Will Maryland be the Tesla or the Solyndra of the BEAD Program?

History always renders a powerful and positive verdict for any group that understands that there are some things that cannot be allowed to divide a nation. And then acts to close that divide. I don’t want claim that the achieving universal broadband connectivity has the same moral imperative as ending slavery or drastically reducing poverty. But it is no small thing. And sometimes things that are not front-page news, overtime have enormous impacts. The point for today is this: everyone here must recognize the reality that there will be a state that becomes the Solyndra of the Congressional mandate to close the digital divide. And it is our job here to act in ways so that Maryland is not that state. What can we do to make sure that Maryland is the Tesla—the success story--and not the Solyndra of this effort? I am happy to say that Maryland is off to an excellent start. For one thing, according to data I have seen, Maryland is the second best positioned state—just behind Rhode Island—to have enough funding to connect all unserved and underserved locations to fiber. For another, it has a head start in funding broadband deployment projects. Since Maryland created the state broadband office in 2017, it has invested more than $270 million into broadband infrastructure and programs. Third, as you’ve seen in the morning sessions, you are lucky to have a skilled broadband expert, Rick Gordon, heading up the effort.  And he has assembled a great team. There are, however, also pitfalls ahead.

[Blair Levin  is currently a policy advisor to New Street Research, an equity research firm, a Non-Resident Fellow at the Brookings Institute Metropolitan Policy Project. Blair Levin oversaw the development of the FCC’s 2010 National Broadband Plan.]