Zayo Group has broken ground on its first NTIA funded Middle-Mile project with the Oregon-California-Nevada route.
Zayo plans to construct a high-capacity, middle-mile fiber route that will traverse vast regions of rural communities across the three states.
These areas include high rates of unserved and underserved households, businesses, schools and other community anchor institutions in need of broadband.
The project will support network infrastructure in:
- Oregon: Fort Rock, La Pine, Lakeview, Lone, Mayville, Mitchell, Paisley, Prineville and Umatilla
- California: Alturas, Spanish Springs and Herlong
- Nevada: Panther Valley and Reno
At present, all but one of these areas have access to broadband at a median speed at or less than 25 megabits per second (Mbps) down/5 Mbps up.
Zayo estimates over 20,000 households in Oregon, California and Nevada alone will benefit from Zayo’s middle-mile fiber network.
The route would also provide access to LinkOregon, a non-profit middle-mile provider focused on serving Oregon’s K-12 institutions, higher education, libraries, Tribes, remote state offices and other public and non-profit organizations and facilities across the state.
In addition, there are two major healthcare institutions in Eastern Oregon that will benefit from access to the Zayo Network.
In June 2023, Zayo was awarded $92.9 million as part of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) Middle Mile Grant Program.
The funding will support two other Zayo network infrastructure projects: El Paso to Dallas and Dallas to Atlanta.
