Based on which expert you listen to, any signal transmitted over 30,000 to 10,000 lightyears will have a signal strength that is less than the noise made by the universe. Meaning that any alien civilization transmissions beyond this range would be indistinguishable from background noise.
One of the assumptions we make when compiling the Fermi paradox is that life is homogeneously distributed. What if it’s not, what if life is heterogeneously distributed?
This is my basis for one of my Fermi and paradox solutions which I call the life oasis. In the life oasis solution, life is not homogeneously distributed but heterogeneously distributed. Life in this solution is just as common as in any other solution but is unevenly distributed. In some places it may be less than 10 lightyears to the next alien civilization. But in our case we could be anywhere from 50,000 lightyears to 100,000 lightyears (or more) from the nearest alien civilization.
In other words our civilization is an oasis in a section of the galaxy that is devoid of any other intelligent life for several hundred thousand light-years.