Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
DAVENPORT – Lincoln County isn’t known as a hotbed for Internet connectivity and high-speed broadbands, especially in the rural areas. Commissioner Scott Hutsell recognizes this, but also sees ways toward “the future,” which could include a more connected county…both in the towns and on the rural farmlands and ranches.
The way to do that, however, is still rather unknown. Many possibilities exist, but there are seemingly endless factors in place and questions to be answered.
How does the county ensure a fiber connection for everyone in the towns?
How can the county promote private businesses investing in high-speed Internet in rural areas when those companies historically don’t profit by adding those connections?
How involved should county and state government be in the process?
What about Starlink?
Hutsell acknowledges that the answer to most of these questions remains, to be frank, “we don’t know yet.”
Urban connections
Lincoln County’s population is split approximately 55% in towns and 45% in rural areas. Hutsell feels that a fiber connection in cities like Davenport and Odessa, as well as western Lincoln County, should be the ultimate goal.
“Fiber will still be the standard,” Hutsell said. “You’ll never be able to push (connection) as well as you can through glass.”
As with seemingly all of life’s issues, funding for this ultimate goal is a problem. NoaNet, a Washington-based nonprofit that seeks to bring broadband to lower-connection areas, has a network map on its website that advertises networks that run along Highway 2 from Reardan to Wilbur east to west and from Davenport to Adams County along Highway 28 through Odessa, as well as a line several miles north of Highway 2 from Highway 231 north of Reardan to the Grand Coulee Area. However, the map excludes most of the rural area, including Almira and most of Western Lincoln County.
“Almira has no fiber at all,” Hutsell said.
The county, meanwhile, doesn’t have the monies or bond capabilities to fund broadband expansion themselves, and Hutsell recognizes that the low county population means an Internet tax wouldn’t generate enough revenue to completely sponsor widespread, high-speed connections.
“We don’t have the type of monies for this kind of infrastructure,” Hutsell said. “It’s going to take a lot of little projects.”
Another consideration could be to make Internet a utility, Hutsell said.
“But how do you tax it to be able to build it (and) improve it?” he asked. “What would an (Internet utility) company look like?”
Rural connections and Starlink
Fiber may be a possible urban solution, but it isn’t realistic rurally, due to the low profit margin a private company would turn by creating a fiber connection all the way out to the country, Hutsell noted.
Hutsell thinks that local government can get involved in the process of getting broadband connection to rural areas, with the goal of eventually enabling private companies to be incentivized to invest in those areas so the government’s hand can eventually be lessened.
“(Economic Development Council Director) Margie Hall and I talk about it all the time,” Hutsell said. “Who do we push (for funding), and where do we let private companies (invest) and sit back?”
One major private company that could effectively erase any need for government involvement, if it works (that is a big if), is Starlink. Starlink, which claimed last week to have 10,000 users around the world, is a satellite internet constellation currently in the building process by Elon Musk’s company, SpaceX.
Starlink is currently in beta testing phase, but as of this week, some people can sign up to preorder the service, while others have applied to be part of the beta testing, which began in late 2020. On Starlink’s website, one can enter their email and address to get an estimate of when it will be available to them and pay a refundable, $99 deposit. The equipment will be an additional, one-time $499 payment.
The company’s monthly fee will be $99 a month. Starlink reportedly has beta tested at an average of 103 megabits per second and advertises connections between 50-150 MPS.
Bringing Lincoln County to a virtual world
High-speed broadband has gone from a luxury to a necessity, especially in an era of distance learning, remote work and telehealth. Bringing Lincoln County fully into that world is vital for the future, Hutsell said.
“We have to figure out how to reach the canyons,” Hutsell said. “We have to do this with not a lot of resources. How do we get local businesses connected? How do we get hotels to be better in business?...we’re trying to build something that could entice anybody to come down here (and) build for what we need in the future.”
Editor’s note: The Times would like reader’s feedback on this ongoing discussion of broadband in Lincoln County. Please feel free to pen or email notes or thoughts on what solutions you think could help this issue, or any concerns/questions you have about local broadband, to dteditor@centurytel.net. Additionally, The Times is interested to know whether any readers have applied for Starlink beta testing, and whether that application was successful. Again, please email us with that information if you so desire.
Drew Lawson is the editor of the Davenport Times. He is a graduate of Eastern Washington University.
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