WISPA Testifies on Advantages From Data Centers in Wisconsin
Steven Schwerbel, WISPA's director of state advocacy, discussed the options that data centers offer for “affordable middle-mile broadband connections” in testimony Wednesday before the Wisconsin Assembly Committee on Science, Technology and AI. The panel held a hearing on “demystifying” AI and the impact of data centers in the state.
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Data centers often provide “substantial fiber infrastructure beyond their immediate need, leaving dark fiber available to other ISPs for middle-mile service,” Schwerbel said. There are “spillover effects” from building data centers that may not immediately come to mind but are as important as the immediate economic impacts they bring, he added. Because dark fiber access isn’t core to a data center’s business, access is often “substantially less expensive than the rates offered by incumbent middle-mile providers.”