Western WA/Seabeck Internet Providers? (Chelan, Okanogan: appointed, sales, house)

[carolochs]

Can anyone tell me what the main (and hopefully) most reliable internet providers are in western WA?
I'm particularly interested in the Seabeck area....but reliable internet is a must for me for an at-home business....could be a make-or-break decision.

[carolochs]

Scratch. Just found this thread on medical.... Olympic Peninsula Medical Facilities

[carolochs]

I've seen where some non-high-speed-internet areas of Kitsap County (Seabeck near Stavis Bay) has residents petitioning to get fiber optics delivered to the area at no cost to residents.

Wonder how this can happen?

[509]

Originally Posted by carolochs

I've seen where some non-high-speed-internet areas of Kitsap County (Seabeck near Stavis Bay) has residents petitioning to get fiber optics delivered to the area at no cost to residents.

Wonder how this can happen?

I see your in San Diego.

Well, pull up a chair and learn about the socialist history in Washington with regard to public power. BTW...a proud tradition in this state....defended by Republicans against those "fascist" Democrats primarily from western Washington.

Seriously, you should search the history of public power in Washington state. Use the term PUD or Public Utility District.....BTW the wealthy PUD's are in eastern Washington. They own their own dams. The impoverished PUD's in western Washington get their electrical power from Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) since they do not own any dams.

Anyway here are a couple of posts from the Washington Post explaining the situation.....here goes:

Bonneville Power Administration required the PUD's to install fiber optic lines between the dams and BPA facilities. The PUD's quickly decided that since they were required to lay the fiber optic lines they would go ahead and wire government offices and schools. It wasn't long before they decided to go ahead and provide phone, internet, and cable TV services to their owners (the county taxpayers) as well as electricity. It was at this point that the liberal Governor tried to stop the project.

The PUD's started stringing fiber to their owners. They provided electricity, water, and sewer services to county residents. To this they were going to add internet, phone, and cable to county residents.

At this point, the liberal Democrat Governor of the state of Washington attempted to stop the project. Claiming that the local governments had NO RIGHT to provide fiber services to their residents. I suspect it had more to do with campaign contributions to Locke and the Democrats from the telecommunication companies. After all, we do have the BEST GOVERNMENT MONEY CAN BUY! Governor Locke claimed that ONLY PRIVATE ENTERPRISE could offer those services in Washington state.

Now the Republicans in those counties replied that private enterprise refused to provide fiber services to those counties so they were going to do it themselves using the PUD's. The local PUD's belonged to county residents and they could do anything they wanted with THEIR government.

Fortunately, the Washington House was controlled by Republican's and the Speaker was from Douglas County. So it really was a fair fight between Democrats championing free enterprise and Republicans defending the will of the people to provide government services.

The compromise was that the PUD's could provide WHOLESALE but not RETAIL services to county residents. A business model that only works if you sell millions of dollars of surplus electricity to western Washington and Oregon. So effectively, Governor Locke killed municipal fiber in Washington state.

If the name Locke sounds familar it is because President Obama appointed him Commerce Secretary with the responsibility to spread fiber and broadband access across the United States. At least now you know why that program is a dismal failure.

It is a interesting story that played out over 15 years ago. And though Locke was successful in stopping public fiber for a couple of years those PUD's have been providing high speed fiber services for over a decade.

Really.....somebody needs to write a book about how public fiber came to central and eastern Washington. These are the same folks that got Grand Coulee Dam built and then followed up with a Public Utility Districts that have been an economic powerhouse for the region.

Where is Woody Guthrie to write the songs about public fiber??

OK...so that's the background. I had to look up Seabeck. It is in Kitsap County. Probably served by the Kitsap County PUD. Here is their link:Kitsap Public Utility District - Telecom

Here in eastern Washington we have had fiber since the turn of the century. I was hooked up to my house for "free". MY PUD paid 100 million dollars to set up the fiber system from surplus electrical sales generated by the dams. Other PUD's have spent similar amounts of money to hook up county residents to the fiber system for "free". Actually, the surplus electrical sales to the residents of western Washington and Oregon paid for the fiber system we enjoy.

I don't believe Kitsap County PUD owns any generating facilities. BUT the residents could petition THEIR PUD to provide them with fiber optic lines for free. Not sure IF Kitsap PUD has the assets to do it, but they can ask.

Does this help??

[carolochs]

Hi 509.....

Wow---quite a detailed history---thank you very much! And sorry I did not respond sooner; just today got notification there was follow-up on this thread!

Yes...I'm in San Diego at present, but have been researching moving to western WA for a couple years now. Because I have a home-based, e-commerce business, reliable internet really could be a dealbreaker for me, so I'm trying to track this issue closely. The main links I've been following are: Kitsap Public Utility District - Telecom : FAQs and https://kpud.servicezones.net/Seabeck Sometimes trying to get info on this has been like pulling teeth, even from residents in the thick of it. There has been a Facebook group set-up specifically for the area I'm interested in moving to (Seabeck), but unless you're a resident, the group admin. won't let you in to access any progress being made with their petitioning for free fiber to the area (pfft!) From what I can gather thus far though, they are sorely lacking in the numbers needed to successfully petition. Thus far they show only 16% interested, but need 75% (236 more interested votes). https://kpud.servicezones.net/Seabeck/stavisbaywest

Maybe by the time we're ready to move they will have achieved this. The whole process seems so unfathomable that fiber is not as usual a utility there as any other utility...suspected there was way more to this story than I had any clue about. I had only caught hints at what's behind it. Thanks for your explanation. WA sounds like a state at political war..... :/

[509]

Originally Posted by carolochs

..................Maybe by the time we're ready to move they will have achieved this. The whole process seems so unfathomable that fiber is not as usual a utility there as any other utility...suspected there was way more to this story than I had any clue about. I had only caught hints at what's behind it. Thanks for your explanation. WA sounds like a state at political war..... :/

If you really want high tech infrastructure you should consider moving to eastern Washington.

You can get 1Gbps service in many counties right now in eastern Washington. In fact, in Chelan County the PUD was going to cut back on providing fiber to the remaining 25% of rural residents without service, but the county residents have told them to finish the build out.

In eastern Washington, check out Chelan, Douglas, Grant, Benton, and Pend O'reille PUD's. I do know that Okanogan County PUD is also doing a roll-out of high speed internet.

Here is the link to the Chelan County site: https://www.chelanpud.org/my-pud-ser...s/fiber-optics

You should contact the PUD over there and talk to them. It is a government agency so secrecy and those things should not apply!!

Also be careful about the existence of any internet connection prior to purchase. For example, our house does NOT have a copper cable connection. Neither us or the previous owners cared about cable TV so it was NEVER extended to the property. When FIBER came we did get it for free since we wanted high speed internet. The phone and cable TV just came along for the ride.

Good luck.