Provide west and northwest georgia with critical middle mile broadband access by building a 185-mile fiber route that passes through eight counties between chattanooga, tennessee; bremen, georgia; and…

The Department of Commerce National Telecommunications and Information Administration awarded Dovetel Communications LLC $32,246,573.54 under the Middle Mile (Broadband) Grant Program (CFDA 11.033) to build a 185-mile fiber route providing middle mile broadband access in eight counties in northwest Georgia. The project will construct an open access, carrier neutral network using fiber optic cables to significantly expand middle mile infrastructure connecting the Chattanooga, Bremen and Atlanta areas. This is intended to reduce backhaul costs and encourage additional broadband deployment by local internet service providers. The network aims to enable broadband access for approximately 10,000 currently unserved and underserved homes and businesses across the region, as well as 140 community anchor institutions with speeds of at least 1 Gbps. Completion is expected within a three year period from July 2023 to June 2026. No subawards were specified.

Purpose

The purpose of this project is to provide west and northwest georgia with critical middle mile broadband access by building a 185-mile fiber route that passes through eight counties between chattanooga, tennessee; bremen, georgia; and atlanta, georgia. The west and northwest georgia areas associated with the proposed route and service footprint currently have no known commercially available dark fiber service offerings. The proposed fiber network will significantly reduce future backhaul transport costs associated with bringing broadband from the main peering hubs and locations to the rural end users and provide over 140 interconnection splicing points for access to all anchor institutions within 1,000 feet along the path. The open nature promotes broadband connections by providing both dark fiber and LIT services supporting current and future needs. Being buried makes IT climate resilient to hazards for the region including inland flooding, severe weather, wildfires, tornadoes, snow and ICE, and tree damage. The route is scalable, rendering IT sustainable and future proof and should encourage and promote additional extensions and expansions of middle and last mile infrastructure and support national security interest of the united states.

Activities

Project will use fiber to build new/resilient middle mile network through UN/underserved communities with a commitment to open access and carrier neutral non-discriminatory interconnect. The period of performance is expected to be 2 years.

Expected outcomes

The rural broadband service enabled by this project's middle mile route will: 1. Provide high-quality and reliable residential end user experience. 2. Support end users' ability to simultaneously receive all the bandwidth they have purchased. 3. Support dramatic increases in bandwidth demand over time 4. Deliver end user services at a low-cost rate while supporting the ongoing operational needs of the network.

Intended beneficiaries

The proposed network will enable one of the most rural quadrants of georgia with unserved and underserved locations access to connect last mile broadband to homes and businesses. The number of unserved and underserved in the project area is estimated to be 28,566 based upon the 2022 georgia broadband map, with an ISP commitment enabling approximately 10,000 of those homes with retail broadband access. The route will encourage and promote additional extensions and expansions of middle mile and last mile infrastructure through the eight-county service area. The route has 140 anchor institutions with access within 1,000 feet of the proposed infrastructure, with an ability to receive service with speeds not less than 1 gbps download and upload. Open interconnection will promote broadband connections by providing both dark fiber and LIT services supporting current and future broadband needs. There is also the creation of a broadband consortium, the west georgia broadband alliance (WGBA). The proposed route will also benefit the national security interests of the united states by increasing the redundancy and resiliency of telecommunication networks that support broadband services for critical infrastructure services for power transmission providers and critical rail transport infrastructure in the southeast.

Subrecipient activities

No. N/a