CENIC

Once considered only a place to borrow books, libraries are emerging as a resource to educate Californians on how to navigate the Internet, providing access to employment and training opportunities, online services like telehealth, and much more. To ensure that library patrons can make the most of these opportunities, libraries also provide in-house digital navigators trained to assist patrons in getting online and acquiring necessary digital skills.

The environmental impacts of broadband networks are not well understood. The infrastructure required to run these networks requires power, which in and of itself, releases carbon and other emissions into the atmosphere. Hence the power consumption of broadband networks matters.

Many carriers and last-mile providers may be interested in purchasing out-of-the-box “lit” services from a middle-mile network, like a Virtual Private Network (VPN) or connectivity to cloud providers or the global Internet.

A statewide middle-mile network may consist of multiple layers of equipment and software to complete “handoffs” of data to and from last-mile providers, translate that data into light pulses sent over fiber-optic cable, and connect to the global Internet or cloud service providers like Netflix and Amazon Web Services. However, not every last mile-provider may wish to connect to a middle-mile network in the same way. Some may require greater capacity or seek greater control over services they create themselves and provide to their customers.

California's proposed middle-mile fiber-based network could provide access to regional broadband providers and Tribes at capacity and speeds that will allow networks to scale to accommodate the needs of an entire community. The route prioritizes areas with no access to the global Internet or slow and ineffective connections, which leaves many households and community anchor institutions at a severe disadvantage – unable to take advantage of broadband-enabled services such as telehealth, remote work, and remote educational environments. A major goal of this project is to connect all Tribes i

The most important decision when designing and building a statewide middle-mile fiber-based network is whether to build a brand new long-distance fiber-optic cable route in areas where none exist, or use strands within an already installed cable via a pre-paid, discounted long-term lease called an IRU. In California for example, its great diversity of population centers, geographic and topographic terrains, weather conditions, and natural hazards greatly influences the presence, or absence, of fiber-based middle-mile infrastructure.

A middle-mile network is a fiber connection consisting of long-haul core backbone routes and regional routes, and last-mile providers—not unlike the transportation model of high-capacity long-haul interstate highways—can be effective in connecting major cities, inland, cities, remote regions, and everything in-between. In this model, an open-access middle-mile network bridges the gap between the global Internet and any last-mile providers that wish to connect to it, who then bridge the remaining gap to their individual local residential and business customers, as well as fire, earthquake, c

CENIC’s current last-mile efforts for K-12 are funded through the Broadband Infrastructure Grant (BIG) program, which was created in 2019 by Governor Gavin Newsom (D-CA) and the California State Legislature to identify and implement fiber-based broadband solutions for K-12 schools lacking broadband connectivity. The BIG program emerged from CENIC’s success in supporting the Broadband Infrastructure Improvement Grant (BIIG) project.

A public-private partnership to provide internet connectivity for residents in the Val Verde Unified School District (USD) serves as a model case study for broadband deployment to hard-to-reach populations. Val Verde USD, located in Riverside County (CA) will work with hybrid network provider GeoLinks to establish the first-ever broadband service explicitly for families of the school district, with low-income households receiving the service for free.