| Mason County PUD No. 3’s telecommunications department teamed up with the Northwest Open Access Network (NoaNet). This provided cell phone and data communications links for firefighters and managers working to control the Tripod Complex fires in North-Central Washington.
NoaNet has an extensive fiber optic network through rural areas of Washington State, which provide a long-haul connection for digital voice transmission from Seattle to the Columbia River near Bridgeport, where IntraSpectrum provided a wireless connection for the balance of the link to the Winthrop area. PUD 3 had several pieces of equipment on hand, called IP Tubes that adapt T1 signals to data that can be transported over Internet and then delivered as T1 signals at the far end. PUD configured the equipment and NoaNet had provided the necessary connections to make the long transmission of critical cellular phone calls and data possible. |
