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The Alabama Fiber Network has reported the completion of the first phase of Alabama’s middle-mile broadband backbone network.
By: Brad Randall, Broadband Communities
More than two thirds of Alabama’s middle-mile broadband backbone network project is complete, representing the conclusion of the project’s first phase.
The Alabama Fiber Network, which received an initial grant $82.5 million grant for the project from the state’s allocation of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds in 2022, announced achieving the milestone Oct. 8.m
According to Terry Metze, CEO of the Alabama Fiber Network (AFN), the organization’s goal of lighting half of their sites by Sept. 30 has been accomplished.
“Thanks to the leadership of our board of directors, tireless work of our team and support of our partners, this is just one of the many milestones we will achieve,” Metze said. “Alabama deserves this network, and we’re going to deliver.”
By the end of September, work on the middle-mile internet backbone network was complete in 38 out of 67 counties, representing 67 percent of the project, AFN’s release stated.
“We’re going to keep the momentum going,” Metze said, in comments included with AFN’s release. “We have many more ambitious goals, and we’ll keep hitting the mark until we connect every corner of the state.”
The AFN was first established to address the lack of middle-mile connectivity in Alabama, a summary of AFN’s operations read.
As a result, eight electric cooperatives and their subsidiaries in Alabama collaborated with the Alabama Power Company to construct the middle-mile network, the summary stated.
As AFN celebrated recent milestones, the organization also gave credit to other recent contributions to the middle-mile project.
“AFN’s owners and partners also provided substantial contributions including fiber optic cable strands, storm hardened locations to place equipment and other project assistance,” the release stated. “This support is helping to accelerate completion of the statewide backbone.”
The completion of the first phase of Alabama’s middle-mile project comes after the AFN celebrated the launch of their last-mile network this summer.
This summer, AFN launched to its first last-mile customer, on the Sprout Fiber Network at with internet speeds of 100 Gigabits, according to the AFN’s release.
“As of today, they’ve added four additional 100 Gigabit customers increasing capacity and resiliency, and lowering delays,” AFN’s announcement stated.
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