123NET wins $65 Million Project with Allegan County for County-wide Broadband Internet

123NET and Allegan County (MI) have been awarded a $65 million project to construct an open-access, carrier-neutral fiber network. This county-wide broadband project will begin construction in mid-August 2023. The Allegan County Board of Commissioners and 123NET established a public-private partnership earlier in 2023 and applied for the Realizing Opportunity with Broadband Infrastructure Networks (ROBIN) grant together. Now that the project has been awarded, 123NET will construct an extensive 1,100 miles of high-capacity fiber and provide world-class connectivity to over 10,000 unserved and underserved homes across the county. 123NET will provide fiber internet with speeds of up to 10 gigabits per second, which is 100 times faster than the grant’s requirement. This project will establish Allegan County as the best-connected county in the state and one of the fastest in the nation. The new network will enable other broadband providers to utilize the fiber infrastructure to offer their services.