Evan Feinman is about to start his new position as National Broadband Advisor as part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. As Former Virginia Broadband advisor, his team pushed to get the number of unconnected citizens from 500,000 down to 50,000 in 4 years! I’m glad to have an alley on the national level, especially with broadband internet, which will be critical for forward-thinking learning and the future economy.
Links:
https://www.commonwealthconnect.virginia.gov/form/contact
Transcript:
keevin bybee 0:01
Welcome to the one school podcast. This is Dr. keevin Bybee. I’m a family physician exploring how we might turn local public schools into 24/7 365. Safe havens for our children. By having conversations with people with experience and expertise, who might inform how a project like this might come to fruition. Today, I have the pleasure of speaking with Evan Feynman. He is the National Broadband advisor, a brand new position, he was formerly the Virginia chief broadband advisor. And I am excited to hear how he might inform getting something like this involved in public policy, as well as coalition building and getting people to think that this is a good idea. So good morning. Good afternoon. And I would love to have you tell people who are listening, what brought you to where you’re at today?
evan feinman 0:52
Sure. Thanks a lot, Keevin. You know, I really, I have to say my compliments on your NPR voice. I think that’s really strong. I tried to I try not to chuckle right when we started recording. Yeah, so as as you guys heard, I’m Evan Feynman. I was previously in state government in Virginia, which, you know, I’ll we’ll talk about in a bit. And I’m soon to be me literally starting next week, as the director of the broadband program that was authorized. It’s a new federal program is authorized in the bipartisan infrastructure bill, to see if we can’t get universal broadband coverage in the whole United States. You’ll hear me say a couple times in Virginia, because that’s just my habit over the last several years, but no for all Americans, and it’s really critically important that we do it. First, I think we all saw during the pandemic, the necessity of a connected world. Second, it is a it’s a an economic necessity. It’s quite frankly, the case that economies do not grow at this point where there is inadequate digital infrastructure and contracting economies, bedevil rural America, we’ve seen over and over and over again, stores close companies pack up and leave new companies don’t arrive, kids go to school and don’t come back. It really, really, really hurts communities. And then what happens is the ills of a contracting society accrue the most harmfully to the most vulnerable members of that society. And so you see, kids who grow up in households without a reliable broadband connection, even when you do your good academic practices. And you back out the quality of school systems, the affluence and education level of the parents, the, you know, these are not perfect measures, but the reported aptitude of the kids, what you see is that those kids post secondary outcomes are much worse, they’re less likely to pursue post secondary education. And when they do, they attend less well regarded schools and take on more debt. Similarly, the elderly are less able to age safely in place when there’s not a broadband connection. And then finally, you know, we know that our veterans population is over represented as a percentage of the rural population that comes mental health is a an ongoing crisis and everyday crisis. telepsychiatry is a tremendous tool that we could use to support that population. But they got to be able to video chat, it is simply not the same, it takes too many tools out of a therapist toolbox if they’ve got to talk over the phone. And a lot of these folks are just not you know, it’s hard enough to get people into therapy to begin with, you certainly don’t want to tack on hours long drives on both ends of sessions. And so for all those reasons, it’s really, really, really critical that we get it done. I also just think, frankly, when you talk to people from areas that don’t have broadband connectivity, it’s their top political demand. And if government is going to be good government, we need to be responsive to people it is, is it is not frivolous to meet people’s demands or desires. And so, you know, I’m really excited to be working on this program. I’m excited to join the rest of the team supporting the President’s agenda in DC. I previously have done a whole lot of stuff in and outside politics and policy. I have been a utility player most of my career. So I, you know, I did a couple year fellowship focused on energy and transportation policy. I worked for a budget fiscal policy think tank for a little while, I have done a number of different roles in political campaigns at the local congressional, senatorial, and you know, gubernatorial and presidential levels. And I, you know, I was Deputy Secretary of Natural Resources. I’ve run an economic development agency, as well as the infrastructure work that I’m doing now. And so, you know, I’ve worn a lot of hats, but that’s helped me see the ways in which you can leverage government to be effective in solving problems that people have previously found. insurmountable. And you know, government is a really powerful tool when it sticks to what it’s good at. And does that efficiently and effectively and in partnership.
keevin bybee 5:10
Yeah, so many so many threads to chase there as a family physician and talking about telehealth, I can’t tell you how important this is, especially like you said, mental health, and I take care of a lot of veterans myself. So just, you know, I also like you said, you’ve done lots of stuff with the other utilities. And so I kind of like to hear, if you how you would tie a story between all of the things that might seem like they fall in different buckets, energy, transportation, utilities, and education, because I think that you really can’t take any of these apart. And so, given your experience working in these different, like I said, quote, different fields, how can they all tied together to support each other and at the base support our kids who are trying to learn?
Unknown Speaker 6:01
Sure? Well, there’s there’s two big ways the, the education space intersects two big ways and in a myriad small ways, but two big ways the education space intersects with with this effort. The first is the is one that you know, I think, is painfully obvious post pandemic, but perhaps wasn’t prior to the COVID 19 pandemic, which is that we’re increasingly living in a digital world that you know, commerce communication, you know, you and I are recording this podcast via zoom, a podcast itself is a creature of the digital environment, we are recording this on different coasts, via video chat, the, to properly prepare children and continuing education learners to engage usefully with this environment, we simply must educate them in a digital way. And using strong, well designed digital tools to make sure that happens. There are a lot of different ways to do that. Some good, some bad, like any other technology, any other advance, you know, for every war and peace there doesn’t, you know, airport crappy paperback novels, right? In the same way. With this communications technology, there are upsides and downsides, but to to do other than train our children to make best use of the dominant communications and commercial technology of our society is to really critically fail them. And so we absolutely have to do that. The second big place this intersect the education space intersects our effort is we need a whole bunch more technicians, we were going to, you know, the the fiber unfortunately, doesn’t string itself, right. And so we need engineers, network designers, architects, line workers, truck drivers, people to maintain that stuff, people to go fix, you know, there’s there, there’s some really incredible technology that goes into making these networks work. But at the end of the day, humans have to run all that stuff. And especially when our networks intersect with the real world, when there’s ice storms, and tree limbs and squirrels, the you know, a person has to go repair any of that damage, and all of those tend to be pretty darn good jobs. It also, you know, like any other big piece of infrastructure, it requires an all hands on deck approach. And so, you know, we’re going to need to be in partnership with the electric utilities that have in many ways done this operation previously, you know, people are not I think, at this point, you know, we’re pretty historically removed from the rural electrification movement. But much of the country did not have electricity prior to a major federal government push to get electrification done throughout the whole of the United States. Those companies and organizations still exist in the form of our investor owned utilities, our electric cooperatives, which are huge allies in this. And you know, they’re just a municipal power operations as well, things like the TVA, but, you know, by and large, they still are there, they still own the poles, were going to be attached to their poles and in many cases, the electric providers, especially when they’re electric cooperatives, will also be the broadband providers whether as a direct customer facing broadband provider or as what we term in the in the industry, a middle mile provider, effectively a business to business carrier who handles the data once it departs the, you know, the place the point of contact and gets it to the the main body of the internet. Those are really important components to this as well. The last thing that we need to do is in the same way that public education is is a universal good, right. And, you know, I would argue that compulsory public education is is among, you know, ranks right up there with, Hey, let’s have sewers instead of pouring our waste into the streets, as you know, one of the finest public policy choices that’s ever been made civilization only. And, you know, we need to its universality is a big part of its strength. By that same token, we need to make sure that every single kid in the country has access to all of the different tools, benefits, and ways of learning that the internet can provide. And that’s going to mean getting the physical infrastructure of a bunch of people. But it’s also going to mean standing up programs that allow for those families that can’t afford to pay for monthly service, to get them some support, and at least get their kids free access to a whitelisted group of sites and tools that they can use so that they can better educate themselves when they’re not in school. And when they’re at the when they’re in the classroom.
keevin bybee 11:05
Yeah, very much. So, you know, you you touched on the universality, and using, you know, governments for their one of the big things they can do is make big investments. And as somebody who loves markets, and as I call myself a little bit of a recovering libertarian, I’m just curious how you frame the discussion about using this as a as an investment, rather than an entitlement. Because I can imagine in the southeast people, I mean, I experience if you’re out in Oregon as well, but people tend to say, businesses, business government is government, never the twain shall meet. Obviously, that’s not the case in reality, but that narrative is out there. And so how do you think about the discussion about framing this as a, an investment, and we’re the at least the government’s tend to be the best people in some senses to start that investment and get the ball rolling? Because that kind of makes sense?
evan feinman 12:01
Yeah, absolutely. Well, you know, I think the the best analogy is probably the Interstate Highway System, which, you know, is not something that on its face makes money. It is it is instead an enabler of commerce. In the same way, what we see is that billions of dollars of revenue are created on a state by state basis 1000s and 1000s of new jobs, tremendous amounts of economic activity, through both the direct expenditures that are related to expanding the network, but also then through the the whole universe of global commerce that is opened up to the people who now have access to the internet, it is a it is a tremendous, tremendous value add, the reason that government needs to get involved to ensure universal broadband infrastructure is in fact, because of a market failure. The fact of the matter is a mile of broadband infrastructure costs the same amount in northern Alaska a little bit more, because the weather, but let’s say northern Minnesota, as it does in Manhattan, the difference is in northern Minnesota, there are very, very few customers you can get for that expenditure of capital. And so, you know, once the population density drops below us, whereas in Manhattan 1000s 1000s, right, once the expected return on the capital expenditure to lay the infrastructure will never repay that capital expenditure, or frankly, when it gets below what you could make just parking it in the s&p, no private sector company is gonna come do that they would be insane if they did that their job is to maximize earnings. And even mission driven organizations, places, you know, nonprofits and electric cooperatives. You know, as my friends in the nonprofit sector are quick to remind me, not for profit doesn’t mean being for loss, they could not continue to operate if they did everything at a loss. And so what is necessary is to in partnership with the private sector, whether that be not for profit or for profit, we need to to make it make economic sense for the people who have expertise in doing this to do it. And so, you know, I think there will be times in which municipal networks are the right answer purely publicly owned networks. But the vast majority of the work is going to be done by the private sector by aligning their incentives with ours by figuring out look, what is the amount of upfront capital one time capital we you need, so that it can make it profitable for you to continue operating a network to maintain and operate a network here, you figure that out, you do it, you figure it out in such a way that it’s not a windfall for them, but it is worth their time. You know, we’re not going to compel people to do anything in the United States. What we’re going to do is is incentive to do it, you know, we’re all carrots and no sticks. And that’s okay with me. That’s the kind of society I want to live in. And that’s the kind of government I want to work for.
keevin bybee 14:48
Yeah, fantastic. I I’m very much about aligning incentives. And rather than considering that there’s evil people out there, there’s just social primates who respond to the incentives and None of them.
evan feinman 15:00
Yes. I’m a big fan of the four word description of economics. People respond to incentives.
keevin bybee 15:07
Indeed. So let’s put the put the right carrots out there and not carrots coated in sugar, but like carrots that are actually healthy for us, right? Yeah. Pivoting a little bit. You know, we all love internet, but we’re also becoming painfully aware of how it can be leveraged against us. And you know, we don’t want kids stuck in front of screens. And I’m just curious how you think about leveraging the internet to make sure that we’re also getting the best real person face to face time as well, rather than saying, let’s just do broadband. So we never have to see each other again, just playing devil’s advocate to get your response.
Unknown Speaker 15:43
Look, society’s ever evolving. It is easy, I fall victim to it strictly, as you know, I like to pretend that I’m still young, but I think that, you know, that ship has sailed, you know, and I think about, you know, the experience in life that my son has, and I contrast it with mine. And I think it’d be nice if your daughter the way art you know, but the you know, the reality is that every generation is is emerges in a new context. And the best thing that we can do is ensure that that we are arming our students with best practices and best approaches to address that context. You know, the the kids seeing each other face to face in the mall, instead of seeing each other face to face on a video chat or being in each other’s ears while they play a video game. It’s worth remembering, you know, we bemoan the loss of the kids hanging out together. Our parents hated that. They thought it was a terrible waste of everybody’s time, and that there was no reason for kids to be hanging out in malls and cul de sacs, you know, and so the, you know, the, I think it is, it’s really important to remember also that there since there seems to be something unique about communications technology in particular, that each new iteration creates a social backlash. This goes all the way back to Plato, who was a an ardent opponent of literacy, it was his belief not entirely incorrectly, that it would really negatively affect people’s memories, their oral histories and traditions, once people were able to offload that portion of their recollection, onto the written onto paper. And actually, really interestingly, that turned out to be true people used to be able to hear, you know, many paragraphs, long messages and repeat them weeks later word for word, even totally accurately, in a way that I think modern humans would be very challenged to do. Similarly, you know, the, the advent of the paperback book was bemoan the telephone, people were worried people were just going to sit, you know, idly by chatting with their friends needlessly, you know, the radio, TV, all of these things have have created, it’s effectively the same playbook. And it you know, it’s because there’s something in our primate neuro physiology, right, that demands that we not like new ways that people are talking to each other, and that we privilege the ways that we’re used to, as somehow superior to new forms of communication. You know, I think the fact that I, you know, some of my dearest friends are people who, two of them now live in the same city. But for many years, there was one in New York, one in Miami, one in Houston, and I was in Richmond, Virginia, and we have a running chat group chat every day, and I’m a part of their lives, and they’re a part of my life in a way that would be impossible would have been impossible 20 years ago. And so, you know, I think that’s, that’s really cool. And it’s something that we should embrace, you know, at the end of the day, there’s simply no going backwards, you know, the cats out of the bag. So even if it were a negative thing, we need to make the best of it not, not try to not try to unring the bell,
keevin bybee 19:01
very much agreed. You know, I personally take the position that the more we know about ourselves, socially, physiologically, emotionally, then the better we can, you know, voluntarily put the safeguards in place for ourselves. And you’re right, there’s no there’s no putting the cat back in the bag and being a Luddite doesn’t help anybody.
evan feinman 19:21
They just they didn’t even help the Luddites.
keevin bybee 19:25
Yeah, exactly out of the job. One quick comment you had mentioned that making universal education is as important as sewers and a phrase that I like to introduce people and I just can’t say it enough. There’s another philosopher of education that I really liked, named, Zachary Stein. And, you know, if you define civilization as the intergenerational transmission of information, well, then what is education except the intergenerational transmission of education of information? And so if we can, you know, marry the concept of civilization with education as line one, then it gets easier to do the projects like social investment such as broadband or education. I’m just curious, you know, if you have any responses or thoughts about that,
evan feinman 20:19
it is easy to wax poetic about the value of the educational enterprise, because it is a, it is a it is a core aspect of civilization, it is, in fact, the simple fact of communicating information is probably a big part evolutionarily, of how we became humans to begin with, add on to that the fact that as he said, you know, we are in many ways we’re, the the activity of civilization is creating new members of that civilization going forward, imparting our values, as well as the necessary information live to our children is, you know, is the continuation of our society and civilization. And so I think it’s, it’s really, really important. And one of the things that all of these digital tools will enable us to do is get better at that, you know, everybody, in the ideal world, you know, every student would have an education that was tailored directly to their interests, needs progress, learning style, etc. The the advent of ever increasing digital complexity gives us the ability to get closer to that ideal universe, I mean, we are going to be able to keep track in real time of where every member of a classroom is, it will be a huge force multiplier for educators who, you know, I think right now could use a hand. And it we, we can also use these tools for ILL right, you know, there’s all these calls now to digitally monitor every teacher. And you know, I think those are, those are counterproductive. But the teacher should be able to make best use of modern technology to monitor and support the progress of the kids whose charge they have. And, you know, I think it’s, I think we’re right on the cusp of some really exciting stuff. Because telecommunications technology has gotten so ubiquitous, I think a lot of people think the digital revolution has already happened. I think that’s very incorrect. We are right at the edge of a curve that, you know, is going to bend very sharply vertical vertical very quickly. And it is, it’s going to be really exciting. It is inconceivable when you think about it now that people simply did not have access to the internet in their pockets all the time. But it was not that long ago that smartphones were introduced, you know, it was it was? Gosh, I mean, what,
keevin bybee 22:55
15 years ago, 2007 was the iPhone. Right?
evan feinman 22:59
Exactly. And it was far from universally adopted, you know, set it and so you go to 2022. And you’ve got it is, it was a good solution, to just put QR codes on the table in every damn restaurant in the country. And everybody was fine, right? Everybody has an iPhone, or at least a smartphone, and they can, either they can access the menu. And so I think that’s the next steps are going to be really dramatic and interesting. And, you know, I’m excited to see him happen and play a part in ensuring that everybody gets to participate.
keevin bybee 23:30
Yeah, I like how you brought up the fact that we’re kind of at the inflection of an exponential curve. And I think this ties together a couple interesting points, like I mentioned, knowing what we are, the human brain is good at linear thinking, but not necessarily good at exponential thinking, which can be a little bit of friction, thinking about the future, you know, I think I’m a, I was a big fan of Andrew Yang, because if he was about the only one who was talking about the fact that automation is going to be changing our economy, so drastically, a lot faster than people are aware of him, call it five, call it 20. In my mind, those are basically the same number of years, it’s like irrelevant, if it’s at one decade or three, it’s happening super fast. And so being able to look at that exponential curve and get in front of it, rather than kind of be on the tail end of it will only be to our benefit, right?
evan feinman 24:26
No question. I’m in the intersection of automation and intelligence software is going to change our entire economy and society in a bunch of ways. Good and bad, right? Like every other thing, you know, I think the good will far outweigh the bad, but it’s going to be disruptive, and it’s going to happen. All of this stuff happens faster than people think it will. You know, we anytime somebody says that technology is 10 years with the exception of fusion, anytime a person so the technology is 10 years off, it’s three years off and you know, and we were right around the corner from A situation where we have software that is handling stuff that was previously purely the domain of humans. And it’s already happening. I mean, the, the elementary benchmark stuff, you know, chess or other types of games is one thing, but even creative endeavors, it turns out whether you know, you want to call it AI or just machine learning, you know, this intelligent software is able to write hit songs and compose novels, and do accounting and legal work and all kinds of other stuff still not as well as practitioners. But I think the future you know, I read a study the other day, that indicated that, while a human diagnostician is a better diagnose or of ailments than an algorithm, a human in partnership with an algorithm is far better than the human alone. And I think that kind of world where, you know, the next step will be us working in partnership with these pieces with these pieces of software. And in you know, in the the manufacturing and, and food service and retail spaces in partnership with software running in, you know, mobile units, whether we call them robots or drones or whatever. You know, that’s, that’s, that’s the next step. And it’s gonna be awesome. You know, there will there be shenanigans? Will kids figure out how to hack stuff? Will the occasional AI or robot run amok? Yes, you know, I point out humans do that, too. We don’t need to be afraid of it. But it is going to be disruptive. And the more we talk about it, the more we think about it, the better able we’re going to be to address it. You know, I McKinsey did a study, they’re not perfect, but those are bright folks who try to get right, McKenzie did a study that said something like 1/3 of all current jobs will be automated away by 2030. So that’s not far away. You know, it’s 2022 right now. And so, you know, I think our educational system should be thinking about that and be thinking about, you know, what we’re preparing people to do and what whether or not, that’s going to be a good skill set for them to have or not. And we should definitely be thinking, you know, we should have a little intellectual humility here, recognize that we’re not going to be able to predict all of this perfectly, and ensure that we’re giving our kids transferable and multiple useful sets of skills, talents, techniques, and approaches, so that you know, the stuff that we get wrong, or the stuff that we didn’t foresee, which will be Legion, is stuff that they’re as well prepared as we can make, for which there is well prepared. So you can make,
keevin bybee 27:51
I want to talk about two things. The one is money, we’ll come back to that one in a second. And you mentioned recognizing that we’re not going to get everything right. And then in some sense, not setting something down in stone, but having a a process of iterative improvement built in from the beginning. And I think, again, a lot of people tend to think that we’re just going to implement a policy and let it run. And I guess, how do you think about building into the policy, the fact that it’s going to iterate itself over time with regular check ins and updates?
evan feinman 28:27
We have to do that. And so you know, for example, the program that we ran in Virginia, we rewrote those program guidelines, the way the program worked, every single year, we would, we went out, we we, we met the challenge, we came back and we thought, okay, here’s some, here’s some things we need to do differently, because x y&z Didn’t work. And we didn’t. We didn’t just do it internally, either. You know, we had really robust stakeholder engagement sessions, we took in written and verbal comment from people across the board, and then we rejiggered the program, and then we went out the next year. And it turns out, there were other problems we hadn’t solved, are there new problems we’ve created, which, you know, happens. And so you do that, you know, I, he’s not regarded as a great thinker. But I often recall the response that Mike Tyson gave, when he was told that his opponent had had a perfect plan to beat him. And Tyson said, Everybody’s got a plan until they get punched in the face. And, you know, I think that’s right. And reality is, is pretty darn good at punching you in the face. Right? You know, you you come up with the best plan you have. And then you march into the field, you meet the enemy. And it turns out, they’ve been planning to right or you get out into the terrain, and you learn that gosh, X, Y, or Z is harder than you thought, or it’s going to cost more money or this is going to happen faster, which is great, except you didn’t have to plan for that. And so the rest of the effort has to catch up. And so you know, all of these things can happen and you just have to you have to do it. The other thing to remember is that, you know, not everybody agrees. And there, you want to accommodate disagreement as much as you can. You know, it is not true that everything needs to be top down. And one of the things that we’re, that I’m excited about for the, you know, the effort that the President is putting together is that in many ways, it’s going to look, it is going to be different from state to state and region region. So they’re going to be state broadband offices within state governments that are implementing the federal program and will have the ability to, in consultation with with the federal team, take different approaches that work better for their state and situation. And so you know, in the same way, you know, what we did in Virginia, which, you know, by the way, we Virginia will have universal broadband coverage by 2024. We went from right around 520 530,000 unserved locations to about 50,000 unserved locations during the four years of the North administration, you know, really, really, really tremendous accomplishment with with construction ongoing. And I should say those are, every one of those locations doesn’t have service today. But every one of those locations has a fully funded, fully engineered construction underway network that’s being extended to them. So, you know, different people will get online at different times. But, you know, if we did nothing else, only 50,000 locations would be would remain unserved in the next couple of years. And in fact, I’m very confident that the team that the current governor has, we’ll, we’ll finish the job, both because you know, I know Governor Younkin cares about it. And because many of my former colleagues like to mirror homes and Chandler, Vaughn and Tammy Brzeski and you know, I don’t want to come in your way, because I’ll forget somebody, but, you know, incredible folks are still there and still doing great work. Yeah,
keevin bybee 31:50
it’s, it’ll be asymptotic. But the the momentum is absolutely encouraging. You know, I’ve, I’ve got some sci fi ideas about how I want to get all this paid for that’s going to take at least a generation to make the big macro economic changes. But where do you how do you think about how we’re going to fund these these big public projects? How do you convince people to pony up the money? Or where do you take the money out from?
evan feinman 32:19
Well, so you know, much of the federal effort has already been paid for, in that it was, it was appropriated, you know, dirt in the in the infrastructure and Jobs Act that was passed, the industry will provide a fair amount of the money as well, you know, ultimately, we’re buying assets for them. And so, you know, we’re not going to build this and just, you know, entirely on the public dime, and hand it over, what we’re going to do is contribute enough in the form of funding that it makes, it makes sense for them to invest the remainder, make it make good business sense for them to invest the remainder. And they’ll do that because, you know, as I, you know, I think my friends on the right are probably too forgiving, of corporate excess. But you know, as I’m, as I’m quick to remind my friends on the left, corporations are not immoral, they’re amoral. They are devices by which they increase the amount of revenue and profit that they have. And so if you put an opportunity to make money in front of a corporation, by and large, they will take it and that’s, that’s, that’s true of telecommunications companies is anybody else. There is a there’s a popular narrative that, you know, the Comcast and horizons of the world are villains, and they’re, you know, twirling their mustache, and they’ve tied rural America to the tracks. I really don’t think that’s accurate. You know, my partnership with telecommunications industry in Virginia has been positive, you know, they have not stood in the way of progress. They certainly want to make sure that their individual organizations get as much benefit from this effort as possible. And there are times when that didn’t make sense from a policy standpoint, and they were disappointed with what we did. But there are other times where they can do good and do well, and we let them do it. The same thing was true with our electric providers, you know, the, the electric cooperatives, yes, are undertaking a tremendous amount of effort, and, you know, often a fair amount of debt to build these networks out. But this is going to be a benefit for them. It’s another business that they’re able to run, it’s another source of revenue. And you know, they’re going to benefit from it. Similarly, our investor on utilities, we changed the law in Virginia to allow our big electric providers dominion, and Appalachian Power to excuse me to string fiber and be middle mile providers themselves. That, you know, made a lot of sense for us and will make a lot of sense for set of other states because you need to build effectively telecommunications networks inside electrical grids to modernize them anyway. And there’s no reason to, to do it twice. You know, you’re going to pay for three electric bills to then rebuild the same network and pay through pay for it as a taxpayer would be silly. So we change the law that lets them they’re usually regulated in a least cost fashion, which is what you want from your electricity. tires. But what that meant was, even if it would have been profitable for them to, it’s more technically complex in this, but to pull a thicker cable and lease that excess capacity out beyond what they needed to run the grid, they were forbidden to do it because the thicker cable costs more money, and they have to do the cheaper things. So we said, No, that’s crazy. If they’re going to an area that’s not served by an by broadband infrastructure, they can create that extra capacity and in partnership with internet service provider, they can help that ISP serve that area. That works really well for two reasons. One, it reduces the cost pretty dramatically. And two, it blows open globally, the group of people who could try to serve a given area, if you imagine, you know, the southwest corner of a given county had, you know, a Comcast network on one side and, you know, a Cox cable network on the other side? Well, you know, it really had to be kind of had to be Cox or Cutler or Comcast that edge their network in prior to this to this new law. Now, any company any ISP in the whole world can serve that that quadrant of the county, hook into the utilities network and ride that back to the broader internet. And it allowed for us to get a ton of different, you know, competitors in there. And competition breeds good outcomes,
keevin bybee 36:16
incentives and rational policy and being able to iterate those things that were set in place for good intentions, but didn’t anticipate how they would affect things down the road are so important. Just curious if you’ve got any other thoughts or anything that you’d like to plug your future projects or words of wisdom for us moving forward.
evan feinman 36:39
I will say for folks in the Greater Richmond area I am. I helped along with a number of other people start a great nonprofit stay RBA that supports Richmond public schools, please if you’re anywhere nearby, and you’re interested in that organization, they do incredible work building community support around our public school system which needs to help, please check them out. Look forward to if you are somebody who does not have a reliable broadband connection at your home or place of business. In the next six or eight months, we’re going to be assisting in the creation of state broadband offices, you should engage with them. There will be tools both put out by the National Telecommunications and Information Agency, as well as by your state broadband office that informed citizens will be able to use to support the broadband effort in their communities and states. If you want a preview of what those tools will look like. You can go to Commonwealth Connect dot Virginia dot all spelled out.gov. And you can see the broadband toolkit that we created for the Commonwealth of Virginia that’s in many ways going to be a playbook that we’re going to be trying to follow at the federal level as well.
keevin bybee 37:52
Great, I’m going to make sure I get all those links in the show notes. Thanks for your time. I really love hearing about this project and wiring up our children is gonna only make sure that we do have those technicians to keep things moving forward in the future. So thanks for talking with me today. And until the next time. It was pleasure
Transcribed by https://otter.ai