Michigan's 'optical bridge' first step in statewide broadband access

摘要

The Michigan Broadband Development Authority (MBDA) is financing a new fiber-optic network across the 5-mi Mackinac Bridge to link the Lower and Upper Peninsulas―the state's first initiative in providing statewide highspeed broadband access for its citizens. This optical bridge will diminish the Upper Peninsula's reliance on connectivity through Wisconsin by creating a redundant loop between both sides of the Mackinac Straits. "Just take a look at a map," says Hunt Williams, president of Merit Networks (Ann Arbor, MI), a participant in the MBDA project. "Michigan is surrounded on almost all sides by water. The state is just north of the major trans-U.S. fiber trunk lines. This deal provides redundancy from the Upper Peninsula to Chicago and -helps put Michigan in the middle of the continent in terms of fiber connectivity to Canada via Sault Sainte Marie in the north and Windsor [On-tario] in the south."