The Internet Market In Maryland, US

One of the best TV series ever was filmed in Maryland. Can you remember which one?

If you watched “The Wire”, you probably remember the police in the streets of Baltimore, the biggest city of the state, with McNulty and the rest of the team discovering the illegal drug trade, the port system, the government corruption, the flawed educational system and suspicious journalists.

In fact, the serie’s creator, David Simon, chose to do the show in Baltimore because he is familiar with the city.

And there is a lot more to discover about Baltimore and Maryland, known also as Old Line State, the Free State, and Chesapeake Bay State –even though it was named after Henrietta Maria, the English Queen.

Before Europeans arrived in Maryland’s coastline in the 16th century, the state was actually inhabited by Native Americans groups.

Nowadays, the population of Maryland is more than 6 million, according to the 2020 United States Census. The number represents an increase of more than 7% in comparison to the 2010 United States Census.

When it comes to the economy, Maryland also benefits a lot from the proximity to the federal government. Baltimore for example is less than 40 miles from the United States capital.

There is a high concentration of technical and administrative tasks for the aerospace industry and bio-research laboratories. You might remember that the Johns Hopkins Hospital and Johns Hopkins University are in Baltimore, and are actually the city’s top two employers.

We are talking about the US state that ranks third in the broadband access ranking. 65.4% of those who live in Maryland have wired low-price plan access, and the average state-wide speed is 225.3 Mbps.

When it comes to the best-connected cities of the state, Silver Spring ranks as the number one in Maryland. Rockville, Gaithersburg, Hyattsville, and Baltimore are also among the municipalities with the best quality of internet services.

But some other cities, mainly in rural areas, still have some problems with internet services and form the cities with the worst connection in the state (Abell, Tall Timbers, Valley Lee, Corriganville, and Crumpton).

Even so, the state government has participated in a series of initiatives that can improve this scenario.

Almost $5 million federal grants funding has been given to the Maryland Broadband Cooperative in 2010, and another $115,000 has gone toward the Maryland Department of Information Technology to fund the expansion of broadband infrastructure.

Now, let's take a look at the top cities in the state.

The city is home for John Waters, Joyce J. Scott, David Simon and Abdu Ali, as The New York Times remembered in a 2019 report about why Baltimore persists as a cultural beacon.

The city has three state-designated arts and entertainment districts: The Station North Arts and Entertainment District, Highlandtown Arts District, and the Bromo Arts & Entertainment District.

There are several well known cultural events promoted in the city, such as the Artscape, which is the US largest free arts festival, Baltimore Book Festival, Baltimore Farmers' Market & Bazaar, School 33 Art Center's Open Studio Tour and the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Parade.

Founded in 1916, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra is also an internationally renowned orchestra.

Baltimore is also the most populous city in Maryland, with almost 600,000 people according to the 2020 US Census. But when we look at the metropolitan area of the city, this number skyrockets to 2.8 million.

The city is in a strategic and very privileged area in economic and political terms, just 40 miles from the American capital Washington.

This makes the city the main city on this Washington-Baltimore combined statistical area, with a calculated 2018 population of almost 10 million.

Economically, the city's most important activities were once manufacturing, heavy industry, and the rail industry. But nowadays Baltimore has a service-oriented economy, and Johns Hopkins Hospital and Johns Hopkins University are the city's top two employers.

Overall, Baltimore's internet is pretty close to Maryland state averages. Of the 35 internet service providers that are in the city, 10 of them offer residential service, and Baltimore residents usually have two internet choices.

The city is also the 33rd most connected city in the country, and only 2.8% of consumers in Baltimore, around 17,000 people, only have access to one or none wired internet providers available at their address.

As we can see, fiber, which is generally the fastest and most reliable internet service, is offered only by Verizon Fios, which is available only in 10.2% of the territory. But Xfinity, available in almost the whole city, has a max download speed of 1200 Mbps, which is even better than Verizon Fios offers.

Viasat and HughesNet are available in 100% of the city, and that is why virtually every Baltimore resident has at least two internet service options. Still, when it comes to speed, Viasat manages to deliver up to four times faster internet.

With more than 81,000 people, according to the US 2020 Census, Silver Spring began a renaissance by 2004, with new residential, retail and office projects all over the city.

It is the fifth most populous city in Maryland, after Baltimore, Columbia, Waldorf and Germantown.

It is also a very interesting cultural place. The city hosts musical and entertainment festivals, such as the Silverdocs documentary film festival, the annual Thanksgiving Day Parade, and the Silver Spring Jazz Festival.

This last event, in fact, took on great proportions and became an important festival, and has already brought jazz stars such as Wynton Marsalis, Arturo Sandoval, Sérgio Mendes and Mingus Big Band to the city.

Silver Spring is the 28th most connected city in the state and has excellent fiber optic coverage numbers, which reach 89% of residents.

Among the 25 internet providers in the city, 8 of them offer residential service. Actually, only 3.6% of consumers in Silver Spring, about 10,000 people, only have access to one or none wired internet providers available at their address.

When it comes to availability, Viasat and HughesNet are the only two available nationwide, but Xfinity comes very close (98.1%). Among the three of them, Xfinity also offers the highest max download speed (1200 Mbps).

Hyattsville has undergone major development in the last twenty years, with a series of residential and retail developments. Craft brewers and distillers have also revitalized a number of old or abandoned sites around the city.

Still, if modern and new locations aren't your cup of tea, know that the city encompasses the number of Victorian houses built in the late 1880s, and also Sears bungalows and Arts & Crafts houses built between the wars.

And to get an idea of the size of Hyattsville, the city’s population was more than 20,00 at the 2020 US Census, and it is also close to Washington D.C.

Hyattsville is the 63rd most connected city in the state, but it has excellent fiber optic coverage numbers, which reach 89% of residents.

2.8% of consumers in the city, about 4,000 people, only have access to one or none wired internet providers available at their address.

As we have seen in other cities in the state, Viasat and HughesNet are available in 100% of Hyattsville,

Still, when it comes to speed, Xfinity manages to deliver 1200 Mbps, and it is also available in 98.4% of the residences.