It’s called Moonlight, or the Michigan Open Optical Network Leveraging Innovation to Get High-Speed Technology. A $10.5 million dollar national grant has been awarded to Merit Network and Michigan State University to develop the infrastructure for supplying broadband internet to thousands of underserved and unserved residents and businesses in Michigan. Andy Berke is a special representative for broadband with the U.S. Department of Commerce.
“This is an open access network,” Berke said. “This is basically the backbone we’re talking about that enables others to connect to it, and then to create those last connections that go to households, overall in 74 counties to serve 17,000 unserved households.”
Berke made the announcement this week at Michigan State University. He says this project sets a strategic digital foundation for Michigan and will create a literal statewide digital autobahn to network internet customers statewide.
