The Port of Coupeville is working to upgrade to a fiber-optics system that would bring faster internet to Whidbey Island.

The port received a $50,000 Broadband Feasibility Study Grant, announced in March, and is deciding what firm will conduct the study that will define local broadband needs, assess current infrastructure and consider the feasibility of fiber optics models to service the island’s residents.

The port is working to meet the pre-contract conditions involved with the award. There is a July 18 deadline, but an extension may be requested, according to port Commissioner John Mishasek.

“We are at the stage of selecting vendors that the grant would pay to do the GIS mapping and preliminary design work to determine potential costs and revenues to pay for the infrastructure over time,” he said in an email.

The process has been in progress since March 2017.

In December 2018, a resolution was passed by Port of Coupeville commissioners to pursue funds from Community Economic Revitalization Board, or CERB, for the study. The port will not be required to come up with funds to match the grant, the commissioner said, as the port has partnered with other local entities.

The port’s project partners include the city of Oak Harbor, the town of Coupeville and Whidbey Telecom.

As of this week, the port has a commitment letter for $5,000 from Whidbey Telecom, based on South Whidbey. Pending are commitment letters from Coupeville for $1,000 and Oak Harbor for $5,000. The port also requested $5,667 from Island County for the balance of the necessary matching funds.

“As a follower of new trends in health care, education, and workforce development, I have been exposed to the current and future benefits of better internet connectivity,” Mishasek said of the upgrades. He likens the slower-speed internet systems to “candles or whale oil.”

The technology exists to make citizens’ quality of life better, he said, and the port is working to ensure that the new system is financially beneficial to the community, though it may take time to establish.

Benefits from a fiber-optic cable system include new job opportunities, improved education equity for all children, new home-based health care technology and new ways for governments to reduce their cost of operation, he said.

After the broadband is built, it will be open access — or available — to any internet service providers wanting to bring their services in and compete.

Mishasek said it’s the job of a port to do “what private industry cannot or will not do — build infrastructure for the benefit of its citizens.”