Washington Independent Telecommunications

Transcript

Note: Transcripts are generated using speech recognition software and may contain errors.
While many small communities across Washington State suffer from poor broadband access. A group of communities stands out as having service equal to what's experienced in urban areas. One of these communities is South Whidby Island, Washington. I'm Steve. Ay I work for is Island Senior Resources here on Woodby Island. I manage the thrift store in Freeland Island. Senior Resources is a nonprofit organization that uh services our seniors here on Woodby Island and Camino Island. We service meals on wheels through our Bayview location. Also our lending medical library is at the Bay View location and we do on a medical transportation um out of our location. So the thrift store here is basically helps go to fund all those programs. Uh My name is Stephanie and we are a good cheer Food Bank on Whidby Island. I am one of our three co executive directors of the organization. We are the Food bank for the south end of Whidby Island. We serve about 1000 residents a month more so in the winter than in the summer, we find that the biggest need for food is in the winter when specifically utility bills are a lot higher and people's budgets are significantly stretched. We also have a garden program and cultivate 1.5 acres of diversified vegetables with some true fruit production. The demographics of South Whidby on average are older than the rest of the state of Washington. Um So we have a lot of seniors who live here and survive on fixed incomes. So when costs increase even just a little bit, they find that their budgets are stretched pretty significantly. Thanks to the high speed broadband services from Whidby telecom, residents of South Whidby Island have the support they need to remain in their community. We use broadband for most of our business operations. Anything from email and online software, cloud services to running our point of sale systems in our thrift stores to using it for Zoom calls. Having the fiber has changed just not only the store here but at the center with the communication, um things are just a lot quicker, a lot smoother. Um But we haven't had any down time now grant we're going into winter time so we never know fingers crossed. But uh we know that the the service will be there if we need it. It's very difficult when we don't have internet before we upgraded. There were times when we would be without internet access for three hours and staff couldn't do critical parts of their job now that we have broadband that doesn't happen anymore. And we know that we can always do the tasks that we need to get to when we need to get to this Whidby telecom not only delivers first class broadband to the residents of South Whidby Island. They also deliver it with a commitment to excellence and neighborly customer service. I feel the service is comparable on Whidby Island, you know, other than, than a big city. And plus we have a little bit better, I feel personal service that comes with it and that, that's always nice. And then again, that's what's nice about an island. You know, it is a small island. You all got to work together. It's more the volume of the jobs with, provides a lot of jobs to this community. Um They also provide us funding. I know they fund other organizations as well, I believe would be, gives us more of a personal uh business feel, you know, they concern about our business just as you know, we are having the business flow through, you know, the services that we have. So that's why we go with Wood Beat Telecom. Our security system is through wood tel also and great, you know, great system. We've had cases where sensors were going out. And uh I call Sydney, you know, my, my personal contact over there and you know, she get somebody out to correct any, any repairs or services that we need. So Whidby Telecom is just one of the small independent telephone companies working to bring broadband and digital equity to rural Washington. One of the biggest positives of having a local company is customer service and it is really easy to access whenever I have a problem. I know I can call them and I can reach a real person within minutes. I don't have to sit on hold. I don't have to. I know they're living on the island. I know they're not a call center somewhere. And oftentimes if they can't answer my question, they're willing to call me back. It's much more personable service than I've received with any of the larger companies. I don't think the services other than, you know, a personal level, if we were with a different company, I think we would be just a number not really overly cared about. We'll put you on the list. We'll get out there when we can, having a local company here. They're based on the island. Um, they're here, they live here and they, they come and, and take care of us, uh, when we, when we need it. So I believe that we vel does care about our organization and it's nice to be served by a company that cares the member companies, rural broadband. It's who we are. It's what we do.