Ingham County’s (the County) overall objective is to provide its residents and businesses the opportunity to have affordable and reliable broadband services across the County. The County desires to develop a partnership with members of the private sector that can work with it to achieve this goal. The County is seeking internet service providers (ISPs) that are willing to join the County in creating a middle mile network that can be developed and implemented in tandem with efforts to provide “last mile service” to homes, businesses, and community anchor institutions. It is the intent of Ingham County to rely on BEAD project funding, if possible, but BEAD is not the sole scope of the project and ISPs may be asked to work in a broader scope beyond the BEAD Project. The County wants to engage with partners that are not afraid of competition, are customer focused, and willing to collaborate with the County, the community, and other ISPs to achieve the best possible solution for Ingham County residents. The MINIMUM standard to achieve should be consistent with the current broadband definition recently adopted by the FCC, which is download speeds of 100 Mbps or greater and upload speeds of 20 Mbps or greater. However, symmetrical speeds of up to 10 Gbps by 10 Gbps are preferred. The areas of unserved and underserved, as well as current speed levels, are illustrated on the maps contained within the attached report prepared by Merit Networks. Also included are the approved Challenge Maps for the BEAD Program by the Michigan High-Speed Internet (MIHI) and National Telecommunications Information Association (NTIA).
