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October 21, 2021

Broadband Data & Mapping: Building a Better Foundation For the Future

The following transcript has been edited for length and readability. Listen to the entire discussion here on The Broadband Bunch. The Broadband Bunch is sponsored by ETI Software.

In this episode, we chat with Bill Price, VP of Government Solutions at LightBox. We discuss broadband coverage and the importance of mapping to solve the digital divide and bring broadband to unserved and underserved communities.

  • Broadband Mapping at the location level
  • Broadband footprint – Delivering broadband where it is not.
  • How to solve the problem with funding on a local, state, and Federal level
  • Importance of Broadband location level data for a more complete picture
  • Broadband as a luxury to broadband as a necessity
  • Broadband Mapping: Is anyone getting it right?
  • Broadband Deployment: What is our goal as a state?
  • Starlink – Will it be a success?

Pete Pizzutillo:

Welcome to The Broadband Bunch, a podcast about broadband and how it impacts us all. Join us to learn about the state of the industry and the latest innovations and trends. Connect with the thought leaders, pioneers, and policymakers, helping to shape your future, through broadband. This episode of The Broadband Bunch is sponsored by ETI Software, your zero-touch automation experts. By Calix, simplify, excite, grow. By DxTEL, creators of the Harper Broadband Marketing Library. By ITK Solutions Group, a process first, technology second. And by Utopia Fiber, building a more connected nation.

Hello, and welcome to another episode of The Broadband Bunch. I am Pete Pizzutillo and I am joined today by Bill Price, he’s the VP of government solutions at LightBox. Bill’s worked with states over his career, prior to LightBox, he was working on strategy and analytics for the Georgia Tech Authority and he was also the director of broadband programs for the state of Florida and many other roles. So, Bill, thanks for joining us today.

Bill Price:

Thanks a lot, Pete, I’m glad to be here.

Bill Price, Origin Story

Pete Pizzutillo:

I, kind of, gave a high-level view of your robust background there but maybe you can just dig a little bit deeper in terms of how you ended up here today, a little bit of your origin story, just to help us understand who you are.

Bill Price:

Grew up in Florida, went into the Air Force, the Air Force trained me in communications and networks, as an engineer. Got out of the Air Force, went into the private sector, building and running and supporting communications networks in the private sector for government and education networks, and then, wound up working for the telephone company in Tallahassee, the state capital, supporting state government. And we were eventually acquired by Sprint, stayed there, then moved on to BellSouth, moved to Atlanta in ’95, started their dial-up internet business for them, nine states. And then, I wound up working as a contractor for the state of Florida during the stimulus era on broadband grand applications and broadband mapping. And then, Georgia got to know the Georgia people, Georgia asked me if I would come and set up and run their broadband office. So, come back to Atlanta in 2012, working for the Georgia Technology Authority and focused solely on broadband programs based on stimulus funding, broadband mapping, working with service providers, working with the University of Georgia.

Broadband Mapping Understanding the Purpose

Bill Price:

And we finished all that out in 2015. And then, in 2018, the state passed legislation, the sweeping broadband legislation, that designated five agencies to go do differently from things. The agency I was in was supposed to provide technical support and assistance to the other agencies, which we did, as it relates to the grant program that was set up, the broadband mapping. So, through the broadband mapping, at the location level, is how I got to know LightBox and LightBox got to know me and as a result of that outcome of that effort, that successful mapping effort, they wanted to, basically, take the methodology and the framework and approach and lessons learned and take it to the rest of the market. So, that’s how I wound up here today.

Pete Pizzutillo:

No, I appreciate that. And that’s one of the reasons I wanted to speak with you and there’s a lot of talks, not just recently, about broadband mapping and as you’ve laid out, there’s been an ongoing conversation and investment for years. But you look at FCC has maps, the NTIA comes out with maps, the state level and there are local level maps. Can you help us, first off, understand, what’s the purpose of the map? What are they intended to do? And what do you see as some of the issues with the maps that we have today?

Bill Price:

Well, when it comes to data, good data, for better decisions, visualizing it in maps, visualizing data and dashboards and graphics in maps just help human beings understand, what are they saying to us that we need to know that really matters to us, right? We’re trying to make progress, we’re trying to solve problems. Fundamentally, broadband, we’re trying to expand where you can get it to where it’s not. So, it’s pretty important… How do you know where to spend your money, if you don’t know where it’s not, right? If you don’t, you’re guessing. Now, does government guess? Yeah, sure. Government guesses.

Bill Price:

But the thing that the Georgia effort did show and prove out is that it is doable, it’s not that bad, it’s not that difficult or expensive. You can get precise location data and you can determine, for every one of them, whether they can get broadband or not. And once you know where it’s not, now you can look at your budget, look at your funding resources and figure out, well, how do we solve this problem or how do we improve it, right? So, that’s why you want it is, you don’t want to waste your money and you want your money to have the effect that you’re trying to accomplish, solving the problem you’re trying to accomplish, right?

Pete Pizzutillo:

Yeah. Hopefully.

Bill Price:

Yeah. That’s fundamentally it.

Broadband Mapping: The Fundamental Problem Explained

Pete Pizzutillo:

So, what’s the issue with the maps, all of the maps, that we have today? I mean, you hear different levels of criticism but, from your view, what do you see are the biggest problems?

Bill Price:

Well, I mean, no one up until Georgia attempted to map. First, have a database of every residential and business structure. Most states do not have a database of locations. Now, everybody wants one because of next-generation 911 and there’s a lot of effort there. The federal government has never had one, which is, kind of, surprising but they never have and they’ve wanted one, many of the federal agencies have tried to work together before but you got to have a location database first. And then, you’ve got to work with all your service providers to aggregate all their served location data, so that you can determine the unserved, right? So, Georgia is the only state that’s done it so far, several states are looking at it, going to try and do it. Virginia, South Carolina, are two that I know of. I know other states like Massachusetts, New York, and others, are thinking about or might try it. But for the most part, most of the states are not there yet, right? Did I answer your question? I’m not sure I answered your question.

Pete Pizzutillo:

Yeah. Well, in part but part of what… The question I would ask to dig a little bit deeper is, are we talking about just reported coverage, or are we talking about verified performance?

Bill Price:

Well, when you get into that question, which is, all right, none of us have enough money to pay enough engineers to drive down every mile of every road to visually verify what a provider is telling you, right?

Pete Pizzutillo:

Right. Yep.

Bill Price:

So, what can you do, in lieu of that, that’s not so expensive, right? Well, you can look at speed test data, like you can get from Ookla, right? Or M-labs, right? You can see if speed test data is consistent with what the providers are telling you, right? You can open it up to citizen feedback. The problem with speed test data is that, when you get outside of really served areas in urban and metro, the speed test volume and availability drops off significantly, so you can’t rely on it, really in rural areas, to tell you whether the provider’s telling you the truth or not, right?

Pete Pizzutillo:

Right. Yep.

Bill Price:

I can tell you, in Georgia, we asked ourselves that question, right? Because you just can’t afford to pay engineers to go field check equipment, right? It turned out that, one of the service providers questioned what we were saying in our map and so, they paid a consultant to actually go drive the county roads and the good news was, they came back and said, yeah, it’s really there.

Pete Pizzutillo:

Wow.

Bill Price:

But you can’t count on… I’m with you, you can’t… You want to be able to validate, right? What the providers are telling you. Now, some of it is just, doesn’t make sense what they’re telling you, right? And if there are questions or anomalies and then, you do have… Most states, including Georgia, have a petition process. They might have made a mistake, that happens, people do make mistakes, they submitted the wrong stuff or they want to make a correction or somebody wants to challenge it, I mean, that’s part of the process. I don’t have a perfect silver bullet answer for that question but it’s a good one.

Broadband Location Level Data for a More Complete Picture

Pete Pizzutillo:

I think part of my certain, and there are a couple of people trying to solve this problem, right? Microsoft’s come out, Google’s come out, the federal government’s come out, there’s a lot of criticisms, a lot of different ways. But I think to your point of having a map, location level data, right? Having different types of data, you start getting a more complete picture, right? Not a perfect one. And I think part of what I think is a disservice is a lot of the confusion that’s being, kind of, trickled down to the local level, of being able to get the funding that you need, right? And part of our concern here at The Broadband Bunch is just making sure that we, kind of, synthesize all the issues because, what we see between the technology and the policy and all the other difficulty in building and rolling out broadband infrastructure and networks, it becomes overwhelming, right?

Pete Pizzutillo:

I mean, it just, from a municipal leader, I mean, you’re dealing with municipal leaders at that level, this isn’t what they do for a living, right? They have other jobs. And so, trying to just sift through the things that people should be thinking about, things they should be looking out for. So, if you’re sitting down with a public sector leader that says, hey, we want to get to that next level of detail on our mapping. I mean, what’s that effort look like for a municipality, to better understand their coverage?

Bill Price:

Yeah. Well, good question. If a state has not worked with the providers to do mapping, which most have not, right? What’s a local government got to turn to, right? They can turn to the 477 results, right? And that’s not going to be all that helpful. I mean, it tells you something.

Pete Pizzutillo:

Right.

Bill Price:

You could, as a local leader, you could reach out to your service providers, right? And attempt to do a mini effort, if you got the resource time, which posts probably wouldn’t, to try and do a mini mapping project with the providers in the county, right? That’s… I don’t know. It would be hit and miss. I mean, I really feel for the local government, like you said, they don’t have the expertise, nor the resources, nor the time to become experts, right?

Pete Pizzutillo:

Right.

Bill Price:

If they’ve got money, if they’ve got American recovery money, probably, the best thing they can do is to procure the services of a qualified broadband consulting firm. Or if they’ve got a good working relationship with their ISPs, who are the experts in broadband, they can look at, well, what are our options, right?

Pete Pizzutillo:

Right.

Bill Price:

We’re in this place where, unlike the road system, where we have a well-funded, well organized, well-staffed, set of experts, from the federal to the states, to the local government, the transportation departments that all have the same common standards, they all work in concert, that’s well-proven model and approach to building and maintaining the road system. We don’t have the equivalent on the digital side, right? So, we’re suffering from that.

Pete Pizzutillo:

Is that something that you see the FCC and NTIA addressing? I mean, because you raise a great point of just, apples to apple comparison, right? Collecting the information on a standard. I know this 477 report has some, kind of, standardization but is it collecting enough information? Part of the criticism I heard this week in a recent conference was, having the demographic data to lay on top of that, right? Because then you can understand who’s eligible for any of the subsidy programs if you can understand the demographic and the gap. Any thoughts on that?

Bill Price:

Well, in the absence of a national commitment to create the digital equivalent of what we have on the highway system, right? And I see no interest nor movement towards that. What we do is, we do episodic fixes, right? You had stimulus, right? Where we threw several billion dollars, right? And, unfortunately, a lot of it was wasted on BIP and BTOP projects that, well, we could criticize the past, but anyway. And so, now you have another round of money available to attempt to fix the problem and we’re throwing it into organizations, like we’ve talked about, down to the local government, to the state government. I mean, people will do the best they can with what they’ve got, right?

Pete Pizzutillo:

Right. Yep.

Bill Price:

And it’s not because people don’t want to do the right thing or do really well, right? But we have to realize that, most states shut down their broadband offices after the stimulus funding was finished in 2015, most states did.

Broadband Funding: Taking advantage of the Opportunity

Pete Pizzutillo:

Right.

Bill Price:

They might have kept one or two people. Now, a handful of states, who were more aggressive, kept more people on and did their own small fund grant programs, so good on them, right? And they’re better positioned with resources and knowledge to take advantage of this new wave of money, right? So, that’s the challenge everybody faces is, just not having the knowledge and resources and the expertise to make the most of the money that is landing in everybody’s bank accounts, right?

Pete Pizzutillo:

Well, right. I mean, we’ll come back to that question here. But one of the questions I have is that a lot of folks on their broadband journeys start with a feasibility study. And I’m wondering if you’re seeing the folks, the consultancies, that are doing feasibility studies, really enhancing that map as part of that analysis. Have you seen that at all?

Bill Price:

Well, a good map obviates the need for a feasibility study, right? If you’ve got the data of where the unserved are and how many there are if you basically can move to get quotes or bids on, what would you require in order to… How much money would I have to incentivize you? How much of the project costs would I have to pay for, with my money, in addition to your money, in order for you to build and serve those areas? I mean, that’s effectively what a grant program is, right? It’s like an auction really. You really don’t need a market assessment study. I’ve seen a lot of money wasted on market assessment studies.

Pete Pizzutillo:

Yeah.

Bill Price:

And I’ve seen a lot of consultants, would-be consultants, supposed consultants. You go out and they might do a survey, they might be going to the web and do some research and repackage it up and say, all right, for 200 grand, here’s your…

Pete Pizzutillo:

I know.

Bill Price:

I’m not a big fan of what I’ve seen in market assessments. If you got nothing else, you don’t have the map data, you don’t have good data, then maybe that’s the next best thing, right?

Broadband as a Luxury to Broadband as a Necessity

Pete Pizzutillo:

Well, that’s the criticism that, I think, maybe had a time and place a few years ago but COVID really, I think, changed the question from, do we need broadband? To, how can we get broadband, right? And so, I think, what I’m hearing you say is, if you are a municipal leader and you’re thinking about investing in a feasibility study, you can take that same money that’s earmarked for that and point to… It’s just a deeper understanding of the gaps within your own community, right? Do it yourself.

Bill Price:

I mean, at the end of the day, the unserved are market failures, right? It’s where there’s not enough revenue to warrant private investment. Even in Georgia, where we have successful city governments who provide broadband service, right? If you look at where they’re providing service and where they’re not, even they’re not investing taxpayer money, right? Everybody has the problem of cash flow management and you can only invest so much, right? To run your business. And nobody’s going to make a stupid decision and throw money to build out an infrastructure where there’s not enough income pack too, at least, cash flow break-even, right?

Broadband Mapping. Is Anyone Getting it Right?

Pete Pizzutillo:

So, we’ve been beaten that up for a little bit but is anyone getting it right? I mean, you’ve dealt with both Florida and Georgia, what are they getting right? What are they doing differently and how can others learn from that?

Bill Price:

Well, Florida just did a procurement to do a location-level map. They’ve not announced who it is, I don’t know who they’re doing it with but they’re saying they’re going to do it. Virginia is committing a lot of money to expand broadband and they’re going to try and do a location-level broadband map. And when we talk about maps, it’s really getting the data, right? So you have precise information about where you need to apply for your money, right? South Carolina says they’re doing it, right? I believe Massachusetts will try, they’re not there yet. West Virginia, they’re probably going to try because I don’t know whether you saw it or not but they announced a program of a billion dollars.

Pete Pizzutillo:

A billion dollars. Yeah, I saw that.

Bill Price:

I mean, the more money you’re putting at risk, you would think, right? That as an investor, as a government investor.

Pete Pizzutillo:

Right.

Bill Price:

If you’re putting that amount of money at risk, you would want as precise data as you could get, right? And that’s the point. You can get that, there’s no real impediment. It doesn’t cost that much, it doesn’t take that much time. Georgia, governor Kemp, he is, so far, in the first round, made 300 million available for grant applications that are due at the end of this month. And as an applicant, what happens is, you tell them which counties you want to apply for, and then, they give you the unserved location data so that you know which locations you can apply for and where you should apply. And there’s not a miscommunication or a disconnect between what the government is saying I’ll fund and what you, the applicant, like an ISP, right?

Pete Pizzutillo:

Yeah.

Bill Price:

So, I know a large company, like AT&T in Georgia, they’re in 114 counties and so, they asked for the data in 114 counties and what they get is the unserved location records and that’s key.

Pete Pizzutillo:

It’s really flipping the script, right? I mean, in terms of, you tell us where you want to build and we’re saying, if you want to help us, here’s where we need the biggest gaps, right? And I think, to your point, not having that level of data, you just can’t responsibly drive that narrative within your community or your state. So, I’m a municipal leader, I know I have a gap, there’s a lot of money coming my way, there’s a lot of expectations building, the last thing I want to be is the one holding the purse strings when, three to five years down the road, we have a nifty broadband network that’s still not serving the same neighborhood and communities in my state. So, just from a step back, what do leaders need to do today, at a state level, to start thinking about and attacking this problem?

Bill Price:

State? Are you talking about state leadership?

Pete Pizzutillo:

Yes.

Bill Price:

Well, for those states who have a broadband person, right? Or a broadband office, right?

Pete Pizzutillo:

Yeah.

Bill Price:

They need to give them clear direction on, what is our goal as a state, right? That was the one thing that the Georgia legislators and governor did us a real big favor. They put it in the statute, what the goal and the objective was, they assigned responsibility. Government people and government agencies do better when there’s a clear assignment of objectives and authority, right?

Pete Pizzutillo:

Yeah.

Bill Price:

That’s how you make progress, that’s how you make things happen, right? Without that, it’s confusion and fear of stepping out and messing up and getting into trouble. And so, that winds up meaning progress doesn’t happen, right?

Pete Pizzutillo:

Yeah.

Bill Price:

So, either through an executive order from the governor, to an executive agency, I want you to go do this and this timeframe and you’re authorized or through legislative action, of course, which takes longer to accomplish, right? The same thing, right? Now that, at a state leadership level, that’s what’s really needed.

Pete Pizzutillo:

Is it the federal government, flexing that same kind of opinion but then attached to any of the money that you see coming?

Bill Price:

Well, the feds. So, let’s talk about the interest structure bill, right?

Pete Pizzutillo:

Okay.

Bill Price:

So, the infrastructure bill, if it passes, it says, every state will get, at least, $100 million, some will get more, right?

Pete Pizzutillo:

Yeah.

Bill Price:

But NTIA, as I understand it, will administer that. And how that goes down and what is required of each state will be determined by NTIA over a period of months, as they write it up, right?

Pete Pizzutillo:

Yeah.

Bill Price:

So, that’ll happen, right? They’ll come out with the rules and that’ll tell the states what they’ve got to do if they want the money. Now, hopefully, most states will do whatever it takes to enable and authorize. I mean, back during the stimulus, right? The way that program went down for the state maps, NTIA said, the governor of the state had to designate an agency to be the applicant to go do the mapping, right?

Pete Pizzutillo:

Okay.

Bill Price:

Which they did. And Georgia governor-appointed Georgia Technology Authority, right? As the agency to apply for the money, to run the program, to build the maps, right? That’s what needs to happen at the federal level is that the clearer they can be and the more precise they can be about what they require, right? That’s an enabler for states to get their act together. Do you know what I mean?

Pete Pizzutillo:

I do. So, that’s interesting. So, the rules haven’t really been prescribed, right? I mean, I know there’s been a shift away from the FCC because of the way they’ll [inaudible 00:23:13] off money and some of the requirements were set there. The money, the infrastructure bill’s now, and what I’ve heard, are in NTIAs hands. So, say the bill gets approved this month, it takes NTIA, what, six months to, kind of, come together for all that prescription and rules. And then, so the money doesn’t start flowing until the back end of next year, maybe 2023. Is that your expectation?

Bill Price:

It could very well happen that way, that’s right. I mean, I wouldn’t expect them to be ready to go with all the requirements and rules to find day one after the bill’s signed, right?

Pete Pizzutillo:

So, that’s part of what we’re looking at is, the expectation management at the lower level, right? Because, at the end of the day, kids are still going to school, people still trying to get to see their doctor, people are still remote working. And there’s this promise of all this goodness but my goodness, how long is it going to take? All right. So, let’s get a little philosophical here. So, if you could go back, even in the business a bit, and go back to the early start of your career, maybe at the Florida state level, what would you tell yourself to, kind of, do things differently or think differently?

Bill Price:

Well, generally, I’d say, talk less and listen more.

Pete Pizzutillo:

Ooh, okay.

Bill Price:

That’s my problem, right?

Pete Pizzutillo:

I think that’s all of our problems but yeah, go ahead. What would you expect to learn by listening more? Would you and more do or would you get more of the right stuff done?

Bill Price:

I think you make more progress overall.

Pete Pizzutillo:

Okay.

Bill Price:

Towards what you’re really looking to accomplish. I mean, it’s like today, if I’m not really listening to you, understanding where you want to go, right? Then my performance for you is going to be as good. If I just start talking all over you or go down another path, right? Just listening to each other and listening to the people you work with and the clients. I mean, if you don’t know what problem… Like a state, right? If a state’s sitting there talking to me and telling me what they want to do but I have, in my head, what I want to do and I’m not paying attention, well, that’s not going to turn out so well, right? Does that make sense?

Pete Pizzutillo:

It does. Makes tons of sense. And I think part of what… just to add onto that, I think, what I love about this industry is, it’s funny, there’s a duality here, right? There’s a lot at the municipality level that it’s mission-driven, it’s purpose-driven, right? There are people that have been years trying to serve their communities in a very patriotic way, in my opinion, right? Meanwhile, there are tier ones that have been dominating and driving towards balance sheets, right? So, it’s really interesting to watch this tension between the two and I think if we can reconcile that, there’s a way for people to profitably…

Broadband Alignment: Figuring it Out and Moving the Needle

Pete Pizzutillo:

It’s a big platform for the American economy if we can figure this out and serve our citizens and advance innovation and all the things that we need. I would just love us to get it on the same page. Because there’s a little bit of infighting, there’s a little bit of fragmentation, that I see in the industry, which I think, frankly, is a disservice at a federal level, right? And so, I think if we can, kind of, bring that together, we’ll move the needle a lot faster and farther. Does that make sense?

Bill Price:

Yeah, it does. I agree with you. And whenever you can find common interest and alignment of interest, you’re going to make more progress, right?

Pete Pizzutillo:

Yeah.

Bill Price:

And clearly, in this space, on the mapping, as an example, right? That really the mapping in Georgia, any state, you do that and it’s the result of public-private collaboration, a sharing of data, to get to the results you’re trying to get to. Now, that means that the interest of the different stakeholders has to be met, right?

Pete Pizzutillo:

Yeah. Yep.

Bill Price:

So, for the service providers, 44 of them in Georgia, ranging from tee-tiny to the super large cable, telco, electric co-op, city government, county government, for all of them to give you their precious served location data, that they are extremely fearful of each other getting because they would be taken advantage of, right? You have to have a clear alignment of goals and objectives and requirements in order to do that, right?

Pete Pizzutillo:

Yeah.

Bill Price:

And what’s really good is that that’s very possible right now. Because the incumbents, no matter what size or type, really don’t want the government funding somebody else overbuilding where they’ve already invested the money to serve. So that, in and of itself, is where the interest align, right? In theory. So, presumably, the government doesn’t want to waste the money or doesn’t want to build out where there’s only one provider and, basically, fund competition, right? I don’t think that’s the intent of the people providing the money, right? I think the intent is to solve the problem of, there being no broadband access, right?

Pete Pizzutillo:

Yeah, 100%. I do think it’s a very unique pivot point or a crux for this industry, for that partnership between the government and the private industry too, kind of, collaborate and work together. We’ll see if it happens. All right. So we’ve, kind of, laid out some of the issues around the importance of broadband mapping, some of the struggles, and the impacts it has on citizens and communities. But just, kind of, looking down the road, say 24 months from now, I mean, you know how the pace of this place, of this industry moves, do you think we’ve made progress? I mean, in what areas do you think we’re struggling?

Bill Price:

Well, we will make progress, for sure, right? It’s, what degree of progress in your state, in your county, right?

Pete Pizzutillo:

Yeah.

Bill Price:

In my home county where I grew up, right? Which is Jefferson County, North Florida, 8,000 people, right? I get a call from a consultant, they’ve got, I think, it’s four or 5 million in American recovery money, they’re having conversations with the electric co-op, they’re having conversations with Connexon, which is an ISP partner to electric co-ops. The consultants are in there. They’re going to spend the money, right?

Pete Pizzutillo:

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Bill Price:

And will the co-op build a network and provide fiber to the home to several thousand people? Well, I hope so, right? And I hope that’s replicated across the United States because the local government’s got a lot of money now, right? The state of Georgia money, the 300 million, the applications are due at the end of October. All right. So, they make the awards for 300 million by December, right?

Pete Pizzutillo:

Okay.

Bill Price:

And so then, you know how it works, contracts, procurements. So, within 24 months in Georgia, as an example, right? We should see news like we’re seeing about the electric co-ops and connection with money, where they’re out… they’re hiring people, I’ve seen the job advertisements. They’re doing contractor contracts, they’re building networks, they’re turning on service. Within 24 months, nationally, we should see a lot of that activity in the news. Don’t you think?

Pete Pizzutillo:

I hope so. I hope so. I mean, we haven’t even talked about some of the nontraditional folks like kind of, the Starlinks and those folks, because 24 months for the guys with deep pockets like that is a long time. So. It’d be interesting to see where we’re going.

Bill Price:

Don’t get me started on that.

Pete Pizzutillo:

Well, right. But, again, it’s coming. And I think the challenge because I think you just put your finger on it, right? The procurement process, the way government moves, the speed with which it moves is a problem. And these folk can have a billion dollars thrown into a problem, if they want to solve batteries, if they want to sell trips to Mars, they can go and they go fast. And so, I’m not saying, from a technology perspective it makes sense but they will have an impact. If that impact is in the US or if it’s in the other areas that they’ve been talking about, I’m not really really sure, but it will be interesting. I’m excited to see where we end up.

Bill Price:

Well, right now, clearly, they’re having a market perception impact, not a real impact, in solving the problem.

Pete Pizzutillo:

Correct.

Bill Price:

So, time will tell if they have a real impact in solving the problem versus just… It’s, kind of, like, in the days of Google fiber, they made all those announcements, right? They raised a huge amount of market perception, market attention, I mean, that’s where it was the real value and then, it wound up being a dud-

Pete Pizzutillo:

Well, I think there’s even a disservice by that as well because a lot of people thought, okay, Google’s going to come and solve my problem and started them up and then, I think, it caused some paralysis, at some point in time, right?

Bill Price:

I mean, AT&T did the same thing. They had this big deal about air gig, right? Where they were going to work with the power companies, they were testing in Georgia. Their scientists at Bell Labs discovered this wonderful ability to send gigabits of bandwidth riding over the electrical wires. And this was in the last two years, right? And, basically, it’s like, hold on, wait on us, we’re out here working on the Hail Mary and you see this, if you’ve been in the business like I have for four decades, you see it all the time, it comes and it goes, right? And I hope Starlink is really successful but we are far, far, far from knowing if it’s really going to be successful.

Pete Pizzutillo:

Yeah. And I think, either way, I mean, it comes back to the original conversation we had is, knowing where you need to serve people and no matter how you serve them, you need to understand where those people are, first and foremost. So, hey, Bill, we’re speaking with Bill Price, he’s the VP of government solutions at LightBox. LightBox combines GIS and big data to enhance broadband and infrastructure planning and investment decisions. You can learn more about Bill and what LightBox does at www.lightboxre.com. Bill, I appreciate letting this out for us, I look forward to catching up with you in a few months and seeing if we are making progress.

Bill Price:

Come on down to Atlanta and we’ll have a coffee.

Pete Pizzutillo:

Oh, man, I appreciate it, thanks for joining The Broadband Bunch.

Bill Price:

Take care.