Poulsbo, Washington, home to around 9,200 residents of Kitsap County, recently became the location of an “exercise in democracy” pilot project. Amy Phan of the Kitsap Sun, reports that the town is now home to a superfast wireless hotspot made possible by a new antenna installation courtesy of the the Kitsap Public Utility District (KPUD). According to the article:
The wireless hot spot on Fourth Avenue taps into Poulsbo’s existing fiber-optic cables, which have been installed for more than a decade, and far exceeds most standard broadband speeds available to consumers.
[Stephen Perry, superintendent of telecommunication of Kitsap Public Utility District] said the antenna can output 300 megabytes per second — compared to standard speeds of three to 50 megabytes per second — with an estimated wireless range within a half-mile of the antenna.
120 miles of fiber already weave through Kitsap County and installation of 100 more are planned, thanks to stimulus funding. The KPUD will manage and pay for the program.
The PUD hopes to also determine how users take advantage of the temporary free service with no filtering and no limits:
“If people had access to unfettered Internet, how would they use it? No one’s really collected that data before. You really don’t know about the antenna until you try it,” said Perry, adding data collected is meant to track usage patterns and won’t identify computer owners.
Dave Siburg of Kitsap PUD called the pilot program an “exercise in democracy.”
The data collected may be used to determine an economic model for expansion of the KPUD’s current telecommunications offerings. Also from the article:
Councilman Ed Stern, who pushed for the city to explore high-speed broadband earlier this year, said expanding broadband capabilities could mean a strengthened economy for the area.
With a large amount of employees in Poulsbo commuting to King, Pierce or Snohomish counties for work, he said, having reliable and fast broadband could allow those employees to work from home, and spend more money locally.