State of Maryland Bridges Digital Divide with New Digital Infrastructure Group (DIG)

State of Maryland Bridges Digital Divide with New Digital Infrastructure Group (DIG) 

In this week’s episode of Fiber for Breakfast, Gary was joined by Eric Bathras, the Chief Technology Officer for Infrastructure at the Maryland Department of Information Technology (DoIT). This new group, established via an executive order by Governor Wes Moore, aims to enhance collaboration among Maryland state and county entities to streamline the coordinated development of broadband infrastructure and drive significant financial efficiencies. 

Watch the full Fiber for Breakfast episode here. 

According to Bathras, Maryland is ahead of the curve in implementing its fiber infrastructure, with over 600 fiber miles in state ownership. With Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs) and resource-sharing agreements, approximately 3,000 fiber miles are utilized to deliver services for public sector entities, including schools, state agencies, and the Governor’s office. Bathras also highlighted Maryland’s public safety radio system, Maryland First, which has nearly 200 towers across the state that leverage fiber for backhaul purposes, connecting everything from Community Anchored Institutions (CAIs) to IoT devices.  

A Single View Goes a Long Way
Gary mentioned that Maryland was allocated $268 million in funding from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) for the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) program and asked Eric how that fits into the work he and his team are doing. “One of the things that I did in a prior life, when I worked with AECOM was work with different state and county governments to understand their current state and desired future state. I kept coming back to creating a single view of assets across the state to not only use that infrastructure for public use but also to get closer to homes and business,” said Bathras.  

Bathras added, “This Maryland single view will include public assets accessible to public sector entities, enabling a proactive approach in planning, designing and deploying jointly across the state.” The value of this approach is the ability to optimize funding and identify additional towers to reach underserved communities or leverage dark fiber resources to make business models and plans achievable.

Another substantial benefit of this single view is that agencies like the Department of General Services, which leases all the real estate across Maryland, can identify locations with existing fiber infrastructure, making it easier to meet their connectivity needs when planning new headquarters or satellite offices. 

DIG This!
DIG is positioned within Bathras’ organization, the Maryland Department of Information Technology, which is its own agency separate from the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD). DIG provides services to agencies and CAIs, with two key capabilities. First, DIG offers a single view of assets, including fiber locator and geo-intelligence across Maryland. Second, DIG is able to jointly deploy fiber infrastructure, optimizing funding and expanding coverage to more towers. Bathras explained, “When we can get to five towers, there’s an opportunity to bring in a commercial services provider—mobile services, typical carriers, or even wireless internet service providers—to use those towers. The more towers we can access, the more revenue we can generate for the state.” 

Fiber to the Rescue
Fiber to the home is valuable, but it’s true potential shines in emergency services. As part of the Maryland First initiative, communication is critical. Many counties and municipalities use Maryland First for their public safety communications. Bathras said, “We want to highlight areas with gaps in coverage or congested corridors. As a group, we can figure out where we need to go and how to get it done.” 

Collaboration Across Agencies Bring Economies of Scale
When Bathras joined DoIT, he was tasked with writing the department’s first broadband expansion plan. He realized the state needed a practical, organized, and efficient way to assess infrastructure plans so that agencies like the Department of Transportation (MDOT) wouldn’t have to act alone. These thoughtfully researched builds can satisfy multiple needs and fulfill obligations to citizens, ensuring the state makes a one-time investment that extracts significant value and return on investment (ROI) from interagency cooperation. 

AI Plans?
“AI is the big thing right now,” Bathras said. “It consumes massive amounts of energy, water, and fiber. One of the things we’re looking at is how to leverage AI to pull in all this data—fiber assets, tower assets, congested corridors, and other data elements.” They want to identify areas that offer the most benefit and cost optimization for projects or initiatives based on these insights. Bathras explained, “Instead of using old methods like drawing lines on a map to estimate costs, we want to target specific areas and see outcomes more efficiently.”