The Bay Net Photo by Anna Bedford

Beginning mid-summer residents in Dameron, Ridge, St. Inigoes and many other areas will not have to thank their lucky stars for speedy Internet. They will have it.

St. Mary’s Board of County Commissioners heard Tuesday that the broadband backbone will be ready for residents to hook onto the Internet at a reliable speed, like people in the rest of the U.S. have.

“June or July we are going to have connectivity in Southern Maryland,” Pat Mitchell, project director of the Maryland Broadband Cooperative told the county commissioners.

Mitchell said Governor Martin O’Malley has budgeted $4 million in the FY08 budget to continue the build-out of fiber from the Eastern Shore of Maryland, across the Chesapeake Bay and down into Southern Maryland. According to Mitchell, U.S. Sen. Barbara Mikulski played a key role in getting $2 million federal funding for the Rural Broadband Assistance Fund. Maryland matched the funds during the state Fiscal Year 2007.

Maryland Senate Bill 753, sponsored by Senator Roy Dyson (D-District 29) and Thomas “Mac” Middleton (D-District 28), among others, established the Rural Broadband Assistance Fund. The bill also made it incumbent upon local governments to cooperate with specified entities for the establishment of broadband telecommunication services in rural and under-served areas.

 

All five St. Mary’s commissioners – Commissioner President Jack Russell (D. St George Island), Dan Raley (D. Great Mills), Larry Jarboe (R. Golden Beach) and Kenny Dement (R. Golden Beach) – listened with rapt attention to an issue that will enable the county to catch up with the rest of the world.

Mitchell said construction was underway at the Bay Bridge to tie Southern Maryland to the Eastern Shore, saying there would be 96 strand fiber on each strand of the bridge. The cooperative has an existing agreement with the state for the right of way on bridges.

The sites where broadband backbones would be built have been toured by Mitchell and include three potential access points to the Patuxent River Naval Base. The sites also include the College of Southern Maryland campus, a MetroCast site and SMECO utility stations.

Mitchell said Maryland Broadband Cooperative would be connected to all higher education facilities including the Higher Education Center, St. Mary’s College and College of Southern Maryland.

The next steps of the cooperative, planned for completion in Fiscal Year 2008, include connecting the fiber at the eastern end of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge with the Wallops Island fiber; and connecting the fiber at the eastern end of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge with the Cecil County fiber. According to Mitchell, these two steps together complete the major infrastructure of Maryland’s Eastern Shore.

To a question from Russell, Mitchell advised each fiber was thinner than the strand on hair on the 64-year-old commissioner president’s head.