By the end of 2023, rural residents in Quilcene and Gardiner will have better internet than the average resident of Seattle.”

Will O’Donnell, Broadband and Communications Director, Jefferson County Public Utility District

For a good while in America, rural communities and high-speed internet have gone together like oil and water.

Whether it’s the underfunded and poorly maintained infrastructure or the unreliable, outdated system of DSL (digital subscriber line) internet that’s been around since the 1990s, many rural areas of the U.S. have suffered from snail-like download speeds and constant buffering, including local communities like Coyle and Quilcene.

The Jefferson County Public Utility District has big plans to change that over the next three or so years.

THE BIG PLAN

Receiving close to $40 million in funding from state and federal grants, matching funds, and other sources, the power authority has been gearing up for a massive, five-part installation project to bring high-speed internet services to most residents within east Jefferson County.

“Having access to reliable, affordable broadband will make it so all of our rural residents can participate fully in the remote work, online schooling, telemedicine, [and] video conferencing opportunities that so many of us with access have become accustomed to during the pandemic,” O’Donnell said. “Broadband is now an essential tool to access basic government services, and to participate as a citizen; even to connect with family.”

Beyond just adding internet services that are acceptable or average when compared to other communities, the project will bring state-of-the-art fiber optic connections capable of accessing speeds of up to 10 gigabits per second or higher, which, in layman’s terms is really, really fast.

“Our rural communities will by far have the fastest internet in the county. No buffering, no lags, no constantly having to upgrade services to avoid slow downs,” O’Donnell said.

“It’s an amazing once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and it’s going to increase home values and provide so many more opportunities for businesses to start or expand in areas of the county that need more economic activity.”

COVERAGE AND TIMELINE

Details on the broadband project — including timelines, costs, customer rates, marketing plans, and other key details — were presented to the utility’s board of directors at a recent meeting.

From Marrowstone Island to the Toandos Peninsula, the PUD will connect fiber optic cables around the county with five large project areas: the Olympic Fiber Corridor (Quilcene to Gardiner), East Discovery Bay (Anderson Lake Road and Highway 20), Jefferson North (Cape George, Woodland Hills, Marrowstone Island), Southeast Jefferson County (Chimacum to Port Ludlow to Coyle), and Port Townsend Business Fiber (Fort Worden to the Highway 20/19 intersection).

The project is expected to be completed some time in 2025 or 2026. Broadband infrastructure construction and connection is set to begin this summer, starting with the Port Townsend and Discovery Bay sectors, which are expected to be finished by the end of 2023.

“Our work building fiber to rural residents from Quilcene to Gardiner will begin in 2022 and should be complete by the end of 2023. We’ll be building in Discovery Bay and part of Chimacum at the same time,” O’Donnell said.

The Cape George and Marrowstone areas are expected to be fully connected to broadband at the end of 2024. The Coyle and southeast county section of the project will wrap up in late 2025.

ADDITIONAL DATA

The PUD has additionally been surveying east Jefferson County residents to gauge interest in the broadband services that will be offered.

“We’ve done surveys for each grant area and have long lists of customers who want the service,” O’Donnell said. “We hope to start the official registration process this summer.”

The utilities authority selected two companies, Wesco International and Graybar Electrical Supply, to receive the supply bids for resources like fiber optic cables and other items needed to complete the plan.

“We have placed orders for buried and aerial fiber optic cable from both Wesco/Anixter, and what is known as ‘drop’ fiber from Graybar. Drop fiber is the fiber that runs between the splitter and the home. Aerial fiber is hung on power poles, buried fiber obviously goes underground,” O’Donnell said.

The cost to purchase the supplies was $1.1 million in total.

To aid with the rigorous installation and connection process with broadband services, the PUD is looking to hire a handful of employees to work on the project full-time.

“We are hoping to hire a minimum of two new broadband staff members this year, and up to four more in 2023. We are looking to add a network engineer and technician this year; the engineer would manage the network hub equipment and monitor the connections,” O’Donnell said.

“The technician would connect customers out in the field,” he said. “We’d add up to two additional technicians in 2023 to do the bulk of the grant-funded installation work. We would also add customer service and administrative positions.”

The public utility district is expecting to be cash flow positive three years after the project is completed. They are predicting to make $4 million or more in annual revenue and gain 4,000-plus customers in 10 years from the new broadband internet services.

“By the end of 2023, rural residents in Quilcene and Gardiner will have better internet than the average resident of Seattle,” O’Donnell said. “Long term, the amount of value that will be added is hard to quantify, but it will be significant. It’s rural electrification 2.0.”

To learn more about the PUD’s ongoing high-speed internet project, visit its website at www.jeffpud.org/broadband-phase-1.