Contact Network connected nearly 140 community anchor institutions to its network through June 2013, using funds from its two BTOP awards. Contact Network is deploying a 964-mile broadband network throughout 12 economically distressed counties in the Mississippi Delta region where anchor institutions currently lack the bandwidth necessary to enable distance learning, telemedicine, and enhanced public safety applications. In addition, the organization is working with key state agencies, including the Mississippi Department of Transportation and various public safety entities, in a public-private partnership to expand high-speed Internet access in 16 counties in southern and central Mississippi. The network in those counties will utilize more than 670 miles of new fiber-optic infrastructure and more than 260 miles of leased fiber.