Internet Speed: 33 Mbps downlink; 4.8 Mbps uplink

Population: 650,000

Internet Coverage: 95% of residents

Main Internet Services: DSL, Cable, Fiber

Main Internet Service Providers: Xfinity, Verizon, FIOS by Verizon

Colocation Datacenters: 12 (prominent companies: Mid Atlantic Network, Level 3 Communications, Expedient)

According to Akamai.com, the average Internet downlink speed is 33 Mbps and the average upload speed is 4.8 Mbps.

In 2016, the population of Baltimore was approximately 650,000. More than 95% of residents have access to the Internet, especially broadband connections.

The main Internet services provided in Baltimore are as follows:

– DSL – 93.6% coverage
– Cable – 92% coverage
– Fiber – less than 10% coverage

The main Internet Service Providers located in Baltimore are the following:

– Xfinity (Cable) – 98% availability
– Verizon (DSL) – 95.5% availability
– FIOS by Verizon (Fiber) – less than 10% availability

Gigabit Internet in Baltimore

Baltimore is one of the many cities in the United States whose ISPs do not offer gigabit Internet to residential customers. Although Google Fiber initially considered rolling out gigabit Internet locally based on the city’s close proximity to Washington D.C., they cancelled the plan due to reasons revolving around excessive costs. Additionally, Baltimore’s wireline network consists of somewhat outdated coaxial copper cables which do not provide sufficient performance for very high Internet speeds.

According to datacentermap.com, there are currently 12 colocation datacenters located in Baltimore. Major providers include the following:

– Mid Atlantic Network, LLC.
– Level 3 Communications
– Expedient Datacenters
– Commercial Media Corp.
– AiNET

Prominent Colocation Providers – Expedient Datacenters

One of the biggest colocation providers located in Baltimore is Expedient Datacenters, whose main datacenter is located in the Owings Mills area. The 9,000-square-foot, carrier-neutral facility has redundant utility power feeds and 4 auto-cutover diesel generators, in addition to multiple state-of-the-art cooling systems. The facility has multiple fiber points of entry and features fiber connectivity from three different local ISPs, such as Comcast, Verizon and Zayo. All facilities operated by this company, including the Baltimore datacenter, are interconnected with a private 10 Gbps network.

Colocation Datacenter Industry – Market, Demand, Infrastructure

The Baltimore datacenter market is currently one of the most developed datacenter markets in the Mid-Atlantic U.S., but when it comes to its national importance, it is regarded as a secondary datacenter market. Demand is driven preponderantly by local healthcare, tech and retail companies, in addition to other emerging industries. Baltimore is located in close proximity to a big cluster of submarine cables which span the North Atlantic Ocean all the way to Western Europe. For colocation providers, this means that costs, latency and risks are reduced significantly. However, the huge drawback of this city is its old Internet infrastructure which has not been renewed in years, and this constitutes a huge problem.

Major web hosting providers in Baltimore are as follows:

– OneOneInternet
– Bulkregister

All the companies that we have reviewed provide core hosting services, such as Shared, VPS or Dedicated Hosting, in addition to a large offering of additional hosting solutions, such as cloud or hybrid hosting. None of the companies that we have reviewed operate their own datacenters. Instead, they lease space in facilities operated by providers such as Mid Atlantic Network or Level 3 Communications.