Baltimore has joined the growing chorus of municipalities that are fed up with local cable operator Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA) by looking into how they could build their own fiber-based broadband network. Having been left out of Verizon's (NYSE: VZ) FiOS plans, Baltimore's City board of estimates has shelled out $157,000 to Magellan Partners to develop a municipal broadband plan that could give city residents another option. The consulting firm has been hired to look at potential uses of the city's "fiber ring," a 30-mile optic cable network used to support the city's public safety broadcast system. Read more