Telecommunication Infrastructure SubCommittee

1
GOVERNMENT INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AGENCY (GITA)
and Telecommunications Infrastructure
Sub-Committee (TISC)
Health Information Technology in Rural
Arizona November 14, 2005
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WHAT BROADBAND CAN DELIVER

• E- HEALTH - Including Tele-medicine, remote
  access to specialist and multi-discipline
  consulting, health training, remote triage during
  emergency transport
• E- COMMERCE - including connection to world
  markets, Tele-commuting, and all the benefits of
  the Information age.
• E- LEARNING - including vast improvements in
  student learning, lower costs to deliver
  education material and teaching, workforce
  development and lifetime learning.
• E- GOVERNMENT - including lower cost to deliver
  government services, a more responsive
  government, a more accountable government.

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Future Economic Impact on Arizona

• Arizona is ranked 12th in Broadband Deployment
  (2003 TechNet Report) among the States.
• With full Broadband deployment in rural Arizona,
  we can expect
• An estimated 8.5 Billion increase in GDP (based
  on studies of the economic impact of Broadband
  deployment in 2003 by Gartner Group in 2003 by
  CEBR Ltd. - a British company and in 2001 by
  Brookings Institute).
• 100 Million annual increase in revenue for State
  government
• 11,500 new jobs, mostly hi-tech (Center for a
  Sound Economy Report Broadband deployment
  impact on Arizona - by Wayne T. Brough, Dec
  2003).
• Increased Access to a Global Economy.

4
Barriers to Broadband Deployment in Rural Arizona

• Leadership, Planning and Coordination is
  consistently identified as the single most
  important factor to successfully deploy
  broadband.
• A Lack of cooperation among the telecom
  providers, and indifference or a lack of public
  and private cooperation
• The Return on Investment for Telcos in Rural
  Areas is insufficient to support Broadband
  infrastructure build-out without a Technology
  breakthrough or subsidy support.
• Rights-of-Way Access is a significant barrier -
  including a morass of Federal, tribal, state and
  local Rights of Way regulations, multiple
  jurisdictional permitting, lengthy application
  approvals, unequal and prohibitive fees. We must
  find a balance between the value of Rights of Way
  and the value of Broadband based Economic
  Development.
• A Lack of Funding subsidies. Arizona lacks
  sufficient access to E-Rate dollars and to
  federal grant mechanisms. In addition, Arizona
  needs to establish additional funding sources,
  such as its own Broadband Universal Service Fund.
  when rates alone cannot carry the load of
  deployment

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Other Barriers in Arizona Middle-Mile Fiber
Connections

• Map at right reflects many of gaps existing in
  the State. Fiber bypasses many areas.
• Each population center should have 2 paths in
  out for reliable telecom.
• Limited shared use or interconnection of Telco
  Fiber
• Lack of redundant paths can devastate whole
  regions when outages occur.
• Lack of existing infrastructure keep costs high

6
Examples of other States
COLORADO Fiber as a result of the ongoing MNT
Project
GEORGIA Fiber as a result of the 5-year
Broadband fiber push
7
Recent Broadband Upgrades and Improvements in
Arizona (Since Feb 2005)

• A. Rural Arizona, specifically in Mohave
  County, portions of Pinal and Gila County, much
  of the White Mountains, and in South Eastern
  Arizona, has had a significant upsurge in the
  availability of DSL, including high speed DSL.
• B. A number of Community Wireless projects are
  progressing at various stages. These include
  Tempe, Tucson, Chandler, and soon, Scottsdale.
• C. Cable companies are providing increasing
  competition as ISPs and increased access to the
  Internet.
• D. Communities all over the State are
  acknowledging the importance of Telecom planning,
  and are instituting best practices in their
  planning.
• E. Arizonas Tribal Governments are moving
  forward with their own initiatives.

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Economic Development Regions

• The 11 Economic Development Regions defined by
  State Commerce Department have prove extremely
  useful.
• A regional decision making process is
  preferred for Federal Telecommunication Grants.
• There is also a natural fit as an overlay to
  the States ILEC interests, allowing for
  realistic regional models of cooperation and
  infrastructure build-out.
• Regions are big enough for sufficient
  aggregation of Supply and Demand, leading to
  better pricing, yet small enough for quick
  decisions and management of expectations.

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MAP OF ARIZONAS ILECs
Arizonas 16 ILECs have assigned
territories with associated rights and
responsibilities granted by FCC. (For
purposes of intra-state long distance rate
structures, ILECS are assigned to LATAs,
represented here by hues of blue or
pink/orange.) Qwest is the dominant ILEC in the
state, with approximately 80 of Arizonas
population within its assigned areas. (About
15 of States total area) White areas are
unassigned territories. (These areas are
beginning to experience population growth,
especially near urban fringes.) Most
Intra-state FIBER networks are owned by
ILECs. CLECs and other Phone companies have
regulated access to this ILEC owned
infrastructure for voice solutions.
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Recent Statewide Initiatives from State
Government impacting Telecommunications
availability.

• The State of Arizona Department of Administration
  is well into the first phase of its Outsourcing
  plan. Accenture has taken over the services
  formally provided internally by ATS, a Dept of
  Administration entity, but now on a much larger
  and more centralized scale.
• A Carrier Services RFP is on the Street. The
  RFP is specifically structured to handle the
  needs of State Agencies as represented by
  Accenture, and the disparate Statewide
  procurement needs of Rural government entities,
  including Counties, Cities, Municipalities,
  Schools, etc. The RFP is qualified as an E-Rate
  procurement, allowing schools to apply for E-Rate
  subsidies.
• C. The Governors Office has encouraged and
  supported, through GITA and the Commerce
  Department, a number of Telecom initiatives.

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The Governors Council on Innovation Technology
(GCIT)
Formed an Infrastructure Committee in October 2004

• The GITA Director was assigned as the Chairman
• of the Telecommunication Infrastructure
  Sub-Committee
• (TISC) under GCIT.
• Members of TISC were appointed from Government,
• Education and the Public Sectors, including
  from ATIC.
• Since its creation, TISC has provided a
  framework for the
• the development of recommendations, plans and
  initiatives
• related to telecom infrastructure in Arizona.

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Overall Strategies Initiatives to Accomplish
TISCs Mission

• Identify Telecommunications as a Critical
  Infrastructure.
• Provide Statewide Telecom Planning and
  Coordination.
• Facilitate alternatives for Telecom
  infrastructure Funding and Financing.
• Help identify ways to Aggregate Demand for
  Telecom Services (TOPAZ).
• Seek sources of Federal Funding (E-Rate, RUS,
  DHS, US Commerce Dept. Grants).
• Provide a Forum to discuss Rights-of-Way Issues.
• Coordinate Community and Regional Assessments.
• Educate Policy Makers

13
TISC Accomplishments and Activities during the
Year 2005.

• 1. In February of 2005, with the League of
  Cities Towns and the Arizona County Supervisors
  Association (CSA), a formal Request for
  Information (RFI) was issued to Telecom Vendors
• 2. The RFI was processed and by June of 2005
  the RFI provided information
• - Information and Support for Eleven
  Recommendations
• to expand Broadband services to Rural Arizona
• - Guidelines to leverage State Government
  purchases
• in building out Broadband via the States
  upcoming
• Carrier Services RFP and Contract.

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GCIT Recommendations

• Recommendations were authored by ATIC and TISC
  task groups.
• 2. Recommendations were modified slightly and
  formerly adopted by vote of TISC members and
  passed to GCIT.
• 3. After slight changes by GCIT,
  Recommendations were formerly accepted

• GCIT categorized the eleven recommendations into
  areas of Leadership, Investment, and Policy
  Development.
• GCIT is now in the process of developing plans
  to implement the recommendations and create a
  continuing structure within the council for
  telecommunication strategic planning.

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Recommendations (Divided by Category)

• Leadership
• - Establish a Telecommunications Infrastructure
  Advisory Group
• - Consider Establishing a Broadband Authority
• - Provide Support for the Development of a
  Statewide
• Telecommunications Strategic Plan
• - Convene a Series of Statewide and Rural
  Telecommunications
• Roundtables
• - Encourage the Arizona Corporation
  Commissions to Modify the
• Current Arizona Universal Service
  Fund or Establish an Arizona
• Broadband Universal Service Fund

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Recommendations (Continued)

• Investment - Provide State Support to Identify
  Potential Funding Sources and
• Grant Writing - Implement a
  Strategy to Facilitate increased use of Federal
• E-Rate Subsidies
• - Provide Ongoing Funding for Community
  Telecommunications
• Assessments
• Policy Development
• - Adopt an Arizona Definition of Broadband
  to be 1Mbps
• - Encourage Access to Local, State,
  Federal, and
• Tribal Rights-of-way
• - Monitor Legislative Actions to Ensure
  that Explicit or DeFacto
• Barriers to Municipal Participation in
  Broadband Deployment
• are Eliminated

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In Addition, TISC has

• Begun the process of a State-Wide Strategic
  Telecom Plan
• Engaged the FCC Starting in October
  (Discussions specific to Arizona)
• Continued Outreach to Regions
• Identified Funding Alternatives
• Continued as a Center of Influence for telecom
  infrastructure growth and best practices
  information

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Other GITA Activities related to Broadband
Deployment

• CANAMEX CORRIDOR AS A SMART CORRIDOR
• OVERSIGHT OF DHS WIFI GRANT IN SOUTHERN ARIZONA
• TRIBAL INTERFACE AND EXCHANGE
• SUPPORT OF E-RATE PROCESSES IN ARIZONA
• OVERSIGHT OF AGENCY TELECOM PROJECT INVESTMENT
  JUSTIFICATION (PIJ)

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WIFI Project in Southern Arizona

• A 30-mile stretch of the CANAMEX Corridor near
  Mexico will be secured as a First Responder
  WIFI hot spot with sufficient access points to
  enable
• in-vehicle WIFI ready devices moving into and
  through the area to have mobile access to the
  Internet or Internet based Virtual Private
  Networks (VPNs), and with various applications
  associated with those resources, at broadband (1
  Mbps ) speeds.
• First responder communities including the
  Arizona Department of Public Safety (DPS), other
  state agencies, Santa Cruz and Pima count
  law-enforcement agencies, various fire
  departments and other first responders will be
  equipped to take advantage of this mobile hot
  spot.
• Telemedicine, Public and private enterprises and
  
• schools will also have access to this hot
  spot.
• Combining access for public and private
  interests will allow post-Grant sustainability
  of the project as well as replication of
  processes by others.

• Elevation
• 3500ft to 3700 ft

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Power Pole Use for Project

• Simulated Mounting, to scale ?

21
In-Vehicle Mounting of Antenna