The Wahkiakum County Eagle - Established as The Skamokawa Eagle in 1891

Frustration with poor internet service in the county spurred a group of local residents with the interest and know how to start up their own service, Smoky Waters Communications. They are on the verge of delivering that service to Cathlamet and Puget Island with plans to extend the service to East, Middle and West Valleys, Skamokawa and the Elochoman as soon as possible.

“We’re going to be providing internet service that is there all day long at the speed we said it was going to go at and it’s not going to cost as much as everyone else,” David Blaylock said.

"There is a significant difference between the way we set our pricing and the way other companies do,” Blaylock continued. “When they say 1.5 megabits per second, they mean up to 1.5 mb/s. We mean starting from 1.5 mb/s. Your realized bandwidth will actually be higher than that. It’s our goal that you will never get less than what you signed up for.”

The group is setting up a wireless system and are waiting for a network switch to arrive from Noanet, which could happen as early as today (Thursday).

“Once we have the network switch, we’ll be able to provide service to the lower Cathlamet area,” Pat Conrad said.

In the meantime, Blaylock hopes people will start signing up so he can begin installing hardware in customers’ homes.

There are pros and cons with any kind of service. Trees can obstruct the line of sight for the wireless devices.

Sometimes, Blaylock pointed out, trimming branches can resolve problems a customer may be having at home. Smoky Waters will be setting up radios around the county to deal with line of sight issues.

“The nice thing about the wireless is that we are not limited by how much data we can push out,” Mike Johnson said. “As people want more data, we will purchase and put out more radios to provide speeds that other people aren’t providing right now.”

Also, wireless is easy to install. It will cost $50 to have a receiver unit placed in your home or to use an adaptor, if you would like to use a laptop anywhere in their service area.

They can help with website development, website hosting and tech support. Eventually they will open up their shop for computer repair, laptop sales, computer supplies and a gaming center.

smoky Waters currently has four residential service plans. Basic service is 1.5 mb/s for $30 a month and will allow one to surf the net, check your email and keep up with social media sites. The Plus plan is 5 mb/s for $45 a month and will allow one to stream movies and play online games. The premium plan is 10 mb/s for $60 a month, suitable for multiple users. And finally, the online gamer plan is 20 mb/s for $75 a month.

Businesses interested in service should call for a consultation. People who have questions or are interested in signing up for service can call 360-846-3425.

“We will do our best to get service to everyone from KM to county line. It’s not a matter of ‘can we serve you?’, it’s how are we going to get it there. We’ll find a way. It is my goal to have 85 percent coverage of everything that we intend to cover by January,” Blaylock said.