Late in 2000, a group of Washington public utility districts formed Northwest Open Access Network (NoaNet) to utilize some of the spare BPA fibers available for public benefit. NoaNet, a nonprofit public corporation that has licensed fiber optic cables from the Bonneville Power Administration, will license fibers from other sources and make the network available to utilities and communities in the Pacific Northwest. NoaNet is not a traditional telecommunications company. This new network is being designed and built with the future of the converging telecommunications industry in mind and it focuses on deploying this network to rural areas.
