Connected Nation

Mountain Connect 2024: How BroadbandOhio is navigating BEAD

• Jessica Denson • Season 5 • Episode 40

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Jessica Denson (00:06):

On this episode of Connected Nation, we wrap up our coverage from Mountain Connect 2024, a broadband conference that brings together state broadband leaders from across the country, including more than 30 state broadband directors. On today's episode, I talk with the broadband director from Ohio. I'm Jessica Denson, and this is Connected Nation. I am back in the exhibit hall at Mountain Connect 2024, and I'm sitting here with Peter Berg, who is the chief of the Broadband Ohio office, which is essentially another name for a broadband state. Broadband office. Right. That's

Peter Voderberg, Chief, BroadbandOhio (00:46):
Exactly right.

Jessica Denson (00:48):
I love the creativity. Everybody has a different little bit different name, but I just want to make clear who we're talking to. Sure. So you lead the state's work that's happening with broadband. Yes. Can you give me first, before we dive in deeper, can you give me an overview of where things are right now?

Peter Voderberg, Chief, BroadbandOhio (01:02):
Sure. So we were created four years ago in 2020, and basically up until that point, the state of Ohio had been approached by a few internet service providers to get into our rights of way and things like that. I was working for Governor DeWine and Lieutenant Governor Houston at the time, and we basically had a conversation about what we should do with some of the assets the state of Ohio has. We did a big study committee. We did a big report that was long and boring, and I know it was long and boring. I wrote it. And so then it turned into our state's first broadband strategy. We just broadband strategy because at the time, USDA reconnect was one of the big grant programs, and we were losing points because without a state broadband strategy, you didn't get full points. So we were at a broadband strategy.

(01:46)
We had a conversation. We were talking about whether we should have a broadband office or not. And so I was very much advocating for a broadband office and sometimes be careful what you wish for because in the advocating for the broadband office, I'm the one who ended up running it. We started and right away I started in March of 2020, and then we immediately went home because of the pandemic and everything changed overnight. I went from being a one man office to immediately doing everything from releasing information on who was at the time doing the emergency broadband benefit to. We had a $50 million program funded by CARES to get devices into the hands of kids who were learning from home. And then we had our first statewide grant program called the Ohio Residential Broadband Expansion Grant Program, or oreg, as everyone likes to call it.

(02:36)
And then from that point on, we were the office that is the lead office for the broadband equity access and deployment and digital equity programs for the state of Ohio. And so where we're right now in bead is we have very much, we've had our initial proposal finalized and approved. We have had our challenge process started, and we are at a point where we're in the review phase. We're hoping to go to rebuttal phase here in the next few weeks. And then we're still in the process of getting our initial proposal volume two finalized, but we're still working with the NTIA on that, so

Jessica Denson (03:11):
Wow, you gave me a lot and I loved it. It was so great. I have so many questions though. So many follow-ups. Sure. First off, a lot of states did not have broadband offices until the bead came out and they had to form. So how do you feel mean, especially since you wrote the strategic plan? Do you feel like you're a little bit ahead of the curve? You got a little bit of an extra bump up since you were ready to, I

Peter Voderberg (03:32):
Don't know. I don't know mean it was a great team that put that plan together, the strategic plan. It was a huge collaborative effort in the administration that I was a big part of. And when we talked about having a broadband office, really the reason we were doing that is because at the time, a few states did have broadband offices. Minnesota is kind of who we were looking towards. They had done a lot of successful grant programs, and we were really doing it because we wanted a state grant program. I mean, that was a big part of what we were talking about. We were working with the legislature on our residential broadband expansion grant program. And I don't know if it puts us out ahead. I think one of the things that it did help us with is that we had something to pattern our grant program for bead on.

(04:15)
So we were able to go, oh, we're going to use the state program as a basis to be able to do the bead program. But I will also say that the pros of that is that we had something to base it on, but then the cons of that are not everything we want to do is something that we can do under bead. And so I think part of the reason why our initial proposal volume two, it's not yet approved, just because I think we have done a lot of back and forth with the NTIA to talk through, oh, what are some of the differences between the programs and to try to find some common ground as to how to solve that. Whereas some states that only just started their broadband offices have a lot more freedom to construct a program that way based on B. Exactly. Exactly. I understand. And so really, we love our state broadband program. We get a lot of good reviews. I mean, it's been very successful, which is why we want to replicate it. And then making sure that we can do as much of it as possible under the BEAD program has been a process back and forth with the NTIA to see how much we can continue to use from our currently successful programs as we go forward and beat.

Jessica Denson (05:15):
And so right now you're in the challenge process or what process? You're still going back and forth in the NTIA

Peter Voderberg (05:21):
Moment? Yeah, so we're in the challenge process. We have finished that challenge phase, so we are doing evidence review of the challenge process. That evidence will then turn into our rebuttal phase where internet service providers will be able to comment on the challenges that they received. We're also in the process of finalizing our initial proposal volume two, which is the subgrantee selection process for the state of Ohio. And

Jessica Denson (05:41):
On top of that, the digital equity competitive grant program just came out.

Peter Voderberg (05:45):
And the capacity grant programs don't have exactly right now. The good news for Ohio is that early on, we had made a decision that we knew from a digital opportunity perspective that we really couldn't get out there and do everything ourselves. As part of our planning process under the Digital Equity Act, we created what are called Regional Digital Inclusion Alliances, or everything turns into an acronym. Yes. But we split the state into five regions, northeast, northwest, southeast, southwest and central. And we actually have a lead entity in each of those areas that can help us do all of that digital opportunity planning. So we have groups that are already set up and have already led large coalitions of folks in those areas to get them on board with everything from talking about digital literacy programs, so talking about device programs and device ecosystems, talking about how we can make sure that all of the people in those regions have those skills necessary to use the internet when it actually gets to them.

Jessica Denson (06:34):
And that's really critical because those people who work with community already can funnel things through. Is that kind of the idea?

Peter Voderberg (06:44):
Yes. They'll have an opportunity to work with us and then with their local leadership to help identify projects, help identify grantees, help do technical assistance, because the idea here is we wanted all of the locals to have a say in the way that we were going to do digital opportunity programs throughout the state of Ohio. So in that sense, we didn't want to have a top-down approach. We want to have a bottom up approach, which is why we worked so hard to identify and then create the regional digital inclusion alliances for each of the areas.

Jessica Denson (07:13):
At Connect Nation, we talk a lot about the fact that partnerships is critical because it's such a difficult, and somebody said earlier, actually, I want to say this, somebody said earlier that if you think about what the internet can you think about one thing the internet doesn't touch or broadband doesn't touch, it's impossible almost.

Peter Voderberg (07:33):
Oh, right. No, I mean, that's the thing. And I'll say this, right, it really is the internet by itself is just a tool. So the internet by itself is a way to communicate data over distance. What it enables though, I can't think of something that it doesn't enable, right? We were able to do a project with the Ohio State University at their Molly Care and agricultural facility. So we were able to show what it's like to do specific application of pesticides through drones, and we had an autonomous tractor running that was going and plowing a field without a person in it. We had an irrigator that was run by, that was run remotely that was so effective that it could use water pressure from a well instead of requiring a high pressure water system to be able to irrigate fields. And so we have that.

(08:17)
It's an education. And again, one of the things that we heard during our stakeholder outreach groups is we had groups coming to us saying, yeah, I run a group for a bunch of kids through a national organization and all the training's online, and none of my kids can do it. So they all have to come into a school on the weekends to go watch the video and then take the test because no one has internet at their house, so they can't do that. So most of us apply for jobs online. How many of us talk to our friends and family through FaceTime or Zoom or Teams or any of the other different ways that you can communicate with folks. So it really does, the tool just allows us to do all the things that we just take for granted. And I always say my question always when I'm in front of a group of people is I'm like, okay, well imagine how bad it is when your internet goes down for 15 minutes.

(09:03)
Think about being at your house. Your internet goes down for 15 minutes. And then I say, well, how about an hour if your Internet's down for an hour? Most people are like, I don't even know what I would do. I'm like, well, we're talking about people in the state of Ohio and nationwide that don't have it at all. So imagine how different your life would be, how different you'd have to do your job, how different you'd have to study, how different you would have to do entertainment just to be able to enjoy some of the things that just everybody else, like I said, who has high speed internet just takes for granted.

Jessica Denson (09:31):
Let's talk a little bit about Mountain Connect. And the reason I mention that is because I've heard there's up to 30 state broadband office directors that are here. How important is it for you to be at events like this and connect with others at your level? And do you talk and share best practices or ideas, or even just Sally, I talked to Sally from Mississippi, Sally Doty earlier, and she said, sometimes I just need to vent.

Peter Voderberg (09:56):
Oh, yeah. I mean, the job we have is very challenging because this is a huge program. It's a once in a lifetime opportunity, and there's a lot of challenges that go along with it. I mean, we are all trying to make sure that we have a program that meets the needs of our citizens to get broadband. We want to make sure that we have effective workforces that do it, and we want those workers to be workers that hopefully will stay in our states when they build these infrastructure, this infrastructure. We want to make sure that it's easy enough for an internet service provider of any size to apply, but also not so easy that someone could take advantage of the program. Right? Right. Yeah. And so how do you balance, it's all these balancing of, and all these different tensions between trying to have a program that has as much participation as problem possible while still making sure that we're keeping cybersecurity in the forefront, that we're keeping workforce development in the forefront, that we're making sure that we're building long lasting infrastructure that'll be around for a long time.

(10:57)
And so it can be a real big challenge. And I know that a lot of other broadband directors have an opportunity to vent at these kinds of things, and that's an important step. But it also is, it's an opportunity for us to really talk to our other broadband directors and go through like, Hey, what did NTIA say to you when you asked for this? Right? Or what are your internet service providers saying in your state? Are they going to apply? Are they saying they aren't going to apply? What are they telling you for why they aren't going to apply what worked and didn't work when you did your stakeholder engagement? So it's a great opportunity for us to do those kinds of things. And I can say too, right, this is an opportunity for us to meet directly with internet service providers and vendors and talk through like, well, how are we going to make sure we're compliant with Buy America, build America?

(11:37)
How are we going to make sure that the self-certification is something that we feel like we can back up? We've been talking about the requirements for engineering on the front end of all this. For the engineering companies, we've been asking, do you have enough engineers? Do you have Ohio licensed engineers that can help us do and meet the engineering requirements for the applications? And so it's great to be here both to be able to talk to my counterparts, but also talk to members of the industry just to make sure that we're all as much as we can on the same page.

Jessica Denson (12:06):
And right now, where do you feel the state of broadband is for Ohio?

Peter Voderberg (12:13):
The good news for us is the DeWine Houston administration has taken it very seriously. Our legislature is taking it very seriously. I think post pandemic, we've seen how impactful it can be both on business and education and a lot of other aspects of life. And so I think that we're in a good position to continue to leverage the state dollars that we have and the new federal dollars that are coming in to make sure that we have universal coverage. I say this all the time. I am a true believer. We are going to have universal coverage at the end with our final proposal. We are going to get there. It's been bumpy. We've had hiccups along the way, but we are going to get there, and it will be a very exciting time when we can all stand together and say, here we go. Here's the final proposal. And every single home in the state of Ohio will have at least one provider that they can call that can give them the federal definition and the state definition of HighSpeed internet, which is a hundred megabits per second download speed and 20 megabits per upload speed,

Jessica Denson (13:09):
Which is great. So I like to do something different with the podcast. Every time I talk to a guest, I want people to know the people we're talking to. So Peter Denberg Berg

Peter Voderberg (13:20):
Did it wrong.

Jessica Denson (13:21):
Again, I can't believe it. Audience, you don't know, but I restarted it. I said, it's Berg.

Peter Voderberg (13:28):
t's Berg. It's like Vote Berg is an easy way to think about it.

Jessica Denson (13:31):
Okay, I like that vote. Verberg. Tell me a little bit about yourself. Did you grow up in Ohio? How did you end up in this spot you're in now?

Peter Voderberg (13:39):
Sure. No, actually, so I was born in a northern suburb of Chicago called Highland Park, and then I grew up mostly in a town called Libertyville, again, which is a northern suburb of Chicago. And my whole family, after I graduated from high school, my whole family moved out here to Ohio to help take care of my grandmother. I actually stayed in Chicago for a year and worked full time just to raise some money for college. And then after that was over, my parents basically said like, Hey, do you want to come to Ohio? And if you do, we'll work with you to help you go through college, and you can stay here when you're going to college, or if you want to, you can stay in Chicago, but then we can't really help you. I was like, Ohio, it is. I came out to Ohio, I went to the Ohio State University for undergrad.

(14:21)
Afterwards, I started working for the Ohio legislature through a program called the Legislative Service Commission internship. It's now called the Fellowship. It was called the Internship and worked in the legislature for a year, fell in love with it, worked there for, oh my gosh, six years altogether. Then went to law school, ended up working for the Ohio Department of Taxation, worked for Governor Kasick as a policy advisor. I've worked for the third district Court of appeals in the state of Ohio. I always joke like I'm one of the few people I've actually worked in all three branches of government. Oh, I've worked directly in the legislature directly for a governor for two governors actually then worked in the judicial system in the third district court of appeals.

Jessica Denson (15:00):
But that gives you a well-rounded background. So you know how to work and understand each of the different systems you think.

Peter Voderberg (15:05):
I hope so. I think the good news is through working for as long as I have in a lot state government, just in general, I think the one big takeaway is one, what kind of sets us apart. And what I always talk to my other state rep and leaders about is this idea of me with everybody. Go to every meeting when you're invited somewhere, go. When you're asked to speak to county commissioners or the municipal league or a township, go sit down and talk to them because there's a huge component of building relationships by being willing to go and actually be in that person's home turf and talk to them and talk to 'em about what they want. And I think the experience I have of being in the legislature, being in the judiciary, being in the governor's office, has given me this perspective of like, okay, well, for the most part, we're all trying to do the same thing.

(15:55)
We're all trying to make the best decisions we can for the people of Ohio as being in government. I think that's the thing that I always talk to my staff about is I'm like, we're here because we're trying to do something good. We're here because we think that what we are doing is going to do better for the state of Ohio. And I always joke to him, I'm like, and we're not going to build it. You don't want a network built by Peter. It's not going to go well. So we look at our internet service providers as partners. We look at our localities as partners because we got to get the ISPs to go out and build it. I need my local partners to go ahead and support it. And then we work with our nonprofit communities. Those are the folks who are going to help do the Irish to the communities and provide them with skills and devices and things like that so that they can use this great tool and be able to do the things, like I said, like upskill, get an education, apply for a job, talk to your loved ones who are in another state.

(16:45)
All those things that we want to do now with the internet and the tools the internet gives us.

Jessica Denson (16:50):
So what makes Ohio unique? You've been there now for a while. I have. I know you're not a native, but you are a native now. I think I maybe in some way. Sure. Because you've been there a long time now. So what is Ohio like for somebody who's never been there, been there. I've been to Cincinnati and I've been to Cleveland and I've been to Columbus. Love Columbus. It's a great college town, right? Sure. Am I getting things right?

Peter Voderberg (17:18):
Yes. And I'll say, I think what really makes us unique is one, we really are the crossroads of America. I mean, we're centrally located. We're the heart of it all. We are a place that a lot of commerce goes through and a lot of decisions get made, right? We're going to be the future side of an intel plant. There's all these wonderful things that are going on in the state of Ohio, but we also have a huge rural and agricultural presence. We have the history of coal country in Appalachia, and then we have the first named smart city in the country with being Columbus. Right? Yeah. So the great part, and I think what makes you Ohio really unique is that there isn't just one thing, right? There isn't one part of Ohio you can find, if you want small towns, we got small towns.

(18:07)
If you want big towns, we got big towns, right? If you want a world-class education, we have world-class education. If you want complete remote rural areas, we got complete remote rural areas. So you can really, whatever you want to find, you can find in Ohio, like I said, where the heart of it all you, where a place that you can go and really chase any dream you have, you can be what you want to be in our state. You can live in a very urban landscape with a very urban feel to it and be within walking distance of all of the amenities that you want. Or you can be in a place where you're 20 miles from the nearest town. That's up to you. And what we want to make sure of at broadband Ohio especially, is that no matter where you live, whether you're in that urban environment or whether you're 20 miles from the nearest town, everyone should have the same ability to access the internet so that we can all have the same benefit of all of the things that we take for granted online.

Jessica Denson (18:58):
Alright, that's a great place to leave it. Peter Berg Peter Voderberg (19:02):

Berg. That's right. I

Jessica Denson (19:02):
Got it. Vote for voter Peter

Voderberg (19:03):
Berg. Vote for Voter Berg. That's right. Yeah.

Jessica Denson (19:05):
Chief of Broadband, Ohio. Thank you so much.

Peter Voderberg (19:08):
Thank you. I appreciate it. Yeah,

Jessica Denson (19:14):
That wraps up our coverage from Mountain Connect 2024. Until next time, I'm Jessica Denson and this is Connected Nation. You'd like to know more about us head to connect to nation.org or find us on all major podcast platforms.

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