Better internet is coming to Columbia County

By Terry Murry on Tuesday, July 20th, 2021 in Columbia Basin News Columbia Basin Top Stories

DAYTON – After years of planning, better internet is coming to Dayton and outlying areas. Last week, representatives from the Port of Columbia traveled to Olympia and made a presentation to the Washington State Community Economic Revitalization Board. Following the presentation, the CERB board awarded $2 million in grant funds requested by the port.

The public/private partnership will enable 1,287 premises (households or businesses) high speed internet connections. The Port of Columbia will be assisted in the project by three committed private partners. They are Columbia REA, Inland Cellular, and PocketiNet Communications.

“The port will build a fiber optic network in the city,” Port of Columbia Executive Director Jennie Dickinson said.

The port will lease the fiber to the private sector internet providers, and they are the ones that will provide service to customers.

“Basically, we build and maintain the roads, and the ISPs drive on it to deliver service,” Dickinson said.

Dickinson added this community broadband project will take some time to engineer and about 18 months to complete but encourages everyone to be patient.

“Speeds of up to 1 gigabyte are coming,” Dickinson said. The total project cost is $2.5 million, and $500,000 must be a local match. On Monday, Dickinson said the port formally requested $100,000 in matching funds from Columbia County. The port will also ask the city of Dayton to contribute $331,500 in matching funds to the project.

Photo via Port of Columbia from the presentation to the state.