The Baltimore region's congressional delegation along with Governor Martin O'Malley gathered earlier today to announce the awarding of a $115 million stimulus grant. The funds are part of a broadband initiative announced last month by President Obama.
We are not completely on board with this initiative. As we understood the original White House announcement, the funds were to be used strictly for rural sections of the country that currently do not have broadband access. This should be the way the funds are used.
Yet having seen the location of the announcement, and some of the statements made today, we wonder if our elected officials are on the same page? The press conference was held at the Emerging Technology Center located in the Canton section of East Baltimore, not rural Western Maryland.
According to the Governor's office press release, One Maryland Broadband Network, a group of private and public agencies, will use the funds to build more than 1200 miles of broadband lines across the state. This is fine if these lines are limited to the rural areas of Western Maryland, the Eastern Shore, and Southern Maryland.
Yet some of the statements from the Governor's office make us think our elected officials have other ideas. The one item that caught our attention is the reference to "improve infrastructure for BRAC." The two bases impacted by BRAC are Fort Meade in Anne Arundel County, and Aberdeen Proving Ground in Harford County.
The military network infrastructure is always light years ahead of what you or I would typically see in terms of speed and security. Meade and Aberdeen's infrastructures are already funded by the federal government through the military. There is no need to use any of these funds for what is essentially federal government property.
If the governor is referring to the surrounding communities, they are already served by both Comcast XFinity and Verizon FIOS. Both offer ultra-broadband fiber-optic main lines. Neither bases are in rural areas.
Constant references to Universities and hospitals also sent up a few flags. Hopkins and the University of Maryland systems are already connected through the Internet2 backbone, and can achieve download rates from 100Mbsp to in excess of 1Gbps. This includes both the university and hospital systems. Other hospitals in the state may not be so equipped, but most universities should have access to Internet2.
We hate to rain on the parade, but it seems that from some of the statements made, officials are already looking beyond the rural areas this money was intended for.
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