Will Baltimore Broadband Plans Start a Trend?

The news that the City of Baltimore is exploring ways of improving its broadband service options raises some interesting issues. The city reportedly is considering building its own broadband fiber network, on which it would lease capacity to Internet service providers, but also is closely examining what might be achieved through Comcast, which currently provides cable and broadband in the city through a cable franchise agreement that expires at the end of 2016. It’s interesting to consider whether other cities also might take a similar approach to improving broadband access. Baltimore tried and failed to win a fiber network from Google through that company’s Google Fiber ultra-high-speed network program. And the city appears to have learned some lessons from that experience.