Zayo preps for data center, AI and broadband boom with middle mile focus

There’s a lot of government funding going around for rural broadband, but it won’t mean much if those last mile networks aren’t connected to the rest of the network, says Bill Long, chief product and strategy officer at Zayo Group. Zayo is a seasoned player in the long-haul networking space. It’s also one of the operators that’s building out Nevada’s open access middle mile network. Building rural broadband networks is important, but if those networks aren’t connected to a middle mile, “it’s like building a suburb that’s not connected to any other roads,” said Long. The same thing goes for data centers, which are popping up like weeds. As a result, the company wants to make it “economically viable” to build last mile “off-ramps.” For starters, it’s increasing rural access points to reduce the amount of fiber construction required to connect to Zayo’s middle mile network—via “incremental breakouts.”