dslreports logo
Rural Broadband in Washington
Start-ups, economic boon, follow to wired communities

Om Malik points to an article in the Sunday Seattle Times Pacific Northwest Magazine. "Outsourced Within", notes the wide broadband coverage in rural Washington, exploring its economic and social ramifications.

The Methow Valley, along with the rest of rural Washington, is now wired. The same technology that makes it possible to outsource to India and the Philippines is changing the labor landscape closer to home. Thanks to broadband, specks on the map now have the potential to be cyber kingdoms and server farms, data portals and telecommuting perches.

Companies that once looked across the Pacific for cheap tech labor are starting to set up shop in unexpected rural locales. It's less expensive than doing business in American cities, they say, without the language or culture hurdles often found overseas.

When cities like Lafayette, LA entice companies with the attempt at overcoming obstacles to bring in a fiber backbone, it shouldn't surprise that Winthrop, WA (pop 351) can actually succeed with the infrastructure in place. "You're talking about an economic base that wasn't here before," says Maria Converse, who, with husband Jeff Hardy runs Methownet.com, one of the valley's three (yes, three!) Internet-service providers for a population of 5,000. "Ideally in a global world, people have choices about where they want to live and work — whether that would be Queen Anne Hill or a wheat field or the Methow," says Bill Gillis, director of the Center to Bridge the Digital Divide. "Broadband enables the opportunity."
view:
topics flat nest 

FFH5
Premium Member
join:2002-03-03
Tavistock NJ

4 edits

FFH5

Premium Member

Nice to see business going to US companies and citizens

Nice to see some business that has mostly gone to India or Pakistan or China or Ireland coming to US companies and US citizens. If American workers are still going to have a shot at a Middle Class lifestyle, the higher paid tech jobs have to stay in the US and not be exported overseas. See this interactive map to see where jobs were being outsourced to: »www.cio.com/offshoremap/

Also, setting up in rural areas brings a potential pool of educated employees who usually have a good work ethic.

rit56
join:2000-12-01
New York, NY

1 edit

rit56

Member

Re: Nice to see business going to US companies and citizens

how do you suppose large cities might overcome their blight? welfare? you are unbelievable. maybe if cities wired themselves with broadband for all and not just wealthy white folk then their economic situation might turn around. ever consider that? ever wonder why New York is the richest most powerful city in the United States? because when they built the subway system it reached all neighborhoods, not just wealthy white ones. maybe you can draw a parallel. what do you think? wire a whole city and opportunity abounds for anyone with ambition. give people access and see what happens...
PDXPLT
join:2003-12-04
Banks, OR

1 recommendation

PDXPLT

Member

Re: Nice to see business going to US companies and citizens

said by rit56:

how do you suppose large cities might overcome their blight? welfare? you are unbelievable.
So you're saying that rural Americans can't have jobs until all those in our h*ll-hole cities do?

You're right: living in a place like NYC can be pretty bad. So, as is so often said on this site: if you don't like it, move.
prack
join:2003-08-31
Columbus, OH

prack

Member

Companies that are Rural Sourcing

And check out »www.ruralsource.com/ for an example of a US company that is helping to pull this together.

Phil
Techman21
join:2005-04-14
Richmond, VA

Techman21

Member

...until the telcos come in

These types of deals won't last long as rural areas develop and the big 4 come in to put them out of business.

Also keep in mind that these companies still pay fees to the likes of Verizon, Sprint, AT&T for the backbone.

I work for a small ISP and can't begin to tell you the things the telco has done in the past. Granted most of these things aren't purposeful, but the way in which the treated the issues was horrible.

firephoto
Truth and reality matters
Premium Member
join:2003-03-18
Brewster, WA

firephoto

Premium Member

Re: ...until the telcos come in

Those businesses up the valley (Methow) are mostly serviced by the Okanogan County Public Utility District's Telecom division.

nightdesigns
Gone missing, back soon
Premium Member
join:2002-05-31
AZ

nightdesigns

Premium Member

It really has taken off there.

I have family that lives in Wintrhop and in the past few years they've received high speed internet. Actually, they had high speed internet before they had cell coverage.

Most of it is fueled there because a lot of the execs from Microsoft and the Seattle Times have weekend homes there. Since the addition of bandwith, several companies have moved in and a few call centers are in the works. It has actually helped the economy quite a bit in what was a tourist town.

dks7
join:2004-05-31
Omak, WA

1 recommendation

dks7

Member

Re: It really has taken off there.

I live in Okanogan county and know its wireless privider by heart ncidata.com which in my opinion is way over priced and always has been. Now we have cable and dsl options yet people still continue to use the wireless.

firephoto
Truth and reality matters
Premium Member
join:2003-03-18
Brewster, WA

firephoto

Premium Member

Re: It really has taken off there.

said by dks7:

I live in Okanogan county and know its wireless privider by heart ncidata.com which in my opinion is way over priced and always has been. Now we have cable and dsl options yet people still continue to use the wireless.
I had the same wireless from ncidata.com (now swift-stream.com), the uptime was terrible and the customer support was pretty incompetent or else they were hoping the customer was incompetent.

Verizon has dsl in the south county area (distance permitting), and I do believe most all the telco providers have dsl in the other areas.

The other wireless service offered via the Okanogan PUD's retailers is pretty slow but is better than dial-up obviously, and it covers areas in Pateros, Brewster, Wakefield, Okanogan, Omak, Tonasket, and Oroville I believe.

To get an actual fiber hookup you need to be within 3000 feet of a node, and most of those are within or close to the cities. Perhaps with some more demand they would install more nodes but right now they are pushing their wireless instead which doesn't cover the need for a lot of people.

rawgerz
The hell was that?
Premium Member
join:2004-10-03
Grove City, PA

rawgerz to nightdesigns

Premium Member

to nightdesigns
It would surprise me if the people that are served are spread out to 5-10 houses per mile of road, if this is a town of 5K people with most houses 25ft apart then what's so 'rural' about it?
algolly
join:2003-08-28
New York, NY

algolly

Member

another WA advantage

over CA is reliable power. WA has much hydro.
bozobatiste
join:2006-08-02
Port Angeles, WA

bozobatiste

Member

Methow is flat and treeless

We cover a much bigger area in WW than methow with 150' trees.

8m/4m for 39.95

Jerm
join:2000-04-10
Richland, WA
·Ziply Fiber

Jerm

Member

Hey we made the news!

Unfortunatly even though all the rural communities around us have local PUD fiber the city I live in (Richland [Tri-Cities], the third largest population area in WA outside Seattle & Spokane) has nothing but Verizon DSL and Charter cable modems. Boo! Sure there are a couple WISPs, but I don't consider them major competition (1.5mbit for the price I'd pay for 3mbit VZ or Charter service). Now 1.5hrs north of here in Moses Lake they have fiber to each home!

All I can hope for is that VZ brings in Fios. And yeah the cost of living here is pretty cheap. I just bought a 2000sq ft 4 bedroom home brand new home on a golf course for $160K, and our electric rates are $0.057 kwh (almost 1/4 of NYC). Oh and I work for a high tech company, so yeah that part of the article is pretty accurate. Heck even Amazon opened up a call center here. But for those really cheap they go to Idaho (min wage in WA is $7ish while Idaho is still $5ish).