What are the Maryland Office of Statewide Broadband’s priorities for 2022?

The Digital Connectivity Act passed in April 2021 established the Office of Statewide Broadband (OSB), with a goal to get all Marylanders connected to high-speed, affordable broadband internet by 2026. It was also tasked with administering the $300 million in funding from the federal government’s American Rescue Plan that Maryland allocated toward the expansion of affordable and reliable internet across the state. Kenrick Gordon, previously the state’s director of the Maryland Office of Rural Broadband, was later named director of the OSB. In January 2022, Gordon sat on a panel with representatives from broadband infrastructure developer Crown Castle and internet service providers (ISPs) AT&T and Comcast to talk about where government and private companies intersect on broadband access in Maryland. Gordon said he feels that private companies know best how to build out and maintain a broadband network. Funding state and private ISPs is what he believes works best for the foreseeable future. On the subject of grant funding from the OSB in 2022, Gordon broke down upcoming funding opportunities to provide internet connectivity in Maryland, including the Neighborhood Connect Grant and the Network Infrastructure Grant. As for broadband speeds, Gordon, thinks speeds closer to 100 Mbps download and 100 Mbps upload, or a bare minimum of 20 Mbps. “As long as we build scalable projects, then we can always increase that speed,” he added.