Washington State Ferries to test Wi-Fi Service This Summer on one Ferry – The Chimacum – That Currently Serves the Bremerton Route

By Tom Banse

The days might be numbered for your next Puget Sound ferry ride to be a fleeting offline oasis, free from the incessant demands of email, pop-up ads and doom-scrolling.

Washington State Ferries is yielding to requests from commuters for internet access, which the State Legislature heard and turned into an order for a Wi-Fi pilot project.

In a newly published report to the Legislature, the ferry system laid out its plans for a limited trial of free Wi-Fi at one terminal (Bremerton) and on one ferry, the Chimacum. Installation of antennas and routers is slated for this spring to facilitate a Wi-Fi test period during the summer.

Traveler demand and reviews, along with the availability of future state funding, will determine if a wider rollout happens. The ferry system offered pay-to-use Wi-Fi hotspots previously, but discontinued that partnership in 2016 due to poor performance and low uptake.

“The public expects to have internet access,” former Poulsbo Mayor Becky Erickson wrote in a letter to the head of Washington State Ferries more than a year ago. “For many individuals, internet access is crucial for carrying out their daily tasks efficiently. The absence of internet access on ferries or the Bainbridge Island terminal decreases productivity.”

Cellular data signals sometimes drop out in the middle of the Sound. WSF reported there are also dead zones around bends in Rich Passage on the Seattle-Bremerton route. The San Juan Islands also suffer from cell service dead zones.

City Manager Blair King of Bainbridge Island sent in a nearly identical letter after getting unanimous backing from the city council. Similar sentiments filtered up to the state Senate through Kitsap County’s legislators. The result was a 2025 transportation budget proviso that directed the ferry system to give public Wi-Fi another try.

“We do want people to be able to work from the boat if that’s important to them,” explained Senate Transportation Committee Chair Marko Liias, D-Edmonds, in a recent interview.

However, the legislative directive to the ferry system had a catch. It said to carry out the new Wi-Fi pilot project “within existing resources,” which meant no extra money. Thus, the cash-strapped agency told lawmakers this past winter it had to focus the tryout on one terminal and one vessel.

“Bremerton is strategically selected because it represents one of the system’s longest sailings, where customer demand for internet connectivity is likely higher, and where the physical layout of the terminal provides a manageable platform for initial installation,” the WSF project outline said.

The ferry Chimacum was chosen not only because it serves Bremerton, but because it has a scheduled maintenance layup in March that aligns nicely to do the hotspot installation with minimal extra disruption.

Technology choices

Satellite-based internet provider Starlink is making rapid inroads with airlines and major cruise lines based on having stable and fast service. The Alaska Marine Highway System recently chose Starlink to provide internet connectivity on the ferry assigned to the Bellingham-Southeast Alaska route.

Starlink has a rising Washington-grown competitor in Amazon Leo, another satellite-based internet vendor. But neither of these two companies will be considered for the ferryboat Wi-Fi deployment on Puget Sound this year.

“For the first phase of this pilot, we are focusing on cellular data connectivity rather than satellite-based internet. Cellular connectivity is significantly more cost-effective,” ferry system spokesman Justin Fujioka said in an email. “Satellite-based solutions, such as low-Earth orbit providers, may be evaluated in the future.”

Fujioka added that the state’s ferries are equipped with commercial-grade antennas that are more powerful than consumer mobile devices. That could give the onboard Wi-Fi network a leg up over your personal cellular data plan, but Fujioka said slowdowns or brief dropouts could still happen. The ferry system’s previous, ultimately unsatisfying onboard Wi-Fi provider Boingo relied on terrestrial cellular data too, a decade ago.

The deployment schedule provided to the Legislature calls for free Wi-Fi to debut in May and last through August. In September, ferry workers expect to crunch the data on customer usage, technical performance and reliability.

Then they will toss the ball back to management and legislators to decide whether Wi-Fi will be offered permanently, and if so, whether to expand it across more terminals and vessels. A permanent Wi-Fi offering would not necessarily be free of charge. It could be tiered or subscription-based, WSF said.

A key legislator who holds sway over the ferry system budget said the estimated multi-million dollar price tag to roll out Wi-Fi systemwide caught his eye. State House Transportation Committee Chair Jake Fey, D-Tacoma, sounded skeptical about greenlighting big spending for new internet infrastructure and ongoing operational costs in light of all the other needs the beleaguered ferry system has.

“Given that it didn’t work before, I don’t think this would rate” for future funding, Fey said in an interview. “If this came back as uncertain that it would be profitable or break even, I would say another day, not now.”

Tom Banse is a reporter with the Washington State Standard, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news outlet that provides original reporting, analysis and commentary on Washington state government and politics.

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