The City of Baltimore is ramping up its battle against the digital divide with a significant boost from the Mayor's office, which, through the Connect Baltimore Broadband Grant Program, has awarded a $2 million grant to the internet service provider Waves. This initiative seeks to bolster internet accessibility for thousands of residents in low-income households, enabling crucial online connectivity for education, employment opportunities, and healthcare services.
Mayor Brandon M. Scott underscored the importance of internet access as a key to unlocking opportunity for those at the most significant disadvantage, with the grant slated to underpin the setup of a high-speed fiber-optic network in 12 residential apartment buildings and maintaining connectivity for nine more, facilitating critical online engagement for nearly 3,000 households, each furnished with a router to secure their digital footprints, according to the City of Baltimore.
The fund, sourced from the American Rescue Plan Act and shepherded by the Mayor’s Office of Recovery Programs, dovetails with past funding from various state and local entities, bolstering the push towards narrowing the digital divide that has for too long marginalized certain city sectors, Waves' Executive Director Chrissie Powell stated, as per the city's news release. This round of grants is part of the city's broader Digital Inclusion Strategy released the previous year, highlighting Baltimore's commitment to propelling itself and its citizens into the tech-enabled future.
Chief Information Officer for the City of Baltimore, Todd Carter, remarked that the project not only addresses the immediate internet shortfall but ensures that families in need will not have to prioritize either basic living necessities or internet access, a choice no one should be cornered into making in today's digital era, the implications of which are profound for communities long held back by systemic inequities across the digital spectrum. The multi-faceted approach by Waves, from its inception in 2019 to its ongoing evolution that includes researching 5G home internet solutions, illustrates a concerted effort to plug every Baltimorean into the digital matrix, pulling down barriers that separate them from the full array of services and opportunities the internet provides, the article noted.
Details concerning the Connect Baltimore Broadband Grant Program and the city's initiatives toward digital equity can be found on the Baltimore City Office of Information and Technology website. For more about the Office of Broadband and Digital Equity and the Mayor's Office of Recovery Programs, interested parties are directed to follow the links provided by the city's announcement.
