Washington Rural Broadband Workshop
PUD 3 was invited to be on a panel at the Washington Rural Broadband Workshop, held on September 16 at the USDA headquarters in Olympia. Here’s a summary of Justin’s presentation.
Mason PUD 3’s Fiber Optic Network
PUD 3 has been building and operating a fiber optic network throughout Mason County since 2000. The primary purpose of the network is to support electric grid operations. Our customers, who are largely unserved and underserved, have made it clear that they want access to the excess capacity of the fiber network for high speed broadband purposes at their homes and businesses.
BROADBAND PARTNERSHIPS; COMMUNITY SOLUTIONS
On this panel, we are focusing on Broadband Partnerships and Community Solutions. I think Mason PUD 3 has a lot of great success stories in this area. Our network- and the Public Power model as a whole- is based on community partnerships and being solutions oriented.
That’s the “rural”-way!
FIBERHOODS
You may have heard about PUD 3’s FIBERHOOD program. This is a *partnership* with the unserved folks in our community. Essentially, PUD 3 defines unserved zones that we can reach with the fiber network, and if a specific number of people make a commitment to take service, we’ll extend the network to serve them. The customers who sign-up pay a little extra each month to recover the costs of construction.
CERB RURAL BROADBAND
We’ve also *partnered* with CERB in their Rural Broadband program. Through two applications, we have been approved for approximately $2.8 million in assistance funding: half-grant and half-loan to extend the PUD’s fiber optic network to over 1200 unserved homes and businesses in 12 communities throughout rural Mason County over the next four years.
RECONNECT
Another recent *partnership* we’re working on is through the USDA RUS’ ReConnect program. We got confirmation that PUDs in Washington state, which are restricted to a wholesale-only model, are eligible to apply for federal broadband funding. To that end, we submitted an application to build a fiber-to-the-home network in the unserved neighborhoods of Three Fingers in Grapeview, WA. We haven’t heard whether we’ve been successful or not yet, but we as well as the community(!) are waiting in eager anticipation!
RETAILER PARTNERSHIPS
We’ve had a PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP with our Retail Service Providers for about 20 years.
PUD 3’s fiber network is non-discriminatory and OPEN-ACCESS. We have 5+ Retail Service Providers available to end users. All are based in Washington; several local to Mason County. Larger carriers such as Comcast, CenturyLink, and Wave have been invited to provide services on the network, but they haven’t been interested.
There is a great benefit to Retailers to be on the PUD’s network. They can sell their services to far-reaching areas of our community without having to pay for costly line extension to build their network there.
It’s estimated that our Retailers generate over a half-million dollars in revenue each year based on existing connections.
We’re conservatively estimating $2.6 million in revenue potential for Retailers as a result of the 12-year CERB Rural Broadband expansions.
This is revenue generated from little-to-no capital costs to build fiber plant.
Because PUD’s network is non-discriminatory and OPEN-ACCESS, it’s good for the consumer as well. The Retailers compete to offer the best services at the best prices.
We’re seeing uncapped, symmetrical gigabit internet for $55-$60 per month on the PUD’s network in Mason County – way out in rural areas! I happen to know that’s much better than what a lot of folks in more urban areas have available.
LOW-INCOME PROGRAM
Of course, even gigabit internet at $60/month, is a hardship for some. That’s why PUD 3 created the very first (that we know of) LOW-INCOME FIBER program. This is another great picture of a *public-private partnership*:
Here’s how it works: Qualifying low-income customers receive a $10/month reduction in wholesale costs. We’ve asked our Retailers to *partner* with us and match it with an additional $10/month reduction. They all agreed! Qualifying low-income customers are getting a $20/month discount on the same great gigabit service from our Retailers for LESS THAN the published DSL prices in Mason County! They no longer have to choose between the best residential internet available and frustratingly inadequate DSL service.
RURAL ELECTRIFICATION
I think PUDs are a major part of the Rural Broadband Solution. If you remember back to the 1930s, private power companies were unwilling to make the investment to extend power lines to the rural communities and farms throughout Washington. They essentially left them in the dark.
The people rallied together and passed the very first ballot initiative in the state. Initiative #1 formed Public Utility Districts and Rural Electrification was jolted to life.
These same customers have made cries for PUDs to do the same thing today with the essential utility of high-speed broadband.
Just as we did in the 1930s, we’re responding to the requests of the people- and we’re doing it at-cost with exceptional services.