Real money starts to flow in U.S. fiber deployments

Money is beginning to really flow into the U.S. fiber ecosystem, but the dollars are coming from a somewhat unexpected source—middle-mile and long-haul fiber projects. Case in point: the Alabama Fiber Network (AFN) struck a deal with Arista Networks to secure routing and switching equipment for its 6,600-mile open-access, middle-mile network. AFN also just recently announced that it selected Ciena as its optical networking vendor for the middle-mile project. AFN is a consortium of eight electric cooperatives that are building a sprawling middle-mile network to support other service providers and community anchor institutions. Ultimately, the middle-mile network will help connect all the last-mile networks that will be built with Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) funds. The network will reach all 67 counties in Alabama.