The Digital Equity - Montgomery Connects - CIP provides for capital funding to support Montgomery County's digital equity initiatives. Internet service accessibility, affordability, and adoption are critical factors in addressing equity disparities. Funding will support planning, design, and construction of: MoCoNet residential broadband in affordable housing developments to close the digital equity gap through the provision of free or low cost, reliable and robust residential Internet services, and devices, at affordable housing throughout the County; Public WiFi and Advanced Wireless Conduit Networks to provide conduit and fiber to support public WiFi and wireline and wireless broadband networks in commercial and community gathering areas of Montgomery County. Innovation Testbeds to spur development and expansion of traffic, transit, and pedestrian sensors, Internet of Things (IoT), advanced robotic, and cybersecurity IoT applications and innovation in Montgomery County; Purple Line Fiber to connect Montgomery County research and higher education facilities to MAX and Internet2 at the University of Maryland, College Park; and White Oak Science Gateway Conduit Network to provide broadband conduit infrastructure in Viva White Oak and other White Oak commercial development projects.

Project has received an additional $961,000 in state grants for FY23.

Digital Equity - Montgomery Connects is a digital equity program, designed to ensure that businesses and underserved residents of affordable housing units in Montgomery County have as much reliable, secure, and robust broadband service as they need to live, work, learn and keep our economy moving at the speed of our ideas. Digital Equity - Montgomery Connects also supports the County's racial equity and social justice goals by focusing our digital equity deployment of devices and residential broadband in affordable housing developments and underserved communities. Digital Equity - Montgomery Connects helps ensure that all residents have the broadband service, devices to participate in the digital world; expanding access to competitive broadband services in commercial buildings to support small and large businesses; and by leveraging infrastructure development and strategic conduit network deployment to create robust public WiFi and public private partnerships to support leasing of County broadband assets. Access to reliable broadband infrastructure throughout the County supports business growth and innovation in biotech bio-health, cybersecurity, IT services, financial services, media and similar high-bandwidth-consuming sectors, and for federal and state government, research and higher education institutions. Ensuring that all businesses can access reliable broadband services is essential to ensuring equity.

This project was previously named ultraMontgomery until 2023 when it was renamed to Digital Equity - Montgomery Connects. This change was made to better describe the purpose of the project.

In 2021, the Great Seneca Fiber Hwy was completed to provide shortest distance, low latency connection between Great Seneca and Ashburn, Virginia data centers. Phase 2 of the East County Fiber Highway to provide regional north-south interconnections between White Oak and Howard County and east-west connections between Burtonsville and WSSC in Laurel will be completed in 2023. In response to COVID-19, funding for rural broadband is being provided through state and federal broadband grants and the Digital Equity - Montgomery Connects project pivoted to focus County broadband deployment on providing to service to low-income affordable housing developments where residents do not have access to or have difficulty affording robust broadband service. Engineering, planning, and design work provided by the Digital Equity - Montgomery Connects CIP has been instrumental in preparing state grant applications. Because other resources can support rural broadband deployment , funding from the Digital Equity - Montgomery Connects CIP for low-income affordable housing is being prioritized over rural broadband.