WHIDBEY WEEKLY: County pursues plan to upgrade local internet access, quality

Melanie Hammons reports from Island County Commissioner Janet St. Clair‘s (D-Camano Island) town hall meeting on Oct. 6.

A recent Town Hall chaired by Island County Commissioner Janet St. Clair made the case for investing in infrastructure upgrades to enhance residential and commercial Internet service.  The meeting’s subject covered FCC broadband (internet) mapping in Island County and ways the public can be involved in the process.  St. Clair said the Town Hall’s goal was “to get people engaged.”

They Said It

“FCC mapping has been used to determine availability of internet providers and broadband infrastructure with a goal of open access,” St. Clair said.  “It has historically set priority to determine funding to under and unserved areas of our nation.

“Unfortunately, their data has been highly inaccurate.  For example, it showed Island County and Camano Island as ’97 percent covered’.  We have been working for years to address this policy and bring investments to our county.  We need your help to correct the data so we can expand coverage in our local communities.”

She compared the outreach to the 1930s Rural Electrification Project and said the state wants to see public benefit in order to award grants. 

“Our first step will be a challenge process.  This means we prove we don’t have the coverage/quality that the FCC says we have.  We gather bulk data, complete with specific addresses, such as for specific neighborhoods and HOAs, and upload to the FCC to better clarify unserved areas in our county,” St. Clair said.  “This will be significant in our grant efforts.  Step two, in November/December, will be to train individual internet users to upload their own data for accuracy of ‘fiber to the premises.’

 “Also, we need to project usage rates, where we’ll be 20 years from now,” she continued.  “Since demand is growing so quickly, by working with our local providers and taking advantage of government grants, we’ll be in a good position.”

“We saw what happened during the pandemic,” St. Clair said. “People were largely conducting life, business, and education at home, using Zoom and the internet.  The limited capacity affected us in many adverse ways, from children unable to complete schoolwork to people unable to access virtual medical appointments.”