Cade Barker / cade@thereflector.com
Internet users in rural parts of Clark County have been experiencing difficulties recently, but they’re not unique to the county: Internet outages are a common problem in rural areas of the United States.
A post in the Battle Ground, Washington Facebook group asked the community about the struggles they’ve experienced with internet access and how internet access issues have affected their daily lives. In just 24 hours, communities around Battle Ground shared their rural internet struggles, resulting in 126 comments and 15 emails. Whether it’s working from home, making in-home medical appointments or making emergency calls, area residents are constantly struggling with internet connectivity issues.
Rep. Marie Grusenkamp Perez, a Democrat from Skamania who represents Washington’s 3rd Congressional District, has been working in Congress to help solve rural internet problems.
She has unique experience on this issue.
“I understand the urgency of this issue,” said Councilman Grusenkamp-Perez, “and I’m probably the only council member who has internet access from a radio tower. For example, we struggle with the terrain in the Gorge.”
Many community members commented on the struggles of running a business from their homes or rural communities. Gulsenkamp-Perez said there needs to be a level playing field for all businesses when it comes to accessing the internet.
Rob Sutton, a Wennersborg-area resident, said in an email that CenturyLink was his only option initially, adding that he was paying roughly $35 to $50 a month on top of the cost of renting the equipment.
“The prices were reasonable, but there were frequent power outages and the customer service was terrible,” he said.
Sutton said that because he runs his business from a home office, poor connectivity and customer service were an issue. He found a solution in satellite internet provider Starlink. Many members of the community said Starlink was the solution, but it comes with a $120 monthly fee.
Susan Mattson of Meadow Glade is one of the home-based business owners experiencing major internet issues, who wrote in a Facebook post on August 14 that the earliest a technician could investigate the line issue would be August 22, adding that she’s been without WiFi for a full week now.
Rob Townsen, who lives in the Dole Valley neighborhood south of Yacolt, spoke about his fight with CenturyLink that’s been going on for more than 20 years.
“It’s been a nightmare most of the time,” Townsen said, adding that she pays $80 a month. “Even when it’s working properly, there’s a lot of lag. It goes down multiple times a day – almost every day. And when it needs repairs it’s a nightmare. There have been many times over the years where I’ve been without service for over a week.”
Residents are experiencing issues with internet connectivity as well as customer service issues. One Battle Ground resident recounted a recent experience on Monday, August 12th.
“Our internet provider, CenturyLink, is less than ideal,” Shelley Long wrote in an email. “We’ve had them for years and still have issues from time to time. The worst part was last Monday when I had a 5-hour online training session for work. I was on hold for a total of over 3 hours on both chat and phone with CenturyLink. It was clear there was some kind of outage going on, but they would not acknowledge it. No real solution was ever offered.”
Internet issues are not only affecting businesses, but also education: One resident told me that the internet went out just as her son was finishing up summer school to take a test he needed, and he had to go to the library to take the test.
“This is the infrastructure that allows people to get an education, get health care, run businesses. This isn’t about watching cat videos online,” Groossenkamp-Perez said. “This is about having a stable economy and having the tools that they need.”
Grusenkamp-Perez added that through the Rural Internet Improvement Act, she has worked with other lawmakers to reexamine what constitutes adequate internet access, which currently stands at 10 megabits per second (mbps) but would be raised to 25 mbps.
Dollars Corner resident Whitney Queeley commented that the only internet she has access to is a 10 Mbps CenturyLink.
“We often have issues streaming shows, especially when your phone is connected to Wi-Fi,” Quealy said.
Nicole Krukowski, who has lived in Battle Ground for 11 years, said in an email that she hasn’t received the services she paid for.
“It wasn’t until I tried to get another line installed last year that I realized we were actually still on an old contract and were no longer providing new service around here, which likely meant no more upgrades or maintenance,” Krukowski said. “I pay for up to 15 Mbps, but when I ran a speed test as I was writing this, I got a download speed of 1.04 Mbps and an upload speed of 0.58 Mbps.”
Some customers have only been able to use one provider, but Rick and Pat Brown of the Wennersborg area said in an email that they will no longer have a provider.
“CenturyLink will be cancelling many customers in the area, including us, starting September 10th,” they said. “I have very limited alternative options, only 3 for my address to be exact. It’s really annoying to be cancelled by a company I’ve paid my bills to faithfully for over 24 years. I’m going to buy Starlink.”
Grusenkamp-Perez believes there needs to be competition in the market for internet providers serving rural Americans.
“Rural Americans are at a distinct disadvantage in the marketplace for internet providers,” she said. “Only about 20 percent of rural Americans have access to more than one provider, so I think that puts us in a really tough position.”
