Peninsula being woven with broadband fiber lines to up Internet in far reaches

The Clallam County Public Utility District is hanging broadband fiber lines and antennas on electrical transmission poles from existing fiber in Port Angeles to Sappho and Forks.

A microwave system will be built, originating in Port Angeles and ending at Neah Bay, with a repeater site to be located near Clallam Bay.

All three sites will use existing buildings and towers, but the Neah Bay end of the project is being redesigned.

“There have been some challenges in the new design,” said An­gela Bennink, marketing and outreach manager for NoaNet, the nonprofit open-access broadband network that is working in partnership with Clallam, Jefferson and 14 other public utility districts in the state to provide reliable high-speed connectivity throughout the state using federal economic stimulus grants.

NoaNet — which stands for Northwest Open Access Network — is a wholesale-only carrier that works with retail service providers to deliver broadband service to customers.

Bennink explained that the original design was to have two microwave dishes on Coast Guard towers in Neah Bay.

However, Coast Guard leadership changed there and the new administration objected to the size of the proposed dishes.

A new option is under consideration, she said.

Clallam PUD's Sequim-to-Blyn broadband project, which was finished in April, includes some fiber lines and a new wireless microwave link across Sequim Bay.

The city of Port Angeles project will provide access to high-speed broadband on wireless infrastructure on existing city light standards and electrical system poles.

It is a dual-band wireless system that will support both a secure public safety network and a public access network serving a number of locations within the city limit.

“It is not economically practical to bring fiber to every home,” said Port Angeles Police Chief Terry Gallagher, who is overseeing $2.6 million federal grant-funded “mesh network” wireless system under construction inside the city limit.

The city already has more than 80 miles of broadband fiber in place, and wireless routers will, in effect, broadcast connectivity.

“It's going to be a tremendous benefit to the public safety community,” Gallagher said.

“From our perspective, it brings huge efficiencies to our [communication] system.”

For example, he said, police officers now use a radio dispatch system that allows only one officer to speak at a time.

Wireless broadband will allow all public safety representatives to talk at once, plus use laptop computers at the same time anywhere in the city.

The Port Angeles wireless system is designed so if one router goes down, it will automatically reroute without interrupting the link, Gallagher said.

“All routers talk to one another,” he said. “If one goes down, the mesh figures it out and reconnects through another router.”

CPI of Port Angeles is installing the citywide wireless system.

Internet service provider OlyPen plans to charge between $17.95 and $37.95 per month for access, depending on speed, which will range from 1.5 to 6 megabits per second.

One-hour free access will be offered every day. Access also will be free for 24 hours 12 days a year. Those days are yet to be determined.