Lori Townsend: In rural Alaska, slow expensive Internet makes education and even home repairs more difficult.

Unknown: The internet was so slow.

And you know I, I would I thought it was wasting gigabytes.

So I turned that off before I completely finished how to fix the dryer.

Lori Townsend: How are communities using new technology and funding opportunities to better connect to the global cyber network?

We're discussing those solutions right now on Alaska Insight.

Rural Alaska communities have largely been left behind in the digital revolution.

Until now.

Akiak will be the first community in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta to bring high speed broadband internet to all its residents later this month.

New satellite technology and huge federal investments are making that possible.

KYUK's Greg Kim has the story.

Unknown: Shawna Williams is a parent with a full time job in Akiak.

She's also in school to get her bachelor's degree in early childhood education.

And there's an added challenge.

She attends her classes by phone.

So I have the meeting ID memorized, cause this is the most reliable way to join class.

And but She tried using video so she could see what her teachers were writing on the board.

But she says her connection just kept freezing Cuz the internet is too slow.

It'll every so often, it'll load and say your internet is unstable.

And so and of the audio and the video stop.

In-home broadband internet is not available in Antioch or anywhere in the Waikiki Delta.

That has made it increasingly difficult for people there to participate in all aspects of modern life.

Williams is one of the few people in Akiak who has home internet.

It's far below broadband speeds and comes with data limits.

For that she pays over $300 a month.

On top of field costs, food costs, electricity, you know, we just barely make it, month to month.

Later this month, broadband internet will reach every home in Akiak and her bill will be a quarter of what she pays now.

Internet speeds and data limits will double.

A combination of factors have made broadband in rural Alaska possible.

A company called One Web that operates low Earth orbit satellites to deliver broadband launches its service this year, and Akiak is one of its first customers.

Akiak is also using coronavirus relief funding to pay for its broadband project.

Akiak Chief Mike Williams Sr., Shawna's dad, says the effects of the pandemic motivated the tribe to act quickly.

We may be forced to do a lockdown again.

But we're going to be prepared, this time.

Akiak has also created a nonprofit organization to show other tribes in western Alaska how to follow their blueprint to bring broadband to their communities.

Seventeen tribes have joined.

In the month leading up to broadband going live and act yak technicians installed antenna receivers on all the homes in the village to prepare them for broadband access.

For Lena Foss, having internet access at home will mean opening up a world of knowledge.

From the limited internet access she has on her phone she's gotten a taste how you can learn anything online like how to fix a broken dryer.

Oh first thing I did was YouTube how to replace a belt.

But the internet was so slow and you know I was I thought it was wasting gigabytes so I turned that off before I completely finished how to fix the dryer.

Foss says once she has broadband she'll finish fixing her dryer and anything else in Akiak that's broken.

All this broken stuff would probably be fixed by YouTube.

I will probably start a small business calling it YouTube Fix-it-All.

That's just the beginning of her goals online.

Boss wants to be able to bank and file her taxes online like everyone else.

She also also has native allotment lands that she wants to research online.

And I want to teach my younger children because when I pass it'll be their land and they need to know.

Internet will open my eyes.

I know it will.

For decades, much of rural Alaska has been left behind as the rest of the world has become increasingly digital.

People in Akiak are excited to catch up.

For Alaska Public Media.

I'm Lori Townsend: Thanks, Greg for that excellent look at the Greg Kim.

importance of access to affordable high speed broadband in rural Alaska.

Practical needs, such as taking online classes or figuring out how to fix a dryer, and Lena Foss's use of an ulu for prying open the top of the dryer was a lesson in creative adaptation for using the tools you have on hand.

My guests this evening know the importance of rural connectivity for modern life.

Kevin Hamer is the CEO and President of Akiak Technology, and Hallie Bissett is the chair of the Governor's Task Force on Broadband.

Welcome, both of you.

Thanks so much for being available today.

Unknown: Thanks for having me.

Thank you.

Lori Townsend: Kevin, I want to start with you.

What is the timeline for when broadband internet will launch in Akiak?

I'm sure lots of folks are eager to find that out.

Unknown: Yes, we're very excited about the opportunity to actually bring broadband for the first time to the Yukon-Kuskokwim delta and all within our tribal community of Akiak.

So we are in beta test now.

We started October 11, with beta testing, and in fact, on October 15, or 14th, I'm sorry, we in Akiak became the first commercial network connection for One Web in the world.

So since the 14th, One Web has been testing in beta test for Akiak native community and all the homes that we pre wired for fixed broadband.

In our date we're all anxious to get to is November 15.

That's when 24/7 begins in Akiak Alaska.

Lori Townsend: That is outstanding.

Yeah, fantastic news.

And so interesting that this is the first place in in the entire world that has one web connection.

That's really exciting news.

And I'm glad that we're bringing that to Alaskans here on Alaska Insight.

You're the president and CEO of Akiak technology.

This is a tribal company, and part of it's not part of a village or regional Corporation, is that correct?

Unknown: That's correct.

And very, very different.

Alaska Native corporations serve the interest of their shareholders.

And their job is to maximize shareholder value.

We as a tribal owned 8a certified small business.

We serve the interests of our tribe.

So our revenue and our profits go back to the tribe.

And the tribe uses those, that revenue and those profits in any manner they see fit to serve the needs of their tribal community.

So we are the first Akiak Technology is the first and today still the only tribal-owned 8a company in Southwest Alaska.

We'd love to see more, Lori Townsend: Well, it's a it's a great beginning.

Hallie, I want to turn to you now.

Let's talk a little bit about the Governor's Broadband Task Force.

The task force's work has wrapped up, the draft report is online.

Now it's available.

The final report will be out in a couple of weeks.

Tell us about the work.

What were you directed to do?

And what were the outcomes?

Unknown: Yeah, thank you.

Like you said their their report wrapped up gratefully.

Finally, last week, and we were able to focus on really the eight directives that we were given from the Governor, which was to get out and assess the needs.

So identify where the gaps are going to be, guide to buildout for some of the money that's been coming in, so the state's going to receive money through the American Rescue Plan Act.

And there's a pending piece of legislation, the bipartisan infrastructure bill that'll allocate even more money to the state of Alaska.

And then if you add on top of that all the resources available to tribes like Akiak and to Alaska Native corporations, like my village corporation members and the regional corps, there's a huge amount of opportunity for broadband infrastructure to be built in the state.

So the taskforce evaluated different technologies.

We looked at hurdles, including permitting and how long that takes.

We looked at you know, mapping and where's repository going to be?

We talked about setting up a broadband office and how to prioritize some of the spending of the money that was going to be coming in.

Lori Townsend: The task force gathered data over the summer on communities that are considered unserved because of a lack of adequate adequate connection and speed, the list is really large, what areas of the state will be the most challenging either because of geography or community size?

Unknown: I think it's a mixture of both of those things.

And you're correct.

It's I think it's on page 11 of the draft report, there's a list of communities that are considered unserved, and that means they don't even have 25 Download and three upload speeds, 25/3 is what they call that as a kind of basis for whether or not you actually have broadband service or not.

And as Lori pointed out, the list of communities in Alaska is quite large, that doesn't even have access to minimum 25/3 broadband.

The geography is always going to be difficult, you know, in terms of, you know, the city, the sheer size of Alaska being about two-thirds the size of the entire United States, having no roads.

But I think that, you know, what we've discovered is there are some technologies that are exciting that are out there, like the one we just saw the low Earth orbit satellites that are being tested, there's geo satellites, and there's a lot of opportunity for fiber infrastructure to be built throughout the state utilizing some of this money.

And the importance of the fiber is that you know, everything kind of talks back to that it's a backhaul, redundancy loop type thing that we're hoping will improve in the state of Alaska, which will improve networks across the entire state.

Lori Townsend: And you said, the recommendations in the report are neutral, to allow opportunity for everyone.

Talk about what you mean by that, and how you see that, that being coordinated between tribes, native corporations, local governments.

Unknown: Yeah, so I think it was important for the task force.

Early on, we said, you know, fiber optics, for instance, takes a long time to build out, that's expensive infrastructure.

You're looking at 10 years from now, 20 years from now to get to this 25/3 upload download speeds that you're wanting.

And but you know, all the while recognizing that there are technologies that could be a potential solution to that, you know, even sooner than 10 years from now.

So I think the people on the taskforce really wanted to provide opportunity for when we're talking about grants and how the money for the broadband infrastructure capital projects are going to go out.

We looked at, you know, the those technologies that are going to provide the access that we're wanting, quick, quickly, and then, you know, with reliable technology, so it was a huge balancing act, there was a lot, hundreds of hours of debate and negotiation went into this report, we had a really great diverse group of people arguing all kinds of sides, we had a robust public comment period.

And I think that it at the end, we ended up with a report that provided opportunities for tribes and for current broadband providers and people who want to be broadband providers like Akiak tribe, to partner with the state of Alaska.

So that's the most exciting thing about it.

Yeah.

Lori Townsend: All all.

Very good news.

Kevin, let's turn back to you know, you're also the general manager of a larger Yukon-Kuskokwim Tribal Broadband Consortium, which includes 17 villages, that's about a third of the population in the Y-K Delta.

Describe the plan here, how long would it take to get all of these communities all 17 connected?

Unknown: Well, the let's start with something that is very important to all of us.

When we talk about world broadband and Alaska, we really are talking about tribal broadband.

Most of rural Alaska and the large populations are Indigenous people.

In fact, in our Bethel census area and the Kusilvak census area, between 85 and 95% of the population is Indigenous.

So this is something that tribes understand the need is there, and the lack of broadband is prevalent throughout the Y-K Delta.

And as we in Akiakc completed a study broadband, Akiak broadband feasibility study, and determined low Earth orbit fixed wireless was the most feasible and affordable solution for our Akiak native community.

That same solution, as part of our study is extensible to all the other 50, the 55 tribes, remaining tribes, and the Y-K Delta.

They're all in the same situation, all around served all or village based, all don't have roads or connectivity between the different communities, making it very hard for any kind of a terrestrial backhaul infrastructure to be built to these communities.

So our recommendation for the Akiak native community in fact, all of the 56 tribes was to go with low earth orbit, fixed wireless broadband first, and then as we build the infrastructure in that longer timeframe, for fiber optic to come to our communities, it's hundreds of miles away.

There is no fiber optic in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta today.

But we can do a very quick low Earth orbit satellite and broadcast that broadband internet to all of our homes very quickly within us.

In fact, it only took us four months to do that, in Akiak.

So it's emerging technologies making use of that.

And then all the other tribes that saw that as we the study came out, and we went to the other tribes.

They of course want broadband too, affordable broadband.

So we banded together, and 17 tribes have joined a new consortium we created, we put an application in to NTIA, National Telecommunications and Information Administration, for a Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program Grant, they have a billion dollars that was set aside for tribal broadband connectivity.

We banded together and submitted a large, very large application to NTIA on September 1st, to provide all of this broadband, low Earth orbit broadband satellite, followed by fiber optics to our 17 tribes over the next two to three years.

So that's the timeframe.

We can do low Earth orbit.

And as we connect up our tribes and give them broadband today, we can build the fiber optic, you can be building the fiber optic, so we can plug that in and have a more future proof solution for the future.

Lori Townsend: Is there an apprenticeship or jobs sort of training program for this consortium to involve local residents in learning how to build and maintain these systems?

Unknown: Absolutely.

And that's one of the important aspects of our tribe, nonprofit 501c3 tribal organization called, and I know it's a mouthful, the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta Tribal Broadband Consortium.

It's going to be headquarters in Bethel, and the jobs will be in the communities.

We've already hired our first two broadband technicians, and you saw them in the segment from Greg Kim.

They're hard at work already in Akiak.

They are the ones that help do the installation of all of our businesses and homes and Akiak with the external subscriber antenna and the internal router and then connecting up all of our citizens.

So once November 5 turns around, we're ready to go.

All of our homes will automatically get broadband through our wireless satellite, low Earth orbit satellite system.

Lori Townsend: Hello, I want to turn back to you the a lot of the funding that is going to support this broader plan across the state is in this federal infrastructure bill.

If the bill stalls or gets further winnow down, it certainly has been reduced pretty, very, quite significantly from the earlier package.

Are there other funding avenues that could help keep momentum going for this rural buildout?

Unknown: Absolutely.

And Kevin already mentioned one of them.

And that was the NCAA broadband grants that were set aside specifically for tribes, and also Alaska Native corporations, which quite frankly, if we're building out infrastructure, given the complexity of the land ownership in our state, you're going to be working with either a regional or village corporation along the way, if you're building a fiber project, for instance, you know, I think that the funding is available now through USDA for reconnect grants, they just announced another $1 billion that's available.

There's also funding available for connecting minority communities that's currently available.

And the and the American Rescue Plan Act, the ARPA monies, those are monies that are definitely coming.

They're just not arriving yet.

So we have high hopes that the infrastructure package will get passed before the end of the year, the bipartisan one that allocates another $1.5 billion from what I'm told to the state of Alaska.

Lori Townsend: Hallie what do you see as the state's role and responsibility to rural residents when it comes to the need for better internet connection?

Unknown: Well, one of the things that I thought was interesting is we're one of I think, 17 states that don't actually even have yet a broadband office.

So at the administration level, either as part of the governor's office or part of the Community Economic Development Office, the task force actually recommends and it's required in the grant to have a statewide broadband office.

And so I think the state's responsibility is to make sure that they're getting out to those unserved and underserved communities and prioritizing those ones first, especially when you're dealing with public money that is intended to help connect communities like Akiak out there.

We need the money.

restructuring the state of Alaska to provide for all the opportunities you heard about in the video for individuals who just want to file their taxes online or who might have, you know, not placed this pendant business idea that they can be doing from home.

And I think it's pretty exciting when you think about the state being able to partner in ways like if there's a capital match requirement for grant, for instance, that's one of the areas that we recommended, the state can participate in providing match grants for those that might not be able to come up with, because we've already mentioned that the cost structure in Alaska is going to just be extremely high for like a fiber project.

So when you're talking about a billion dollar project, coming up with 25% match is going to be pretty difficult with for a private investor of any kind.

So the state has a real opportunity to participate in that way.

And that's you'll see that some of the recommendations for report.

Lori Townsend: Great, fantastic, Kevin, I want to talk a little bit about that.

The distinction between the LEO system the low Earth orbit satellite system, and the the fiber connections.

Is the LEO system sort of a step to terrestrial connections that will happen in a few years, or is it additive, the fiber will be additive to the LEO system and and the satellite system will be a piece of this going forward.

For however many years.

Unknown: The foreseeable future, it's both.

And I really want to remind us all of why the money is available right now, especially for tribal broadband, but in broadband in general.

And that's COVID.

The pandemic has clearly shown that that digital divide you mentioned earlier, Lori, that between those that have broadband, and those that don't really harms those that don't have broadband.

And so we found out very early on from the CDC data that tribes were the hardest hit in terms of COVID rates and death rates, the harder than any other group in America.

And one of the reasons that has been outlined very clearly nationally, and we in Alaska, is because they don't have the broadband information and communication tools to prepare for, prevent or respond to a pandemic as those that do have broadband.

In our study, we looked at Alaska specifically in the data there are 29 census areas in Alaska, 22 of them have access to broadband speeds that Hallie mentioned earlier, 25/3.

Seven do not.

Our Bethel census area and Kusilvak census areas, making up the Wi k delta.

They are unserved, they do not have access.

If you lived in the Bethel census area, you are twice as likely to get and die from COVID as any of the 22 census areas in Alaska that had broadband.

None of those census areas in the 22 census areas in Alaska, had a infection rate higher than 11%.

And the Bethel census area, it was 21%.

Kusilvak, it was 15%.

If you don't have broadband internet connectivity, you're out of luck, you're on the other side of the digital divide.

And there's real harm to those communities.

So getting that connectivity quickly is what we're focused in on and LEO allows us to do that.

Getting back to your question.

It allows us while we're building and taking the time, and the hundreds of miles that we need to connect up fiber optic and bring it to our Y-K Delta.

We can within the first year already have a number of tribal villages connected up to low Earth orbit satellite and have broadband access in 100% of their homes.

That'll give them that leg up that'll give them those opportunities for telehealth, remote education, learning, digital economy, remote jobs, the you know, open your own small business, right, learning from YouTube on how to do things.

You know, we, all the schools were closed physically because of the COVID pandemic.

And unfortunately, our children didn't have access in unserved areas to digital learning to virtual classrooms, teacher connectivity.

They had to pick up their homework from the school, take it home and by themselves try to do their schoolwork for the day, and physically take it back to school the next day.

That's the kind of difference you can make.

Lori Townsend: And in about 30 seconds.

We're almost out of time here, Kevin.

The LEO broadband day is the 15th of November.

Tell us what's going to be happening in the community that day.

Unknown: Well, we've I think the tribe is actually going to designated officially Akiak LEO Broadband Day in Akiak.

We're going to have an open house in the community center.

We'll invite all the citizens in we're going to fly in some pizzas from Bethel, and I'll be there and our team, much of our team will actually be there and celebration with the with the Native community.

Very excited to be there.

Lori Townsend: Absolutely.

Wonderful news.

Thank you, Kevin and Hallie for being on with us this evening.

Taking classes home repair projects, business development and access to timely important information during a public health crisis are all things that many of us who live in areas with good Internet connection take for granted.

But as we heard this evening, connecting rural Alaska is crucial for helping those communities engage in modern commerce, health care, and sometimes just entertainment.

All Alaskans should have equal access to affordable high speed broadband to help build a robust future.

The addition of the low Earth orbit satellite system may be the way it gets done.

That's it for this edition of Alaska Insight.

Be sure to tune in daily to your local public radio station for Alaska Morning News and Alaska News Nightly every weeknight.

Be part of important conversations happening on Talk of Alaska every Tuesday morning, and visit our website alaskapublic.org for breaking news and reports from across the state.

While you're there, sign up for our free Daily Digest so you won't miss any of Alaska's top stories of the day.

We'll be back next Friday.

Thanks for joining us this evening.

I'm Lori Townsend.

Good night.