The Indiana Middle Mile Fiber for Schools, Communities, and Anchor Institutions project plans to directly connect 21 Ivy Tech Community College campuses to the state’s existing high-speed network for education and research, known as the I-Light network. The Ivy Tech Community College is Indiana’s largest higher education institution with over 130,000 students, and is the largest singly accredited community college system in the nation. The project plans to deploy a 626-mile fiber-optic network to provide 1 Gbps to 10 Gbps connections between the newly-connected Ivy Tech campuses and the 42 colleges and universities already on the I-Light network, which will advance research, education, and economic opportunities throughout Indiana. In addition, the project expects to spur affordable broadband service to local consumers in more than 100 communities along the route, over 70 percent of which are in underserved areas, by allowing local Internet service providers to connect to the project’s open network.