He said government is more likely to mismanage and waste money than private communications companies, and questioned the premise that broadband will spur economic development.
"Does the farmer need a broadband wireless device while he's on his combine?" Summers said.
Many local governments have some fiber-optic cable within their own jurisdictions, but so far, only those in the Washington region are linked to each other.
The United States is far behind developed nations in Asia and Europe in providing access to broadband, an increasingly vital tool for business, government and for individuals, said Joanne S. Hovis, a Montgomery County-based consultant working for Howard County on the project.
"We are past the point where broadband is a luxury," she said. "It is essential to our future."
Local governments around the country are banding together like those in Maryland, she said, to compete for the federal stimulus money.
"We very much want to make sure the state attracts as much of these federal funds as we can," said Wyatt A. Shiflett, a director at the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development. He's helping both groups as they await specific application information.
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration has $4.7 billion to disburse - hopefully by September 2010 - while the Department of Agriculture has another $2.5 billion.
The Obama administration sees the funding as a way to create jobs while also creating new opportunities for entrepreneurs, researchers and local governments, said Mark G. Seifert, an NTIA official, in a speech to a congressional committee last month.
Levy and other local government leaders said the federal money would be a huge boost to under-funded efforts to link local and state governments.
"The Internet certainly suffices for the outside world, but internally, in an emergency, there's security and the ability to manage" with a fiber-optic network, Levy said. After the 9/11 attacks, he noted, cell phones and other communications links were useless. A secure fiber-optic network would allow agencies throughout central Maryland to keep communicating with each other, with state and national governments and even with sections of northern Virginia.
The network also would link hospitals, schools, libraries, colleges, senior centers and perhaps public housing, where computer access is often limited for low-income families, Levy said.
