Rural Broadband Expansion

Comcast is expanding service to hundreds of homes in the City of Sumas, a rural community of Whatcom County. Comcast is investing $4.2 million to bring the entire suite of Xfinity and Comcast Business services to the citizens and businesses of Sumas.

This webpage aims to serve as your go-to resource with answers to frequently asked questions about Comcast’s network expansion in the City of Sumas as well as information about Comcast products and services. We want to ensure everyone is well-informed, so please review the entire site.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

  • Watch for the notifications. It is easy to miss a mailer, door hanger or phone call as spam.
  • Keep your pets in your house. If access is needed to your backyard, please make sure your pets are safe and secure during the time period provided by Comcast.
  • Be patient. Comcast is having a new, state-of-the-art network built across these rural communities and bringing the full suite of services to the City of Sumas. Comcast and our construction partner Cannon Construction are working to complete this work as quickly and efficiently as possible.
  • Be aware of construction workers.
  • All construction workers and people placing door hanger messages will be wearing a safety vest and a badge identifying themselves as a Comcast employee, Cannon Construction employee or other authorized Comcast contractor.

Please send an email addressed to RuralBroadbandWA@comcast.com. If you’re interested in speaking with someone about our products and services, please visit one of our nearby Xfinity Stores. To find a store near you, visit: www.xfinitystores.com

Cannon Construction and its partnered sub contractors are undertaking the construction and management of these large projects. You will see aerial line trucks with an individual in the bucket while in motion. Yes in motion! This is approved equipment while installing aerial line hardware and cables. While keeping your eyes on the ground you will see crew trucks such as 1-Ton’s, mini-excavators, backhoes and directional drill rigs with support equipment.

Construction sites are area locations with advanced warning devices such as signs and cones. This is to prepare the public of upcoming construction ahead. Please be patient throughout this evolution of installation, many crewmen and woman will be onsite on or near drivable surfaces so a precautionary slow transition through the work zone is appreciated for ours and your safety!

 

To provide Comcast service in your community, our team needs to place above ground connection points that link to underground fiber lines. These connection points are pedestals or peds, which are generally light green plastic housing and located in public rights of way.

Peds serve specific network engineering needs. Their above ground design and placement provides a more secure connection space and avoids service-impacting damage from water and ice. Above ground peds are also much easier and faster to service in the event of a network issue or outage.

To ensure the highest quality connection, peds need to maintain a relatively close distance to the associated home or business. The combination of these factors – in addition to staying in the public right-of-way or utility easements – creates some critical limitations on where peds can be placed.

Once work is complete in an area, restoration work will begin to make the area look like it did or better before the work began.

Comcast invests billions of dollars in our network across Washington to ensure residents and businesses have access to the most innovative video, broadband, security, home and voice products available. Technology is at the core of what we do. We have fiber at the core of our network, and we are extending it deeper into neighborhoods and closer to homes. We’re driving the industry with our major technology partners to redefine the technologies that you use to enjoy entertainment, connect and communicate now and into the future.

In March 2021, Comcast and Muckleshoot Indian Tribe announced expanded broadband service to 600 homes and businesses located on tribal and non-tribal lands in and around the Tribe’s community campus. Comcast and the Tribe have invested nearly $3 million to bring the entire suite of Xfinity and Comcast Business services to these previously underserved homes and businesses.

In 2018, Comcast announced that the company has invested nearly $2 million over nine months to upgrade its network in Deer Park, Washington by installing state-of-the art fiber optic network and coaxial cable infrastructure. As a result, the company’s full suite of Xfinity residential and Comcast Business services are now available to the vast majority of 2,200 residents and business owners in Deer Park, Washington.

Yes. This expansion provides low-income families and individuals with access to Comcast’s Internet Essentials program, the nation’s largest and most successful broadband adoption initiative. Since 2011, Internet Essentials has connected 560,000 low-income Washingtonians to the power of the internet at home, many for the first time.

Residents should keep an eye out for a combination of notifications including a postcard messaging, “Xfinity services are coming to your area!”, letter and messaging “Xfinity services are now available in your area!”. The letter and will be their official notification that service is now available for their address.