Ann Arbor-based Merit Network has secured access to cables spanning the Mackinac Bridge in a key development allowing the not-for-profit to extend broadband Internet access to a variety of institutions in the Upper Peninsula.

Merit in 2010 won more than $100 million in federal economic stimulus grants to construct a 1,210-mile high-speed fiber network in the U.P. with connections to Green Bay, Wisc. and Duluth, Minn. and a 1,017-mile network in the Lower Peninsula.

Merit today said it had struck a deal with the state's Mackinac Bridge Authority allowing Merit to purchase access to cable strands crossing the bridge.

"The Mackinac Bridge will again link our two great peninsulas and improve the ability for the citizens in Michigan, and future generations, to connect to our global economy," MBA board chairman William H. Gnodtke said in a statement.

Merit is a 46-year-old nonprofit whose core objective is to broaden high-speed Internet access and connect educators, researchers, businesses and community members.

The company's U.P. network expansion, called the REACH-3MC II project, is a way to "provide new opportunities for our state," Merit CEO Don Welch said in a statement.

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