Quality telecommunications and broadband access are as critical to economic development in the new millennium as rail and air service were in the 20th century. To guarantee that access, rural areas like Bainbridge Island as well as the rest of Kitsap County, must step up and take action on their own rather than waiting for telephone companies to finally getting around to meeting their needs. In other words, don’t wait on Qwest. That was the loud and clear message delivered to approximately 100 attendees at the recent Bainbridge Economic Vitality Conference, held at Wing Point Country Club. The conference was sponsored by the Bainbridge Economic Council and the Kitsap Regional Economic Development Council (KREDC).

“Rural areas all over America are being wired,” said telecommunications consultant Mark Lacy. “If you are not, you will not even be in the game for business relocations.”

Poulsbo City Council member Ed Stern, a member of the KREDC board, was instrumental in the formation of its telecom committee which is comprised of local telecommunications industry professionals, the media, and representatives of Kitsap high-tech firms, all working together to bring the broadband infrastructure needed to compete for 21st century jobs to Kitsap County. He drove home the point that when economic development is based on telecommunications, it takes cars and people off the road and doesn’t require new construction, which would allow Bainbridge to once again be the rural island community that most residents desire it to be.
Stern reiterated what he has said many times in other forums, “When Kitsap County started looking east for jobs, what used to be an asset — being surrounded by water — became a liability.”

Electronic commerce can provide family-wage, community-based jobs, and can let you be a whole island economy like you were 100 years ago.”

Stern passionately hammered on the issue of preoccupation with ferries and roads being an example of fighting the wrong war, stressing that it drives more Kitsap County residents to work on the other side of the sound.

“Where we work, we also tend to spend, so sales tax revenue would decline — putting more pressure on property taxes to support local services.” He added that communities also suffer a loss of leadership and involvement when people spent their time elsewhere.

The speakers explained how the full monty of telecommunications — and especially high-capacity broad-band with the ability to transmit voice, data and video are essential to economic growth, and how the largest problem with providing these services is what is known in the industry as “the last mile.” Even with high-capacity fiber-optic lines in place, tying individual homes and businesses into the network becomes the challenge.

POTS, an acronym for “plain old telephone service” is the most common “last mile” connection. But Qwest’s regional community affairs director Jane Nishita noted that POTS was designed for an era of three-minute voice calls, not for 24/7 on-line access and transmission of large amounts of data.

How all these factors impact Bainbridge, and possible solutions, were explained by several of the speakers.

Nishita said Qwest is marshaling a group of what it calls “remote terminals,” for deployment on Bainbridge. These have the ability to extend the range where high-capacity digital subscriber line (DSL) service is available past the current three-mile radius of Qwest’s Madison Avenue central office.

But Bob Malecki, owner of Northwest Network Services, which is located on the island, noted that even within that service radius, only about half the homes on the island can actually get the service because the original copper wiring can only accommodate low-capacity voice traffic.

And Lacy was certain that Bainbridge isn’t real high on Qwest’s upgrade list either. “There are only 20,000 people on Bainbridge compared to over half a million in Seattle,” he said. “There is almost no competition on Bainbridge, so Qwest simply has no incentive to move rapidly, and from its point of view, that’s a rational decision.”

He strongly urged Bainbridge to take action to seize control its future, and suggested the possibilities of forming a local utility district to offer telecommunications service, and perhaps, the creation of a new local telephone company.

Port Angeles, a town remotely located at the northern end of the Olympic Peninsula that fell victim to the decline of the timber industry, was held up as an example of taking control of the future.

The city considered a number of options including a municipal telecommunications utility — such as Lacy proposed for Bainbridge. However, the city elected to partner with the local phone company and internet service providers and established a pilot project that had the city pay for 20 miles of fiber-optic line running to local businesses.

The conference speakers generally agreed that upgraded communications infrastructure is critical to economic growth. However, the question of technology advancing so rapidly that what is state-of-the-art today being obsolete tomorrow was clearly on everyone’s mind. But one thing was clear — no matter what technology does, the status quo is no longer an option.