

In many areas, there isn’t a middle mile network located close enough to connect last-mile infrastructure. It is the network of robust, high-speed fiber bringing broadband close enough to your community for an ISP to connect in a way that provides Internet access.Įxpanding Access for Providers and Consumers This network can travel via cable, fiber, wirelessly or satellite, and is usually built and owned by a local ISP.Įssentially, middle mile infrastructure is the middleman between your ISP and the high-speed world wide web. Transfers data from the middle mile to community end-users like residences and businesses.

Sometimes this middle mile will directly connect large anchor tenants like government, utilities, schools and hospitals. Carries data across the country on high-capacity fiber lines from a global internet station to an ISP, like Comcast or Charter, near you. These internet backbones ensure high speed access and connectivity to public and private content that is stored and processed in data centers around the globe. A connection of massive cables that run under oceans and between countries to stations called “internet backbones” that are commonly located in major cities. Visualize your internet connection as travelling across three stages of connected infrastructure: Let’s start with a simplification of connectivity to the internet. Successful broadband expansion plans can embrace multiple connectivity layers to deliver the most impactful overall results. Less common is the investment in open-access “middle mile” broadband infrastructure, aimed to increase competition among local internet service providers, thereby lowering costs and adding options for citizens. The most common path has been to provide financial grants to local internet service providers willing to expand their service to the “last mile”. And for many more, it is about affordability or service monopolies.Īrmed with new funding to address these issues, states and local communities across the country are grappling to identify the best mix of solutions to meet their broadband needs. For others, overcoming outdated technology to meet increasing bandwidth demand is the objective. For some communities, the issue is access to high-speed internet. Public surveys and unprecedented levels of public and private funding for broadband are clear signals that there is a problem-and growing dissatisfaction-with our collective internet infrastructure. Likewise, after you finish a video call or stream a show on Hulu, it’s unlikely you ponder the journey that data has traveled to and from your device. When you turn on the faucet at your home, you probably don’t think about where that water came from or where it goes after it slides down your drain.
