PORT TOWNSEND — The city of Port Townsend and community groups have until Friday to apply to go Google.
Internet search and information technology giant Google is hoping to change rural connectivity with its new “Fiber for Communities” program — which will provide fiber Internet connections to between 50,000 and 500,000 homes around the nation at speeds 100 times faster than what is available outside of government and business networks.
The city of Port Townsend is preparing to throw in its application by the Friday deadline.
On the North Olympic Peninsula, the city of Port Angeles and Clallam County, which are already served by broadband, are applying to Google for the “final mile” fiber connectivity Google is offering to homes and small businesses.
The Port Angeles City Council authorized staff to apply for a grant from Google to provide fiber cables for home Internet use last week.
Fiber-optic cables, which can provide ultra-high-speed Internet access, have remained out of reach for home Web users because of their cost.
Each installation would cost Google around an average of $2,000 per home.
The network would be “open,” which means that any phone, cable or Internet provider can offer service. Google representatives said their network will be affordable.
Movies in minutes
What the high-speed network means is having the ability to download full-length movies in minutes or a doctor being able to instantly send images with resolution sharp enough to diagnose a skin condition, for example.
“With ubiquitous high fidelity connections, we could drop in on all kinds of gatherings,” Ned Schumann, president of Internet service provider OlympusNet said in his primer about the Google proposal on the company’s Web site at www.Olympus.net.
“Elderly patients could be interviewed by health givers who could see the tone of their skin, hear the strength of their voice and look at the patient’s demeanor,” he said.
“Small neighborhood schools could take advantage of outstanding teachers drawn from a national pool.”
Schumann, interested residents and the city of Port Townsend are completing an application that faces much competition, with some cities putting on publicity stunts to get Google’s attention.
Google’s Web site says the venture is intended to push home Web use into the next generation with 1-gigabit-per-second connections and expects to announce the community or communities that will host this program sometime this year.
City Manager David Timmons said the Port Townsend’s application for both Google and federal stimulus dollars for a broadband fiber backbone through Jefferson County is like the railroad that fell short of connecting Port Townsend in the late 1800s, instead connecting to Seattle.
“It’s probably going to be a long shot because we don’t have a lot of information that they want,” Timmons said, adding that while the city can tell how many power poles and their ability to carry new technology infrastructure, only Puget Sound Energy knows where all power pole are located.
Nonetheless, Timmons said submitting applications to Google and a separate grant application for federal broadband grant dollars is worth a try.
“The combination of those two would make a powerful demonstration,” Timmons said.
Coalition seeks another grant
Jefferson County Broadband Coalition, meanwhile, has until Friday to apply for a $3.2 million Broadband Technology Opportunities Program grant, economic stimulus dollars to improve Internet technology and service in rural areas.
The coalition is made up of more than 20 government and business entities, including the county, Jefferson County Public Utility Distinct, the city of Port Townsend, Port of Port Townsend, Brinnon, Quilcene, Chimacum and Port Townsend school distinct, the county and city libraries, emergency services, Fort Worden State Park, Jefferson Healthcare hospital and the county courts.
The coalition is moving toward providing the county with a broadband fiber “backbone” and wireless infrastructure “ribs” to remote rural reaches.
Jefferson County is one of 12 regional governments going through Northwest Open Access Network, or NoaNet, and Washington State Department of Information Services, to qualify for the economic stimulus grant dollars.
NoaNet officials in recent weeks have offered help in securing the grant dollars to build a fiber backbone from Port Ludlow to key government facilities, with the future plan of extending it to commercial and residential users through wireless infrastructure.
Both Jefferson County and Clallam County PUDs are members of NoaNet, a registered telecommunications company that represents public utility districts that have linked their fiber optic networks together to achieve economic feasibility in underserved areas.
The Jefferson Coalition project’s first phase, as proposed, would bring broadband technology infrastructure to community services, such as libraries, colleges, cultural centers, key medical centers and government clinics.
The second phase would bring the broadband Internet connectivity to commercial and residential users.
Of the $3.2 million in grant funding, the county would be expected to contribute a 30 percent match in cash and in-kind services.
The primary purpose of the grant, is to build a countywide network linking local governments, law enforcement, emergency services, schools, hospitals and libraries, all key players in the event of a catastrophic disaster.
County Administrator Philip Morley said the county could muster about $250,000 in cash and $500,000 in in-kind contributions.
NoaNet recently was awarded an $84 million federal economic stimulus grant to bridge the digital divide in the coming years, extending its broadband capability to the Clallam County’s most rural reaches, east and west.
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Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
