News
This week, Alabama awarded $53.5 million to the Alabama Fiber Network for construction of a middle-mile network that will span 24 counties.
By: Brad Randall, Broadband Communities
A middle-mile broadband project in Alabama will lay over 1,000 miles of fiber across two dozen counties, according to Gov. Kay Ivey.
The project, being led by the Alabama Fiber Network, also plans to connect 120 “community anchor institutions,” Ivey said as she announced $53.5 million in funding for the project Tuesday.
The anchor institutions, considered vital structures in communities, include educational institutions, medical facilities, local government offices, along with police and fire stations, Ivey said.
“It puts us closer in Alabama to ensuring that everyone has access to this fundamental service,” Ivey said, according to comments provided to the media.
As previously reported by Broadband Communities, the Alabama Fiber Network (AFN), a coalition of electric co-ops that formerly went by the name of Fiber Utility Network Inc., was renamed in 2023.
A recent announcement from Ciena, which has been selected by the AFN as an optical networking vendor for the converged IP/optical middle-mile network, elaborated on the AFN’s ambitions.
“AFN is leasing dark fiber and building new fiber infrastructure to deploy a network that will span over 5,000 linear miles with interconnect points in all 67 counties,” Ciena’s announcement stated.
The middle-mile projects being led by AFN “are designed to fill the gaps in broadband expansion to make it more cost-effective and less labor intensive for providers to extend broadband services to businesses and households,” according to the June 25 announcement from Ivey’s office.
The latest round of funding announced this week will connect 7,500 unserved businesses and residences within five miles of high-speed internet, a release from the governor’s office stated. The announcement said the funding came from Alabama’s share of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds.
“This grant phase is another giant step in the long, but attainable process of providing high-speed internet to every corner of the state,” said Kenneth Boswell, director of the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs.
Counties where construction will take place include Baldwin, Coffee, Colbert, Covington, Dale, Dallas, DeKalb, Elmore, Etowah, Franklin, Hale, Jefferson, Lee, Lauderdale, Lawrence, Limestone, Madison, Marshall, Mobile, Montgomery, Perry, Russell, Tuscaloosa and Walker, according to Ivey’s office.
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