It’s 2018, and if you don’t think high-speed internet is a necessity of life, just try leaving your cell phone or tablet at home for a day.
Or an hour.
Better yet, try living in a community like Winlock, where residents have complained of slow or nonexistent internet connections for years. Even population centers like Chehalis and Centralia struggle, as Chehalis Mayor Dennis Dawes said in a meeting on the topic in March.
“There needs to be better competition because cable is ripping us off,” he said.
The consensus among those in the know is this — broadband internet providers don’t have an incentive to install high-speed lines unless they’re going to recoup their investment. ToledoTel has spent the past few years laying fiber optic lines in their coverage area, making Toledo a hub of high-speed surfing in south Lewis County, but when it comes to the cable giants, the numbers just don’t add up.
But what if we didn’t have to rely on private companies to provide an essential service? What if there was another way?
In 1929, the Washington State Grange led the effort to form Public Utility Districts, approved by voters the following year.
The first PUDs formed in Mason County, with Benton and Franklin close behind. Lewis County PUD 1 formed in 1936.
In many counties, especially in the Columbia and Snake river basins, the PUDs’ primary duties became managing and distributing power produced by the dozens of hydroelectric dams that sprouted throughout the region. Those projects radically changed our state’s landscape — and not just by exchanging rapids for placid lakes.
The dams on the Cowlitz, Snake and Columbia rivers provided abundant, cheap (and clean) power and a seemingly endless supply of water for irrigation, creating an explosion of growth throughout the state.
Nearly 20 years ago, the state Legislature acted to allow the PUDs to also supply broadband telecommunications service at wholesale — treating internet access as an essential utility, just like power and water.
Many, including Lewis County PUD, have taken advantage of that law to install miles of fiber optic lines.
Now the Port of Chehalis is looking to get in the game. Like PUDs, port districts in Washington exist to provide public services like transportation lines, infrastructure and economic development.
The Port of Chehalis has identified investments in broadband fiber infrastructure as a key part of its long-range planning, hoping to join forces with other ports to eventually link up with internet hubs in Portland and Seattle. Like the PUD, the port would pursue “dark fiber” — meaning the port owns the infrastructure and leases its use to private internet providers.
According to port CEO Randy Mueller, a public investment in broadband would create not only more options for residents, but a reason for businesses to set up shop here.
“We need broadband access now more than ever, because the demand for data transfer will be increasing exponentially as technology takes on a greater role in our everyday lives,” Mueller recently wrote in a column published in The Chronicle.
If inadequate high-speed internet is holding back our community’s potential, as a lack of electricity did 100 years ago, what are we waiting for?
