Enabling Middle Mile Broadband Infrastructure Program

Through the implementation of two Executive Orders on equity and President Joe Biden's Investing in America Agenda, the Biden-Harris Administration is working to advance opportunity and make real the promise of America for everyone.  In the rural South and dense 

Since my last appearance before the House Commerce Committee in May 2023, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has made considerable progress toward the bipartisan initiatives that Congress tasked to NTIA. These include:

Leaders from the Biden Administration said access to high-speed internet will bring opportunity and dignity for residents of rural communities in Wisconsin and across the country. Tom Perez, White House Director of Intergovernmental Affairs, and Don Graves, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Commerce, visited Dairyland Power Cooperative in La Crosse (WI) on November 30 to talk about federal money for broadband infrastructure. Dairyland is one of the recipients of the Middle Mile Broadband Infrastructure Grant, a program created through the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

Kansas awarded a $5 million grant to nonprofit Connected Nation to construct a carrier-neutral internet exchange point (IXP) adjacent to Wichita State University’s Innovation Campus. Construction will be done through Connected Nation IXP, a joint venture between Connected Nation and Newby Ventures. The Wichita IXP will be the first carrier-neutral IXP in Kansas. One network that will connect to the Wichita IXP is the middle-mile network planned for the state that was funded, in part, through a June 2023, $42.5 million grant awarded to the Kansas Departments of Commerce and Transportation.

Two years after President Joe Biden signed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration and other agencies have distributed billions of dollars to communities to bridge the digital divide and make participation in the digital economy a reality for everyone. At NTIA, we completed funding rounds for multiple programs in the last year and are moving to the implementation phase, all the while preparing states and territories to administer their state grant programs.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) conducted case studies in three states and interviewed middle-mile operators, last-mile providers, and state officials. GAO also interviewed federal agency officials, academics, and industry participants. GAO assessed the National Telecommunications and Information Administration's NTIA middle mile program documentation against recommended practices related to grants management, duplication, and performance management.

Vecima Networks intends to expand manufacturing into the US for certain products in its Entra portfolio.

The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) commited nearly $50 million to four organizations to expand middle-mile high-speed Internet infrastructure in the following states:

I am the Secretary of Commerce. And my job is to make sure that America can compete that our businesses and our companies can compete effectively in the world, including our small businesses, our family farms, and Americans, American workers. And I have to tell you, you cannot compete if you don't have the Internet. I just talked to a third-generation family farmer here in Wisconsin who struggles because the Internet is expensive and doesn't have high quality, and you all know it. You all have friends and family who don't have it.

C Spire has been working to bridge the middle-mile gap in the rural southeastern US, plugging away at construction of a backhaul network in the area for the past few years.