ROBERT L. EHRLICH, JR., Governor                            S.B. 487

BY repealing and reenacting, with amendments,
Article—State Finance and Procurement
Section 3-702 and 3-705
Annotated Code of Maryland
(2001 Replacement Volume and 2002 Supplement)

Preamble

WHEREAS, many rural communities located in Southern Maryland, Western
Maryland, and on the Eastern Shore of Maryland do not have ready access to
available or affordable broadband communications Internet services; and

WHEREAS, the lack of broadband communications deployment has severely
impeded economic development efforts in rural areas that are struggling to diversify
their existing manufacturing, agricultural, and resource industry based economies;

WHEREAS, public officials and private sector leaders from rural communities
have repeatedly questioned why the State's broadband communications program has
not resolved their long-standing broadband access concerns; and

WHEREAS, the "eReadiness Maryland" study conducted by the Maryland
Technology Development Corporation in 2002 confirmed the impression that Central
Maryland had sufficient broadband infrastructure to meet the needs of business
users, but also found that the rural regions had fallen behind considerably; and

WHEREAS, the Department of Budget and Management is responsible for
providing communications services for State government and has been mandated to
establish a telecommunications and computer network for State and local
governments and public and private educational institutions in the State called
networkMaryland; and

WHEREAS, networkMaryland was officially made operational on October 30,
2002, to service the needs of State agencies and other public sector entities, with
expansion of the system expected to be completed by late 2004 that will include
inter LATA communications access across the State; and

WHEREAS, in March 2002 the Department of Budget and Management
established a very effective networkMaryland Advisory Group consisting of
representatives from State agencies, local governments, hospitals, and educational
institutions to provide important overnight and direction of the networkMaryland
project; and

WHEREAS, the State of Maryland currently owns 313.5 miles of fiber optic
cable in Central and Western Maryland that includes 48 strands of dark fiber with
the following reserved deployment: 16 strands for the Maryland Department of
Transportation, 20 strands for networkMaryland, and 12 strands for cooperative use
by private sector firms; and

WHEREAS, there are serious State and federal regulatory concerns with
opening up networkMaryland to general use by the private sector; and

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