We reported this week the city of Benton Harbor is allowing some soil borings to take place at Jean Klock Park in preparation for Peninsula Fiber Network’s Middle Mile Broadband Infrastructure project. But what is the Middle Mile Broadband Infrastructure project?
PFN’s Jennifer Greenburg tells us the Marquette-based company is working with 123Net to lay broadband internet cable from Chicago to Benton Harbor under Lake Michigan. From there, the connection will continue to Byron Center. Greenburg says this will create a new pathway for internet traffic to move between Michigan and the rest of the country.
“That’s really important because today a lot of the broadband infrastructure from the state of Michigan to Chicago flows through Gary, Indiana,” Green burg said. “There’s often railroad strikes or the fiber can go out or get cut and that means that there’s economic development impacts from that, data is lost, networks can go down.”
With a new direct connection between servers in Chicago and Michigan, the quality of internet in Michigan — and its capacity — will increase. Greenburg says PFN is also building a broadband connection from Gulliver in the Upper Peninsula to Beaver Island, and then to Charlevoix, better connecting the state’s two peninsulas.
Federal grants have enabled a great deal of broadband work in the state in recent years.
“It’s really quite a boon for Michigan to receive this much federal broadband funding to increase these middle mile routes.”
PFN has received a $61.2 million federal grant for these projects. That funding is being combined with $26 million from PFN and 123 Net for an overall $87 million project.
The Middle Mile Broadband Infrastructure project is in the preliminary stages right now, securing permits from the Army Corps of Engineers, EGLE, and local governments. The goal is to have these new Middle Mile connections finished in five years, increasing Michigan’s broadband potential.
Greenburg says the Middle Mile project is not related to an ongoing effort to welcome large data centers into the state with new tax incentives.
You can learn more about the Middle Mile Broadband Infrastructure project right here.