Fiber for Breakfast 2025 Week 11 – State of Maryland Bridges Digital Divide with New Digital Infrastructure Group (DIG)
In January 2025, Governor Wes Moore signed an executive order establishing the Digital Infrastructure Group (DIG). This interagency partnership is designed to enhance collaboration among Maryland State and county entities to streamline the coordinated development of broadband infrastructure and drive significant financial efficiencies. The group will further eliminate silos and redundancies by adopting a shared broadband infrastructure model, the first of its kind in the nation. Working alongside Maryland’s Department of Information Technology (DoIT), the state will benefit from a centralized planning body that will share resources to accomplish state priorities while also helping the state’s infrastructure reach last-mile underserved areas like the Eastern Shore that have historically had low internet coverage. During this episode of Fiber for Breakfast, Eric Bathras, DoIT’s Chief Technology Officer for Infrastructure joins FBA CEO Gary Bolton to discuss what Maryland is doing to help educate other states and private service providers on how to partner, organize, plan and deliver around middle and last mile broadband and digital infrastructure expansion.
With Special Guest:
Eric Bathras, Chief Technology Officer, Maryland Department of Information Technology