High-speed Internet access in home stretch

Route 413 to Crisfield and Route 50 between Salisbury and Ocean City are two interior sections scheduled to get fiber optic cable starting in June. The cable infrastructure would link schools and public safety and health care institutions to broadband and high-speed Internet.

"When is broadband coming down 413?" Greg Urban at the Maryland Department of Information Technology, DoIT, asked a Lower Shore audience of municipal and education leaders and business people. "Some (sections) will start construction in the summer."

Since 2006, the Maryland Broadband Cooperative has laid 500 miles of cable between NASA's Space Flight Facility at Wallops Island and the Bay Bridge. At the time, some thought the region was finally on the information technology map, but Urban told the audience at a broadband update sponsored by the Somerset County Economic Development Commission that that's not yet quite the case. The MBC project threaded cable along the main road, from NASA off Route 13, to the bypass in Salisbury and over to Route 50 toward the bridge.

Now, there's a "middle mile" and a "last mile" to go.

By August 2013, all of the Lower Shore should have infrastructure to tap into broadband, thanks to a $115 million federal grant to DoIT that will fill the middle-mile gap, Urban said.

The state agency by law can't wire residences and private businesses, so a private Internet provider, Pocomoke City-based Bloosurf, is on board in partnership with MBC to sell wireless broadband service to customers along the so-called "last mile." Sections within three miles of the MBC line can get the service now.

The middle-mile project will connect Maryland Public Television with schools on the Lower Shore and other rural parts of the state, Urban said. "MPT will be connected in high-definition and any school can access it," Urban said. "Also, you can back up data, interact with each other in crisis-linking community services."

"Last-mile providers can use the infrastructure to get (broadband) down the last mile," Urban said. "Every county is a benefactor of the grant."

Bloosurf, a wireless Internet provider, is partnering with MBC to reach homes and business. Company officials fielded questions about the cost of service and packages available. Paul Carliner, president of Bloosurf, said packages already are available in some sections and range from about $20 for basic broadband to a more expensive triple-play plan that includes cable television stations through DishTV and telephone service with Vonage.

"In rural areas, the most efficient and cost-effective way to bring broadband is wirelessly," Carliner told the audience. His company has secured a $3.5 million grant through the U.S. Department of Agriculture to help ready pockets along the last mile. Equipment is in at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore in Princess Anne, and businesses and residences within a three-mile radius can subscribe now, he said.

Crisfield Mayor Percy Purnell asked whether there were consumer options for broadband triple-play packages through companies outside DishTV and Vonage. "I don't want Dish Network," he said. "I'm not sold on what you're asking us to do in Crisfield."

Daniel Thompson, executive director of the Somerset County Economic Development Commission, said the region has come a long way in its quest for broadband and technological upgrades.

"There was a public cry, and Maryland Broadband (Cooperative) was created," Thompson said. "Now, they've got a grant to tie in funds. It took seven or eight years to get there, and it's getting closer and closer and closer."