Southern Alabama will be the major beneficiary of a $6.2 million grant to the Alabama Fiber Network (AFN). The funding, which was announced last week, will be used to deploy 125 miles of middle-mile fiber in 12 Alabama counties.
The middle-mile infrastructure expansion will serve Baldwin, Bibb, Choctaw, Clarke, Clay, Conecuh, Dallas, Greene, Macon, Monroe, Randolph, and Washington counties. Twelve anchor institutions will be connected in the process. Anchor institutions include schools, hospitals, medical facilities, and government and public safety buildings.
“This program is bringing about life-changing improvements for Alabamians, particularly those who live in remote areas,” ADECA Director Kenneth Boswell said in a press release about the Alabama middle-mile grants. “ADECA is pleased to be a part of this effort to expand this digital infrastructure to areas where it is needed.”
The grant will be administered by The Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs through its Alabama Digital Expansion Division.
In February, the state said it had “substantially completed” a phase of the AFN. At the time, the state said it could provide service to 60 counties with 3,406 active miles of the network and that points of presence had been built in 62 locations, with three more to be added soon after. The phase nearly fulfills the $82.5 million middle-mile grant from the Alabama allocation of American Rescue Plan Act funds.
Also in February, Lumos announced it had expanded into Alabama with a commitment to lay more than 105,000 miles of fiber that would be available to underserved communities in the Birmingham Metro area.
Several weeks earlier — in mid-January — the state awarded $2.9 million to Spectrum Southeast to make broadband available to 352 previously unserved households, businesses and community institutions in the Ridgeville area of Etowah County.
Additional information about Alabama broadband, including state funding resources, awards made, BEAD news, state-specific coverage, and more can be found on the Telecompetitor Broadband Nation webpage for the state.