Northwest broadband company says new fiber network ready for use in Naches
NACHES--Not everyone here in Yakima County has access to high quality internet speeds.
But now, a local community that had one of the slowest wills now have one of the fastest in the county.
"We're bringing multi-gig speed internet to Naches,"
Ziply Fiber recently announced its new fiber-optic network is ready for service in the Naches area.
They will now offer 2 -gig and 5-gig internet speeds to about 350 addresses in Naches, and they say speeds like this will compete with any metro city in the country.
"Naches will literally have the fastest internet of anywhere in the country which is pretty cool if you think about it because we live in such a connected world and having access to that even in a small town it makes it so you can live anywhere and do anything."
County commissioners are also looking to improve internet access, saying the pandemic was one of the reasons they decided it was critical to invest in broadband.
That's why they have set aside 10 million from the county's Arpa funds just in case federal broadband grants require money to match.
"We just don't have 10 million dollars laying around, so this is actually a perfect opportunity for us to be able to bank this and set it aside so that as projects come in and we review them if there is a need for a match, we have the money in hand," County commissioner LaDon Linde said.
Linde says they already reviewing project applications for installing broadband in rural areas.
He told me they already have approved their first project for the area of Tieton.
Which commissioners hope to be the first of many.
"We will take the applications as they come, we were looking at areas throughout the county whether it be upper valley lower valley and try to cover as much as we possibly can," Linde said.
