Cybertelecom :: Maryland

Cybertelecom
Federal Internet Law & Policy
An Educational Project

Maryland

Page Sections
- EAS
- Cybercrime
- Muni BB
- - MuniBB Notes
- VoIP

State Links
- Alabama
- Alaska
- Arizona
- Arkansas
- California
- Colorado
- Connecticut
- Delaware
- District of Columbia
- Florida
- Georgia
- Hawaii
- Idaho
- Illinois
- Indiana
- Iowa
- Kansas
- Kentucky
- Louisiana
- Maine
- Maryland
- Massachusetts
- Michigan
- Minnesota
- Mississippi
- Missouri
- Montana
- Nebraska
- Nevada
- New Hampshire
- New Jersey
- New Mexico
- New York
- North Carolina
- North Dakota
- Ohio
- Oklahoma
- Oregon
- Pennsylvania
- Rhode Island
- South Carolina
- South Dakota
- Tennessee
- Texas
- Utah
- Vermont
- Virginia
- Washington
- West Virginia
- Wisconsin
- Wyoming

Cybercrime

Maryland Code § 7-302. Unauthorized access to computers and related material. (c) Prohibited.-

(1) A person may not intentionally, willfully, and without authorization access, attempt to access, cause to be accessed, or exceed the person's authorized access to all or part of a computer network, computer control language, computer, computer software, computer system, computer services, or computer database.

(2) A person may not commit an act prohibited by paragraph (1) of this subsection with the intent to:

(i) cause the malfunction or interrupt the operation of all or any part of a computer, computer network, computer control language, computer software, computer system, computer services, or computer data; or

(ii) alter, damage, or destroy all or any part of data or a computer program stored, maintained, or produced by a computer, computer network, computer software, computer system, computer services, or computer database.

(3) A person may not intentionally, willfully, and without authorization:

(i) possess, identify, or attempt to identify a valid access code; or

(ii) publicize or distribute a valid access code to an unauthorized person.

mdmd

Municipal Broadband

Public Internet (offered to the public)
Allegany County
AllCoNet2 would extend service to last mile residential | microwave | 103 Sq Mi.
Total Cost: $2.9 m. Population as of 2000: 75,000. That works out to about $39 per resident. - - Allconet Project Proposal, p. 11PDF
a wireless SONET* network with 155 Mbps capacity around the strategic areas of Allegany County. This ring would entail, approximately 10 OC3 tower hops and several DS3 spurs from those tower locations. Each of those strategic tower locations into private and public Micro-PoPs for end user connectivity. - Allconet Project Proposal, p. 6 PDF
Unlicensed Wireless Broadband Profiles Community, Municipal & Commercial Success Stories , p. 15 New America 2004
Investment $4.9 m - Municipal Broadband: Digging Beneath the Surface, Balhoff & Rowe, LCC, p. 29 (Sept. 2005)

Ocean City (tourist area) unconfirmed BIG Wireless

Rockville

Rockville, Maryland, to deploy free wireless downtown network, MuniWireless 7/5/2007

Government Intranets (not offered to the public)

Maryland Public Libraries Sailor Project

Allegany County

AllCoNet Schools, Govts, Communities, non profits (not private sector / residential). | Unlicensed Wireless. Vendors: Alvarion, Marconi, DMC Stratex Networks. Non profit government partnership. Total Cost: $2,9 m.

"We currently support: 85 buildings, 4,000 workstations and 10,000 users." - Allconet Project Proposal, p. 3 PDF

deliver high-speed data and bandwidth from 1.54Mbps (T-1) to more than 960 Mbps. - Allconet Project Proposal, p. 4 PDF

Uses at least some open source software

Cumberland: Connected & on the Go; Broadband Goes Wireless, Report of the FCC Wireless Broadband Access Task Force, p. 33 Feb. 2005: "For instance, local leaders in Cumberland, Maryland, a small city located three hours outside Washington, D.C., in the mountains between West Virginia, and southwestern Pennsylvania, recognized that a lack of affordable broadband was hindering the evolution of the economy from smokestack industries to the service and technology sectors. The leaders concluded that commercial service providers did not believe that sufficient demand existed to justify the costs of deploying a traditional network infrastructure to the area. Accordingly, the City of Cumberland, surrounding Allegany County, the local school board, and public libraries, decided to form AllCoNet, a non-profit joint venture to provide their citizens with broadband service.102 Given the local geography and topography, deploying wireline facilities would have been far beyond the financial resources available, and would have taken years. By deploying wireless access points (supplied by Alvarion) on the mountains surrounding Cumberland, AllCoNet was able to quickly deploy broadband service, and now provides a level of service that was unavailable or cost prohibitive before to area schools, libraries, government buildings, residents, and businesses."

Caroline County BIG Wireless | Govt Office of Technologies | Baltimore Sun Coverage 2004 | Aquired fiber off of eBay.

Talbot County BIG Wireless | Schools and Govt | Talbot County

Washington County BIG Wireless | Govt Intranet Dept of Water Quality

VoIP

Trials and Deployments
Armstrong Cable Services field trial Putting VoIP to the Crash Test, CED May 2002; Armstrong Cable in partnership with Vonage offering Zoom Phone Service. Balancing Responsibilities and Rights: A Regulatory Model for Facilities-Based VoIP Competition An NCTA Policy Paper February 2004; Vonage Cables in Armstrong VoIP Deal, Internet News (June 10, 2003)

Cable Open Access

Battle Lines Drawn Over Cable Md., Va. Legislatures Confront Issue of Internet Access Washington Post 2/7

Wifi Security

MD Code, Crim L § 7-315 Prohibited:
A person may not knowingly: (1) possess, use, manufacture, distribute, transfer, sell, offer, promote, or advertise for sale, use, or distribution, an unlawful telecommunication device or access code: (i) to commit a theft of telecommunication service; or (ii) to receive, disrupt, transmit, decrypt, acquire, or facilitate the receipt, disruption, transmission, decryption, or acquisition of a telecommunication service without the express consent or express authorization of the telecommunication service provider;

This statute is not applicable. Wifi is unlicensed spectrum held as a common where all individuals have equal rights of use; it cannot be stolen. (Conversely, if this law did apply, wouldn't it be illegal to make any wifi enabled device?) Under federal law, Wifi would not even be classified as a "telecommunications service." Apparently under Maryland Code, Wifi may be considered a "telecommunications service." MD Code, Crim L § 7-313 Definitions.

mdmd