By Joe Smillie, Forum Editor
An effort to improve access to high-speed broadband Internet service in West End communities kicked off in Forks last week.
Under a $70,000 grant from the state Department of Commerce Broadband Office, officials from every layer of government met at the Department of Natural Resource conference room to discuss the best strategies for bringing better service to the West End.
“There’s nothing for a lot of people off the highway,” Forks attorney and City Planner Rod Fleck said.
“There’s this belief in a lot of centers that everybody has the same access as somebody in D.C. or Seattle or Olympia,” Fleck said.
The grant was awarded to Washington State University Extensions in Clallam and Jefferson counties to develop what is called a Local Telecommunications Plan.
Prime focus of spending the $70,000 will be to determine the needs for communities off the broadband grid and to develop plans for fulfilling those needs, Clallam County Commissioner Mike Doherty said.
“If we can get the more remote communities better access than dial-up, it’s going to do nothing but help open up economic opportunities,” Doherty said.
A broadband backbone has run to Forks since 2001, Fleck said, servicing the school district and the hospital.
“That’s kind of the infancy of what we have today, in allowing us to bring in things like the Insight school,” Fleck said.
Prime focus initially, Fleck said, is how schools, tribes and medical clinics are serviced.
But those living outside town cannot tap into the network.
“We need to level the playing field,” Doherty said.
In 2012, the Northwest Open Access Network, or NoaNet, used federal stimulus funds dedicated to improving broadband access to schools, hospitals and libraries in rural areas to lay a fiber optic cable between Port Angeles and Forks. The NoaNet effort also used a series of microwave repeaters to shoot a signal from Port Angeles to Clallam Bay and Neah Bay.
NoaNet received $140 million from the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to lay more than 1,300 miles of fiber optic cable throughout Washington.
The company does not provide direct Internet access, though, providing only the framework for providers like CenturyLink and Wave Broadband.
“While that provides access to our schools, it doesn’t let the kids who are expected to watch a YouTube video as part of curriculum with the ability to watch that at home,” Fleck said.
Representatives from CenturyLink were in attendance at last week’s meeting in Forks.
Also on hand were representatives from the offices of Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell and U.S. Rep. Derek Kilmer.
