Grays Harbor Public Utility District (PUD), a wholesale open access telecom utility in Washington state, will soon enter phase four of an ambitious fiber expansion project that will bring affordable next-gen broadband access to rural residents written off by the monopolies that were supposed to serve them.
The PUD tells local news outlet The Daily World that so far it has deployed 85,885 feet of underground fiber, 201,392 feet of aerial fiber, while installing 411 fiber vaults and completing 604 splices across 17,310 labor hours.
The PUD also states that Phase 4 of the PUD’s fiber internet expansion in south Elma, Porter and Cedarville will be reached later this Spring, bringing access to locals who have been waiting for years for faster, more reliable, and more affordable service. Many folks in these target areas of Grays Harbor County have never seen broadband access at all.
“The only thing was quite a bit of underground construction, and toward the northern part of the project, there’s a lot of private lanes,” Sara Travers, telecom business coordinator with the Grays Harbor PUD, told the outlet. “But everybody has been very eager and accepting because they’re very excited to get broadband.”
Grays Harbor PUD had historically made several unsuccessful bids to obtain Public Works Board grants through the Department of Commerce, before receiving a $6.9 million broadband expansion grant from the Washington State Broadband Office in 2023.
That $6.9 million grant is helping the PUD – in partnership with Paramount Communications – run fiber along State Route 12, using existing utility poles to expand the service possibilities for customers in South Elma, Porter, Cedarville, and surrounding areas.
Like so many parts of the U.S., the Grays Harbor project was motivated, in part, by widespread dissatisfaction with unreliable, expensive broadband during the home education and telecommunications boom during COVID lockdowns.
“Before the pandemic, we were hearing stories from people who had to drive into Elma to make an online order,” PUD Core Services Director Rob Hanny said at the time of the original grant award. “Once COVID began, hundreds of customers had to do the same thing in order to go to work, go to school, check email, hold online meetings, and keep doctor’s appointments.
People were asked to live their lives online and the system was not in place to provide that. Utilities across the state are trying to make sure that doesn’t happen again.”
Grays Harbor PUD was one of 16 Washington utilities chosen by the Washington State Broadband Office to receive grant funding during the 2023 award period, largely made possible by the 2021 American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA).
Once Grays Harbor PUD’s expansion is complete, the PUD is expected to lease fiber access to roughly a dozen Internet service providers, serving more than 504 new locations. These potential locations have until September 1 to apply for connection, giving the PUD enough time to ensure that fiber drops and equipment installation is completed before Oct. 31.
When Grays Harbor PUD originally applied for the Washington State Broadband Office grant, they had estimated 40 percent of the 504 residents and businesses in the target areas would submit an initial application.
“We are double what we thought we were going to be,” Travers told The Daily World.
Inline image of Greys Harbor PUD aerial fiber construction courtesy of Greys Harbor PUD Facebook page
