A major step forward for broadband in Columbia County, Oregon
September 15, 2026On Wednesday, September 9, 2026, the Columbia County Board of Commissioners approved the motion to move forward with the County’s broadband project.
The decision marks an important milestone in years of work to expand access to reliable community broadband infrastructure that can better serve Columbia County’s residents, businesses and community organizations.
The proposed fiber-based network is designed to help reach unserved and underserved areas while creating infrastructure that can support multiple service providers and strengthen opportunities for economic development, education, health care, public safety and other essential community services.
Reaching this point has required more than network planning. Working with Strategic Networks Group, the County has combined broadband planning with community and stakeholder engagement, market demand and data analysis and evaluation of the economic and financial case for investment. This work has also helped assess governance and partnership options and identify how community broadband infrastructure can serve as a platform for economic development, education, health care, public safety and other long-term priorities across Columbia County.
That process helped provide important information and perspectives as the County considered the opportunity in front of it.
Thank you to the County, residents, businesses, community organizations, Broadband Action Team members and other partners who have contributed their time, experience and perspectives throughout this process.
The approval of the broadband project is just the beginning. The next phase will focus on turning the County’s plans and investment into a sustainable network, including implementation, partnerships, budget planning and community and stakeholder engagement. Each will play a role in ensuring the community broadband infrastructure delivers measurable benefits for residents, businesses and community organizations.
This announcement is an important step toward stronger, better-connected communities across Columbia County.
Want to learn more about SNG? We specialize in building sustainable community broadband infrastructure.
Take a look at SNG’s approach from feasibility to planning, investment, implementation and measurable impacts:
- Digital Needs and Readiness Assessment of leadership and key stakeholders to take on a broadband initiative
- Economic Case Assessment to understand the extent to which existing CAI broadband and telecom budgets can finance a broadband network, including analysis of cost savings and other community resources that strengthen the economic case for investment, such as E-Rate funding, health care cost savings and avoided costs.
- Market Demand Assessment to capture demand and expected take rates, with the option of pre-sign-ups
- Financial feasibility modeling that includes aggregation of demand from CAIs, expected network take rates, with the option of pre-sign-ups, and cost savings and avoided costs that can be invested in the network. The assessment captures service satisfaction with current providers, connectivity service levels, pricing, customer satisfaction, willingness to switch and barriers to adoption, while segmenting demand by multiple categories, including customer type and geography.
- Governance and financing of the network based on options and opportunities that align with community needs, including protection from financial liability, network financing based on future expected revenues and network service and expansion driven by community needs instead of revenue extraction.
- Selection of private sector partners for network operations and maintenance, service provision, construction and installation, including support for evaluating potential partners, procurement approaches and alignment between partner capabilities and the short- and long-term network objectives.
- Tracking network uptake and end-user benefits to demonstrate return on investment and strengthen the economic case for investment, as well as identify areas needing additional service
- Data analysis, visualization and GIS mapping to translate demographic, market, financial and survey data into clear decision-making tools. This can include identifying underserved areas, demand clusters, community anchor institutions, priority network areas and economic development opportunities.
- Reporting, analysis and recommendations to management throughout each phase, providing management and boards with findings, implications, risks, options and recommended next steps
- Experience and methodologies to position broadband infrastructure as an economic development platform for business attraction and retention, workforce development, remote work, education, health care and other community priorities.