Bellingham

Bellingham has a rich history in telecommunications.  The area has been a test market for many companies due to it’s proximity to the border, and geographical basin for testing wireless signal performance.

Public Fiber Optic Networks
Port of Bellingham HTCI – Open Fiber Network
City of Bellingham – Privatized after purchase from Whatcom PUD Infinet

Private Fiber Optic Networks
Black Rock Cable – Dark Fiber

History
The city has been through several attempts at a fiber network dating back to the mid 90’s.

In 1995 the Port of Bellingham implemented a dark fiber network throughout it’s harbor properties in order to spur development.  The project was named the High Technology Communications Infrastructure HTCI.  At that time no one was willing to invest in the project and the Port purchased an OC-3 from Qwest and distributed T1 out to the outlying properties (Fairhaven, Airport etc) to start showing the community how to make use of the network.  In 1996  CSS Communications stepped forward with a plan to build a private/public partnership.  Through many drafts the two came to an agreement and CSS launched the first fiber optic partnership.  The agreement would have the Port of Bellingham maintain the dark fiber paths with high costs and long term depreciation, and CSS would provide the fiber switches and routers, network engineering, deployment and sales staff.  The project is still a success and now has additional providers including OpenAccess, and Black Rock Cable.

Many companies jumped in during the Dot-Com era including Fibercloud,  Emergency Reporting, The Learning Station, Attachmate, and Third Eye.  They were able to receive service at 100Mbps speeds before DSL had even been deployed in the area, and cable services were not available.

In 2002 Avista Communications opened a new Central Office in Bellingham to provide competitive dial tone and long distance services to the market, not just a reseller but a direct provider of high quality telecom services.  The company built a $2 million dollar data center and built a fiber ring around Bellingham to provide services.

At the same time the public was becoming increasingly interested in the public option for fiber optics.  The Washington State Public Utility districts began to support a large scale build out and implementation.  The Chelan and Grant county PUD’s led the way, and a new PUD was formed called NoaNet, providing long haul services across the state.  Tacoma’s clicknet was also built in this timeframe.

In Bellingham the Whatcom County PUD stepped in on a project called Infinet.  The project was a huge effort to provide lighted fiber and resell these services to resellers.  The PUD spent the first year gathering data, hiring telecom consultants, and forecasting demand, meanwhile with little being accomplished in fiber build out.  That same year Avista communications (post Dot-Bust) had problems and closed down their new Central Office, this became the perfect opportunity for the PUD and they purchased their fiber network, and assumed the colocation facility.  Unfortunately with almost all of the money spent having gone to equipment purchases that were in mothballs and consultants there was little to the network other than prospects, and dreams of the future.  A new company was formed from a small whatcom county cable company.  Black Rock Cable came into the picture with the plans to sell Indefeasible Rights of Use or IRU’s to a fiber network in the area under Open Video franchises.  This increased pressure on the PUD to deliver customers, the commission decided to close the PUD’s existing methodology, and the providers from the Port of Bellingham network came forward with a plan to save the network.  CSS and OpenAccess began deploying fiber in cooperation with the PUD.

The fiber network was finally expanding around Bellingham, new complexes were being added to the network, companies were starting to see the benefit of the fiber, and the School district began to connect their locations.  Through the cooperation of the PUD, the Port of Bellingham, the City of Bellingham’s Public Works department, and the providers contribution of time and deployment staff the network expanded to Cordata, Fairhaven, the Airport and the Bakerview spur area.

Unfortunately due to increased pressure by Black Rock Cable and past debts incurred by the PUD during their Consulting phase, the commissioners of the PUD decided to close the network, and sell the fiber network to the City of Bellingham. The City of Bellingham shut the network down disbanding the existing network providers agreements, and terminating all connections.  The fiber network is still used for the School District, the Washington State Department of Transportation, Western Washington University, Whatcom County, and the City of Bellingham’s Public Works SCADA network, and the Cities Information Technologies department access to Fibercloud.  All providers lost their extensions and the companies were forced to move off the network.  The availability off a public network started this investment and extensive development of telecom servcies in Bellingham, unfortunately that is no longer available.

The Collocation facility was sold to CSS Communications as a new corporate location, and they continue to offer collocation services.  The fiber network continues to run through this location today.  The facility has matured with several competitive telecommunications providers, and is connected via a ring to Seattle.  Current providers located at the facility include AT&T, Black Rock Cable, CSS Communications, NoaNet, Noel Communications, OpenAccess, and several cellular and wireless carriers.