The Divide: How the rural US could solve its middle mile problem

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:

For an unedited transcript of this conversation, click the caption button on the video player above.