A municipally built broadband network would not be...
A municipally built broadband network would not be a good choice for Baltimore, said Maryland State Sen. Catherine Pugh (D) in a Baltimore Sun editorial Thursday (http://bsun.md/17Qicgl). Such networks have “the economic chips stacked against them, and where tried, have…
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saddled local taxpayers with a mountain of debt and half-built networks that are then sold at fire-sale prices to vulture investors,” she said. To pay down the cost of the networks, municipal networks need to sign up “tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of customers,” which is unlikely, said Pugh. The city of Baltimore hired Magellan Advisors to develop a plan for expanding Internet service in the city on Aug. 14, Jason Hardebeck, executive director of Greater Baltimore Technology Council (gb.tc), told us Monday. The city signed an exclusive contract with Comcast in 2004 through 2016, so long-term repercussions of the contract are not yet known, said Hardebeck. “The project was in conjunction with work the city was doing for the fiber communication network where the police and fire share the spectrum,” he said. “They are looking at putting additional fiber in place so there would be excess fiber as well.” The city is talking with Magellan to find the best way to proceed, he said. “We have talked about the potential for municipal Wi-Fi to be deployed and it could be facilitated by this project,” said Hardebeck.