PUD 3 Deploys Free Wi-Fi Hotspots for Mason County Students

Our Telecom department is joining with our schools and community partners to make sure every student in Mason County has a safe place where they can use a free high-speed Wi-Fi hotspot to access classwork, download assignments, and communicate with their teachers. The program is part of PUD 3’s response to the coronavirus emergency. The Drive-By Wi-Fi initiative gives those without high-speed internet in their homes a chance to connect while practicing appropriate social distancing

PUD 3 was encouraged by the Washington State Broadband Office to set up a network of Wi-Fi sites, in concert with a statewide program to establish similar services at school districts throughout the state. The PUD teamed up with fire districts, port districts, community halls, Mason County parks, and others to use PUD 3 fiber optic equipment at these locations to set up wireless hotspots. The sites are all over Mason County, from the Tahuya Peninsula to Matlock, and many places in between.

Access to students, families, and citizens is free, and for the foreseeable future the hotspots will be left in place until the end of the equipment life for local members of these communities to use indefinitely until fiber-to-the home can be brought to some of these areas. Feel free to contact Justin Holzgrove or a member of the Telecom department if you have any questions, and view a map of the planned locations on the pud’s website here: www.pud3.org/wifi.