Whatcom residents who need free, public Wi-Fi access can find it at these 14 sites
Residents who lost internet access because of the closure of schools, libraries and other places where they were able to tap into Wi-Fi now have help getting broadband access for free in Washington state, including in Whatcom County.
The state Department of Commerce released a map that shows drive-in Wi-Fi hot spots — primarily parking lots — throughout Washington. The map of the public spots will be updated as more locations become available.
It’s part of a push to bring free public broadband internet access to all Washington state residents, which has taken on greater significance since the statewide closure of schools, libraries and other spaces to slow the spread of the new coronavirus.
Those closures highlighted the digital divide, officials said, which is the gulf between those who readily have access to computers and high-speed internet and those who don’t. That lack of access — needed for such things as telemedicine, remote learning and working from home — can be seen in rural areas as well as low-income communities, including in cities and the suburbs.
Today, access to the internet is as essential to people’s lives as electricity and water, said George Caan, executive director of the Washington Public Utility Districts Association, which is part of the effort.
The push is a public-private effort that will bring some 300 new drive-in Wi-Fi hot spots online statewide, according to the Washington Statewide Broadband Office.
About 140 of the new hot spots are operating and can be seen on the map.
The map also shows the 301 existing Washington State Library hot spots across the state, including in Whatcom County.
The hot spots are not password-protected, so users need to keep that in mind for security purposes.
“For the most part, these are open. That’s the way the network is at this point,” said Russ Elliott director of the Washington State Broadband Office.
People using the sites must practice social distancing and wear a mask if needed, officials said.
There are 15 Wi-Fi drive-in hot spots in Whatcom County. Most of them are available through the Whatcom County and Bellingham library systems.
According to the map, the hot spots are at:
▪ Bellingham Public (Central) Library, 210 Central Ave.
▪ Blaine Library, 610 3rd St.
▪ Deming Library, 5044 Mount Baker Highway
▪ Everson Library, 104 Kirsch Drive.
▪ Fairhaven Branch Library, 1117 12th St. (Bellingham)
▪ Ferndale Library, 2125 Main St.
▪ Island Library, 2144 S. Nugent Road, Lummi Island.
▪ Lynden Library, 216 4th St.
▪ Lummi Nation School, 2334 Lummi View Drive.
▪ North Fork Library, 7506 Kendall Road, Maple Falls.
▪ Northwest Drive Library Express, 5205 Northwest Drive.
▪ Point Roberts Library, 1431 Gulf Road.
▪ South Whatcom Library, 10 Barn View Court.
▪ Sumas Library, 451 2nd St.
Information on the map showed that the library hot spots are available around the clock. A library card isn’t needed to access the Wi-Fi service.
In Whatcom County, library Wi-Fi access isn’t new — although the information might be new to some — and people have been known to hang out to tap into it.
“Bellingham libraries already had Wi-Fi pre-pandemic, and it extends a bit outside the buildings,” spokeswoman Janice Keller said. “People do indeed sit outside to access this public Wi-Fi service.
It’s the same for the Whatcom County Library System, where the Wi-Fi also reaches its parking lots.
“We have had many people use it over the years,” said Christine Perkins, executive director of the library system.
To widen its reach, the county library system’s Wi-Fi will get a bit of a boost in a number of places.
The state Department of Commerce and WSU Cooperative Extension will provide support to the county library system to allow it to add drive-up Wi-Fi at the site of the future Birch Bay Library and to extend the signals at the Ferndale, Deming and Everson libraries because those parking lots are configured in such a way that the signal needs a boost to increase its reach, Perkins said.
“They have Wi-Fi but it doesn’t reach throughout all corners of their parking areas currently,” she said of the Ferndale, Deming and Everson spots.
The library system is waiting for the equipment to arrive and to be installed, she said.
Bellingham’s Barkley library branch doesn’t have Wi-Fi that reaches outside the building.
Find the hot spots map at driveinwifi.wa.gov.
There are 14 public Wi-Fi drive-in hot spots in Whatcom County that are part of the state Department of Commerce project. The number of sites was corrected on May 13, 2020.
This story was originally published May 12, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
