A massive federal effort to expand Internet access to every home in America hit a major milestone Friday with the announcement of $930 million in grants to expand connections to remote areas of Alaska, rural Texas and dozens of other places. Stepped forward, where there are significant gaps. Maintain connectivity.
The so-called middle mile grants, announced by the Commerce Department, are meant to build large-scale networks that will enable retail broadband providers to connect customers to the Internet. Department officials compared the role of the middle mile – the central part of the infrastructure needed to enable Internet access, made up of high-capacity fiber lines that carry vast amounts of data at very high speeds – to how interstate highways The system forged connections between communities.
“These networks are the workhorses of moving huge amounts of data over very long distances,” said Mitch Landrieu, the White House’s infrastructure coordinator, in a media Zoom call. “They are the ones who are bridging the gap between larger networks and last mile connections, from tribal lands to rural and remote areas to essential institutions such as hospitals, schools, libraries and major businesses.”
Grants were given to a cross-section of state government agencies, tribal governments, and telephone and electric cooperatives. They intend to begin laying 12,000 miles (19,300 km) of new fiber through 35 states and Puerto Rico.
The largest grant, about $89 million, was awarded to an Alaska-based telecommunications company that hopes to build a fiber network through a remote section of the state where an estimated 55% of people lack access to basic internet .
The extension is one of several initiatives pushed through Congress by President Joe Biden’s administration to expand high-speed internet connectivity across the country.
“The Middle Mile program is a force multiplier in our efforts to connect everyone in America,” said Assistant Secretary of Commerce Alan Davidson. “These grants will help build the foundation of the network that will in turn connect every home in the country with affordable, reliable, high-speed Internet service.”
The grants were set in motion by the $65 billion allocated by Congress for broadband as part of a $1 trillion infrastructure measure Biden, a Democrat, signed into law in 2021. The vast majority of that money, $42.5 billion, would be distributed to the states. The Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment, or BEAD, program is partly based on new federal maps that identify areas that are not connected.
The allocation of states from BEAD is expected to be announced later this month. States will then run their own programs to identify recipients who will form the last mile network for underserved communities.
Winners of the Middle Mile grants announced Friday will have up to five years to complete their projects once they receive those funds, although a one-year extension can be requested under certain conditions.
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Harzai reported from Los Angeles.
