
Fast, affordable Internet access for all.
The City of Baltimore is using $2 million of its American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding to bring fiber to 12 new city apartment buildings. It’s the latest effort in the city’s attempt to bridge the digital divide and bring affordable Internet access to long-marginalized communities.
According to the formal announcement from the Baltimore Mayor’s Office, Mayor Brandon Scott and the Baltimore Office of Broadband and Digital Equity (OBDE) have awarded the $2 million grant to Waves, a nonprofit formerly known as Project Waves.
“This grant program is more than just wires and signals – it’s about unlocking opportunity,” Scott said of the announcement. “By partnering with Waves, we’re ensuring residents with the greatest need have a chance to learn, connect, and build a better future for themselves and their families.”
Waves was first launched in 2018 in direct response to the Trump FCC’s repeal of net neutrality and the general failures of federal telecom policy to address digital inequity. Project Waves (profiled by ILSR last year) initially used Point-to-Multipoint wireless connectivity to deliver free wireless broadband service to about 300 multi-dwelling unit (MDU) residents.
In the last few years, the organization has shifted to Hybrid Fiber Coaxial connectivity to provide more reliable connectivity by running fiber to the buildings and leveraging the existing wiring in the multi-dwelling units it serves, providing access to more than 1,000 local Baltimore residents, at no cost to residents.
It previously used half of a $3.1 million grant from the state’s broadband office to expand fiber to local apartment complexes. Waves will use this latest grant to further deploy fiber to 12 low-income residential apartment buildings and improve existing services in nine other residential properties.
Once finished, roughly 3,000 households will receive free fiber service.
Waves previously told ILSR that once the wiring and and hardware is installed, the average cost per month to keep the network up and running with customer service support built-in is only $16 per user.
Data indicates that Baltimore sees some of the highest rates of digital disconnectivity in the nation.
Over 96,000 Baltimore households (more than 40 percent of the city) lack wireline Internet service, and 75,000 city residents lack access to a desktop or laptop computer.
“Thanks to [this funding], we can connect thousands of households and empower them with the tools they need to thrive in today’s digital world,” Waves Executive Director Chrissie Powell recently told Tecnical.ly.