Industry struggles to define ‘middle mile’ even though it’s critical to BEAD

• “The idea of middle mile is somewhat outdated in terms of building this single route,” said the CEO of Great Plains Communications
• Middle mile has become more important than ever with a diverse set of use cases
• It will be critical for BEAD because all those new last-mile networks need to connect to something

FIBER CONNECT, NASHVILLE — Middle-mile may have become more important than ever in terms of fiber networks because all the last-mile networks that will be built for BEAD need to connect to something. But honing-in on a precise definition of middle-mile is a challenge even for industry insiders.

At the Fiber Connect show yesterday, a panel of middle-mile professionals had a spirited discussion. But when the moderator, Rick Talbot from ACG Research, tried to pin panelists down on the definition of middle-mile, he had little success.

Joe Pellegrini, CEO with Great Plains Communications, said, “It’s an end-to-end system with real estate, points of presence…. There’s the power requirements, generators.”

Brent Legg, EVP of Connected Nation, which is a non-profit that works on closing the digital divide, weighed in on the discussion. He talked about cloud traffic and video traffic that needs to move back and forth from carrier hotels and internet exchange points. He indicated that these things are usually far away from rural customers whom the BEAD program hopes to connect. And bridging that gap could be one definition of the middle-mile.

“If you’re in rural areas you can’t buy IP transit locally,” said Legg. “You have to buy local transit to get you to IP transit. Part of the objective of deploying middle mile is bringing the experience you would have in a major metro to smaller areas.”

Speaking with Fierce prior to Fiber Connect, Pellegrini said, “The idea of middle mile is somewhat outdated in terms of building this single route.”

He said Great Plains wants to monetize its 19,000 route miles of fiber any way it can. That can include fiber-to-the-home, fiber-to-the-cell-tower and fiber to enterprises and data centers. Pellegrini said there’s a lot of opportunity with tower companies in rural areas because they’re trying to remove their legacy microwave backhaul and replace it with fiber.

Barry Walton, senior broadband solutions architect with Corning, was also on the panel, and he said middle-mile networks are also being used to connect such things as wind farms and other types of power stations. “You’ve got folks who will sign up with you, and you’ve got a 5-year contract,” said Walton. “Cell towers now are looking for six to 12 fibers. Looking at the revenue on that is pretty impressive.”

Since middle-mile companies are now typically deploying fiber strand counts of 288 or 576, selling six to 12 fibers to a cell tower owner still leaves a lot of strands to sell.

Concerns of middle-mile builders

After failing to clearly define middle-mile networks, the panelists moved on to discuss their concerns and challenges.

Corning’s Walton said middle-mile builders used to put marker posts along their networks to try and prevent accidental cuts from digging. But homeowners and businesses didn’t like the markers and took them down.

Legg, from Connected Nation, pointed out that just this week saboteurs cut some significant transport networks in France, causing broadband service to go down in some locations. “That’s the flip side of putting up marker posts — you’re marking where the fiber is,” quipped Legg. “It’s like saying, ‘cut here.’”

The panelists also discussed ways to reduce their costs to build networks. Pellegrini said, “It is unbelievably expensive to build middle mile. You have to have things aligned with the cost of capital.”

Lauren Macucci, the utility coordination supervisor with the civil engineering firm BHC, said design and permitting can take so long. She stressed that it’s really important to communicate with cities and towns on your middle-mile builds. For instance, she said, “Before you hit final on that design, pick up the phone and call the department of transportation and say ‘hey do you have any work going on in this area?’”

If the transportation department is doing work, you could possibly coordinate the digs. Or, at least avoid the chaos of two projects at the same time.

Read more from Fiber Connect 2024 here.