CTC Technology & Energy President Joanne Hovis presented the findings of our research projects, Broadband in Garrett County: A Strategy for Expansion and Adoption, at a public meeting in Oakland, Md. today. The study found that Garrett County is well-connected compared to other rural communities throughout the United States, but nevertheless lags urban and suburban areas throughout the rest of the state in terms of service availability and connection speed.

CTC’s report delineated several recommendations for County leaders, including building out middle-mile fiber infrastructure and educating County residents about the benefits of expanded broadband access.

CTC also proposed that the County consider making a $1.2 million investment in a last-mile wireless network using TV White Spaces (TVWS) technology; that recommendation included a system-level engineering design and a detailed financial analysis. The design includes six discrete service areas including approximately 2,873 homes and businesses. A TVWS base station would connect to County or One Maryland Broadband Network (OMBN) fiber Internet backbone in each service area. The design would support symmetrical speeds of up to 3 or 4 Mbps for each subscriber.