Baltimore and the Emergency Broadband Benefit Program

The Emergency Broadband Benefit Program continues to have a positive impact on many communities nationwide, but persistent challenges to accessing the benefit limit full participation. According to community leaders, this is especially true in Baltimore, Maryland. With a population of more than half a million residents, only 40.7% of Baltimoreans do have access to a broadband subscription. This means that almost 96,000 individuals citywide do not have access to a broadband subscription. Additionally, 33.3% or 75,000 residents do not have access to a computer.3 The EBB was designed to address both of these challenges. However, according to the FCC’s zip3 data, only 34,734 households in the Baltimore area have registered for the program. As Jason Hardebeck stated, nearly half of Baltimore’s students lack wireline access at home. Community advocates added specific lessons learned from working to facilitate EBB enrollment, ongoing challenges that curb program participation, and new conversations about digital equity. For many eligible residents, both in Baltimore and nationwide, there is an inherent distrust of programs or opportunities that seem “too good to be true,” especially when providers promote the EBB through marketing materials and sales representatives may attempt to upsell customers. Pairing outreach for EBB with other social services is an underutilized tactic that has multifarious benefits.