Senate Bill 140, now a comprehensive education package that includes provisions for student transportation, distance schools, charter schools, teacher bonuses, and basic funding for school districts, originally It started as a simple bill to provide high-speed internet to rural schools in the United States.
The original text of the bill is simple: just 56 words.
“Each fiscal year, a school district that has one or more schools eligible for discounted rates for Internet service under the federal Universal Service Program will receive an amount for each school equal to the amount needed to bring the applicant’s share to 100. Eligible: Megabits downloaded per second for Internet service.”
What these 56b words mean is that rural schools with internet speeds of less than 100 megabits per download are eligible for large subsidies from the federal government. Previously, these grants were for rural schools with only 25 megabits.
But then, because the bill was an education bill, it received Christmas tree treatment in the Republican-controlled House, which wants to address a number of education issues, particularly school funding. With a new majority in power, it’s time to address a range of education priorities. The bill is currently 19 pages long.
Not much is clear from looking at the underlying legislation until you consider who will benefit. The bill’s primary sponsor is Sen. Lyman Hoffman, who is the salaried board president of Bethel Native Corporation, the village’s for-profit corporation. It was a big player in the last round of local fiber grants, earning millions of dollars. He is also the Senate Finance Co-Chair. He also serves on the Statewide Broadband Advisory Committee.
Bethel Native Corporation won a $42.4 million grant from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program in 2022 to install a 405-mile fiber-optic network from Dillingham to Bethel.
“This project, completed in partnership with Alaska telecommunications provider GCI, will provide urban Level 2 gig internet service to consumers in the Bethel and Yukon-Kuskokwim (YK) communities along the fiber optic route,” the announcement said in 2022. stated in 2013. The grant was awarded to BNC.
The BNC/GCI fiber project would follow an undersea route from Dillingham, where it would eventually join the Nushagak Telephone Cooperative long-distance fiber project, to the mouth of the Kuskokwim River, and then overland to the remaining locations. arrive at. Bethel. GCI would upgrade Bethel’s local access network and install fiber to homes in Platinum, Eak, Napaskiak and Oscarville.
Bethel Native Corporation is Hoffman family company. Anna Hoffman, Senator Hoffman’s niece-in-law, is the CEO. His family, brothers, sisters and cousins all make up the board of directors. There are only two or three board members who are not connected in some way to the Hoffman family. The commercial company has subsidiaries involved in fiber optic expansion businesses, including AIRRAQ.
Learn more about GCI and AIRRAQ’s partnership here.
If SB 140 passes, school districts across rural Alaska will each pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to “last mile” companies like GCI to provide high-speed internet service. As schools seek more funding for faster speeds, that cost will be passed on to the state of Alaska.
“The Alaska School Broadband Assistance Grant (BAG) program was created to help schools improve their internet download speeds. Established by the Alaska State Legislature in 2014, this grant was originally created to help schools improve their Internet download speeds. It allowed schools to reach download speeds of 10 Mbps. In 2020, the Legislature amended the statute to allow schools to reach download speeds of 25 Mbps. SB 140 increased download speeds to 100 Mbps. Mbps,” Sen. Hoffman said in a sponsor’s statement last year.
In other words, this provision, currently buried within 19 pages of other legislation, is a gift to companies like GCI.
“New and improved technology and the proliferation of Internet services have made it possible to provide more and faster Internet service. Internet prices have decreased in some localities, making annual Internet charges regulated by state law. To help districts take advantage of these advances, SB 140 would increase the minimum Mbps requirement from 25 Mbps to 100 Mbps, which would allow districts to increase their download speeds. The amount of the Broadband Assistance Grant (BAG) will be increased to help achieve this goal. With more funding available through the BAG program in the future, schools will be able to leverage more E-rate funding to connect Alaska schools to broadband. national standards,” Hoffman wrote.
In 2023, 151 schools in 27 Alaska school districts benefited from the School BAG Award. Many were in the Bethel Native Corporation work area.
Mr. Hoffman is co-chairman and majority member of the Senate Finance Committee, so there is no question about the original bill or whether there is a financial conflict of interest with Bethel Native Corporation’s deep involvement in textiles. It has received almost no attention. -Optical internet. Mainstream media ignored this section of SB 140 and who gets the money.
And Sen. Hoffman doesn’t seem to care what else is in SB 140, he just wants it to pass immediately.
Megabit payment methods in Alaska are unique. Schools already have access to high-speed communications, but Alaska has a system where broadband companies get paid for every megabit that passes through the lines. The amount they receive per megabit is astronomical compared to the bottom 48. This can be considered a hostage to Megabit. They can also release megabits, but only if they are paid for it.
In the meantime, the money won’t go toward cheaper, faster alternatives: satellite-based internet like Starlink, which is designed for places like rural Alaska. must read alaska In a far western village in Alaska, teachers were found to be forgoing fiber-optic cable internet, bringing in Starlink dishes, installing them outside the building, and running lines indoors to classes.
In Scammon Bay, GCI offers 10 Mbps and Starlink offers varying speeds for schools, but 50-220 Mbps for homes at a fraction of the cost. GCIs can earn more money and potentially provide faster internet at schools.
In a recent bid to serve the Lower Yukon Kuskokwim School District, Microcom won the bid using Starlink terminals via GCI. Microcom was about 1/10th the price.
But while SB 140 favors fiber optics for some companies, companies that already offer high-speed, low-cost satellite internet won’t be part of the tracking of funding from federal and state governments.
