Nevada invests $250M to boost middle mile fiber

• Nevada will invest $250 million to build an open access middle mile fiber network
• The project will focus on connecting unserved CAIs as well as providing more backhaul and upstream bandwidth capacity
• Permitting and terrain are some of the hurdles to building new infra

Nevada’s the latest state that wants to boost middle mile connectivity. The state this month announced it will allocate $250 million to construct a 2,500-mile fiber network, using funds from the $900 million High Speed Nevada Initiative.

Four operators will construct middle mile routes: Zayo, SkyFiber, Valley Communications and Zito Media. Nevada state broadband director Brian Mitchell said parts of the network will be state-owned, while other parts will be provider-owned but open access.

The primary goal of the middle mile network, he told Fierce, is to connect unserved community anchor institutions (CAIs). Think schools, libraries, hospitals and community centers.

Nevada’s Office of Science, Innovation and Technology (OSIT) identified approximately 250 CAIs that are considered unserved or underserved, then partnered with local governments to add “another 200-250 or so local government facilities” to the list.

The middle mile project will also build more backhaul and upstream bandwidth capacity to areas that otherwise may not get enough bidders from the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program.

“Many areas of the state lack access to affordable and reliable backhaul and/or upstream bandwidth,” Mitchell said. “There were places where even if we had bid them out in a fiber-to-the-home project as a part of BEAD, [it] would not have gotten any bidders because there weren’t affordable upstream bandwidth options for local ISPs” or the bandwidth options would be constrained in terms of what ISPs can offer with speed as well as pricing.

“The pricing wouldn’t have been affordable for customers of these BEAD-funded last mile networks,” he said.

So, these middle mile routes will “kind of form the foundation for future BEAD opportunities. Mitchell added the state has “worked very hard with our provider partners” to ensure the pricing for upstream bandwidth is competitive and affordable.

Construction has already started in some parts of the network. The state anticipates portions of the network will be completed through 2028, so the project’s timeline will coincide with that of BEAD deployments.

Mitchell explained the middle mile network will be built in two phases. The first phase will, as mentioned, focus on connecting CAIs and state government facilities.

The second phase will involve constructing a longer, end-to-end network that will connect “a lot of these spurs off the network and go from Las Vegas to Reno.” Zayo will be the ISP building that section of the network.

Permitting will be “one of the biggest challenges” in constructing middle mile infrastructure. Mitchell said 84% of Nevada is federal land, which is more than what other states have to work with.

“Good news is we have really good relationships with our federal partners,” he said.

Nevada also has “very tough, very difficult terrain.” Lots of mountains and rocky soil.

“The cost per foot in Nevada is a lot higher than the cost per foot in states east of the Great Plains,” Mitchell noted.

Nevada received a BEAD allocation of around $417 million. Whether that’ll be enough to close the state’s digital divide “remains to be seen.”

Mitchell explained the geography of Nevada and other western U.S. states has made broadband deployments “significantly more expensive” than in East Coast states. He thinks the BEAD funding formula “disadvantages” states in the west.

“We have counties in this state that are larger than states like Connecticut and New Jersey but have three to four thousand people living in them,” he said. “But [those people] are all underserved.”

And if those homes are 20 miles apart from one another, it’ll be more expensive to serve them. Especially if they’re situated on a “very rocky and very difficult” terrain.

In short, Nevada “do[es] not expect to have any leftover funding for non-deployment activities.”