The state of Maryland has recently made a big move to increase transparency regarding public broadband spending. The Maryland Office of Statewide Broadband has created a dashboard for Marylanders to track the number of projects and broadband grant amounts the state has funded. Additionally, the dashboard keeps track of what years the grants were given, which company received the grants, and what geographic area of Maryland the projects support, going back to 2019.
The dashboard features an interactive map of Maryland, a key tool that empowers users to zoom in and select specific projects based on their location, thereby accessing more detailed information. While these grants have been distributed across the state, it is evident that the more rural areas of western, northern, and eastern Maryland have required the most infrastructure investment.
The service providers with the largest total grant amounts are Comcast and Talkie, with $40 million; Choptank Electric, at $37 million; and Quantum, at $27 million. According to the dashboard, a total of $239 million has been invested through 178 projects since 2019, with the yearly cap being 60 in 2021.
This initiative is part of a comprehensive plan by Maryland, as articulated by the State Secretary of Housing and Human Development, with the ambitious aim of "connecting all Marylanders to broadband before 2030." The Broadband Hub serves as a tool for the public and the legislature to monitor the progress towards this goal. As of February 2024, 98% of Maryland has broadband access, and that includes at least a 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload rate.
Another part of the plan is the Maryland Broadband Explorer, which, instead of tracking spending, tracks broadband access and quality throughout the state to show the areas with the greatest need and improvement. It does this by showing the total number of Broadband Service Providers (BSPs) per census block, showing that while most of the state has one, two, or even three, large chunks of the panhandle and Delmarva still have no BSPs.
By merging public investment with private competition, Maryland will likely provide all its residents broadband access by its goal date. Achieving this goal is even more critical than ever with the post-COVID increase in remote learning and remote work. Regardless of whether one supports public investment in broadband, this increase in spending transparency is an essential step in the right direction for Maryland's broadband support system.
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