The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

DAYTON - Imagine downloading a music album in five seconds or a one-hour TV show in half a minute at home or the library. Or picture going to Dayton General Hospital and having your doctor share your X-rays with another medical expert in Walla Walla or Spokane so you don't have to drive all the way there.

Such conveniences aren't too far into the future because plans are in the works to make Waitsburg and Dayton stops on a new fiber optic super highway that will bring high-speed broadband to rural communities throughout the state.

Some compare the effort, paid for by federal stimulus money, to the arrival of electricity to homes in the Touchet Valley after President Franklin Roosevelt signed the Rural Electrification Act in 1936.

"I think this is a great big deal that's going to open up a whole new world for us," said Janet Lyon, director of the Columbia County Rural Library. "You will be able to do so much more."

The force behind the fiber optics highway is the Tacoma-based Northwest Open Access Network or NoaNet, an organization formed by the state's Public Utility Districts that "have linked their fiber optics networks to achieve economic feasibility in underserved areas," according to its website.

"It's a quality of life opportunity," said Chris Walker, operations manager for NoaNet's regional office in Spokane. "It's very similar to the REA."

NoaNet is building a fiber optic infrastructure stretching 1,600 miles across the state. The Touchet Valley route east starts in the Pasco/Burbank area, runs down to Walla Walla and follows Highway 12 to Waitsburg, Dayton and Pomeroy on its way to the Lewiston/Clarkston area.

NoaNet has contacted local governments to line up franchise agreements through their towns. The Dayton City Council on Monday night approved its first reading of the non-exclusive arrangement with the nonprofit group and has scheduled a public hearing it at its next meeting on Aug. 22.

"It would give more access to everybody," Mayor Craig George said.

NoaNet representatives have had discussions with the City of Waitsburg as well, though City Clerk Randy Hinchliffe said he has not yet received the technical information from the organization to get the franchise approval process going.

NoaNet's primary goal is to hook up government entities, such as libraries, hospitals, schools and so on. But the organization, which installs its fiber optic lines underground or on existing utility poles, is a wholesaler of internet access, not a retailer.

That's where private firms such as PocketInet, Qwest and other carriers come in, and from there even smaller providers.

" This should give me a chance to offer more bandwidth now than anyone thought imaginable," said Danny Cole, owner of Touchet Valley Communications, which now offers high speed wireless internet to its local customers.

The NoaNet "highway" would allow companies like Touchet Valley to hard wire its customers for as many as 100 megabits per second, he said. "That's going to increase my business tremendously."

Lyon said her library is participating in the state's library's "Libraries At Light Speed" project, which brings the NoaNet connection to the doorsteps of 100 libraries. The $183 million in stimulus funds NoaNet received will also help wire K-12 schools, healthcare facilities and hospitals, and public safety and governmental entities.

Lyon said the library in Dayton now has six work stations with internet access and offers WiFi to customers bringing in their own computers. One way the library can expand its services to users once its capacity is larger with the NoaNet connection is through the addition of a teleconferencing setup, but plans for that depend on funding and board approval, she said.

It's unclear when all these entities will be able to plug into the NoaNet infrastructure. Walker estimated it may take up to nine months to install the lines after NoaNet receives all its approvals from local councils, such as Waitsburg and Dayton.

Preliminary estimates put the arrival of the NoaNet fiber optics infrastructure at the end of 2012 or early 2013. The bulk of the lines will run underground with the exception of areas within city limits, where they likely will be mounted to utility poles.