Corning to fund Western New York Middle Mile network project

Corning (NYSE: GLW) has become the latest vendor to put their stamp on a fiber project. Following in the footsteps of Google's (Nasdaq: GOOG) well-chronicled Fiber to the Home (FTTH) project, Corning is making a major investment in a 235-mile fiber-based middle mile network in Western New York.

The project is the effort of the Southern Tier Central Regional Planning and Development Board (STC).

After the STC was turned down by the NTIA for broadband stimulus funding, the STC applied for funding on Google's Fiber Project, but then decided to work with Corning when the Internet search giant decided it needed more time to assess the flood of applications it received.

The Southern Tier Network, a not-for-profit local development corporation, will own, build and manage the new network. Under the terms of the agreement, Corning will provide $10 million of its own funds for the $12.2 million middle mile network, with three other local New York counties paying the remaining $2.2 million.

Similar to other middle mile projects such as Southern Massachusetts-based OpenCape network, the Southern Tier Network is an open access network that will not only provide connectivity to each of the involved counties' public safety organizations and related local government agencies, but also to sell wholesale network capacity to other service providers.

"An open access, optical fiber telecommunications infrastructure will put Chemung, Schuyler and Steuben counties on the fast track to greater economic development, better quality of life and global competitiveness," STC Executive Director Marcia Weber reported in Telecompetitor.

For more:
- Telecompetitor has this article

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