WEBVTT

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- The Arkansas State
Broadband Office exists

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to eliminate the digital
divide across our state.

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And there are still thousands

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and thousands of underconnected
and unconnected homes

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and businesses and community
anchor institutions

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that lack access to reliable
high-speed internet.

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And in today's world,
that also means a lack

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of access to opportunity.

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And really what we're trying to do

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is eliminate the digital divide

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and ensure that every Arkansan
has the tools they need

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to self-determine their success in the

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21st century digital economy.

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- When we first engaged with Arkansas,

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they had a huge opportunity

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and a great challenge in front of them.

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The state had received a
billion dollars of funding,

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but they had to connect
80,000 of the toughest-

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to-connect locations in the state.

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- The BEAD program represents
the largest single investment

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in broadband infrastructure
in our nation's history.

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For Arkansas, that means over
$1 billion available to us

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to connect every single home and business

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and community anchor institution

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that remains unconnected to this day.

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And really that's
no small task for us.

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We're one of the smallest
broadband offices in the country

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having to execute one

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of the largest infrastructure
programs in the country.

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And so we had to move fast,
we had to ensure compliance,

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and do everything that we needed to do

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to make sure this program was successful.

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- It was a set of a lot of
things that fell in place

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to make this entire effort successful.

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We brought in BCG's large-scale
infrastructure capabilities

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combined with our digital capabilities

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and worked shoulder to
shoulder with the client

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to make the collaboration
happen at the ground level.

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The program required
both strategic thinking

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to design the program right,

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but then follow up with tactical
day-to-day actions, talk

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to the next stakeholder,
solve the next bottleneck

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to keep the process rolling forward.

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This required the combination
of the state broadband team,

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the BCG team, a lot of support
from the State Department

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of Commerce, and the full set
of ecosystem of stakeholders

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to come together - ISP partners,

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federal compliance and stakeholders.

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- We needed a partner that
could be on the ground with us

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and really help us execute,
again, as a small office

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execute this
program with efficiency

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and effectiveness,
whether it was being able

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to take the 79,000 locations
across our state, homes,

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and businesses and community
anchor institutions and

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design them into manageable
project areas for our ISPs,

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whether it was the BEAD
Fund Manager, the system

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that made processing hundreds
and hundreds of applications

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and thousands and thousands

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of documents in real time within
minutes, as opposed to days

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or weeks that it would've taken by

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hand, was really incredible.

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- The journey so far has
been immensely successful.

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Of the $1 billion that the
state of Arkansas was allocated,

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the state will likely be able

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to achieve all its
deployment needs in less than

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35% of the funding.

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Of that 35%, roughly $350
million, more than $200 million

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will be given as grants

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to Arkansas-based businesses,
driving up the local economy.

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- At the end of the day, this program

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is not solely about broadband
maps or infrastructure itself.

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It's really about opportunity.

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For students, that's
about the opportunity to

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sit down at the kitchen
table with mom and dad

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and do their homework as a family.

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For grandparents, it's the opportunity to

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see their cancer specialist
via telehealth as opposed

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to having to drive five hours.

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For our small businesses,
it's about being able

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to compete in the modern
economy, whether it's as simple

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as accepting a debit card at the counter

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or creating that
newest version of the website

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that people can see around the world now.

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We're not just getting the
infrastructure built out, we're

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truly building
for Arkansas's future.