A nonprofit proposal scheduled for discussion with the Department of Transportation would create a publicly owned domestic fiber-optic system intended to protect U.S. government, military and critical infrastructure networks from foreign cyber threats.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
A nonprofit organization is preparing to propose a $125 billion plan for a publicly owned domestic fiber-optic network that backers say could strengthen U.S. cybersecurity and reduce the nation’s dependence on the open internet for critical communications.
InfraCo, a 501(c)(4) nonprofit, is scheduled to meet this week with the Department of Transportation to present the President Donald J. Trump Digital Security and Information Superhighway Act, according to a Daily Caller News Foundation report. The proposal would establish the foundation for what InfraCo calls the National Broadband Master Plan, a closed-loop domestic fiber system designed to make U.S. digital infrastructure harder for foreign adversaries to penetrate.
InfraCo is tied to Neo Network Development LLC, whose founder, Vince Aragona, said the central concern is that much of America’s government, commercial and critical infrastructure activity depends on a public internet exposed to users around the world.
“We’ve got basically everything connected to the public internet, right?” Aragona said. “And ultimately, that includes 195 foreign countries, 5.6 billion people, you know, in any one of them with a laptop and a decent internet connection could theoretically attack us from any place on earth.”
The proposed system would move key U.S. digital infrastructure into a separate domestic network, reducing exposure to foreign cyberattacks, cyberterrorism and potential disruptions to government, military and intelligence systems. Aragona said the scale of the threat requires a rapid national effort.
“TDS-ISA [President Donald J. Trump Digital Security and Information Superhighway Act] is a very big idea with multiple stakeholders working in close collaboration to implement on an accelerated, 5-Year timetable but given the real and present dangers and threats to Homeland Security, National Defense, life, health and human safety, hardening our governance, military and intelligence capabilities, protecting and fortifying our most critical infrastructure from malicious acts of cyber-terrorism, cyber warfare and preserving our national institutions and sovereignty is in everyone’s best interest,” Aragona said.
Aragona said the plan would require broad cooperation across federal agencies and Congress. He described it as a “Whole of Government” effort involving national security, transportation, commerce, energy and communications officials.
“We describe the method as a ‘Whole of Government’ approach that we envision involving the DoW (Secretary Hegseth), State (Secretary Rubio), Commerce (Secretary Lutnick), Transportation (Secretary Duffy), Energy (Secretary Wright) Interior the DCDC (Gen. Stanton), FWHA (Administer McMaster), the FCC (Chairman Carr) under the leadership of President Trump and would ultimately involve congressional appropriations and legislation though various committees,” Aragona said.
The system would operate as an alternative to the public internet for sensitive U.S. digital functions.
“We really need to protect ourselves from the internet, so this is kind of an alternative to the internet,” Aragona said. “We actually see the internet as our key vulnerability from a national security, homeland security and national defense perspective.”
InfraCo’s plan calls for partnerships with public and private entities to build fiber-optic cables and protective conduit pipelines along the U.S. interstate system. The network would use “dark fiber,” meaning inactive fiber-optic lines that remain available until a public or private entity leases or activates them.
Supporters say the United States is behind China in building secure fiber infrastructure. Beijing completed a 2,000-kilometer quantum secure communication backbone connecting major cities in 2017 and later expanded it into a 10,000-kilometer network reaching 17 provinces and 80 cities, according to a 2025 U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission report.
“The Chinese built their own security, a secure internet, a fiber-optic system, over the last 25 years,” said Bradford Higgins, former State Department chief financial officer and Neo Network board chairman. “Unfortunately, the way we’ve approached this, we let the private sector do it. It’s one of those things where I felt very strongly, as a CFO at the State Department, is that there’s certain things that are inherently governmental that you can’t just sort of farm it out to the private sector.”
Federal intelligence agencies have warned that U.S. networks and infrastructure remain under continuous cyber pressure from adversarial governments and criminal groups. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence said in its 2026 annual threat assessment that hostile cyber actors from China, Russia, Iran, North Korea and ransomware groups will continue threatening U.S. networks and critical infrastructure.
“Cyber actors from China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, and ransomware groups will continue to pose critical threats to U.S. networks and critical infrastructure,” the assessment stated. “These global cyber actors almost certainly will continue malicious cyber activities because they gain unmatched intelligence collection value and financial incentives from these operations. These cyber adversaries also have the ability to pre-position or execute disruptive and destructive attacks against U.S. critical infrastructure and other targets.”
U.S. agencies have previously confirmed that Chinese-backed cyber activity compromised the IT environments of multiple U.S. critical infrastructure organizations, according to a Feb. 7, 2024, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency report. Iranian-affiliated cyber actors also targeted U.S. water infrastructure in November 2023, according to an April 7, 2026, joint advisory from U.S. intelligence agencies.
“We’ve known for 25 years, the Chinese have told us that if they ever went to war with us, they’re going to shut down our communications and electric systems,” Higgins said. “So it’s not like an ‘if’ … that’s how someone would attack America.”
Under the InfraCo proposal, protective conduit pipes would house the fiber-optic cables. The system would include 47,000 physical cast-concrete access points, placed every mile, each with a power meter, transformer and aboveground vertical pole for transportation agencies and commercial use.
The project would be organized as a 501(c)(4) public-private partnership involving the Department of Transportation, the Federal Highway Administration and state transportation departments. Funding would come from a combination of taxpayer appropriations and private equity.
The Department of Transportation, the Federal Highway Administration and the White House did not respond to requests for comment. U.S. Cyber Command said it was unaware of the proposal.
Supporters argue the network could improve military communications at a time when modern warfare depends on rapid, secure data movement. Terry Kelly, a former U.S. Army officer and Neo Network board member, said modern military operations require reliable high-capacity communications systems.
“All modern militaries require extraordinarily reliable and capable communications to pass data to do the things that they need,” Kelly said. “If you look at the intel feed, what the military uses, there are terabytes and terabytes of data for the ability to reliably and consistently and very quickly pass that information. It’s extra important with the advent of AI … because AI, of course, requires very fast decision cycles and an integrated ability to push data.”
Kelly said artificial intelligence has made secure and fast data transfer more important across military systems.
“AI is embedded in everything that we do now. Command and control systems, I mean, if you think just again going back to intel, the ability to get through terabytes of data, find the things that are important, find the things that you need, and then use those things, that’s an enormous amount of data,” Kelly said. “AI can do that stuff extremely well.”
Joel Thayer, senior fellow for AI and emerging technology at the America First Policy Institute, said the proposal highlights a real concern about the security of U.S. networks.
“Calling attention to this is a good first step—this issue is top of mind for Trump’s FCC and Chairman Carr has been keenly focused on addressing our network’s security via a myriad FCC proceedings,” Thayer said. “A national dark fiber and conduit network is technically realistic. America has laid big telecom backbone before, and states already run fiber along their highways.”
Thayer cautioned, however, that the more difficult questions involve governance, access and operation rather than construction.
“The hard part isn’t the digging; it’s who runs it and how,” Thayer said. “Putting government traffic on its own dedicated fiber does reduce some risks, but most breaches don’t come through the cable in the ground. Nowadays, they come through people, passwords, and the systems on either end, so a new network only gets you so far.”
Aragona said the proposed structure would not only meet government needs but also generate non-tax revenue, making the system self-sustaining.
“It’s intended not only to solve the immediate needs of government and government agencies, but also it’s intended to generate non-tax revenue, so that it becomes self-sustaining and resilient,” Aragona said. “So, it’s a different animal”
The plan would begin with conduit, fiber-optic cable and access points along the interstate highway system. It would later expand to federal highways and then to state and county roads.
Thayer said lawmakers should evaluate whether the proposed system protects assets more effectively than existing alternatives and ensure that only trusted American companies are involved.
“So, the first question on any plan this size is what it protects that we can’t already protect for less,” Thayer said. “Before anyone spends real money, lawmakers ought to be asking what we actually get per dollar, who controls access, who’s allowed to build it — and it should be trusted American companies, not foreign ones. That way you keep one large, centralized system from becoming a single point of failure.”
Higgins said private-sector lease revenue from major technology companies could prevent the system from becoming an ongoing taxpayer burden.
“In the meantime, the revenues from it, from being paid to the government, would largely make this self-sustaining, rather than have a government be expected to pump in billions of dollars every year to support it … we’re not looking to the taxpayers to pay for this,” Higgins told the DCNF. “If they [key industry players like Microsoft, Google and Amazon] pay rent … it should be self-sustaining. Money should be going in to keep it upgraded rather than having to ask Congress for a couple 100 billion every year.”
The proposal arrives as federal officials, cybersecurity experts and policymakers continue debating how to protect critical infrastructure from foreign cyber operations. InfraCo’s plan would create a separate domestic digital backbone, but its cost, governance structure, security benefits and operational control would likely face close scrutiny if it moves forward.
Original article
Comments