Pierce County Moves Toward Broadband For All

TACOMA, WA — The Pierce County Council on Tuesday took a big step forward toward making broadband internet available to all county residents by adopting a resolution that will spur a variety of actions over the next three months.

With unanimous approval of Resolution R2019-74, the council showed its support for developing a plan to install broadband infrastructure not just in the county's most populated areas but also in its rural sectors, where many unincorporated county residents feel left behind by other corporate internet providers.

"The Digital Divide has grown so large that many of our residents have been left behind," Councilmember Derek Young said in a prepared statement from the council. "To secure our economic future, the county must ensure everyone has access to high-speed broadband."

The council reportedly wants to see speeds of one gigabyte per second (Gbps) available in urban areas and at least 100 megabytes per second (Mbps) in rural areas. According to a resident on Anderson Island, her current internet provider only offers download speeds of 1.2 Mbsp, which she identified as 10 times slower than "real broadband."

Identifying Anderson Island as a Pierce County stepchild, the resident goes on to say other internet providers available in the area "will not spend a dime to improve the service to this rural market despite the fact the demand has risen exponentially in the last 10 years."

"Seems to me the internet is now the necessary newer technology, akin to electricity 150 years ago. I certainly can't get along without it as, like many here, I have a small home business," the resident wrote to the council. "We need something like the vigorous rural electrification program of the (1930s), for acceptable internet access."

In its resolution, the council identified the following actions it intends to implement over the next 90 days:

• Develop a broadband strategic plan;
• Initiate a broadband stakeholder engagement process to solicit the opinions, needs and expertise of community members, businesses, broadband providers, institutions, and other stakeholders;
• Revise existing county policies, standards and code to remove barriers to broadband delivery;
• Hire a contract, limited duration employee to support the initiative; and
• Seek out sources of funding.

According to the council, the adoption of county-wide broadband will hypothetically improve economic opportunities for residents by providing a new choice for internet at higher speeds and a lower cost than offered by the currently available private providers — especially to the otherwise lesser-served parts of the county.

For more information on the broadband study that fueled the council's vote this week, visit piercecountywa.gov/broadband.