Staff report

Ziply Fiber expects to enable “gig-speed” fiber internet service by Labor Day to residences and businesses in six Whitman County towns and Potlatch, according to a news release from the Kirkland, Wash.,-based internet, phone and television provider.

The six Whitman County towns are Garfield, Malden, Oakesdale, Palouse, Rosalia and Tekoa.

Ziply Fiber’s plans to bring internet service to an additional 22 markets across Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana this year is part of the company’s multi-year $500 million investment in its network and improved service in both urban and rural settings throughout the region.

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“These markets represent just the beginning,” Ziply Fiber CEO Harold Zeitz said in the release. “We’re currently drawing up plans for additional builds this coming fall and winter in all four states.”

Ziply Fiber’s internet service is now available to nearly 7,000 residences and businesses in Pullman and Moscow as of Monday, Dan Miller, a public relations representative for Ziply Fiber, said in an email earlier this week. Miller wrote that 4,000 of those residences and businesses are in Pullman and 2,900 are in Moscow.

He wrote that it intends to build fiber for more than 21,000 residences and businesses total in the two cities, including another 6,100 Pullman addresses and 2,100 Moscow addresses in May if it stays on its current pace.

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