The state of Maryland has created a useful online dashboard showing how much broadband funding it awarded between 2019 and 2023. Interested parties can check information by provider and by year.
A total of 20 entities received grants during the five years covered by the dashboard, which was posted by the Maryland Office of Statewide Broadband.
The 10 companies that were awarded the most money were Talkie ($40.2 million, 32 projects); Comcast (also $40.2 million, 28 projects); Choptank Electric ($36.6 million, 9 projects); CenturyLink, which sells service under the Spectrum brand ($27.4 million, 11 projects); Shentel ($19.4 million, 4 projects); Harford County/Think Big Networks LLC ($12.3 million, 4 projects); Verizon ($11.1 million, 7 projects); Easton Utilities ($10.5 million, 3 projects); Charter Communications ($9.7 million, 2 projects); and ThinkBig ($7.8 million, 35 projects).
The remaining recipients were Choptank Fiber; Bay Country; Antietam Broadband, Breezeline; QCOL; Declaration Network; Conxx; ProCom; Bloosurf; and Bridgemaxx.
A total of $239 million was granted on 178 projects during the five years covered by the dashboard. The most active year in terms of number of projects was 2021, when 60 projects were awarded $23.2 million. The biggest year in terms of funding awarded, however, was 2022 when $41157. million was awarded for 54 projects.
The number of projects and funding for other years was 35 for 2023 ($92.8 million), 26 in 2020 ($7.1 million), and three in 2019 ($313,000).
The dashboard explains that the Maryland Office of Statewide Broadband partnered with the Maryland Broadband Cooperative and the Eastern Shore Regional GIS Cooperative (ESRGC) to develop the data and visualizations depicting the current state of broadband coverage in Maryland. The data is current as of September 2023.
A good portion of funding was announced last April. The Choptank Electric Co-operative was awarded $16 million, Verizon got $11 million (which matches the amount it has been granted in the dashboard) and Shentel received about $9.3 million.
Also last April, Verizon said that it would make its Fios service available to about 4,000 previously unserved homes and businesses in the state through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). The company got $11 million — the same amount as was announced earlier that month and is represented in the dashboard. The company was set to contribute an additional $14 million to the project.
Additional coverage about Maryland broadband, including links to state resources, state-specific coverage and more can be found on the Telecompetitor Broadband Nation webpage for the state.
