Brewster’s Digital Equity Day, marking one year since closing the digital divide

BREWSTER—The city council approved a proclamation designating Sept. 8 as Digital Equity Day, just a month shy of the Oct. 5, 2023, one-year anniversary of groundbreaking ceremonies marking the closure of Brewster’s digital divide. The occasion was the completion of Ziply Fiber's three-year flagship project to connect Brewster residents via a new fiber optic network.

Mayor Art Smyth read the proclamation at the request of the Northwest Tech Alliance (ncwtech.org), a 501(c)3 non-profit organization whose mission is to bring people and technology resources together to support entrepreneurs, STEM education, and technology adoption in North Central Washington.

NCW Tech serves more than 165 business members and the greater community by hosting and supporting more than 45 events per year. It hosts the annual Innovator Awards Luncheon and the Flywheel Investment Conference and serves as co-lead of the Apple STEM Network, which drives resources to support STEM opportunities for students, educators, and the community.

Ziply worked with the Economic Alliance and its Broadband Action Team (BAT), which helped the company secure grant funding. BAT was formed from a coalition of partners in February 2019 with the goal of bringing high-speed internet to every part of Okanogan County and the Colville Reservation. Grants included $3.9 million from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) for Ziply to provide service to Brewster, Tonasket, Loomis, and Curlew (Ferry County).

“Fiber is one of the most reliable forms of internet you can have,” said a Ziply source at the time. ‘We have redundancy on the fiber side not just one or two times but two or three times, so no more service going down.”

Brewster Director of Finance Misty Ruiz said the new high-speed service would resolve payment delays or failures between the city and utility customers and eliminate business credit card transaction problems.

“Even the lowest of incomes will qualify for service,” said Ruiz adding that subsidies may be available to make the new internet affordable for all households. The subsidies are handled through Ziply, but city hall can help with information about that option.

“The digital equity issue in America is huge today,” said Ruiz at the groundbreaking. “Now we don’t have to worry about that anymore. We have closed our digital divide.”

Mike Maltais: 360-333-8483 or michael@ward.media