National Broadband Plan Must Address Middle Mile before Building Fiber to Anchor Institutions

Responding to the Federal Communications Commission's request for comment on cost estimates for connecting anchor institutions to fiber broadband networks, Fiberutilities Group says the "drop and entrance" construction approach in the Gates model needs to be supplemented to resolve the middle mile problem. The issue is that the fiber plant currently deployed for middle mile is either depleted, not available for new uses or not there at all. Without middle mile fiber there is no advantage gained by building the "last" mile fiber to anchor institutions as contemplated by the Gates Foundation study.