The next generation of broadband technology is coming to the upper Methow Valley this year, as the Okanogan County Electric Cooperative (OCEC) and its contractors install fiber-optic internet connections to as many as 1,366 homes, from the Chewuch River to Lost River.
Crews were to begin work this week, according to OCEC’s contractor, Shawn VanGeystel of Cannon Construction.
The work should wrap up around Lost River by Dec. 20, VanGeystel said.
OCEC General Manager Greg Mendonca gave OCEC members some good news at a town hall March 17 at the Winthrop Barn: Everything from the main fiber lines — buried in trenches or hanging on poles — to the in-home wiring and router comes at no cost to the co-op or its customer-members.
“Your upfront cost is the first month of internet,” Mendonca told attendees at the town hall. “So that is a great deal. That is a deal that is only possible through grant funding.”
The $15 million project is covered by $14.5 million in grants from the Washington State Broadband Office and another $500,000 from Okanogan County, Mendonca said. Most of the state money came from the 2021 federal American Rescue Plan Act. One of the pandemic relief bill’s goals was to provide high-speed internet to underserved, rural areas.
Mendonca encouraged members to take that deal. If they wait until after this year, customers will need to foot the $500 to $1,000 bill for the router and the installation fee, he said.
Eventually, the existing wireless internet system, fed from a tower on Flagg Mountain, will be turned off, Mendonca added.
Next phases
OCEC and the Okanogan County Public Utility District (PUD) intended to deliver fiber broadband to the entire Methow Valley.
OCEC has a combination of grants and loans from the state Public Works Board to bring fiber to 250 homes from Twisp-Winthrop Eastside Road and Davis Lake Road, north to 8 Mile Ranch. Those connections will be made to customers in 2027 and 2028, Mendonca said.
OCEC and the PUD lost out on a $19.7 million federal grant to reach the rest of the Methow Valley that is without fiber, including areas east and west of the Methow River, between Winthrop and Twisp; and up the Twisp River. That award would have included a $6.6 million state match, according to OCEC.
The federal grant, under the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program (BEAD), made headlines in March of last year, when the Trump administration announced grant applications would be revisited to ensure the federal government took “a tech-neutral approach” to its awards.
National news reports at the time indicated this neutral approach to internet service could take funds away from fiber-optic projects, such as those proposed by OCEC and the PUD, and divert them to satellite systems such as Elon Musk’s Starlink.
“BEAD … went from buzzword to kind of buzz saw,” Mendonca said at the town hall. “We ran into an issue where the federal government changed the rules of the road post-application, and we were not successful.”
The grants for those remaining areas of the Methow Valley ended up going to three providers: Musk’s SpaceX, which delivers Starlink satellites into orbit; Amazon Leo, a SpaceX competitor; and Concept Communications LLC.
It was unclear last week whether Concept Communications had accepted the grant, which would serve 79% of the customers in those areas.
“That doesn’t mean it’s the end of the road,” Mendonca said, referring to the BEAD rejection. “The (OCEC) board is … eager to think about what investment OCEC should be making to build out further distribution with our capital, as opposed to getting it funded by grants.”
“But it is extremely expensive, as you can imagine, to do it on your own,” he added. “Grant funding is really a key to unlock the door to build in these rural and geographically diverse areas.”
For more information on OCEC’s fiber build-out, go to methownet.com.
