This week: Centranet's Sachin Gupta on the need for more middle mile fiber networks in the rural US, and why telco and electric co-ops are the ideal partners to build them.
On this episode, we hear from Sachin Gupta, director of government business and economic development at Centranet, a fiber broadband provider and wholly owned subsidiary of Central Rural Electric Cooperative in Stillwater, Oklahoma. We discuss the lack of adequate middle mile fiber networks in the rural US and why he's advocating for a model that would see telco and electric cooperatives partner to solve that challenge.
We also discuss the role the forthcoming $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program and the $1 billion Middle Mile grant program will play in addressing both the middle and last mile challenge in the rural US, what additional policies and partnerships are needed, and more.
Here are a few topics discussed in this episode:
Background on Centranet and where it delivers broadband service (01:05)
Capital challenges to delivering fiber in rural communities (04:25)
Why the lack of rural middle mile networks is contributing to the digital divide (05:50)
The need for more funding beyond the NTIA's $1 billion Middle Mile grant fund (08:10)
Gupta's view that telco and electric co-ops should partner on middle mile buildouts and examples of where that's starting to happen (10:10)
Challenges to the partnering model (14:45)
How to generate support for the model through policy and advocacy (18:33)
For an unedited transcript of this conversation, click the caption button on the video player above.
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