Broadband

Neo Network Development envisions nationwide public fiber network to boost affordability, security

By Masha Abarinova Mar 19, 2026 3:58pm

• Neo Network Development wants a public fiber network built along federal highways
• The model could cut ISP build and permitting costs by shifting construction to the Department of Transportation
• The long‑term plan is likely to face resistance in the private sector‑driven U.S. telecom industry

In a time when the telecommunications landscape is flooded with private capital investment, Neo Network Development envisions a publicly owned fiber optic core spanning thousands of anchor points along federal transportation rights-of-way.

The company, a proponent of open access networks backed by public-private partnerships, is gathering input on its so-called National Broadband Master Plan (NBMP), a five-year action plan to migrate U.S. digital infrastructure from individual retail circuits to a unified fiber core that sits directly alongside U.S. Interstate highways and federally funded state and county roads.

The idea is to establish a “general fund project” overseen by the U.S. Department of Transportation, which would direct other federal and state transportation agencies to construct the network. The network would be open for commercial use and operated by an infrastructure management company, said Neo Network Development CEO Vince Aragona.

“It just makes it a perfect storm of opportunity to put enough fiber in to migrate critical infrastructure and critical systems off very volatile and vulnerable internet circuits and onto dedicated dark fiber,” he told Fierce.

Cutting through permitting red tape

Aragona argued such shared public infrastructure would lower costs for private operators because they wouldn’t have to go out and acquire permits to build along federal transportation rights-of-way. Not only are those permits expensive but they can take 5-10 years to obtain, and it’s usually not advantageous for operators to build along interstates where “there’s not a lot of static customer base.”

Neo Networks Development is pitching a solution for the permitting red tape that’s plagued the broadband industry.

Ideally, operators could “put their order in with the infrastructure management company, pick their locations [and] have their network built for them,” Aragona said. The transportation agencies would provide a “certified supply chain” of engineering and construction contractors who are already trained to operate safely on these rights-of-way.

Another goal of the NBMP is to have the fiber core operate independently of the public internet and support agency systems as well as national defense initiatives, such as the FAA’s Airport Improvement Program, Aragona noted.

“Our critical communications are all tied in some way to the internet, spending billions of dollars a year on zero trust technology to try to protect these systems from invasion through the internet,” he said. In 2025, the U.S. government was projected to spend approximately $102 billion on modernizing IT and cybersecurity systems.

The NBMP proposes each agency should have its own dedicated dark fiber network, with a portion of the overall network allocated for interagency use. It’s “always better to own [the fiber] than it is to rent it,” said Aragona. “A lot of the fiber that’s out there that’s old, there’s not a lot of surplus fiber in place. It just seems to make sense.”

Long road ahead for a nationwide fiber core

Ambitious as Neo Networks’ plan sounds, obviously this massive infrastructure undertaking won’t happen in the immediate future. It’ll take time to assemble the technical know-how and fiber gear for the project.

There’s also the matter of mitigating opposition around government-owned infrastructure in a “notoriously private sector-centric space,” Aragona said.

Open access and municipal networks have increased in the U.S. but are not as commonplace as they are in Europe and other parts of the world, as these operators often face staunch opposition from incumbent ISPs and dark money groups.

“There’s going to have to be new equipment that’s going to be installed,” he said. “This isn’t going to be something that impacts the incumbent operators immediately. It’s going to probably slow the amount that they generate, but it’s not going to send it in reverse.”

The Broadband Forum is similarly striving to advance open access infrastructure adoption, as its new Wholesale Access project aims to define clearer standards for shared networks.

www.fierce-network.com/broadband/neo-network-development-envisions-nationwide-public-fiber-network-boost-affordability