Dayton County, Washington, broadband service coming in early 2023

After years of planning, the Port of Columbia is in the final stages of bringing broadband internet to households in Dayton and the surrounding areas of Columbia County (WA). Once the network is complete, every household in the Dayton city limits with have access to the paid service by early 2023. “We will be able to extend out about three miles from the city of Dayton to the outer parts of the town,” Port of Columbia Executive Director Jennie Dickinson said. “We are a little bit ahead of the game compared to other counties that are doing the same thing with broadband.” According to Dickinson, 231,000 feet of fiber optic cable is scheduled for delivery in July 2022 that eventually will be strung to power poles across the area bringing broadband access to households. The port came to an agreement with Pacific Corp to use the power poles and hired the company Zero dB to plan construction. The designs should be ready by the end of July 2022, and construction companies will start bidding on the project then. The two internet service providers (ISPs) that have shown interest in taking the lead with broadband internet are Columbia iConnect and Emerge by Inland Cellular, Dickinson said. The Port of Columbia will own the fiber optic network, and the ISPs will provide the actual internet service to the customer.