Broadband Industry Officials Emphasize the Need for More Middle-Mile Connectivity

Industry representatives and members of the Fiber Broadband Association's middle-mile and public policy working groups emphasized the need for more public-private partnerships to promote middle mile connectivity during a webinar Wednesday. "Middle mile is like that middle child that keeps getting ignored," said Sachin Gupta, Centranet director-government business and economic development. "If we continue ignoring it," he warned, "we will not be able to connect all of these new last mile connections that we are planning on building."

NTIA last year awarded $980 million to 36 organizations spanning 40 states and territories through its middle-mile broadband infrastructure program. The grant program supported construction, improvement, and acquisition of middle mile infrastructure (see 2309070044).

"There is a serious lack of middle-mile" infrastructure, Gupta said, particularly in rural America. Gupta noted that the total cost of the projects was almost twice NTIA spending, at about $1.8 billion. Many of the companies that applied for middle-mile funding had large match percentages, he added, "and the total amount that was requested was upwards of $7 billion, kind of showing how much middle mile is needed."

The lack of middle-mile infrastructure in rural areas also "exacerbates this digital divide based on affordability," Gupta said, noting that maintenance costs are higher "because you have to maintain it across a small number of subscribers over large distances." Gupta warned that the lack of middle mile could "actually end up creating a new digital divide."

There's a "massive opportunity" for broadband, equity, access, and deployment program recipients to carry out their projects more efficiently with greater public-private partnerships on middle mile deployment, said Jordan Gross, Lumen's director-state government affairs for market development. Gross noted that middle-mile costs qualify as an acceptable in-kind contribution and can be counted toward a provider's 25% match requirement.

"Tapping into existing infrastructure and being able to build into these communities off the existing infrastructure is saving time and money," Gross said. He encouraged other ISPs to explore partnerships with state and local governments because the "biggest change" over the past five years has been what local governments "have available in terms of the kind of tools in their toolkit" for broadband.

Identifying where all middle-mile infrastructure exists is "a behemoth of a task," Gupta said. There's "no such map today," but "that is one of our tasks to create a map and make it available" to FBA members, he added.