By Laura Furr Mericas

Eight years ago, when Anacortes residents were asked what they wanted most from their city, the response was almost universal: broadband internet service.

“We thought it was going to be as simple as talking to the incumbent [providers] and saying, ‘Please invest resources in our community to help provide your customers better internet offerings,” says the city’s administrative services director, Emily Schuh. But due to Anacortes’s small size (population: 17,000) and its location (on Fidalgo Island), the incumbent providers declined.

So Anacortes became an internet service provider itself. The city built its own high-speed fiber-optic network, installing its first customer in March 2020; now Access, the city’s municipality-owned broadband network, serves around 1,000 residents and businesses in three pilot areas, offering high-speed internet access (with symmetrical upload and download speeds from 100 Mbps to 1 Gbps) for between $39 and $149 a month. With 40 percent of all internet users in the pilot project area subscribing to the service—netting upward of $58,000 in revenue each month—the city has begun to expand its fiber network with the goal to be in every neighborhood so that potential users throughout the entire city can sign up.

“Initially, we thought that it was a valuable offering to our hospitals, to our teachers and students, to people who are teleworking, and then COVID hit all these years later,” Schuh explains, noting that the service has also helped bring new business to the Port of Anacortes. “It became more of an everyday conversation. We really view broadband as essential infrastructure. It’s not an extra anymore.”

The city dived headfirst into the internet waters in 2017, when Anacortes contracted Northwest Open Access Network (NOANet) to engineer the fiber backbone that would support a city-owned broadband network. Then it developed a unique business plan and financial model that would allow the city to build, own, and operate Access as its own ISP, requiring an investment of $13 million over five years.

“Building a fiber network or creating an internet service provider can’t be just a good idea from an employee; you really need the champion to be your elected officials,” Schuh says. “Having the buy-in from our mayor and councilmembers really helps to provide the kind of long-term support for overcoming hurdles.”

We really view broadband as essential infrastructure. It’s not an extra anymore.

The biggest hurdle that Schuh and Access’s team of 10 currently face is that they can’t get Access into homes fast enough—1,500 residents who have signed up for the service are still waiting for the fiber expansion to arrive in their neighborhoods. And the feedback from those currently online with Access mostly has been positive.

“Our customers love to work with a provider who knows their neighborhood,” Schuh says. “We check in after we’ve put a customer in service, and people really like the ability to talk to somebody local.”

For more information: anacorteswa.gov