{"id":140828,"date":"2025-10-23T15:43:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T15:43:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/140828\/"},"modified":"2025-10-23T15:43:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T15:43:10","slug":"broadband-access-in-northwest-washington-improving-but-gaps-remain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/140828\/","title":{"rendered":"Broadband access in Northwest Washington improving \u2014 but gaps remain\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

Internet options are limited and expensive for those living in \u201cthe last mile.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Debra Anderson-Frey couldn\u2019t swallow the $10,000 it would\u2019ve cost to connect her home to fiber optic internet.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She lives at the end of a gravel road in northeast Whatcom County, about five miles from the Canadian border. It\u2019s rural, certainly, but it\u2019s also located in what telecommunication providers have dubbed the \u201clast mile,\u201d or the final leg of infrastructure needed to connect the broader internet network to individual homes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The last mile is often the most expensive and logistically challenging part of broadband expansion since utility companies must physically reach each customer. When Anderson-Frey heard the broadband line was being extended onto her road, she immediately began calling local representatives to find out more.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Eventually, however, she said she was told the extension wouldn\u2019t reach all the way to her home and that she and a dozen or so neighbors could organize and split the cost of extending fiber optic to their homes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201c(It) would have been formidable, like $10,000 apiece. That wasn\u2019t going to happen, so I just gave up,\u201d Anderson-Frey said. \u201cPart of me felt like I thought the government was supposed to help organize the community to bring down essential services like utilities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Instead, Anderson-Frey said her internet options are limited to a cellular hotspot device and Starlink. Although most of her neighbors use the satellite internet provider, Anderson-Frey said her decision not to switch over is a political one.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Access \u2026 for all<\/p>\n

Anderson-Frey isn\u2019t the only Northwest Washingtonian in the last mile. Only 41% of residents in San Juan County, 89% in Whatcom County and 86% in Skagit County have access to fixed broadband,\u00a0according to the Federal Communications Commission<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Although projects are in play to bridge gaps in broadband access, concerns remain about the timeline and affordability.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Most notable among those efforts is the\u00a0Broadband Equity Access and Deployment Program<\/a>, or BEAD for short. The federal program is pumping over $42 billion into broadband expansion with the aim of connecting every American to high-speed internet.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The state submitted its\u00a0proposal for $1.2 billion<\/a>\u00a0in funding awards to the feds in September. The administration was supposed to approve it within 90 days, but the government shutdown will likely extend that timeline out to next year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The odds are that residents won\u2019t see the impacts until 2026 or longer depending on the type of infrastructure that would specifically serve them. The program, however, requires projects to be completed by 2030.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fiber folks, who knows \u2014 it depends on how far they are from the lines as they\u2019re being strung. The fixed wireless, they could be connected as early as the end of summer. And then the low-Earth orbitals (satellite), could be connected right away,\u201d said Joseph Williams, Washington State Broadband Office interim director.<\/p>\n

Broadband barriers\u00a0<\/p>\n

One of the biggest barriers to connecting rural areas is typically distance, Williams said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe more rural and more remote, the harder it is to connect,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

That issue has been compounded by the unique geography and terrain in parts of Whatcom, Skagit and San Juan counties. Installing fiber on islands not served by state ferries, for example, requires additional logistical planning and funds to get workers and materials on site. Likewise, heavily forested areas and the fire exposure that comes with them means fire resiliency needs to be taken into account when deciding what types of infrastructure to build.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just too costly to get out there and make a business case for it to work, which is exactly why the private providers haven\u2019t done that so far, right?\u201d said Andrew Entrikin of Whatcom PUD. \u201cIf it penciled and made sense to reach these locations that are hard to reach, they would have done it already.\u201d<\/p>\n

Instead, public utilities have stepped in to fill those gaps in Whatcom, Skagit and San Juan counties, with stakeholders in each making big strides in expanding access. In Skagit and Whatcom, public utilities have been working to build infrastructure that is then used by private providers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t get in necessarily to try to bring broadband to every resident of Skagit County; we\u2019re there mostly to be gap fillers,\u201d Port of Skagit Executive Director Sara Young. \u201cIt\u2019s base infrastructure, and you hope that it will continue to proliferate once you\u2019ve kind of got the solid core of infrastructure there, then the private sector can take it on and continue to build out user connections over time.\u201d<\/p>\n

In San Juan County, in contrast, the local broadband provider, Rock Island Communications, is owned by the county\u2019s utility co-op, OPALCO. That dynamic has allowed Rock Island to utilize OPALCO\u2019s existing infrastructure, such as stringing on fiber optic cables on existing power lines.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know that it would be super possible to get as far as we have gotten at this point If we weren\u2019t owned by OPALCO,\u201d Rock Island spokesperson Ali Boe said. \u201cIt really helps us make headway in spots that otherwise would be doable, but just would take a lot more time.\u201d<\/p>\n

BEAD potential<\/p>\n

What will the BEAD program do in Northwest Washington?<\/p>\n

In Skagit, Whatcom and San Juan counties, nearly $69 million in BEAD funds and state and private matches are projected to connect 13,812 new locations through a mix of fiber optic, fixed wireless and satellite internet.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Overall, however, wireless is the most common type of project funded by BEAD in the tri-county area, making up 74% of projects. Meanwhile fiber makes up 17% of projects, and satellite is 9% of projects.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That\u2019s somewhat of a change for most counties, which have historically favored fiber optic over other technologies since that\u2019s been the focus of most of the funding opportunities. Earlier this year, however, the Trump administration changed the BEAD program to require states to be technology neutral when reviewing grant applications. That opened the door for funding to go to satellite and fixed-wireless companies, including Starlink and Amazon.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Young said that while wireless solutions are inevitable given the difficulty in getting land-based infrastructure to certain areas, they also \u201ccan\u2019t exist in a vacuum.\u201d In fact, each wireless solution requires a fiber optic network to help mitigate latency requirements.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo having fiber optics in the communities, even if it\u2019s not connecting fiber to the premise, you still need to have backbone infrastructure to really make these systems work,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Virginia-based Declaration Network Group will receive the largest share of BEAD funds in the counties at 37%, followed by Rock Island Communications at 32%, the Port of Bellingham at 27%, Starlink at 2.6%, Amazon at 0.6% and Starlink at 0.2%.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Skagit County is the only county among the three where a public utility was not chosen as an awardee. The Port of Skagit applied for the funds but wasn\u2019t selected.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a breakdown of the projects in the tri-county area:<\/p>\n

Skagit ($13.8 million)\u00a0<\/p>\n