NEW CARROLLTON, MD (May 13, 2026)<\/b> \u2013 Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development Secretary Jake Day today announced that Talbot County has become the first county in Maryland to reach 100% of locations with access to high-speed internet. The infrastructure project, completed by local Internet Service Provider Easton Utilities, provided access to high-speed Internet to more than 2,700 eligible locations across the county.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis achievement by Talbot County and Easton Utilities signals major progress towards the Moore-Miller Administration\u2019s objective to connect all Marylanders to high-speed internet by 2030,\u201d said Secretary Day.<\/b> \u201cThrough sustained, coordinated investment and strong intergovernmental partnerships, the Office of Statewide Broadband is delivering results that make a real difference in the daily lives of Marylanders \u2013 expanding access to healthcare, education, job opportunities, and all of the benefits of the digital economy.\u201d<\/p>\n
This milestone comes just one year after the Department announced<\/a> Talbot County was the first county to receive the full funding needed to provide access to all unserved locations. Since 2021, Easton Utilities and Talbot County have received a combined total of more than $10 million in federal and state investment through the Department\u2019s Office of Statewide Broadband to support the build-out of broadband infrastructure across the county.<\/p>\n \u201cThe completion of Connect Talbot is more than an infrastructure achievement, it\u2019s a promise fulfilled to our community,\u201d said John Horner, President and CEO of Easton Utilities. <\/b>\u201cBy working hand in hand with our local, county, state, and federal partners, Easton Velocity has helped deliver universal broadband access across Talbot County. This level of partnership demonstrates what\u2019s possible when we align around a common goal: empowering every household and business with the connectivity they need to thrive.\u201d<\/p>\n Easton Utilities is a municipal internet service provider focused on long-term service to Talbot County residents. The five-year project to provide access to all county locations built upon existing infrastructure, enabling faster and more cost-effective deployment. Through close coordination with Talbot County and the Office of Statewide Broadband, Easton Utilities executed an efficient, countywide build and deployed a fiber-to-the-home network that delivers high speeds, low latency, and reliable service. Their customer-focused outreach has also helped ensure strong community adoption.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve said from the beginning that everyone in Talbot County deserves access to reliable internet, no matter where they live,\u201d said Talbot County Council President Chuck Callahan.<\/b> \u201cThis is a big milestone for our county and something we can all be proud of. Thank you to Easton Utilities, Town of Easton, the State of Maryland, and everyone who worked together to get this done for our community.\u201d<\/p>\n “We are so proud to be part of this project and to support Easton Utilities as they continue to go above and beyond for our community,\u201d said Easton Mayor Megan Cook. <\/b>\u201cConnect Talbot extends the vital resource of broadband access throughout our region, connecting our rural neighbors across the county to a faster network and enriching their quality of life. The collaboration among Easton Utilities, the Town of Easton, Talbot County, and state and federal agencies is a testament not only to the significance of this project, but also to the power of what can be accomplished when we work together.”<\/p>\n Through the Department\u2019s Connect Maryland initiative, the state partners with the private sector and local jurisdictions to reduce and eliminate the number of communities and residents unserved by the current internet infrastructure.\u200b\u200b To date, 100% of Maryland has access to or has been awarded funding for high-speed, reliable internet.<\/p>\n To support this effort, the Department created the Maryland Broadband Completion map<\/a> to track the status of the state\u2019s broadband build-out, with all counties marked yellow to indicate their status as fully funded following the February approval<\/a> of Maryland\u2019s $79.1 million Broadband, Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) Plan. Each county will turn green on the map as they make progress toward 100% high-speed internet access. As of April 2026, Talbot County and Baltimore City are Maryland\u2019s only jurisdictions where 100% of locations have access to high-speed internet.<\/p>\n The Office of Statewide Broadband works to ensure that all Maryland households have access to broadband through its programs to expand infrastructure and increase digital equity. Since the office was created in 2017, it has invested more than $270 million into broadband infrastructure and programs. Those efforts have provided high-speed internet access to more than 180,000 previously unserved homes and businesses statewide.<\/p>\n For more information about Connect Maryland, BEAD, and other broadband initiatives, visit dhcd.maryland.gov\/Broadband<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" NEW CARROLLTON, MD (May 13, 2026) \u2013 Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development Secretary Jake Day today announced that Talbot County has become the first county in Maryland to reach 100% of locations with access to high-speed internet. The infrastructure project, completed by local Internet Service Provider Easton Utilities, provided access to high-speed Internet Read the Rest…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":239,"featured_media":12944,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[214,33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-broadband","category-press-releases"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dhcd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dhcd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dhcd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dhcd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/239"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dhcd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13625"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dhcd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13625\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13628,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dhcd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13625\/revisions\/13628"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dhcd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dhcd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dhcd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dhcd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}