California announces nation's largest public broadband network

California just launched the largest public broadband network in the country — and its serving Indigenous communities first. On April 2, Governor Gavin Newsom officially "turned on" California’s new Middle-Mile Broadband Network (MMBN), part of the state's Middle-Mile Broadband Initiative and Broadband for All pledge. One of several projects funded by the $3.2 billion initiative, California's Department of Technology (CDT) repurposed dormant fiber infrastructure in the Eastern Sierra Nevada mountain region and created a full-fledged, high-capacity broadband backbone for use by nearby rural communities. The effort joins other nationwide projects aimed at filling out the country's "missing miles" of internet by providing fiber-optic cables, a gap that predominantly affects rural and indigenous communities. The state also unveiled its first customer: The Bishop Paiute Tribe, located at the base of the Sierra Nevada in Bishop, California. "Today marks a historic first as a California tribal nation enthusiastically leads the way to provide increased access and reliability to their local community," said Tribal Affairs Secretary Christina Snider-Ashtari in a press release. Through the pa