Take Coke versus Pepsi for instance. You can go practically anywhere in the country - in the world for that matter — and pay about the same price for a can of Coke as you will for a can of Pepsi.

Why? The distribution channels of the planet’s two leading soft drinks are so well established and their brands so well known that there is virtually no price competition between them. The competition instead lies in how the two products are marketed and what nuances, if any, makes consumers prefer one drink over another. Telecommunications, as we now know it, is just the opposite, says Walker.

Unlike Coke and Pepsi, a consumer in Seattle will pay far less for broadband, high-speed Internet services such as Digital Subscriber Lines (DSL) than people living in Poulsbo, Wenatchee or Port Orchard.

It’s simple economics, explains Walker, an operations manager for Northwest Open Access Network (NoaNet). It’s cheaper and more efficient for telecommunications providers such as Qwest to place new technologies such as fiber optics cabling into areas that are more densely populated versus rural locations where the homes and businesses are further apart.

NoaNet, a non-profit publicly-funded organization, is trying to bridge the digital divide by bringing advanced high-speed telecom services to rural areas. It’s financed by 16 public utility districts in Oregon and Washington, including Kitsap PUD #1 in Poulsbo, and leasing 2000 miles of “public purpose” right of way to create its far flung network.

When its local portion is completed, residents and businesses in Kitsap County will have access to the same package of broadband services as their counterparts in Seattle and the East side for about the same price.

“We won&Mac226;t survive without true broadband,” Walker says. “This is a key tool for economic development, for schools, libraries, hospitals, judicial systems, etc. It’s a cost-effective tool for communities.”

The PUD is working in concert with NoaNet, the Bonneville Power Administration strands and Puget Sound Energy to string its fiber optic lines - capable of moving thousands of bits of data compared with conventional telephone wires — from the Bremerton National Airport to Bremerton to Silverdale, Poulsbo, and Kingston and eventually to Port Orchard and Bainbridge Island.

The local utility hopes to get started on the first leg of its ambitious project - from the airport to Kingston — in the next 30 days and complete it sometime this summer.

NoaNet and its public utility partners are building the infrastructure — much like a superhighway — on which high-speed broadband services will be delivered to Incumbent Local Exchange Carriers, such as Qwest and Sprint, or local Internet Service Providers such as Northwest Network Services or Telebyte Northwest.

Those companies, in turn, will provide the so-called “last mile” services to Kitsap homes and businesses. “We&Mac226;re not a retailer, we&Mac226;re a wholesaler,” says John Armstrong, Kitsap PUD commissioner. “There’s someone between us and the customer.”

“NoaNet and the PUDs&Mac226; core competencies are infrastructure,” adds Walker. “We&Mac226;re smart enough to know what we’re good at and (infrastructure) is what we’re good at.”

Kitsap PUD’s wholesale broadband network might not have gotten off the ground if wasn’t for the work accomplished in the past two and half years by the Kitsap Regional Telecommunications Committee. The ad hoc group, spearheaded by the Economic Development Council and supported by telecom providers, area politicians and technology executives, is moving into a new phase.

Led by Poulsbo City Councilman and EDC board member Ed Stern, the once free-flowing committee has became more formal, selecting a group of 20 local industry leaders, citizens, politicians and economic development experts to pursue Kitsap’s dream of a wired county.

The group’s goal is to:

• Inform Kitsap businesses about the county’s
  telecommunications assets.
• Demonstrate the advantages telecommunications
  can bring to Kitsap businesses, residents and the
  county’s civic life.
• Facilitate the many aspects of hooking up to
  “the last mile” to end users.
• And, educate public leaders and policy makers
  about the benefits and needs of
  telecommunications in the county.

   “The premise of the committee is that ferries and bridges aren’t the answer, and that we don’t want to be a bedroom community,” says Stern. “We’ve maintained all along that telecommunications can provide the high paying, high-tech jobs we all desire. This committee, in a more formal state, will keep those fires burning.”

The telecom committee is planning to meet at various locations throughout the county on the second Thursday of every month. For more information about the committee and its activities call Andrea Olson at the EDC, (360) 479-3712.

(Editor’s Note: Kevin Dwyer is a Bainbridge Island free-lance writer).