March 28, 2024

Broadband Is Open for Business in SoMD

Posted for The Patuxent Partnership
Pax III

TPP- Broadband - Point of PresenceEight years ago Maryland Broadband Cooperative made the commitment to bring high speed internet capability to every Marylander.

The state kick-started the project giving the nonprofit cooperative access to every state roadway in Maryland, making this state the “envy of many states,” the director of the Maryland Broadband Cooperative told members of The Patuxent Partnership at a briefing this month.

For several years, said Drew Van Dopp, the cooperative had to say, “We’re coming. We hope to do good things. We have a service, and a mission, and  a plan.” Today,  he told the Pax Partnership members, “we’re open for business in Southern Maryland.”

He credited federal efforts, helped by Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), that installed a backbone of broadband from Wallops Island to Baltimore. The Southern Maryland loop of broadband includes a backbone down Rt. 235 from its intersection with Rt. 4, past the Patuxent River Naval Air Station, down to Point Lookout, Maryland.

The federal grant which enabled delivery of broadband throughout Southern Maryland encourages the rare offering of dark fiber.  “They would like to see some of the dark fiber made available,” said Mr. Van Dopp.

Dark fiber is unused capacity on the optical fiber. Lit fiber is created when a service provider connects and begins to deliver electronic communication services. The availability of lowered-cost dark fiber opens opportunities for new internet service providers and other telecommunication providers to enter the market.

“We actually have more capability, more flexibility here in Southern Maryland than we have in other places,” he said, noting that the prevalence of dark fiber on a technology corridor associated with Pax River opens opportunities to expanded business growth associated with the government and military.

Bonnie Green, executive director of The Patuxent Partnership, says the completion of the broadband project into Southern Maryland is a solid investment, given that St. Mary’s and Charles counties are tied for third-fastest growing county in the most recent analysis of the state’s demographics.

“Improving broadband capacity can bring lots of additional opportunities for economic development and innovation,” says Ms. Green. “Our need for broadband technologies has grown exponentially since this project started in 2006. There’s an insatiable increase in demand for broadband. This new backbone will allow for that growth without slowing down services.”

John McQuaid, broadband implementation coordinator, says, “What that project built was an information interstate. What it did not build was on and off ramps. It’s up to local communities to figure out how to now utilize that asset or resource. You now have the capacity for any internet service provider to come in and lease or utilize that fiber asset and begin to offer competitive services.”

The cooperative tries to help communities and businesses enter the field. MDBC makes access significantly more affordable by creating links among members to buy down the cost for everyone. Such cooperation led to a link completed the day Mr. Van Dopp spoke, June 3, when an Eastern Shore member connected its 4G service to Southern Maryland. The company’s first tower was being connected that day in Mechanicsville, MD, with the “hope to connect many, many more in the coming months,” Mr. Van Dopp said.

Interested? “Call me,” he said.

Drew Van Dopp, Director, Administration and Grant, Maryland Broadband Cooperative, Inc.
[email protected]  (443) 783-3983

 

 

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