Bremerton ferries won't get Wi-Fi before late July

Bremerton ferry riders are feeling slighted, having just learned that access to Wi-Fi on the 55-minute Seattle run will be delayed. Again.

Passengers taking ferries between Seattle and Bainbridge Island, Edmonds and Kingston, or Mukilteo and Clinton can unpack their laptops and connect to a wireless signal on their trips across Puget Sound.

But not Bremerton passengers.

Wi-Fi on the Bremerton run now isn't supposed to begin until late July at the earliest.

"Bremerton has been made the stepchild of the ferry system," fumed Ann Erickson, a Bremerton real-estate agent and member of the local Ferry Advisory Committee. "This is a very big deal to everyone. If there was Wi-Fi, it would mean people who are counting on getting work done will have the 55-minute run to do that work."

"We need to be treated exactly the way the Bainbridge boat is treated," she said.

The Washington State Ferries says no insult toward Bremerton riders is intended. The absence of Wi-Fi on that run must be blamed on technical challenges. And maybe also on Bainbridge Island.

The problem, said Bob Davis, vice president of Parsons, the California company that has the contract to wire the state ferries, is complications getting a signal through curvy Rich Passage, the strait between Bainbridge Island and the south Kitsap Peninsula.

The company needed permission from the Federal Communications Commission for a license, which it received, he said. But it still needs to install an antenna to pick up the signal, and the city of Bainbridge Island just turned down a Parsons proposal because it would have been too close to the waterfront.

Before the Bremerton ferry run can have wireless, Parsons must find a new location for the antenna, plus it has to install equipment on Columbia Tower, Seattle's tallest building, to bounce the Wi-Fi signals. "We've spend millions of dollars getting this system up and running," he said.

Josh Machen, a senior planner with Bainbridge Island, said the city's shoreline master plan doesn't allow wireless antennas within 200 feet of the waterfront. He said Parsons had planned to install the antenna too close to the water, just across Eagle Harbor from the Bainbridge Island ferry terminal.

The Bremerton ferry was supposed to be wireless in February. Parsons said it now hopes to have it running by July 23.

Fred Chang commutes daily from his Bremerton home to Seattle and wishes he could use his two hours of ferry time to connect to his office. "They've very quietly kept having these delays, and every month it gets bumped back," he said. "I love the commute, but it could be used for more productive purposes."

Davis said he needs to find a new location for the antenna, a place with clear access to the water; he also has to negotiate with businesses. "We're working through difficult logistical and technical issues," he said. "Some of this is not within our control. There are an awful lot of moving parts."

"Nobody is more anxious than Parsons and Washington State Ferries to be ubiquitous through the system," said Davis. And, he points out, despite the delays on the Bremerton run, overall the Wi-Fi program is far ahead of schedule. When Parsons got the wireless contract a year ago, it intended to outfit all the ferries within two years.

According to the plan, wireless will be available on the Fauntleroy-Vashon-Southworth ferry by July 16, and by early next year on the Vashon passenger ferry, the Anacortes-San Juan Islands boat and the Port Townsend-Keystone run.

Parsons charges riders $29.95 per month for wireless on the other ferry runs, $6.95 a day or $2.95 for 15 minutes. If a ferry passenger already subscribes to iPass, Boingo or Sprint — the ferry-service providers — there is no charge, other than applicable roaming fees. The ferry system gets 20 percent of the Wi-Fi revenue.

Davis won't say how many customers have signed up on routes where wireless is available.

Susan Gilmore: 206-464-2054 or sgilmore@seattletimes.com