Baltimore Looks to Expand Internet Access by Building Its Own Network

Baltimore has an audacious goal to build a city-owned broadband service that could give its poorest residents equal access to digital resources for education, medical services and jobs. The plan lands the port city an hour from the nation’s capital squarely in the middle of a national debate over who deserves a chunk of the $95 billion in federal funding Congress allocated to close the digital divide. It also pits local officials against Comcast, the cable giant that already serves the city. “Access is too important to leave to the market and private actors. These guys had decades to solve the problem and they haven’t,” said Jason Hardebeck, a former tech executive who is the city’s broadband chief. “We will never get ahead of the curve if we don’t treat it as public infrastructure.”