Westminster, Maryland is a City that strives for innovation and the promotion of technology wherever possible. Its latest venture includes pioneering a groundbreaking approach to bringing state-of-the-art broadband services to the small community. By building a municipally financed and owned dark fiber network, Westminster will not only provide cutting edge service, but also lease it to service providers on an open and competitive basis.

Westminster is employing a stratified business model, where smaller markets can transform into viable business opportunities. This is accomplished by segregating the capital and operational expenses and risks into a series of operating layers. These smaller, separate layers create a more attractive market for operators. In addition, the City’s incremental approach to the network build out will minimize risk via the creation of a pilot rollout and the development of a full implementation plan following the pilot. This will limit negative cash flow and prioritize areas of implementation, focusing on areas of greatest potential for early returns of investment for both Westminster and the Operator.

As of December 2017, the project’s construction is halfway complete, and has already achieved a 20% system-wide take rate (and climbing!) after about two years of operation.