The Buildout: NTIA awards $930M in Middle Mile infrastructure grants

The NTIA on Friday announced over $930 million in Middle Mile grant awards. The funding will expand middle mile infrastructure across 35 states and Puerto Rico, according to a press release, and will be combined with $848.46 million in matching funds. All told, the projects will deploy over 12,000 miles of fiber, passing within 1,000 feet of 6,961 community anchor institutions, said the NTIA. One repeat winner was Zayo, a global communications infrastructure provider, which received $24 million for a middle mile network connecting Oregon, Nevada and California; $55 million for a network serving rural areas of western Texas; and $13.6 million to create new access points along its existing middle mile network across Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia. See a full list of funding recipients and projects here. The NTIA's Middle Mile grant program, part of the Biden administration's "Internet for All" efforts, was funded with $1 billion in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) to connect regional networks to national broadband networks. All told, the NTIA said it received 260 applications for the Middle Mile program totaling $7.47 billion. More awards are expected on a rolling basis.

The US Treasury Department said it will award $119.9 million to Montana in American Rescue Plan capital projects funds to increase broadband access to over 61,100 homes and businesses. Grants will be distributed through the ConnectMT program, which prioritizes fiber buildouts for unserved areas. According to a fact sheet, the funding will cover broadband expansion for an estimated 47% of Montana's unserved locations.

The state of Georgia awarded nearly $15 million in grants for broadband expansion projects. In a press release, Governor Brian Kemp's office said the grants will be combined with "significant capital matches from the awardees" for a total investment of $30 million. The funding, which comes from Georgia's share of capital projects funds from the American Rescue Plan, will cover four projects, serving over 3,500 locations. Windstream won three of the four awards – roughly $8.5 million – for projects in Calhoun County ($6,320,693 for 1,425 locations), Echols County ($1,195,703 for 420 locations) and Webster County ($985,147 for 299 locations). This latest round of awards follows Georgia's awarding of $234 million in January.

York Electric Cooperative (YEC) and Comporium wrapped up 26 months of construction on a fiber network expansion in South Carolina. The $16 million project, which has been completed over the course of three stages, is now delivering gigabit broadband access to roughly 5,000 homes.

IQ Fiber announced it will accelerate its network deployment across Jacksonville, Florida. According to a press release, the next phase of its build will cost $18 million, and it follows the company's recent announcement that it would invest nearly $40 million to deploy a fiber network in Gainesville, Florida. The company recently received $150 million in second round equity funding from founding investor SDC Capital Partners to support its targeted buildout of 60,000 serviceable locations across Northeast Florida.

Ziply Fiber announced that it launched services in Cave Junction, Oregon. In a press release, Ziply said the launch will bring speeds of 2 Gbit/s, 5 Gbit/s and 10 Gbit/s to 350 addresses, making the ISP "the fastest internet provider in the city." Other residential providers in Cave Junction, according to Broadband Now, include T-Mobile, Spectrum, Astound Broadband and Outreach Internet.

Spectrum announced more service launches tied to its Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) commitments this week. The company's broadband service is now live in Hampton County, South Carolina, available for over 1,645 homes and businesses. Spectrum also said it will "soon" launch services in Muskingum County, Ohio, reaching approximately 5,000 locations. According to a press release, the company is completing its Muskingum buildout in two phases. Construction for the first phase, funded through RDOF, began in 2022 to bring service to an estimated 3,210 locations, where some activations have begun. The second phase – a $30.6 million project – is being funded with an Ohio Residential Broadband Expansion Grant to expand services to an additional 1,795 locations.

Highline (formerly S&A Telephone) has started construction on a broadband buildout in Lyon County, Kansas. The company had received $3.76 million from the state's capital projects funds and expects to complete construction by end of year, with the first customers to come online by end of July.

The USDA this week announced $714 million in loans and grants from the ReConnect program for rural broadband buildouts in 19 states. According to the USDA, more than 83,600 people will be serviced by these buildouts, plus 2,093 businesses, 4,705 farms and 97 educational facilities. Roughly $421 million was awarded in grants and $293 million in loans. The largest grants went to Nemont Telephone Cooperative in Montana and Interior Telephone Company in Alaska ($34.9 million each), and the largest loan went to Craw-Kan Telephone Cooperative in Kansas ($49.9 million). Another grant recipient, Matanuska Telecom Association (MTA), which was awarded $12.6 million to deploy 41 miles of fiber to the Tyonek Alaska Native Village Statistical Area, said in a press release that its new 100/100 Mbit/s network will deliver a "1000% increase in speed compared to currently available service in the area."