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CenterFuse Broadband Feasibility Report <br />3. Improve Residential Broadband in the Surrounding Rural Areas <br />The most difficult challenge to solve by the community is improving broadband in the areas surrounding <br />Ellensburg. Any prospective employers are going to consider broadband in the area, not just broadband <br />available in the city or broadband available to businesses. <br />There is no easy way to solve the rural broadband gaps discussed in this report. But it can be done. As <br />an example, nearby Chelan and Grant PUDs have undertaken the construction of rural fiber by the <br />Public Utility Districts in those counties. Those particular counties have an easier way to finance fiber <br />than most counties since both counties own and operate large hydroelectric dams. But there are many <br />PUDs in Washington without that financial advantage that are finding rural broadband solutions. There <br />are rural counties all across the country that are finding rural broadband solutions. <br />There are a number of steps that other rural counties have taken to find broadband solutions. Some ideas <br />to improve broadband around Ellensburg include: <br />Some communities have kick-started better broadband by funding a broadband feasibility study <br />for rural areas. The most important aspect of such a study is to engage with engineers to identify <br />the local issues with expanding broadband networks and to estimate the cost of building new <br />broadband infrastructure. It's a lot easier to have the conversations with ISPs about better <br />broadband if the community is armed with the facts and knows the costs of building better <br />broadband. Not knowing the facts is always a showstopper, but we've seen that understanding <br />dollars makes for a different conversation than plain advocacy. <br />• Work with the Kittitas PUD to understand their plans, if any, to pursue broadband. If they have <br />no such plans, ask that they consider it. If they have broadband plans develop a propose <br />strategies that improve service to Ellensburg. <br />• Work with existing ISPs. There might be a good business case that can be made for Charter to <br />extend its network for a few more miles outside of the city. Charter has undertaken similar <br />expansion plans around existing markets all over the country in the last few years. CenterFuse <br />might need to paint a picture of why such expansion can be a success for Charter. <br />• There are also several wireless ISPs operating outside the city. Most of these WISPS are offering <br />slow broadband speeds due to not having fiber to their towers. It might be possible to work with <br />the WISPS to increase broadband speeds around the city to speeds of 50 Mbps — 100 Mbps. <br />Page 15 <br />