The decades-long struggle to expand broadband in Maryland’s westernmost county forces residents and ISPs to work around mountains, sparse populations, and shifting government funding rules.
Bill Nemith remembers when his family’s farm didn’t have electricity.
“When I was a young boy back here on Sanders Lane, all we had was crank telephones,” Nemith said.
Nemith still lives on the same farm in Garrett County, Maryland, just 400 yards from the West Virginia border. He relies on the broadband service brought to his community to stay connected with the outside world.
But it wasn’t easy to get there. Nemith appealed to the state in 2015 to bring broadband to his community. Nearly a decade later, he finally has reliable internet access.
Cheryl DeBerry, Garrett County’s broadband and energy manager, first helped Nemith get connected in 2017 through a fixed wireless solution, which relies on radio signals from cell towers to bring service. The setup worked at first, but DeBerry said it was limited by lower speeds. After a recent equipment upgrade from the internet service provider (ISP), Nemith’s connection is now much stronger.
DeBerry leads the county’s efforts to expand high-speed internet access — work complicated by both financial and logistical hurdles. Nestled in the Allegheny Mountains section of the Appalachian range, the region’s rugged terrain makes building infrastructure difficult. On top of that, DeBerry must contend with the high costs of extending service to homes that are often miles apart.
“The customers are few and far between,” DeBerry told Technical.ly. “If I have a customer every 100 feet versus every mile, then the return on investment for our providers is much lower. … We’ve had to find creative ways to help them do that.”
Government funding helps incentivize fiber deployment in isolated areas
In Garrett County, like many rural portions of Maryland and the country at large, a lack of internet access correlates with other markers of hardship. For instance, the American Community Survey’s 2023 estimates put the county’s median annual household income at around $69,000 — nearly $30,000 below the state’s.
Through these challenges, the county has tried to pin down solutions that address residents’ needs. In 2012, the county commissioned a feasibility study that identified fixed wireless as the most practical way to deliver internet to its remote areas. Early funding largely came from the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC), an economic development organization supported by congressional funding. Through three rounds of ARC support, the local government was able to connect different parts of the county — and residents like Nemith — with their initial internet service.
While fixed wireless is a common solution for rural areas, it is not considered the most robust by industry standards. Fiber internet, delivered through underground or pole-mounted cables, is widely regarded as the most reliable option.
But in places like Garrett County, it’s been difficult to find providers willing to install the necessary infrastructure.
Thanks to federal funding, some internet service providers (ISPs) have begun deploying fiber internet access in the region. Verizon is expanding fiber service to nearly 2,000 homes in the area, with part of the project funded through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), the COVID-era economic stimulus package. States have until the end of 2026 to spend ARPA funds.
Doug Friend of QCOL, an ISP expanding fiber access in parts of Garrett County, said state and federal funding is crucial to sustaining their efforts.
“There’re so few subscribers that are helping contribute on a monthly basis to the operation and maintenance or to the repairs that are required because of weather issues,” Friend said.
QCOL has faced high maintenance costs since expanding to new customers. Friend noted that staff have had to return to one home four times in the two years since installation to replace lines damaged by falling trees.
“We’ll never recoup enough revenue from that customer over the next 5 to 10 years to cover the costs that we’ve spent to date, let alone how many more incidents we will experience in the next five years,” Friend said.
Friend hopes that expanding fiber access will attract more business to Garrett County, helping offset some of the costs. He has also worked with DeBerry to secure funding from the county’s Long Driveway Subsidy Program, using ARC dollars to reach customers who live far from main roads.
BEAD changes sow frustration
Another new significant source of funding is the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program, a Biden-era initiative that experts say tends to benefit rural states more than urban areas. The program was recently revised under the Trump administration to introduce new requirements such as “technology neutrality,” which removes fiber’s favored status and emphasizes cost-saving measures. Some say these changes would benefit satellite internet providers like Starlink, owned by Elon Musk. No states have received their BEAD funding yet, as the Trump-era revisions introduced a new final approval stage.
Friend is frustrated with the new requirements, though, saying he’s unsure whether QCOL can keep up.
“We’ve made every attempt to be a key player with BEAD, and to stay up to date on the rules and help identify locations that are BEAD eligible,” Friend said. “At this point, as a small ISP with limited funds and staff, it’s nearly to the point where it’s not worth our time.”
Article courtesy of Technical.ly. Article written by Maria Eberhart and edited by Sameer Rao.
Maria Eberhart is a 2025-2026 corps member for Report for America, an initiative of The Groundtruth Project that pairs emerging journalists with local newsrooms. This position is supported in part by the Robert W. Deutsch Foundation and the Abell Foundation.
