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Home My WebLink About2023/06/26 WORKSHOP SESSION 9:00 AMBRAZOS COUNTY BRYAN, TEXAS NOTICE OF MEETING AND AGENDA WORKSHOP SESSION 101 JUN 2 1 A 11.: 1.5 haw WIN,RAus BRAZOS COUNTY COMMISSIONERS WILL MEET IN WORKSHOP SESSION AS FOLLOWS: MEETING DATE: June 26, 2023 'MEETING TIME: 9:00AM MEETING PLACE: Commissioners Courtroom of the County Administration Building, 200 South Texas Ave., Suite 106, Bryan, TX 77803 1. Call to Order 2. Presentation and discussion of the Brazos County Broadband Feasibility Study by Doug Dawson, President, CCG Consulting & Tim Arbeiter, Director of Broadband Consulting, Finley Engineering Company, Inc. 3. Adjourn The Commissioners Courtroom of the County Administration Building, 200 South Texas Ave., Suite 106, Bryan, TX 77803 is wheelchair accessible. Handicap parking spaces are available. Any request for sign interpretive services must be made two working days before the meeting. To make arrangements, please call (979) 361-4102. i k The foregoing minutes of the Commissioners Court Workshop Session held June 26, 2023, have been examined and are approved in open Court this the 1 lth day of Jules, in Bryan, Brazos County, Texas. Duane Peters County Judge Steve Aldrich Commissioner, Precinct 1 Chuck �onderla Nancy Berry Commissioner, Precinct 2 Commissioner, Precinct 3 Wanda J. Wats n Commissioner, TW6inct 4 Attest: Karen McQueen County Clerk MINUTES J U N E 26, 2023 BRAZOS COUNTY COMMISSIONERS COURT WORKSHOP SESSION Call to Order A workshop session of the Commissioners' Court of Brazos County, Texas was held in the Brazos County Commissioners Courtroom in the Administration Building, 200 South Texas Avenue, in Bryan, Brazos County, Texas, beginning at 9:00 a.m. on Monday, June 26, 2023 with the following members of the Court present: Duane Peters, County Judge, Presiding; Steve Aldrich, Commissioner of Precinct 1; Chuck Konderla, Commissioner of Precinct 2; Nancy Berry, Commissioner of Precinct 3; Wanda J. Watson, Commissioner of Precinct 4; Karen McQueen, County Clerk, Absent. The attached sheets contain the names of the citizens and officials that were in attendance. Judge Peters opened the meeting at 10:00 a.m. and invited Tim Arbeiter, Consulting Services Director for Finley Engineering to begin his presentation. 2. Presentation and discussion of the Brazos County Broadband Feasibility Study by Doug Dawson, President, CCG Consulting & Tim Arbeiter, Director of Broadband Consulting, Finley Engineering Company, Inc. Mr. Arbeiter asked Doug Dawson, President of CCG Consulting to begin. Mr. Dawson stated the first object was to determine how many homes and businesses in Brazos County do not have good broadband service. He stated the area has a lot of providers but there are still many people in need. Mr. Dawson explained Federal and State grant funding is available for Broadband. He believes Texas should receive between two and three billion dollars from Federal grants and one and a half billion dollars from State grants if approved by voters. Mr. Dawson stated the study analysis was based on the determination of those who do not have access to at least 100/20 Mbps broadband. He said it was reported that 65% do not have a good broadband option at their residence. He said they also reported issues with cell service. Mr. Dawson then explained that the data they collected shows that Brazos County has a larger amount of undeserved than the data collected by the FCC. Mr. Arbeiter next spoke about key considerations such as design, technology, construction and growth. Mr. Dawson went over the cost of a new network with 100% buried fiber, explaining the price cost per passing for Market Wages is $10,978.00 and $11,852.00 for Prevailing Wages. He explained that the cost for aerial fiber increases. He then outlined the next steps the county should look at. A copy of the presentation is attached. 3. Adjourn Pg I of -.1—j BRAZOS COUNTY COMMISSIONER'S COURT DAY OF 20 .�, � Name Organization (PLEASE PRINT) (PLEASE PRINT) _ �I—Q �,6:e LgNs /ieEd02 4Dec/ aJ Nklcn 64 i�l „+ff GJ v (�e Lonnc,� 2) u,7 0S A X�; Co. --)vpras-- k &-c'e-a 9--fl Gc &Azos (w Az&VO-- Pg ..I- of ,Z,, BRAZOS COUNTY COMMISSIONER'S COURT DAY OF �,,.��. , 20 Q.3 Name Organization (PLEASE PRINT) (PLEASE PRINT) ZA X Pom ur -wroadband Feasibility Repor-1 Brazos Count y, T Finley Engineering and CCG Consulting June 20, 2023 CCG (:1 l !) _ ENGINEERING C[G, CONSULTIrNG INTEGRITY INTO EVERYTHING CCGcomm.com FinleyUSA.com Study Purpose of the r • The primary scope of the project was to determine the homes and businesses in the county that don't have good broadband and to quantify the cost of bringing a broadband solution to those locations. There is a lot of grant funding coming to the state. Texas looks to be eligible for several billion in grant funding from the federal BEAD grant program — a number that will be solidified at the end of June 2023. The Texas Legislature also approved $1.5 billion in grant funding that now must be approved by voters. All of this funding will be processed and awarded by the Texas Broadband Development Office (BDO). • We see three major uses of this report: inform elected officials and the public about broadband issues, provide a framework for deciding how to move forward, and to provide the facts that are needed for ISPs interestind in serving the county. C, CG %Inter ENGINEERING CCG CONSULTING INTEGRITY INTO EVERYTHING CCGcomm.com FinleyUSA.com q, Ji f Swdy •The analysis was done based upon our determination of the places where customers don't have access to at least 100/20 Mbps broadband. CC-G CCG CONSULTING CCGcomm.com F-4-n ® �, ENGINEERING INTEGRITY INTG EVERYTHING FinleyUSA.com ,..Existing ISPs • Brightspeed, Frontier, and Windstream are the incumbent telephone companies in the county. • Optimum is the incumbent cable company, serving only in towns and cities. • There are three fiber overbuilders in the study area, NET FAST, Ezee Fiber, and MidSouth Fiber. Fixed wireless broadband is provided by Brazos WiFi, CEO Technologies, Rise Broadband, Nextlink, and Zochnet. These ISPs all use unlicensed spectrum. Residents also use satellite broadband and cellular. broadband for home broadband. t-"IHL= UU-'U_ ENGINEERING CCG CONSULTING INTEGRITY INTO EVERYTHING CCGcomm.com FinleWSA.com 1.Market Outreach • We reached out to the public to ask about current broadband usage: • Separate online surveys for residents and businesses. • Interviews with key stakeholders. CCG Finu ENGINEERING CCG CONSULTING INTEGRITY INTO EVERYTHIHO CCGcomm.com FinleyUSA.com 1 Residential Online • 7% of households don't have a home broadband. 65% of them said they have no good broadband option at their home. • 28% of respondents lack workable cell coverage at home. • Average price being paid for broadband is $891which is one of the highest we've seen. 67% of residents would consider changingto a new ISP that brought lower prices. • 33% of households have a student at home and 43% said that home broadband was not good enough to support doing homework. • 74% of residents support building a fiber network. Another 24% might pp su ort the idea but need more facts. • 49% said they would buy from a new fiber network. 16% said they would probably buy. %inn!: _ -y ENGINEERING ��(j',caxssu�(ie INTEGRITY INTO EVERYTHING CCGcomm.com FinleyUSA.com r, f B u s i n ess IS u u a s o d I nte r :; _. • The most common problems we heard were slow broadband in daytime, occasional multi -day outages, regular shorter outages. • About half of the businesses interviewed/surveyed were unable to send employees -home to work who live in areas with poor broadband. • We heard that it is difficult to sell rural homes that don't have good broadband. • Many businesses complained about having inadequate cellular coverage around the county. _CCG %Irl•lo _ ENGINEERING C£G CONSULTING INTEGRITY INTO EVERYTHING CCGcomm.com FinleyUSA.com 1 ly� Tes-15 �. ,%14 it F� 239 34 J( 46,391 ___..._.. Ifi� � _ ��. A 2,750.. s ` CCG CCG CONSULTING CCGcomm.com Fin -,� ENGINEERING_ INTEGRITY INTO EVERYTHING FinleyUSA.com Unserved Underserved Served Total Per FCC Our Study 9 6,328 1,023 0 69,557 641261 70,589 70,59 Passings are homes and businesses that are potential broadband customers. CCG CCG CONSULTING CCGcomm.com ENGINEERING IN'-RITT INTQ EVERYTHING Fin IeyUSA.com 0 cco CCG CONSULTING CCGcomm.com F°tn�,L�.:=!�- lNEERIN'G EVERYTHING - INTEGRITY INTO ---7 FinleyUSA.com Brazos County, TX Total Study Area W Unserved - Less Than 25/3 Mbps Served - 100/20 Mbps or Greater <4 \ N X cco-- CCG CONSULTING CCGcomm.com Fine ENGINEERING INTEGRITY INTO EVERYTHING FinleyUSA.com Brazos County, TX FCC BDC Data # ® Unserved - Less Than 25/3.Mbps Underserved- 25/3 Mbps to Less Than 100/20. Mbps ' b ElServed 100/20 Mbps or Greater x � h F _ 1 I }a "• l r ,a7.tgw Brazos County, TX Total Study Area ® Unserved- Less Than 25/3'Mbps Served 100/20 Mbps or Greater , JN S j x I u Y & �0 4 F A p�f f ✓ r` LY I 9'�.yUq CCG F:InL-:Y) C• - _ENGINEE_61NG 4{. G CONSULTWO INTEGRITY INTO EVERYTHING CCGcomm.com FinleyUSA.com E RDOF in the County • Four companies have been awarded FCC funding to bring fast broadband to rural areas. • Nextlink won $318,348 to serve 789 locations and claims it can bring gigabit speeds with licensed wireless technology. • Resound Networks won $16,228 to serve 25 locations with fixed wireless broadband. • MidSouth Fiber won $135,063 to serve 339 locations with fiber. • North Texas Fiber won $30,934 to serve 213 locations with fiber. CCG F nL-� _ ENGINEERING CC{y.';r,:oNSULTING INTEGRITY INTO EVERYTHING CCGcomm.com FinleyUSA.com CCG CCGoomm.com F:inL.4: INTEGRITY INTO EVERYTHING Fin|evUSA.cono F t Network Design. J` Consideration Design Considerations • Largest Investment • Longest Estimated Life • Look Forward o Not What is • Uses • Work From Home • Content Creation • Definition of Broadband • 2019 —10/1 • 2020 — 25/3 • 2021— NTIA & USDA 100/20 CCG CcG CONSULTING CCGcomm.com ENGINEERING INTEGRITY INTO EVENYTH IN6 FinleyUSA.com ,. Technology • The RFP asked us to consider what technologies might be used to close the broadband gaps. Finley Engineering considered both wireless and fiber technologies. • We could not find a wireless solution that made sense due the housing density, trees, and topology. • We considered several fiber technologies and determined that passive optical network fiber technology is the best fit for the County. • Network designed with XGS-PON technology capable of delivering 10-gigabit broadband. • Required fiber: 7,616 passings for the whole study area over 642.76 miles. CCG CC G CCNJSVVING CCGcomm.com Fin =ENGINEERING L:—: INT EO R." I NTO. EVERY.. INO FinleyUSA.com , ku Nelwork Design: Key Co'nsiderations Fiber Access CCGcomm.com r- i n, LLF ENGINEERING INTEORITY MTO EVCRYTHING FinleyUSA.com ii t' Network Design-. Key Considerations Key Design Points • Where: Fiber Network follows existing utilities for aerial /buried construction. • Active vs Passive: Cost Model used an ODN capable of supporting both • Where is the research and development dollars going • Capacity: 10Gbps today across the entire network, the upper limits are a limitation of electronics, not the ODN • One Data Center: Redundant interconnect routes to one or more ISPs • Extra fiber provided for future growth / expansion. ,C .G %lilt® _ ENGINEERING CCG, CONSULTING INTEGRITY INTO EVERYTHING CCGcomm.com FinleyUSA.com P1 1;s. w N art 'North Ce,ntrai t . West.,, Y s1w - South,:, Y.. • s .■' ` . fi / cy h 6p w " a 4. 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IT, idrv4 <GU ih' ir .,♦� i $rT its' �' Pu' .1 w �" � �' t .» rl' : r ♦ J'') 4 \ "Rrrx�Oa ''' �,� ' We?- }*s SOGth Ti- D15MGMON Size Rbumble *� 12 M DROP`*tif a , Chancos Stor9 j r fib ! 9rrr `U.nu' Y �nitr,tt xl ?hrincl 1 1"West PML � a a No"nIW tral Xt ✓ r Webs �` .. / • �"14�1 .{,'yL.}"�t 6 � g "%Y.a �ai �:; � y, �"..+t'S. .. � ��+ a j x � +H t . • �sx '� a � '#'. yn �r II Jay MUiicen r f 5 4%# y r,Y I• x • �..i r a., a C•5.'. n F „w Caw J^Y. @� f/I « ••Cla\Y � � » r.+ � .� tam , x .^'ft �Distirbution ICableFit �un&W—d Size 12 , 'rig 'r—DRCII24 Ccnduit a t , 96 C: tiji �s 4m,xriu�cn'i La`(x.J"Cs'«%^i`dGfLT, 144 Yij„N',�iC�.rJ5+35a"�.tF•�Ia?r{1a�t%b$Aut�t� I e B JC M 'T4 'd < u rie 11' �' ost of a New rr 4 ',..0 19 Fiber Drops Electronics Huts Operational Assets Total Passings Cost per Passing Market Wages $ 62513001571 $ 4,348,263 $ 1,0235429 $ 1301000 $ 1,667,469 $ 69546%732 6,328 $10,978 Prevailing W�.es $ 67,4419181 $ 496681413 $ 190951329 $ 1309000 $ 1,667,469 $ 75900211392 6,328 $119852 CCG CCG CONSULTING CCGcomm.com F 'ham y) -ENGINEERING INTEGRITY INTO EVERYTHING FinleyUSA.com A Mt M Cost .. f a New Netwo $ Aerial Buried Fiber Aerial Fiber Drops Electronics Huts Operational Assets Total Passings Cost per Passing Market Wages $ 4011495,371 $ 231346,035 $ 311715,643 $ L023,429 $ 1301000 $ 1,667,469 $ 70113771947 6X8 $11X2 Prevailing Wages $ 43118361768 $ 26118491397 $ 3119561785 $ L095X9 $ 1301000 $ 1,667,469 $ 77515359748 6X8 $125253 CCG CCG CONSULTING CCGcomm.com Fin L:-v) ENGINEERING INTEGRITY INTO EVERYTHING FinleyUSA.com t`Grant Fundin • Congress passed infrastructure bill with over $42.5 billion for broadband funding —will mostly be aimed at rural areas, but state will have a say in who gets funding. Texas looks to be eligible for several billion in grant funding. • The Texas Legislature also approved $1.5 billion in grant funding that now must be approved by voters. All of thisfunding will be processed and awarded by the Texas Broadband Development Office (BDO). • The State of Texas will have several rounds of state broadband grants. • There is also funding available for digital literacy and getting computers into homes. CC-G %Ifl :ENGINEERING CCG'CONSULTING INTEGRITY INTO EVERYTHING CCGcomm.com FinleyUSA.com J � xStrategic Questions • Is the County Willing to Help Fund a Solution? If so, how much and in what manner? • What is the County's Best Role in Finding a Solution? As a partner in grants or a supporter? Digital equity grants on top of infrastructure? • Rural Cellular Coverage Issues. We learned through interviews that cellular coverage in the area is as poor as the broadband coverage. In 2020 the FCC voted to create a $9 billion fund to bring better 4G and 5G coverage to rural America. C-CG CCG CONSULTING CCGcommxom _ _ENGINEERING INTEGRITY INTG EVERYTHING FinleyUSA.com Cellular Coverage Rural Brazos County RevevvofF[CASRlovvens,BDC,crovvdsourcedandOoWaspeedtests.Radius=3rni|es.Co| Station and Bryan not included in review given stronger coverage is present. CCGmmm.com r- i n L �-, Y-,) Next .` Steps 4 • Identify Staffing Resources. Who will tackle the next steps? • Reach out to ISPs. We recommend talking to potential ISPs as an early step. Informal discussions, RFI, or RFP? • Community Outreach. How to involve the public in the process. • Review Local Fiber Policies. Are there any barriers for ISPs that want to build a fiber solution? • Cellular Speed Tests. Consider effort to populate the FCC's cellular speed tests to make sure they identify the area as needing better cellular coverage. ENGI NEERIN'G "L:- CCG CONSULTING INTEGRITY INTO EVERYTHING CCGcomm.com Fin leyUSA.com fc� rffldv'� ,Contacts i Tim Arbeiter, Director, Consulting Services Finley Engineering t.arbeiter@finleyusa.com (816) 944-9113 Doug Dawson, President, CCG Consulting blackbean2@ccgcomm.com (202) 255-7689 Daily blog. htt s. jotsand_ pansbyccg.conn F.-i .l® ENGINEERING INTEGRITY INTO EVERYTHING CCGcomm.com FinleyUSA.com