Creates the program to distribute the BEAD 1
Billion allocation
•Submitted December 27, 2023
•After revision process with the NTIA, ABO will
post the Broadband Grant Program for bids
9:11:27 AM
Senator Merrick wondered how Alaskans without internet
access would access the portal to submit a challenge.
9:11:41 AM
Mr. Lochner replied that those Alaskans would have to find
internet at a public location. He said that the houses of
those without internet access would be marked with a red
dot, which would indicate to the office that they were
unserved.
9:12:20 AM
Co-Chair Olson asked whether there had been many challenges
in internet speed submitted to the office.
9:12:35 AM
Mr. Lochner replied that the challenge process had received
3 public comments, the Digital Equity Plan had received 112
comments, and the grant program had received 30 comments.
Co-Chair Olson queried Mr. Lochners education history as
it pertained to the challenge of broadband in Alaska.
9:13:26 AM
Mr. Lochner detailed his experiences that led him to the
position he currently held. He relayed that he did not have
formal training in telecommunications other than hands on
experience.
9:14:59 AM
Co-Chair Olson commented that ha appreciated the work done
by Mr. Lochner.
9:15:15 AM
Mr. Lochner looked at slide 6, "Broadband Equity, Access,
and Deployment" (BEAD):
$42.45 Billion For All States And Territories
Alaska's Allocation: $1,017,139,672.42
Mr. Lochner relayed that he had worked to provide an
overview for those in Washington D.C. of the unique
challenges facing Alaskans in the areas of broadband,
equity, access, and deployment.
9:17:05 AM
Mr. Lochner pointed to slide 7, "Grants will follow the
following location priorities":
1 - Unserved less than 25 Megabits per second (Mbps)
download and 3 Mbps upload (25/3)
2 - Underserved More than 25/3, but less than 100
Mbps download/ 20Mbps upload
3 - Unserved Community Anchor Institutions - less than
1 Gigabit per second (Gbps) download and 1Gbps upload
Mr. Lochner said that the office had concluded that the
cost to meet the challenges was approximately $1.8 billion.
He noted that the state received $1 billion in federal
funds but there were other funds that could be applied for
to make up the delta.
9:19:17 AM
Senator Kiehl requested more information on what the $1.8
billion would be spent on.
9:19:25 AM
Mr. Lochner replied that it would const $1.8 billion to
build fiber to every single identified community in Alaska.
9:19:53 AM
Mr. Lochner addressed slide 8, "BEAD State Challenge
Process." The slide listed the 30-day periods, totaling 120
days, for Public Review of Broadband Serviceable Locations
(BSLs), Challenge Period, Internet Service Providers (ISPs)
Rebuttal Period, and Alaska Broadband Office (ABO) Mediate
Period, which comprised the State Challenge Process
(Initial Proposal Volume 1).
9:21:17 AM
Mr. Lochner looked at slide 9, "BEAD Broadband Grant
Program." Concurrent with running of the challenge process
was the grant program. The slide illustrated the timeline
for the Broadband Grant Program.
9:21:56 AM
Mr. Lochner pointed to slide 10, "Digital Equity Digital
Inclusion Digital Literacy":
$2.75 Billion For All States And Territories
•Planning Grants: $60 Million Alaska Awarded:
$567,800
•Capacity Grants: $1.44 Billion Alaska's Award: TBD
•Competitive Grants: $1.25 Billion Alaska's Award:
TBD
9:23:04 AM
Mr. Lochner discussed slide 11, "Digital Equity - Eight
Covered Populations":
•Aging Individuals
•Incarcerated Individuals
•Individuals with Disabilities
•Individuals with a Language Barrier
•Individuals who are Members of a Racial or Ethnic
Minority
•Individual in Low-Income Households
•Individuals who Reside in Rural Areas
•Veterans
9:23:36 AM
Mr. Lochner pointed to slide 12, "Digital Equity Milestone
Dates and ABO Timeline."
Jan. 2024 State of Alaska Digital Equity Plan
Completed
April 2024 - National Telecommunications and
Information Administration (NTIA) Publishes Digital
Equity Capacity Grant Notice of Funding Opportunity
(NOFO)
April 2024 State Responds to the Digital Equity
Capacity Grant Notice of Funding Opportunity to
Develop Subgrants (60 days)
Sept. 2024 NTIA Publishes Digital Equity Competitive
Grant NOFO
Sept. 2024 - Responses to Digital Equity Competitive
Grants Notice of Funding Opportunity
9:24:25 AM
Mr. Lochner looked at slide 13, "Mapping Updates":
•FCC Fabric Map
•Current Fabric includes all Alaska Communities
•Continuing refinement with the FCC from ISPs and
State Broadband Offices
•Served, Underserved, and Unserved Locations in Alaska
and published in the National Broadband Availability
Map (NBAM) (NTIA)
•High-Cost and Non-High-Cost Areas designated based on
Census Block Groups (NTIA)
•Evaluated ultra remote locations within the Non-High-
Cost Areas and pursuing a 25 percent funding match
waiver (Alaska Broadband Office)
9:26:21 AM
Mr. Lochner discussed slide 14, "Federally Designated High-
Cost Map." The slide showed a map of the state with the
High-Cost Area: 25 percent Match Requirement Waived in
red and the Non-High-Cost Area: 25 percent Match Required.
Waivers may be requested in grey.
Co-Chair Olson asked where the funding matches would come
from.
Mr. Lochner replied that the match would be by the industry
bidder.
9:27:22 AM
Co-Chair Stedman noted that Angoon would be a low cost and
Sitka would be high cost, which seemed backwards. He
wondered about Port Alexandar. He requested more detail on
the casts per community.
9:28:01 AM
Mr. Lochner responded that the categorization of
communities could change, and waivers would be considered.
9:28:35 AM
Co-Chair Stedman reiterated his request for more
information.
9:28:59 AM
Mr. Lochner addressed slide 15, "Technologies." The slide
showed the available, reliable technologies listed by cost.
The most expensive being fiber, followed by microwave, low
earth orbit (LEO) satellites, and geosynchronous (GEO)
satellite. He said that Starlink and unlicensed microwave
were considered unreliable by the FCC.
Co-Chair Stedman asked why Starlink was considered
unreliable.
Mr. Lochner replied that he did not know why, but that the
FCC had categorized it as unreliable.
Senator Kiehl asked about the term oversubscription on
the lower left side of the table.
Mr. Lochner said that to optimize capacity when one person
isnt actively streaming, another person can benefit from
the capacity. The idea is that several people could use the
same capacity without any buffering.
9:32:05 AM
Senator Kiehl wondered whether the high ratio at the bottom
of the chart represented efficiency or an option that was
problematic.
Mr. Lochner responded that the high ratio represented an
option that was problematic. He said that constricted
capacity serving many customers led to problems with
connectivity.
9:32:50 AM
Senator Bishop asked about the workforce dedicated to
broadband in the state.
9:33:10 AM
Mr. Lochner responded that numbers had been provided by
consultants and were being reviewed by the office.
9:33:32 AM
Senator Bishop asked about workforce numbers to implement
the program.
9:33:38 AM
Mr. Lochner responded that the anticipated need, across all
disciplines, included 17,000 additions to the labor pool to
build all the anticipated projects.
Co-Chair Stedman wondered where the workforce would come
from.
Mr. Lochner replied that the workforce would come from
Florida.
9:34:24 AM
Mr. Lochner furthered that in his experience, many
technicians were hired out of Florida.
9:35:24 AM
Co-Chair Stedman remarked that this could be an opportunity
to train Alaskans for the positions.
9:35:37 AM
Mr. Lochner agreed.
9:35:41 AM
Senator Bishop thought that the delivery method to train a
workforce for a gasline could be used to train an Alaskan
workforce for these projects.
9:36:50 AM
Co-Chair Olson queried the timeline for which the federal
grants had to be spent.
9:37:05 AM
Mr. Lochner responded that there was a four-year timeline
and the potential for a fifth-year extension.
9:37:19 AM
Co-Chair Olson asked when the project was expected to be
fully complete.
Mr. Lochner said four or five years.
9:37:54 AM
Co-Chair Olson wondered what kind of paperwork would be
required if the projects were not completed within the
four-to-five-year timeline.
9:38:14 AM
Mr. Lochner replied that they were planning for the best
and believed that extensions would be granted for projects
that took longer to complete.
Co-Chair Stedman discussed housekeeping.
9:41:12 AM
Co-Chair Olson asked Mr. Lochner about bandwidth
legislation and wondered whether the passage a broadband
grant bill currently making it's through the legislature
would have an effect on the projects proposed by the
office.
9:41:39 AM
Mr. Lochner replied that the legislation would not have an
impact, because his office handled the capital investments
and building out of infrastructure, while the other
education bill delt with operating and ongoing costs.
ADJOURNMENT
9:42:00 AM
The meeting was adjourned at 9:41 a.m.
| Document Name | Date/Time | Subjects |
|---|---|---|
| 030124 Broadband Serviceable Location (BSL) Maps - Senate Finance Committee DistrictS 3.1.24.pdf |
SFIN 3/1/2024 9:00:00 AM |
|
| 030124 Alaska Broadband Office Presentation to Senate Finance 3.1.2024.pdf |
SFIN 3/1/2024 9:00:00 AM |