Midwest Energy and Communications is planning to begin the next phase of its high-speed internet rollout around southern Michigan in the next several months.

MEC’s Amy Pales tells us during the final six months of this year, the company is constructing 361 miles of new fiber internet infrastructure in rural areas near Benton Harbor, Coloma, Covert, and points to the east stretching all the way to Battle Creek. The work is all the result of grants the company received, including a ROBIN grant from the state of Michigan secured with the help of Berrien County.

“Some of what you’re seeing happening in Southwest Michigan specifically is connected to both the FCC’s RDOF grant that came in 2020 and then the state of Michigan’s ROBIN grant that came at the end of 2023,” Pales said.

Pales says since the beginning of MEC’s internet rollout in 2015, it’s brought a high-speed fiber service to more than 76,000 homes and businesses throughout its sprawling service area. It started out the year with about 30,000 customers in Southwest Michigan.

“We are close to 33,000 customers at the end of June, and we continue to hook up people every day. We’ve been averaging, I think, about 500 installs a month. So we’ve been pretty busy getting people hooked up.”

Pales says since MEC has been headquartered in the region for nearly 90 years, it understands the digital divide faced by those in rural areas and seeks to eliminate it.

The company will announce new construction areas for the first half of 2026 in January.