Host and this week on the communicators, our guest is Shirley Bloomfield of ntca, the Rural Broadband association. Shes the ceo there. Our guest reporter from Telecommunications Reports is paul kirby. Huly bloomfield Shirley Bloomfield, who do you represent . Guest about 850 communitybased broadband providers across the country, theyre in 46 states, so theyre the companies that traditionally were the local phone companies that had to evolve and evolved very quickly to become a broadband provider. So they truly are the onestop communication providers in a lot of areas around the country serving about 35 of our land mass. Host could you name a couple of those companies to help us get familiar . Guest oh, absolutely. All the way to western south dakota by mount rushmore, we could go to citizens on the Mississippi River up in wisconsin where ive got a number of cooperatives, and if were look over here in few state of virginia in my state of virginia, weve got scott county down in the very tip of the state serving the tristate area. 850. Host so when you talked about land mass, youre talking not necessarily population at all. Guest absolutely. And, peter are, you hit upon a key part of this, about 5 of the american population, but they are truly the providers in those extremely rural parts of the country, everywhere from alaska down to the panhandle of florida. They stretch all across. Ive got everybody from somebody whos got about 150 subscribers to probably my Largest Company has just about 100,000 subscribers. So they are those areas where, quite frankly, companies chose years and years ago to not provide the service. Host what have the past several months been like for some of your Member Companies . Guest it has been wild. Its been wild for all of us i know, right . But it has been, my folks moved into action very quickly because i think one of the things that we know and we have learned even more the last three or four months is that connectivity is key and broadband is critical. People were told leave your offices, kids were shep herred out of the schoolrooms back to doing Online Learning from home. As we were hooking for ways to avoid going into the doctors office, telemed sun. My broadband telemedicine. My broadband providers not only thought about how they could continue to operate safely and keep connect people and know that youre not necessarily going to get paid for it right away. Host well, to help us explore some of the issues these companies are facing, lets turn it over to paul kirby of Telecommunications Reports. Thanks very much. Hundreds and hundreds of providers signed a pledge that chairman pai at the fcc asked them to do that said they would not charge overage fees, two examples, and that was march until the end of june. How much of a hardship has that been on your members, and what are you hoping theres been a push by your group and others that congress will help. Guest absolutely. So kind of going back to the pledge that you mentioned, paul, i think is critical. More than half of the companies that are on that pledge are my members. So it was really natural for them to step up to the challenge because theyre community providers. The people they are serving are their neighbors and their relatives and their communities live and die by this connectivity. To whether they signed the pledge or not, they are absolutely inclined to do what they needed to do to keep their folks connected and keep their communities vie brafnlt like i said vibrant. Like i said, more than half of the folks are my Member Companies. They said that is a baseline of service that we would provide to the people, and what i loved about what took place next is my Companies Went above and beyond the pledge. They were literally reaching out to School Superintendents to say tell us what school kids dont, that you know of dont have connectivity, dont have laptops. Finding ways to rewire some of their infrastructure to student homes, giving away that access, a ton of my Companies Give away that access to School Children including kids who had to come home from college and continue their coursework. But, you know, that also comes at a price when youve got customers who basically arent, you know, youre saying youre impacted by covid, matter of fact, a lot of my companies, paul, bumped up the speed of all of their current customers basically saying, look, we know youre doing things at home you never thought you would do. You now need in some cases download speed. So kind of giving their services away. Is so, obviously, it did create a hardship because, again, my companies are small companies. On average, theyve got about 30 employees, and, you know, they too need to not just continue to deploy and reach some of these folks that now really need the service, but they also needed to sustain those who were already are on the network. We saw a number of impacts probably march more than half of our members have seen at least a 10 increase on the collectibles and another 15 of those have seen their uncollectibles go up about 25 . So we tried to do a back of the envelope, and it comes to an average of about 80,000 per company has been uncollected. You know, obviously, you know, my companies have employees to pay as well, they have access to the internet that they have to pay other providers for in addition to if they continue to deploy, youre putting infrastructure in the ground. It has been they were terrific, they were heroes. Ive been listening to their stories, broadband in a box, all kinds of crazy ways to make sure they can serve their community. But they do need financial support. I look at all of the other industries, and i think about one of the things that was so critical during this time and will continue to be, keeping people connected, people able to do their jobs, our economy continuing to hum. And those providers have not only not been made whole, but its been tough to get the momentum to get the act through congress. Whats the total that youre looking for, just to do the math . You said about 80,000, but what amount would make your members whole . Guest you know, the current legislation has about a 2 billion price tag awe taverned to it. We think attached to it. We think thatll be sufficient not just for my membership, but any small provider whos in the same position. There have been a number of folks who have stepped in who have complied by the obligations of the pledge. Obviously, you know, its hard to really do the estimate, but we think that the legislation with the 2 billion mark is a fair one, and it would certainly go a long way. Anything we can do to get some of those uncollectibles off the books so folks can continue to build that infrastructure. You mentioned you still have, your members still have employees. Theres been some confusion, i think you all had said, about whether the Payment Protection Program would a apply to cooperatives. So how difficult has that been, and do you know if some of your members have gotten funds from that program . Guest so that was really frustrating. I looked at the ppp program as really a Good Opportunity for small businesses. But the one clarification we could not get until literally early june was that telephone cooperatives were, indeed, eligible. We had secretary perdue weighing in, senator ricker, all richter, all kinds of people going to the treasure true. We said, well, we just want to make sure. They came out with a clarification in may that electric coops were eligible but not telephone cooperatives. So i my if folks were really nervous about it. Nobody wanted to take the money and have to return it or take the money and not be in compliance. So, unfortunately, the clarification came out two and a half weeks before the deadline of when, you know, the cutoff on june 30th. I do have some cooperatives that took it. I think it makes a lot of sense. It allowed them to maintain all of their current staff even while they were having their own economic hardships. But it was sincerely frustrating. Its the cost of washington, d. C. , right in youve got all these different agencies, and some focus really, truly understood the importance, but getting treasury to understand was a little bit trickier than any of us had planned on. One of the issues, youve said that some of your members also had trouble getting equipment necessary to protect themselves when theyre going out in the field and doing their jobs. What are they done to try to get that equipment many. Guest so that is always a really interesting time. I think we were all in that immediate rush at the end of march where we realized for the first time what ppe equipment was and we realized what n95s were versus normal masks. It was such a mad rush, our companies had some of that equipment, but their typical supply chains were totally drieded up, complete inability to access. And we were unable to find a new supply chain. People were selling five times what would have been the traditional price. When youre going into a home, youre changing that equipment out in between visits, otherwise youve actually done nobody any good. So we really had folks basically in a situation where they were working with their staff to do the installs from outside the front door or from outside the front window because they didnt want to risk either for themselves or for their customers anybody being in a situation that wasnt sanitary. We worked really hard with fema, and fema, to their credit it took a little while, but they actually, thaw designated our folk it is as essential providers. We were able to take on the job of shipping out hundreds of thousands of cotton masks to our Member Companies to at least give them the ability to replenish their supply. So it was a little bit tougher than the anticipated. Im sensing the ppe question has settled down a little bit. I think its a little bit like toilet paper. We had that immediate, you know, pandemic rush, and now people are able to source back up. But it was challenging. We learned a lot. We assume you have toilet paper for yourself and your family. Guest i am a hoarder, who knew . I now know. Thats good. Good to hear. Host Shirley Bloomfield, given the crisis that weve been in in the last couple of months, have you seen a drop because of what your Rural Broadband providers have done, have we seen a drop in the Digital Divide at all . Guest so i think you mean a drop in terms of were people getting connected and fewer people being off the network, and to that end, peter, yes, we have definitely seen some bridging because folks are working fast and furious to connect as if people as they can. However, you know, we still have a long way to go. Even with all of the stimulus support, nothings really changed the traditional programs that have funded broadband. There has been nothing that has gone through any of these stimulus effortses so far that has given Additional Support to building broadband either to low income americans who find that the cost to think abouttive or to prohibitive or to those who live in remote lawyers. Theres a lot of proposals out there, but one of them have passed yet. Im finding my companies are working as a fast as they can, particularly if youre in north dakota and your build time is very short, but we have more worked to do, for sure. Host now, ms. Bloomfield, amy klobuchar, kevin kramer, greg walden, john thune, Peter Defazio all have different types of bills, infrastructure bills. Are you leaning towards any of those . Guest is so theres so many, its probably hard to even list, right . So, yes. Theres a few things that we think are immediately important. So one of the things i would say is senator klobuchar, who always takes the lead on broadband issues along with senator cramer from north dakota, that is the legislation that will work to insure that these carriers stay whole even with their customers inability to pay. Thats really important because that will continue to keep these networks up and running. Its bicameral, it is bipartisan, i have my fingers and toes cross that congress will pass it in an additional stimulus. But then she was questioning, well, what else can we do. Senator thune introduced a bill that i think is really interesting because what this legislation does, it essentially says, look, were going to need to find some extra resources to continue to build these networks. We can take some of the proceeds from spectrum auction and allocate those in a separate pool to the fcc for universal service so your not standing youre not standing up a new program, youre simply augmenting a program that clearly works and infusing that money as quickly as possible, which i think is a great initiative. Theres a number of other things out there. Another initiative that i think we need to look at is what are we going to do about the School Children. It is almost july. Kids are going to go back to school soon, and im not quite sure theyre going to be going back into their classrooms just yet. Weve got to be thinking about what are some constructive ways without overbuilding, being the best manager of public funding to find out where the school kids are and to make sure that we can get them connectivity. And i would say the same kind of effort on the lifeline pseudo. Side. People who have lost their jobs, you cant find a new job unless youve got broadband connectivity, but if you cant pay for your background, youre not able to do the things you need to do while youre searching, finding government support, applying for government programs, all of those things. Because youre certainly not walking into city hall these days. So theres a number of initiatives that those kind of pieces are included in. We welcome any and all of that support. Host donative american areas face do native american areas face special circumstances . Guest those are really tough situations, absolutely. And weve got about Ten Companies that are triballyowned companies, particularly the Navajo Nation down in new mexico and arizona. They struggle from basic sanitation issues that we take for granted, the ability to wash our hands. To their communities have really been hit particularly hard. It is so heart warming to me, ive been watching is some of the companies down there on the tribal lands serving their communities, insuring that connectivity, literally bringing broadband to school kids homes in these stressed areas has been you know, when i think of heroes, to me, those folks are heroes. Host paul kirby. So, obviously, theres been a lot of programs that before this happened, and theres been a debate of some sort about whether some funding should go to new programs or some funding should [inaudible] like usf which people say, well, its already there, well take time to ramp up. Where do you come down in there . Guest i am all about tried and true. I think that right now when i look at this time and i think about how speed is a, you know, the ability to build as quickly as possible i hate to use shovelready because some people give it con connotation, but i looked at usf and i look at usda. Honestly, theyre traditional broadband programs, as well as this reconnect [inaudible] how can the two programs that have. Bedded, they have gone through the embedded, infusing those two programs that are actually already coordinating to some degree is honestly the most efficient and the most effective way of using resources. I know sometimes this [inaudible] people want to come up with their own program, but i think weve got to be, honest to god, what really works. We know those programs. We can see the networks literally as theyre going into the ground. And, again, to that end, paul, i would also just saw we also have to continue to remember its not just about building it, but its also about sustaining what weve already got in the ground. That network that has already [inaudible] its an investment. Weve got to make sure that we sustain those as well. So i think all of that is really important. But it does lead to the question of, you know, all right, now weve got to improve mapping to make sure we use those programs. And i think thats the next step we need to be taking. So what are the programs that the fcc had already started to put in place was called the rural Digital Opportunity fund, and theres a proposal for incentive funding by running bidders. This questions from my colleague. Are there issues where the incentive deadlines would be too fast for you all in and if so, what could be done . Guest its ap an excellent question. So i will share that i think the fcc, to their credit, has done a really nice job keeping rdo front and center, being methodical about their rulemaking process. And i look at the fact were, again, july essentially, that they are looking to roll this out bidding the end of october. I think thats actually a really good time frame. Now, the idea that if you can get it in the ground faster, i think, i think theres issues. I think, first of all, out potentially incentivizes those who are looking to maybe not do what i would think of as investment that will stand the test of time. I tend to be extremely bullish about the use of fiber. I think as we focus on 5g, we talk about one one of the things that i think weve learned with the pandemic is broadbands really important. We need those same upload and download speeds and fiber really the tool to get that. Is so if were just stuck on a time frame than we are on what were building. So the other thing that im seeing, absolutely, we are having access to fiber issues. Few carriers tend to, even though they get in line once in advance, theyre always behind the bigger carriers who come in and can buy millions of miles of fiber, you know in few guys come in, and even thoughing aggregate aggregate [inaudible] its a little bit tougher. Were seeing slowdown in their access to fiber optic es. The other thing were finding is even some the equipment that is critical to going into routers stuck in asia. Theres a lot of lifter of different trade issues going on, and a lot of few folks have taken to try to air flight some of the equipment back to the air freight some of the equipment back to the United States because the ability to transport has gotten really tied up. Things have just gotten tied up. So again, e