Maren Machles

Cities Corinth and Lake Dallas as well as towns Hickory Creek and Shady Shores (TX), collectively known as the Lake Cities, are seeking a public-private partnership to deploy a fiber network to households and businesses in the area. The project, with the help of $4 million in American Rescue Plan funds, would include building a middle-mile fiber ring to support government services around the four cities, connecting public buildings and facilities.

Decatur (IL) is moving forward with an Institutional Network (I-Net) expansion that will connect 11 school districts and 3 firehouses to its growing fiber-optic backbone, connecting potential commercial and industry customers along the way. The city of Decatur has been expanding its fiber network since 2014.

Tired of waiting for connectivity solutions to come to town, one Minnesota community has instead partnered with a local telephone cooperative to build a fiber network reaching every home and business in the city. In embarking on its journey to improve local Internet access six years ago, Long Prairie (pop. 3,300) ended up partnering with one of the most aggressive fiber network builders in the state - Consolidated Telephone Company (CTC) - on a solution that meets local needs. The two finished a ubiquitous Fiber-to-the-Home build in 2018, with CTC now owning and operating the network.