Arizona

Arizona

Grantee Total Award Type
Arizona Department of Administration (ADOA) former known as the Arizona Government Information Technology Agency $6,358,179 Broadband Data & Development
Arizona Office of Economic Recovery $1,646,936 Public Computer Centers
Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records $1,278,528 Public Computer Centers
Communication Service for the Deaf, Inc. $14,988,657 Sustainable Adoption
GovNET, LLC $39,274,877 Infrastructure
Mission Economic Development Agency $3,724,128 Public Computer Centers
Navajo Tribal Utility Authority $32,190,067 Infrastructure
University Corporation for Advanced Internet Development $62,540,162 Infrastructure
Arizona Department of Administration (ADOA) former known as the Arizona Government Information Technology Agency
Broadband Data & Development
$6,358,179
Project serves: Arizona

Project Components

State Broadband Capacity Building:

This project will strengthen the Government Information Technology Agency-Arizona’s (GITA) state planning activities that began under the initial SBDD award, allowing the state to fully integrate broadband planning into state activities for the full five years of the project. Staff will support the new broadband advisory council, complete a statewide strategic plan, and engage in research and policy planning for key issues such as rights-of- way (ROW), permitting, and state universal service fund opportunities.

Technical Assistance:

In partnership with the Arizona Telecommunications Information Institute and numerous community colleges that provide small business development assistance, GITA will convene regional events that disseminate broadband availability and policy information to small businesses and local governments. GITA’s support to local governments will focus on ROW, permitting, and intra-government broadband coordination efforts. The project’s support for small businesses will be provided by incorporating broadband-related technical assistance into existing small business development programs housed at rural community colleges throughout the state.

Local Regional Planning Teams:

GITA has already identified seven of the planning teams, and will soon have identified leadership for the eighth. The planning teams are: Pinal County Broadband, Prescott Regional Planning Council, Verde Valley Broadband Cooperative, Northern Arizona Council of Governments, White Mountain Regional Planning, LaPaz County, and the Cochise County Communications Group. Each planning team will be eligible for funds to support the identification of broadband and IT resources in the community, the development of local plans and goals, and the acquisition of grant funds or private financing to support broadband deployment.

Data Collection, Integration, and Validation:

This project was originally funded for broadband planning activities and two years of data collection. In September of 2010, this project was amended to extend data collection activities for an additional three years and to identify and implement best practices.

Address File Development:

The Arizona State Cartographer’s Office at the Arizona State Land Department will partner with the Arizona E‐911 Program to assist counties in developing accurate and current geocodable street networks and address point locations in 15 Arizona counties. This data will greatly assist the Arizona Broadband Mapping Project by providing a quality data resource for data development and verification, especially where census blocks are larger than two square miles.

Arizona Office of Economic Recovery
Public Computer Centers
$1,646,936
Project serves: Arizona

Public computer centers at Arizona libraries are overwhelmed with patrons seeking Internet access to apply for jobs and to obtain job-related skills training. To address this demand, the Arizona Office of Economic Recovery, along with the Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records, proposed the Arizona Job Help Hubs project to: (1) establish staffed Job Help Hubs at 28 public and tribal libraries and (2) install Virtual Workforce Workstations at 198 public and tribal libraries and two community centers throughout the state. Each of the 28 new Job Help Hubs will receive ten new laptops with specialized software and offer 40 hours of training per month. Each of the 200 Virtual Workforce Workstations will include a dedicated desktop computer with its own printer/fax/scanner and access to AZ Workforce job-assistance resources.

Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records
Public Computer Centers
$1,278,528
Project serves: Arizona

The Arizona Public Computer Centers project plans to enhance existing facilities in more than 80 public libraries throughout Arizona. The project expects to deploy more than 1,000 computers across the state to meet the growing demand for public computers and broadband access. The project intends for users to access valuable e-resources and enable libraries to provide training in 21st century skills. The Arizona State Library plans to partner with a variety of government, not-for-profit, and tribal organizations. The Arizona State Library expects 84 public computer centers to serve more than 75,000 users per week or more than 450,000 residents throughout the term of the grant.

Communication Service for the Deaf, Inc.
Sustainable Adoption
$14,988,657
Project serves: Alabama, Alaska, American Samoa, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Guam, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, U.S. Virgin Islands, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming

Broadband’s ability to expand educational and employment opportunities is especially meaningful for Americans who are deaf or hard of hearing, a community that faces unique challenges in education and that suffers from a rate of unemployment much higher than the national average. Communication Service for the Deaf, Inc. (CSD) intends to expand broadband adoption among people who are deaf and hard of hearing and provide them with online tools to more fully participate in the digital economy. The project proposes to employ a combination of discounted broadband service and specialized computers, technology training from an online state-of-the art support center customized to the community’s needs, public access to videophones at anchor institutions from coast to coast, and a nationwide outreach initiative. Thousands will gain online access to all the Internet has to offer, including sign language interpreters, captioned video services, and other content and functionalities designed especially to advance their educational, employment, and healthcare interests.

GovNET, LLC
Infrastructure
$39,274,877
Project serves: Arizona

Given the expansive, often difficult rural terrain across the state of Arizona, community-serving organizations like libraries and public schools often have difficulty accessing high-speed broadband services essential for education, commerce, and economic development. Leading a public-private partnership that brings together the the strategic planning support of the Arizona Government Information Technology Agency (GITA) with the State Library, the Department of Administration, and Internet service provider Telink, GovNET proposes a statewide microwave broadband network to support community anchor institutions and last-mile broadband service providers. The network will offer speeds of between 100-300 Mbpsto key anchor institutions such as Gila Community College, Copper Queen Community Hospital, Gila Bend and Mayer High Schools and Woodruff Community Library, a significant upgrade from the T1 service many key institutions currently have. Network interconnection is also being planned and facilitated by GITA and other state leaders with BTOP Round One infrastructure awardee The Navajo Nation and other tribal networks. The resulting statewide broadband network should significantly improve public safety, healthcare delivery, and other critical government services for the people of Arizona.

Mission Economic Development Agency
Public Computer Centers
$3,724,128
Project serves: Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Texas

The Mission Economic Development Agency, in collaboration with the National Association for Latino Community Asset Builders and a national network of Latino-serving economic development organizations, plans to create 12 new public computer centers and expand five existing ones in 13 communities throughout the United States. Each center expects to operate on the project’s centrally managed network and provide computer training and adult education to a low broadband adoption, high unemployment target population through a standardized English-Spanish training curriculum. The project expects to add a total of 263 new workstations and replace 37 existing workstations, enabling the centers to serve an additional 2,500 users per week and train an estimated 3,000 users per year. Broadband capabilities at each center will be increased to speeds of 1.5 Mbps. Public computer centers funded through this grant will be located in Phoenix, AZ; Canoga Park, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, CA; Del Norte, CO; Blackfoot, ID; Wheaton, MD; Minneapolis, MN; Kansas City, MO; Anthony, NM; Philadelphia, PA; and San Antonio and Laredo, TX.

Navajo Tribal Utility Authority
Infrastructure
$32,190,067
Project serves: Arizona, New Mexico, Utah

Navajo National Middle Mile/Last Mile Project proposes to bring high-speed affordable broadband services to the Navajo Nation by deploying 550 miles of new aerial fiber-optic cable and 59 new or modified microwave towers covering 15,000 square miles in Arizona, Utah, and New Mexico. The proposed service area has rugged terrain, significant poverty, and more than 60 percent of residents lack basic telephone service. The project expects to directly connect 49 Chapter Houses, which serve as community centers for the Navajo population, at speeds from 10 Mbps to 10 Gbps. Last mile wireless services will be offered at speeds between 1 and 3 Mbps through the project’s wireless partner, Commnet Wireless.

University Corporation for Advanced Internet Development
Infrastructure
$62,540,162
Project serves: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming

As part of a longstanding project to connect essential community anchor institutions across the country, and facilitate closer collaboration and long-term benefits for education, research, healthcare, public safety, and government services, the University Corporation for Advanced Internet Development (UCAID) proposes a comprehensive 50-state network benefitting approximately 121,000 community anchors. The project proposes a large-scale, public-private partnership to interconnect more than 30 existing research and education networks, creating a dedicated 100-200 Gbps nationwide fiber backbone with 3.2 terabits per second (TBps) total capacity that would enable advanced networking features such as IPv6 and video multicasting. The project plans to connect community anchors across all disciplines into virtual communities with shared goals and objectives, including colleges, universities, libraries, major veterans and other health care facilities, and public safety entities, with additional benefits to tribes, vulnerable populations, and government entities.