A June 21 press release from Senator Maria Cantwell’s office regarding a $11.7 million grant to Whidbey Telecom has some recipients scratching their heads. According to the release, “The $11.7 million award will fund the construction, improvement, and acquisition of middle mile infrastructure for the residents of Point Roberts, Lummi Nation, Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, and surrounding areas.”
The release goes on to state: “Overall, the project includes 47.6 miles of new terrestrial underground fiber and 63.1 miles of undersea fiber, connecting all 80,000 Whidbey Island residents, 5,000 residents of Lummi Nation, 17,000 residents of San Juan County, 1,200 unserved residents of Point Roberts, and thousands more households in mainland Northwest Whatcom County.”
Continuing on, the release said the grant will help connect all 2,164 Blaine school district students and connect “11 anchor institutions, like schools, libraries, healthcare providers, community colleges, public media, public housing and other community organizations, six of which are currently unserved.”
The problem is, the release doesn’t say how this will be accomplished. According to Whidbey’s website, it only services Point Roberts and south Whidbey Island. Requests for clarification made by the All Point Bulletin to Senator Cantwell’s office and Whidbey Telecom received no response before going to press.
U.S. Representative Rick Larsen’s office released a similar press release on June 18. Asked to clarify whether the funding was a grant or a loan, Larsen aide Joseph Tutino confirmed June 29 that it was indeed a grant. He referred other questions to Whidbey Telecom.
The All Point Bulletin contacted Whidbey’s marketing and communication director Martha Ford on June 22 and received the following in response:
Asked what the “middle mile” program meant in relation to Point Roberts, Ford wrote, “The announcement from NTIA might help you better understand what the ‘middle mile’ means in terms of high-speed internet infrastructure investment.
“In very broad terms, the middle mile connects remote markets to major networks. It is not individual connectivity, it is the infrastructure that connects the rural or island markets to the national infrastructure so larger amounts of data can be transported over longer distances at higher speeds.
“Whidbey Telecom has expertise in connecting rural areas with submarine and terrestrial fiber. This loan will enable Whidbey Telecom to begin the process of engineering this very complex construction project that will have both land and sea fiber installation.
“We do not currently have a plan that we can publicly share and as with the grant programs we are in receipt of, for this loan there are very specific and detailed compliance particulars that have to be established by the agency providing the funding.
“We will have more information available soon. Suffice it to say, we are thrilled with the support that the county, state, and federal representatives have shown Whidbey Telecom. The confidence and trust that they and the Lummi Nation have placed in us is humbling and we are excited to start the next planning stage.”
The All Point Bulletin has reached out to Mark Vasconi, head of Washington state’s broadband office for details on this grant but had not heard back from him by time of going to press.
Vasconi spoke during a White House press conference on June 23 about the various broadband projects being initiated as a result of President Biden’s $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill passed in 2021.
Democratic politicians across the country have been loudly touting local projects recently.
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