Broadband Action Team pursues countywide internet goal

OKANOGAN – Meeting for the first time since October 2023, the Broadband Action Team (BAT) video-conferenced on Thursday, Jan. 25, to discuss the latest developments on several fronts for expanded internet service in the county.

The Okanogan County and Colville Confederated Tribes BAT was created in February 2019 when the Economic Alliance, Colville Confederated Tribes, and Okanogan County partnered to for the group that is working with government agencies and stakeholders to bring broadband service to unserved and underserved parts of the county.

Need for download speed

Forty-five percent of Washington residents either have no internet service in their homes or have less than 10 Megabits per second (Mbps) download speed. At that speed, users can check email and browse a few internet sites but cannot stream a TV program or movie, participate in a video call, or have a reliable connection for more than one person at a time.

Jeff Rasmussen, Broadband Equity Engagement Coordinator with the Washington State Commerce Broadband Office (WSBO), delivered a status report on Volumes I and II of the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) program. 

“We are anticipating approval from the NTIA (National Telecommunications and Information Administration) of the draft Volume I,” said Rasmussen. “It will be a little time before we get the approval for Volume II.”

The NTIA focuses largely on expanding broadband internet access and adoption across the nation, expanding network access to all users, and ensuring that the internet remains an engine for continued innovation and economic growth.

BEAD Volume I reflects changes based on the public comment period that closed on November 10, 2023. It was then submitted to NTIA for final approval.

BEAD Volume II includes a 30-day public comment period (closing on Nov. 30) for the Volume II initial proposal.

Challenges for service

Rasmussen said that in the meantime, WSBO is preparing for the upcoming Volume I challenge process. This process provides a formal avenue to capture challenges to a broadband service location (BSL) status as either served, underserved, or unserved.

“What we are asking communities to do is…find out who within a community would likely be spearheading the challenges to this process,” said Rasmussen. “The actual challenge process is set to open up about April 8 and run through May 7, a 30-day window to submit the challenges.”

Meeting moderator Roni Holder-Diefenbach, Executive Director of the Economic Alliance, the challenge process.

“Entities can challenge whether an area is served or not served,” said Holder-Diefenbach with respect to who can engage in the process.

To learn more about the challenge process, visit the state Department of Commerce website at: www.commerce.wa.gov/building-infrastructure/washington-statewide-broadband-act/internet-for-all-wa/bead/.

Joanna Bastain of Methownet related a case of unserved Carlton area residents residing in the Libby Creek drainage who want but do not have internet service. Their solution may be a community anchor building in Carlton where an internet connection would provide a local access hub.

Stakeholders comment

Several stakeholders voiced the county's need for more reliable and redundant broadband service.

Three Rivers Hospital CEO Scott Graham said TRH relies on a telemedicine site that uses a lot of bandwidth.

“We need a very strong internet infrastructure in our communities for the hospital to be viable,” said Graham. “The hospital needs to have a dual or triple system should there be some sort of disaster. That doesn’t always work. That’s just a reality of the infrastructure that we currently have.”

Carlos Antuna, Chief Technology Officer for North Valley Hospital, supports redundant internet service for the valley and cited an example that single-point internet failure has on patients.

“When the internet goes down, and somebody from Oroville has to travel to Omak or Wenatchee in the wintertime, that’s a full day,” said Antuna, “not to mention the risk to the patient.”

Antuna said the hospital’s equipment vendors rely on a broadband connection to perform maintenance and repair work.

Omak School Superintendent Michael Porter echoed the need for more reliable internet service outside the school.

“There are a number of students who, when they go home, we have to give them paper packets because they cannot access from their home,” said Porter, “or they have to stay after school to make arrangements to get connected someplace.”

Bastain spoke about a nurse she knows who works mainly from home and relies on reliable internet to video conference with her roster of patients.

“It prevents a lot of emergency room visits,” said Bastain, “because there is a lot of preventative care that goes into being able to check on people with a visual connection.”

In other BAT developments:

• Bastain announced that OCEC (Okanogan County Electric Cooperative) has agreed to acquire Methownet in July. Bastain said the acquisition will serve to streamline an already effective relationship between the two entities.
• Holder-Diefenbach and Ron Gadeburg, Director of Power Management and Broadband for Okanogan PUD, were scheduled to meet with the Board of Okanogan County Commissioners on Jan. 29. The pair planned to discuss the PUD’s ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) funding that the county has dedicated for broadband. OCEC received $500,000; another $500,000 is earmarked for the Okanogan PUD and its Conconully build project.
• Zipley Fiber will hold the Tonasket groundbreaking ceremony on Feb. 13. Ziply’s previous groundbreaking was held in Brewster last October.

The BAT meeting was followed by another with North Central Washington Digital Equity and Access. Participants discussed internet-related bills pending before the state legislature and the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP). ACP helps vulnerable families in rural, suburban, and urban Washington communities connect to affordable internet and obtain devices.

Mike Maltais: 360-333-8483 or michael@ward.media