Jon Brodkin for Ars Technica:
Baltimore's other problem is that most of its residents are locked into Comcast. City CIO Chris Tonjes, who came to Baltimore from Washington, DC a year ago, said, "I’m paying more here for lesser service." That was a reference to Comcast, which signed a contract "in 2004 with an expiration date of Dec. 31, 2016, that effectively makes the company the exclusive cable television provider in the city…
The lock Comcast has on this city has turned my stomach since I first heard talk of it back in 2003. It's awful. Expensive, slow, unreliable service, and crap customer service.
Not getting Google Fiber was a real shame, and Verizon wasn't interested in bringing their FiOS infrastructure into Baltimore City if they couldn't bundle TV service with it, which they can't thanks to Baltimore's moronic franchise agreement. Hope we're able to find something.