Episode 7 - How Louisiana was the First State to Receive BEAD Approval

Join hosts Marshall Macomber and Mary Scott Nabers as they sit down with Thomas Tyler, Deputy Director of the State Broadband Office in Louisiana, for an insightful conversation on broadband development and connectivity initiatives. Thomas provides an in-depth overview of Louisiana's efforts to bridge the digital divide, including the establishment of the Connect LA office and the implementation of strategic broadband grant programs. With a focus on urgency and collaboration, Thomas shares the state's timeline for allocating funds and engaging with internet service providers and electric cooperatives. Tune in to discover how Louisiana is paving the way for enhanced broadband access and empowering communities across the state. 

Meet the expert co-hosts: 

Marshall Macomber is a visionary executive with a unique blend of business development, political strategy, communications, and public sector experience. He is founder and president of ThinkP3, a DC-based consulting and lobbying firm promoting innovative infrastructure solutions and alternative delivery models such as public-private partnerships (P3s). He played a key role in the 2021 infrastructure bill, initiating a vital USDOT program for state DOTs. Macomber is also a former Chief of Staff to Congressman Mike Rogers and holds an MBA from Georgetown University. A member of George Washington University’s ESG & Infrastructure Steering Group and other boards, he is a frequent speaker, panelist and moderator at industry events.  A driving passion for growing public transit, building walkable and equitable cities, decarbonizing America’s energy grid, and improving railroad infrastructure and operations gets him up in the morning and keeps him up at night.  
 

Mary Scott Nabers is President/CEO of Strategic Partnerships, Inc. (SPI). A recognized expert regarding P3s, she is the author of Collaboration Nation – How Public-Private Ventures Are Revolutionizing the Business of Government & Inside the Infrastructure Revolution – A Roadmap for Rebuilding America. Her articles have been published by media outlets, including Forbes, CNBC, The Hill, & POLITICO.  Mary was the President and General Manager of two media firms. In government, she served as the Commissioner representing Business at the Texas Employment Commission where she was a high-profile, proactive business advocate who founded The Texas Business Council. Then, Commissioner Nabers moved to the Texas Railroad Commission, the state’s regulatory agency for the oil and gas industry, which at the time regulated approximately $65 billion of the state’s economy annually. 

Meet the expert guest: Thomas Tyler has experience in technology strategy, cybersecurity affairs, economic development and public policy disciplines. As the Deputy Director for Louisiana’s Office of Broadband Development and Connectivity, he has served an instrumental role in standing up key initiatives and lead numerous functions ranging from policy and government relations to strategic planning and grant program administration. He has received national recognition from a variety of stakeholders, a direct result of the thought-leadership of the office and stewardship of some of the most impactful investments the state has made in its diverse communities over the past several years. 

Transcript

Marshall Macomber (00:00) 

Welcome back everybody to The Connection. I'm Marshall Macomber, president and founder of Think P3 here in Washington DC and your co -host of our podcast today. And joining me as always is Mary Scott Nabors, president and CEO of Strategic Partnerships in Austin. Hey Mary. 

Mary Scott Nabers (00:16) 

Hey Marshall, good morning and we've got a really special guest on today so I think our listeners are going to enjoy this. 

Marshall Macomber (00:19) 

Let's jump right into it. Thomas Tyler, good morning. Thank you for being here. Deputy Director of the State Broadband Office in Louisiana. Thomas, thank you for joining us today. Thomas, you and I had met, oh, I don't know, several months back at a conference in DC dealing with public -private partnerships and broadband. Our readership is very interested in that, of course, but let's take a step back. Tell us about your role, the state broadband office and what is the state broadband office in Louisiana? What are you trying to accomplish with so much money these days working in the broadband space? 

Thomas Tyler (00:31) 

Thanks, thanks Marshall, I appreciate it. 

Mary Scott Nabers (00:59) 

And Thomas, before we start, I think you ought to tell the audience a little bit about you've just been, had all kinds of accolades. So go ahead and take a little credit here. 

Thomas Tyler (01:05)  

Well, I appreciate that. And so, yeah, my name is Thomas Tyler. So I'm the Deputy Director for Connect LA. So that's the Louisiana Office of Broadband Development and Connectivity. And so our main task is to bridge the digital divide across our state, you know, within the next four or five years or so. And we're doing that with a very big sense of urgency. You know, there's so many people in our state that needed good connectivity yesterday.  

 And so ever since we started, the work we've been doing in our office, that's kind of been our main viewpoint is to move as quickly as we can to ensure that the residents in Louisiana can receive connectivity in a timely manner. So that being said, our office was really stood up in March of 2021. So we've been doing this about three years now. We launched our state's first broadband grant program for last mile connectivity. 

 That's called the Gumbo Grant Program. I can definitively say that it's the best named state broadband grant program there is. It stands for Granting Unserved Municipalities Broadband Opportunities. And so we were excited about that to utilize funding that came from US Treasury's Capital Projects Fund. We had about $176 million here in the state of Louisiana that we dedicated solely to last mile connectivity. 

Thomas Tyler (02:30) 

And so we ran our first statewide grant round at the end of 2021, made awards that next spring summer timeframe, and have about 60 ,000, 70 ,000 locations or so that we're providing last mile connectivity to through that grant program, the vast majority of which will be completed by either the end of this year or early into next year. So we're really excited about that.  

 So, you know, we were one of the first states to receive approval for our CPF plan and moving with that sense of urgency and the want to bring internet to the rest of our residents. We wanted to continue to have that mindset when it came time for the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act funding. So with our BEAD plan, you know, that is something that we had been working on diligently over 2023. 

We were one of the first states to receive approval for our initial proposal, volume one. So we ran our statewide challenge process last fall, and we so far have been the first and only state to receive approval for the entire initial proposal. So as of today, the state of Louisiana is on the shot clock to allocate our funding to all of the different eligible entities. 

Over the next eight months or so. So we have to make sure that's all wrapped up by December. Our state was also, I think we received the eighth largest BEAD allocation. So we have about $1.355 billion that will be coming to the state to go and serve between 150 and 200,000 broadband serviceable locations that we have determined will be eligible for BEAD. So in a nutshell, that's really what we've been working on the last year or so. 

Mary Scott Nabers (04:15) 

Thomas, can I stop you just to have a second? So you are so knowledgeable and of course Marshall and I live in this world so we understand it really well too. But my office gets calls every single week of the world since it started years ago saying can you explain to me exactly how this works? And if I'm a private sector, company and I want to try to reach out to some of the cities and the counties and where this funding is going. How does that work? How do I know where to enter this whole scenario? Can you just back up and get very basic to explain that piece of it? 

Thomas Tyler (04:57) 

Sure. And really, it's the second most important. So one of the most important things that we do as an office is not only moving with a sense of urgency, but also providing really a lot of over communication to all of the different stakeholders involved. So, you know, since our office's inception, we've visited over 100 towns across our state to have different broadband meetings with a various group of different stakeholders.  

You know, we meet with legislators, we meet with concerned citizens, we meet with internet service providers, we meet with congressional delegates, we meet and everybody in between. From economic development to rural ag to healthcare, all of these different entities and all of these different stakeholders and really anyone in general have a need for connectivity across our state.  

And it's super important to make sure that it's not just one meeting. You know, have to go and you have to continue to revisit. You have to continue to over educate and you have to continue to discuss all of the different topics surrounding broadband. So we've been, I feel, you know, we've been good about that and really bringing it to a local perspective to explain and under and to articulate that yes, we know that you as a local resident in a rural community have had issues with internet for a variety of different reasons. 

And here are the steps and the plan that we're taking as a state to make sure that these funds are drawn down and distributed in a manner that's going to bring connectivity to your location. Now, again, one of the things we say is that it's not going to happen overnight, but it is a plan that we have in place to make sure that by 2028, all of these different locations in the state are connected with high speed, reliable, affordable. 

Marshall Macomber (06:46) 

So Thomas, back to the simple questions again, building on Mary. Who can apply? Can a city apply, or does a private company apply? Or both? 

Thomas Tyler (06:56) 

So in the state of Louisiana, the rightful applicants for our program are internet service providers and electric cooperatives. What we like to have happen is the, and really what we've heard from a lot of feedback with our stakeholders throughout the state is a local municipality wants to participate in a way where they can partner with one of those entities.  

A lot of the people we talk to have no interest in starting their own broadband company or running their own network. And in fact, there's one city in Louisiana that's actually trying to sell their own municipal network now because they're done with it, essentially. And so really, the rightful applicants for our program are the internet service providers or electric cooperatives that can really get in and execute appropriately and make sure that the funds that we are providing to them are connecting people in a timely manner. 

Mary Scott Nabers (07:54) 

Okay, so Thomas, one more question around that. So do the providers come to you and do you make that decision about who is going to do the work? 

Thomas Tyler (08:05) 

So that's the beauty of what we've designed with our BEAD program. And one of the requirements of the program is this idea of universal coverage. So historically, and different from, historically with all of the different federal broadband programs that have come out, there hasn't been a requirement for 100 % connectivity. They want you to get to everybody, but if you don't make it 100%, that's not. 

It happens, apparently. One of the key items in BEAD is that we have to ensure 100 % connectivity to all of the broadband serviceable locations that we've identified as part of our plan. That being said, the way forward to address that is for the state office to design what we call sub -project areas, but what other states have a variety of different terms for. And so our state is taking a deep dive on all of the locations that... 

are going to be eligible for BEAD and designing strategic sub -project areas that make financial sense for internet service providers to apply for. And the beauty of that is that with all of these different locations and the way that they're grouped, each project area or each sub -project area could singularly stand on its own and provide a good investment for a provider to go after and be awarded and build connectivity in. 

Mary Scott Nabers (09:33) 

Okay, so, and gee, I hate to just belabor this, but so what's your timeline? Are you already letting people come in and talk to you? And how do they come and connect with you if they are interested in providing these projects? 

Thomas Tyler (09:51) 

So our timeline, as I mentioned earlier, we're on the shot clock now. And for every state, once their initial proposal is fully approved, they have a year to execute and submit their final proposal to the federal government that would include the list of the allocations that they have made of their funding. So within the next, by the end of the year, we have to provide this list to NTIA, which means we have to run our grant round. 

over the next eight months or so and announce preliminary awards by then. So for us, it's moving fast, but this is what a lot of people in other states can start to expect is that really when that initial proposal gets approved in whatever state you're in, that's when the year clock starts. And that's when the timeline starts to take shape for a lot of the states. So... 

We are quickly moving into the preliminary start of our grant round. So in the beginning of April, we'll release draft sub -project areas for public review to collect feedback and public comment on for about a 30-day period. We'll take those comments and adjust any of the sub-project areas that we need to and release final versions in May. We'll have a pre-qualification round. 

for internet service providers or cooperatives to submit all of the different gating criteria that they need to be able to get in and participate. With our grant rounds being launched, you know, probably around June-ish, July-ish of this year, with the idea that we'll make preliminary awards early to mid-fall. So it's a very compressed timeline. 

Marshall Macomber (11:38) 

I think you make a really interesting point about this process. You're developing a statewide plan based on the needs of your residents and to connect people at a certain speed using certain, maybe technologies or not, maybe you're technology agnostic, I don't know. That's a key point right there. People don't just pick up the phone and say, I wanna bring in this project at a speed. It has to work with your plan, correct? 

Thomas Tyler (12:03) 

Yeah, it's a competitive grant process. And I believe, and I think we've really created good policy, you know, when it comes to our BEAD sub -grant program, really to walk the line between what needs to be financially viable for internet service providers and what the federal requirements are to ensure that there is connectivity that's provided to every resident. And so that... 

Marshall Macomber (12:27) 

And in each state, just to drill on this, because the podcast talks to people all across the country, each state does things a little bit differently, correct? 

Thomas Tyler (12:36) 

That's correct. Each state has small nuances that might change throughout their initial proposal. It's very important for, and we've said this publicly, it's very important for anyone who's a stakeholder in any specific grouping of states or a state in specific to really take that idea of over communication to heart and start to speak with your state broadband offices. There's a lot of miscommunication that's floating around. 

news sites and conferences and as people go and they start to hear like what's going on with bead and how can I prepare and how is this going to affect my business. There's a lot of information that's kind of floating around that may or may not be true. And what we say is, you if you want the one source of truth, it's to talk to your state broadband offices. If you don't know them, you should know them because. 

These are the frontline workers who will actually be executing and working through this grant process with you. And it's important to understand their priorities, their mindset, their challenges, and to assist in any way that you can. So that would be the one key piece of information for stakeholders that want to participate in this. 

Mary Scott Nabers (13:45) 

So, Thomas. 

So just to summarize and close this out finally, what you're saying is every state has a broadband office and every service provider who wants to get involved need to contact that state office because that state office is going to take the funding and allocate it to a selected service provider. Is that correct? 

Thomas Tyler (14:19) 

Yes, that's correct. And it may not be just one service provider. It will most likely be many service providers throughout the state. There's not one specific company that can do all this. 

Mary Scott Nabers (14:27) 

Right, right. Because there's different projects and so forth, yes. But for instance, in Louisiana, have you yet put out a, we're open now for you to come and start providing your qualifications and indicating your areas of interest yet, or is that yet to come? 

Thomas Tyler (14:47) 

That's yet to come. That's really what I was speaking about earlier, where our process starts really in the next few weeks when we release those sub -project areas for public feedback. And then moving through into the summer, we'll launch our grant round where providers can come and submit grant applications, and we'll make awards on those grant applications, or preliminary awards on those grant applications, probably in early to mid -fall. 

Mary Scott Nabers (15:17) 

Okay, I've got one more question and then Marshall, I'm gonna let you jump in, I apologize. So there is compliance, there's compliance that has to happen with each project. So let's say I'm a company and I wanna do the compliance. How do I make myself known in Louisiana? 

Thomas Tyler (15:38) 

So in Louisiana, really, our compliance team is already built, really, because we're having to execute pretty fast. Again, if you're a company or an entity that's interested in providing contract services, such as compliance or reporting or technical audit or feasibility studies or GIS mapping or things of that nature, it's again important to reach out to the state broadband offices and understand their challenges and pain points and services that they need, you know, in the next year or so to have onboarded and how you might be able to assist them. 

Mary Scott Nabers (16:14) 

Okay, thank you. 

Marshall Macomber (16:15) 

Thomas, can you tell us for our public sector officials that are looking to improve their broadband service in their communities, tell us from your experience already some of the lessons learned that you would communicate to them about what to do and what not to do when trying to pursue these funds or work with you. 

Thomas Tyler (16:35) 

Sure, Marshall. And, you know, again, I hate to utilize this term again, but it comes in all the time. You know, we're a communication office and the need to over communicate not only to connect people to the Internet, but also to just have them understand all of the nuances behind each and every item that we deal with is super important. For local municipalities who are looking to ensure that their residents have connectivity, it's important to communicate with the providers in your area. 

to make sure that they understand what's coming and what their plans are to participate in these funding sources, to understand if there's any support that they might need, whether that's a match support or whether it's just a letter of support. That goes a long way with a lot of state broadband offices to know that if a provider has the support of the local government or the local municipal county government, that an award... 

that can go a long way to the scoring of an award. Additionally, counties and municipal government should realize that this connectivity will be coming one way or another, and they need to start to prepare their own local staffing concerns when it comes to permitting or locate services, because a lot of these providers are gonna be coming in and need a permit in an expedited manner, or they're going to be digging, and they're going to break water lines, or they're going to break sewer mains. 

So making sure that you have an adequate plan in place to articulate where your existing infrastructure is or have that, or have staffing that can go out and find where the infrastructure is, is going to be super important over the next 24 to 36 months. 

Marshall Macomber (18:20) 

There was a story that's to your point, I saw recently, pain poles and permitting is some of the challenges that I think every municipality is looking at coming down the road. I think this has been a terrific conversation. Mary, any final comments or questions here for Thomas? 

Thomas Tyler (18:25) 

That's right. 

Mary Scott Nabers (18:36) 

You know, I appreciate it so much and appreciate being able to talk to you because you seem to be further ahead than any of the other states. And there has been a lot of miscommunication and we've received a lot of questions that even we can't answer. We live in this world and do all of the research and track the funding and everything. So this helps very much. We really appreciate it, Thomas. 

Marshall Macomber (19:00) 

Thomas, give us the contact info, your website and so forth for our listeners of your broadband office. 

Thomas Tyler (19:06) 

Sure, so our website is just connect.la.gov. And if you want to get in contact with our large office of three, our email address is connect@LA .gov. So happy to chat with anyone. 

Mary Scott Nabers (19:20) 

connect.la.gov. We ought to be able to remember that. 

Marshall Macomber (19:25) 

We look forward to seeing all the exciting things happening in Louisiana. Thanks for your leadership and your team there. And thanks for your time today to talk to us and our listeners. Have a great. 

Thomas Tyler (19:34) 

Thanks, Marshall. Thanks, Mary. I appreciate it. 

Mary Scott Nabers (19:36) 

Thank you very much. Bye bye. 

Marshall Macomber (19:37) 

Thanks Thomas.