Crews are poised on Bainbridge’s doorstep, waiting to begin stringing fiber-optic cable down the island’s spine.

All the Kitsap Public Utility District is waiting for now is a go-ahead from the city council, in the form of an ordinance granting right-of-way use, and a franchise agreement.

“We can probably have fiber on the island by the end of the year if all goes well,” said David Jones of KPUD.

The council will begin considering a draft ordinance at its meeting tonight, perhaps with a first reading. The issue likely will be referred to the ad hoc telecommunications committee chaired by Deborah Vann, which will meet later this week.

Vann said the city has a window of opportunity to receive the fiber-optic “backbone” now, while crews and material are available.

“The crews that are hanging the fiber-optic line will be leaving once they get done with the cable on hand,” Vann said. “If we wait another year, they may use up the cable they have available.”

The fiber-optic cable will be strung on existing poles. The lines are no bigger than a typical telephone cable, but have tremendous carrying capacity.

The cable can be an island-wide conduit to high-speed, high-volume Internet service, which could in turn facilitate high-tech economic development on the island.

In fact, several businesses are already poised to tap in.

The tentative plan, Jones said, is to bring the cable across the Agate Passage bridge, then follow the highway south to Day Road, where it will jog west to the industrial park, connecting with the Day City Internet operation.

From there, the cable will go south along Miller and Fletcher Bay Roads, turning east on High School Road to the old Northland Cable building, and continuing to Bainbridge High School.

At that point, the route becomes less clear, Jones said, with the choices being to go south along either Ericksen or Madison.

“Bob Malecki of Northwest Internet wants to connect from his office on Ericksen, and because we are only a wholesale supplier, we want to help the retailers get the service,” Jones said. “But there’s also some reason to follow Madison, where Qwest has its building.”

The city is also interested in having ready access to the line, Administrator Lynn Nordby said.

“Some cities have hooked their Wide Area Networks into the line and saved a lot of money by not having to lease high-capacity T-1 lines,” Nordby said.

Stringing the “backbone” onto the island won’t itself make high-capacity Internet access available for the average consumer.

There is still the so-called “last mile” problem – how to wire individual homes to the backbone.

Various possibilities have been discussed, including Local Utility Districts formed by neighborhoods, or an island-wide utility district.

Also in play is a “developer extension” model, in which private parties could string lines from their homes or businesses to a main line, then be reimbursed by those along the way who tie in later under “latecomer agreements.”

There is even a possibility of partnering with Puget Sound Energy, which might want to run a fiber-optic connection to each house for remote electrical monitoring, then allow the cable to be used for Internet connections – something the Tacoma city utilities have done, Nordby said.

“There are a lot of possibilities, but this is too new to have a lot of answers,” he said.

Having the backbone available, though, will create new incentives to address the issue.

“This will heighten everyone’s expectations,” Nordby said.

Possible sticking points are Bainbridge’s ordinance, and obtaining permits from the state Department of Natural Resources to cross the bridge.

“We have started the permit process for the bridge,” Jones said, “but every time you are crossing water, there is always a chance that you could be required to do an environmental impact statement.”

The issue with the city could be whether a franchise fee is required.

KPUD officials argue that since they would be an access wholesaler, prevented by law from offering retail services, any franchise fee should be imposed on retailers who use the lines.

The KPUD is a public agency supported by tax revenue, and has funded the fiber-optic project through the issuance of bonds.

Any franchise would be passed along to customers, Jones said. But because its customers are distributed throughout the county, the agency wants a uniform agreement from all cities in the county.