PLAYING A RIFF: City of Mesa "Takes First Steps" to Bridge The Digital Divide?

Yep there's "a first time" for everything, if we want to understand any given infrastructure, we need to unfold both the political and ethical, as well as the social choices that were done throughout its development. When we talk about the work of an infrastructure, we should always talk about “relations’, not just components of a network.

H

Press Release from the City of Mesa's newsroom

Mesa Takes First Steps to Bridge the Digital Divide

February 3, 2022 at 7:24 am
Mesa is taking the first steps to bring digital access to all its residents and businesses. The City launched a Request for Information (RFI) to learn more about companies that can install and operate an open-access fiber network across Mesa. The ambitious digital plan would connect 264-thousand city premises and 2,470 street miles, providing citywide access to the fastest internet speeds. The project would take years to complete, but the City believes it is necessary to reduce the digital divide and propel Mesa into the future.

"In an increasingly virtual world, access to high-speed internet is a key to success for individuals, families and businesses," said Mesa Mayor John Giles. "I'm thrilled we're taking this step toward bridging the digital divide, ultimately creating greater access to education, career and social connection for all who call Mesa home."
Mesa has widespread internet connectivity, and 75 percent of its residents have access to some form of landline broadband. According to a 2021 City of Mesa household survey, 17 percent of participants didn't have internet, with affordability being the barrier preventing them from accessing the web.

The City already plans to deploy Wi-Fi and Mobile Broadband infrastructure to the 10 square miles of qualified census tract in west Mesa that showed the greatest need for connectivity at the height of the pandemic, per Mesa Public Schools surveys.

 

Mesa has also started upgrading to Wi-Fi 6, the current network in downtown, City parks, pools and libraries, and is testing a Citizen Broadband Radio System (CBRS) tower at Country Club and Broadway.

[...] The City is looking to identify potential partners to bring open fiber access to Mesa through the RFI. Ideal bidders would be able to offer free or affordable high-speed internet service to qualifying households across the network to bridge the digital divide.

They will also look at companies interested in growing and investing in Mesa as new neighborhoods emerge across the City.

"We use data and technology to understand the needs of our citizens and better serve them. For Mesa to be a Smart City, we need all our residents to be engaged and connected," said Mesa's Chief Information Officer, Travis Cutright. "We are looking for partners that can help us deliver on that promise."

The due date for the RFI is Tuesday, March 15 at 3 p.m. local Arizona Time.

Mesa will host a pre-response conference on Feb. 9.

Please visit https://vendor.mesaaz.gov/ and reference proposal #2022117 for details.

For more information or to schedule interviews, please contact Kevin.Christopher@mesaaz.gov.

Contact: Kevin Christopher
(480) 644.4699
Kevin.Christopher@mesaaz.gov 

 

RELATED CONTENT Post on this blog from October 2021

THE DIGITAL DIVIDE: We're not even beginning to ask the right questions, much less acknowledge the real origins of the problem

Introduction:

The 'Digital Divide' Didn't Just Show Up One Day. It's The Direct Result Of Telecom Monopolization

Broadband

from the can't-fix-what-you-don't-acknowledge dept

Fri, Oct 1st 2021 6:14am — Karl Bode

 

Insert: "We've noted for a while that the entirety of DC has a blind spot when it comes to discussing the U.S. broadband problem. As in, U.S. broadband is plagued by regional monopolies that literally pay Congress to pretend the problem isn't happening.

That's not an opinion.

U.S. broadband is slow, expensive, patchy, with terrible customer service due to two clear things:

(1) regional monopolization (aka market failure), and

(2) state and federal regulatory capture (aka corruption).

That the telecom industry employs an entire cottage industry of think tankers, consultants, and policy wonks to pretend this isn't true doesn't change reality.

But notice when regulators, politicians, and many news outlets discuss the problem, it's usually framed in this nebulous, causation free way. About 90% of the time, the problem is dubbed the "digital divide." But the cause of this broadband divide is always left utterly nebulous and causation free. It's almost pathological.

Seriously, look at any news story about the "digital divide" in the last three months and try to find one that clearly points out that the direct cause of the problem is regional telecom monopolies and the corruption that protects them. You won't find it.

This phenomenon again showed up this week in a CNET interview with Jessica Rosenworcel, who appears to be the top candidate in the Biden Administration's glacial pursuit of a permanent FCC boss. In the article, CNET talks repeatedly about the U.S. broadband problem without once mentioning that telecom monopolies exist, and are the primary reason U.S. broadband is painfully mediocre:

"According to a study last year by the New America Foundation's Open Technology Institute, the US has the highest average monthly internet prices when compared to other countries in North America, Europe and Asia. On average, the monthly bill in the US is $84.37, which includes $68.38 for internet service and $15.99 for equipment rental fees.

"What's become clear is that affordability is a really big issue in the digital divide," she said. "And we're going to need programs like the EBB to help solve it."

> Again, please notice how expensive, shitty broadband is just this thing that exists for some nebulous reason. That Comcast, Charter, Verizon, and AT&T have lobbied for thirty years to create a favorable policy environment that harms competition and prioritizes their bloated revenues doesn't even get a sentence. It's just this bizarre act of omission driven by, you'd have to imagine, a fear of upsetting sources and advertisers. Or in the case of politicians and regulators, powerful telecom lobbyists that can make or break your career.

Please notice the word "competition" isn't even used once in an interview with a top U.S. telecom regulator about the state of U.S. broadband, where the primary issue remains a lack of competition. The article almost acknowledges the U.S. telecom monopoly problem when it discusses "digital redlining," or the documented tendency of regional telecom monopolies like AT&T to refuse to upgrade low income or minority neighborhoods (while simultaneously lobbying for laws preventing them from building their own broadband networks).

But even here the problem is addressed in this causation-free, nebulous way:

I think the fact that we're having a conversation about digital redlining is a good thing. We've got communities in this country that for too long have been overserved or underserved and overlooked. We've got to figure out how to address that.

Clearly and accurately calling out regional telecom monopolies is just viewed as...impolite in DC and much of the "he said, she said," access-motivated U.S. press.

But you can't fix a problem you refuse to even acknowledge. And when it comes to regional telecom monopolization and the corruption that protects it, we're not even beginning to ask the right questions, much less acknowledge the real origins of the problem. . ."

Reference: https://mesazona.blogspot.com/2021/10/the-digital-divide-were-not-even.html

Solar Eruption, Animals Where They Shouldn't Be, Electric Forcing | S0 N...

Making Sense of a Rough Week

'Bloomberg Real Yield' (02/04/2022)

KARRIN (KUSANEK) TAYLOR ROBSON: Mesa Republican Running for Governor / A Bordeline Conservative

After making a family-fortune in Real Estate here in The East Valley and snagging endorsement from two former governors the race to succeed Doug Ducey in the August election cycle is taking strange turns for the one-time Democrat who's changed her spots - her paid political ads that sound so much like another candidate Jim Lamon. They sound so much like Matt Salmon too and that all smells very 'fishy'

Why the Arizona Governor's Race Is Important... and Amazingly Unusual

            

By Cameron Arcand Jan 19, 2022 4:23 PM ET

". . The current standing of each candidate in the race is not entirely clear, except Robson is now beginning to make use of her cash by running the first television advertisements of the entire race in order to make gains. . .

Robson launched her ad campaign on the airwaves and is on track to keep running them until the election. Although money and television do not always equal votes, this could make the primary more competitive than originally thought.

📺 Our first TV ad is live across Arizona.

I stood on the border and watched illegal immigrants flood into Arizona. As Governor, I’ll surge the National guard & finish the wall pic.twitter.com/ICTuieGg0r

— Karrin Taylor Robson for Arizona (@Karrin4Arizona) January 18, 2022.

Are they robots? Stepford wives? The Republicans running for governor are anything but real.

Julie Erfle January 26, 2022 11:31 am

Arizona Mirror |

"When Karrin Taylor Robson, a Republican candidate for governor, launched her first campaign ad last week, I did a double-take.

Was this the same woman who Republican consultants pitched as the anti-Kari Lake, the “moderate” in the race who wouldn’t peddle Q-Anon conspiracies and Trump fantasies?

If so, we’re in trouble.  

In Robson’s first ad, she stands near the border at night, her white face gleaming, her voice a whisper as she speaks of the so-called failures of the Biden administration. The ad cuts to footage of brown people walking behind her during the middle of the day, people she identifies as “illegal immigrants,” (though I highly doubt she or her team questioned any of those individuals) as she promises to “finish the wall.”

Her second ad isn’t any better. A scary voice-over man makes claims of a “border invasion” while she sports goggles and a gun and declares herself a “true Trump supporter” who will “safeguard our elections.” She highlights her statements with footage of Trump autographing the border wall and grainy video of what appears to be the Trump-inspired protest that happened outside of the Maricopa County Elections Department.

The ads are so over-the-top that Robson comes off as more of an SNL caricature of a politician than as someone who has a real understanding of the responsibilities of a governor or the problems facing our state, which include soaring rent and housing prices as well as under-resourced and short-staffed schools, none of which is mentioned in her ads.

But Robson’s ads could have easily been filmed — word-for-word — by Kari Lake, who never misses the opportunity to brand herself as the Trump-endorsed candidate who still rejects the results of the 2020 election.

Or Matt Salmon, who is trying to win the nomination by out-Trumping Lake and reminding voters that what differentiates him and Lake is that he’s a lifelong Republican while she was once a Democrat, a truly unforgivable sin.

There is no daylight between these three candidates. They behave like the fictional Stepford wives, individuals who have lost their own identities and are completely submissive to one man, Donald Trump.

To be sure, candidates from both sides of the aisle use similar, partisan talking points when appealing to the base.

But what’s different this time around is that Lake, Robson, and Salmon aren’t simply parroting similar policy proposals. In fact, I’d say they’ve abandoned policy altogether in favor of campaigns centered on one thing: hero-worship of a twice-impeached, mob-inciting, ex-president.

This is scary as hell for those of us (and this includes a good number of Republicans) who want to maintain democratic elections and avoid another January 6."

Arizona governor's race: A look at who's vying for the spot and their plans if elected

FOX 10 Phoenix

2 days ago · Matt Salmon · Kari Lake · Steve Gaynor · Karrin Taylor Robson · Marco Lopez · Katie Hobbs · Aaron Lieberman · Tune in to FOX 10 Phoenix

Arizona GOP gubernatorial primary is ‘going to get ugly before it gets positively hideous’: local columnist

n Taylor Robson for Arizona on Twitter: "16,000 donors. $3.7M raised. $3M cash-on-hand. I could not be prouder of the support our grassroots campaign for Arizona Governor is receiving from every corner of this state. This is a campaign built to WIN ...

twitter.com › Karrin4Arizona › status

Jan 9, 2022 · Karrin Taylor Robson for Arizona. @Karrin4Arizona. 16,000 donors. $3.7M raised. $3M cash-on ...
Duration: 0:05
Posted: Jan 9, 2022

Raw Story - Celebrating 18 Years of Independent Journalism |

The GOP primary for governor in Arizona is going off the rails as candidates attempt to out-do each other to be the Trumpiest candidate in the race.

On Thursday, Arizona Republic columnist Laurie Roberts wrote that GOP candidate Kari Lake had been endorsed by MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell.

"It's probably the second most coveted endorsement a Republican could get in Arizona, given his unshaken (read: unhinged) belief that the 2020 election was rigged," Roberts explained, noting Lake had praised the conspiracy theorist who sought to overturn the election as a "great patriot."

"By Thursday morning, Republican gubernatorial candidate Matt Salmon upped the ante. He announced he wants to audit not just the election in Maricopa County but the whole state, given the 'serious discrepancies' that will be unveiled on Friday by Sen. Karen Fann's ninja auditors," Roberts explained.

Salmon served in Congress and was the unsuccessful GOP nominee for governor in 2002, losing to Democrat Janet Napolitano.

"Me? I'm wondering what Karrin Taylor Robson will come up with to become relevant in the race," she said of another candidate Karrin Taylor Robson, who was appointed to the state's Board of Regents by Gov. Doug Ducey and is also running. Robson has been endorsed by former Govs. Jan Brewer and Fife Symington.

Roberts interviewed longtime Republican political consultant Chuck Coughlin about the battle to secure Donald Trump's endorsement.

"All the other candidates are trying to hug Trump as closely as possible," Coughlin said. "[Kari Lake] is actually imitating him. She's the outside, angry, no-political-record candidate slinging sledgehammers against the establishment."

"The Trump brand and anything to the right of it is the only brand that exists anymore in the Republican primary right now because nobody has given voice to anything else," Coughlin explained. "Like lemmings over the cliff. There is no independent thought here. It's following a third of the Republican primary voters over the cliff of irrelevancy."

Roberts warned her readers "It's going to be a loooong year. " . . .

Sarah Palin endorses Karrin Taylor Robson for governor | Video | azfamily.com

www.azfamily.com › video › sarah-palin-endorses-karrin-taylor-robson-fo...

Nov 24, 2021 · Former Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin has endorses Karrin Taylor Robson ...
Duration: 2:02
Posted: Nov 24, 2021

 

Tiny Chinese-Made Drone Can Lift Twice Its Weight for a Quick Flight Over The Border | The Verge

This incident happened 4 months ago in October. Interesting it's getting some exposure now.

Tech

Drones            

A tiny DJI drone smuggled its own weight in drugs over the US border wall

The DEA wants to search it

By Sean Hollister@StarFire2258 Feb 3, 2022, 4:14pm EST

"If you’ve ever wondered whether drug dealers might just fly packets of powder over the border wall with inexpensive consumer drones, wonder no more — the US Border Patrol caught a DJI Mini 2 dead to rights dropping off its own weight in meth last October.

That’s according to a recently released search warrant from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), which is trying to search the drone for evidence that might help them track down the pilot.

On October 7th, according to the affidavit, Tecate’s Campo Border Patrol Station radioed that a drone was spotted flying over the 25-foot-high fence. An agent spotted the drone buzzing over a parking lot just the other side of the wall; watched it land; watched a grey Mercedes roll up with a man ready to collect the goods; then intercepted the drone before the driver could pick it up.

The bundle contained a package filled with 0.57 pounds (259g) of methamphetamine, more than you might think a 249g DJI Mini 2 can carry on its own. But for a short hop over a 25-foot border wall to a parking lot just the other side, it’s actually quite feasible — multiple videos show the DJI Mini 2 can lift double its own weight for a short time.

The drone landed in one of the parking lots visible here, just north of the Tecate border.

Image: Google Maps

It’s not clear from the search warrant whether Chinese drone manufacturer DJI will be asked to share information about the user who flew the drone — for now, it sounds like the agent is simply asking to do some data forensics on the drone and its microSD card. . ."

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READ MORE: https://www.theverge.com/2022/2/3/22916246/dji-mini-2-drone-smuggle-meth-us-mexico-border-wall

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