Specifications include, but are not limited to: 12-mile Pilot Project (See Exhibit A) oriented on the southwestern portion of the county. The Pilot is to serve as the initial leg of the overall middle-mile ring and will be utilized to demonstrate effectiveness of solution. I. Design, engineering and construction of the middle-mile fiber backbone; II. Maintenance and operations of middle-mile backbone and; III. Deployment of final mile FTTP and internet provision to available residences and businesses. Phase 1 - The partner will confirm or make recommended changes to the Middle-Mile Backbone and proceed with providing necessary preliminary design of the entire 80 mile backbone (See Exhibit B) and design and engineering of the Pilot Project. The network will require two path diverse connections for middle mile connectivity including a connection to the nearest dedicated IP Transit (IPT) connection as well as an eventual secondary IPT provider