Olympia is a public-sector market with a private-sector ecosystem
Olympia's economy is defined by state government. Washington State employs a large share of the Olympia workforce directly, and the ecosystem of contractors, consultants, nonprofits, and professional services firms that orbit state government is substantial. Direct state agency telecom procurement runs through Washington's Consolidated Technology Services, which is its own world — we don't work on those direct state contracts. Where we're useful in Olympia is in the private-sector ecosystem: the law firms, accounting firms, lobbyists, nonprofits, contractors, and mid-market businesses that do not fall under state procurement but still need good carrier relationships and sensible network design. ITG has worked with Olympia businesses since 2001. We know the carrier footprint across downtown Olympia, Tumwater, Lacey, and the Thurston County submarkets. We know which industries here have specific compliance or continuity needs that influence carrier selection. And we know the quirks of this particular market — which are different from Portland or Seattle despite the relatively short distance.
The Olympia carrier landscape
Olympia's business carriers include Comcast Business (dominant cable business provider), Ziply Fiber (strong fiber coverage across Thurston County following the Frontier footprint), Lumen / CenturyLink (legacy enterprise provider holding a lot of long-term government-adjacent accounts), and Astound Business with some reach in parts of the metro. For long-haul transport, Lumen and Zayo are the main providers on the I-5 corridor. In the outer reaches of Thurston County, ToledoTel and other small rural carriers serve some submarkets that the majors don't reach economically. Interconnection for Olympia traffic typically happens at Westin Building Seattle or at Portland carrier hotels. Local data centers in Olympia are limited, so businesses with significant data-center needs usually land at Tacoma or Seattle facilities. For most mid-market use cases, the latency is fine. UCaaS selection in Olympia tends to favor platforms with strong compliance and continuity features because so many clients have adjacency to government work. We regularly place RingCentral, 8x8, Teams Phone, and Zoom Phone, with the selection driven by the client's actual needs rather than a default recommendation.
Olympia industries we work with
Our Olympia client base is concentrated in state-adjacent professional services (law firms, lobbying firms, accounting firms, management consultancies), in healthcare (Providence St. Peter is the dominant system and the associated independent practices are plentiful), in higher education and its supporting ecosystem (Evergreen State College, South Puget Sound Community College, Saint Martin's University nearby in Lacey), in nonprofits (Olympia has a dense nonprofit sector tied to state government priorities), and in small-to-mid private businesses including retail, hospitality, and construction. We don't take direct state agency work but we work comfortably with businesses that are one step removed.
Where Olympia businesses tend to overpay
- Very long-tenure CenturyLink contracts. Olympia has an unusual concentration of businesses on 15- or 20-year-old CenturyLink accounts that have quietly auto-renewed without renegotiation. Benchmarking is usually worth 20% or more.
- Compliance-justified overspend. Some Olympia professional services firms pay premium pricing for 'government-grade' services they don't actually need, sold on vague compliance language.
- POTS infrastructure at nonprofits. Smaller Olympia nonprofits often still run analog lines for faxing, alarm panels, and overflow voicemail, and the charges have crept up quietly.
- UCaaS that doesn't integrate with case management. Law firms and social-services nonprofits often have case management systems that their UCaaS doesn't talk to, leading to workflow workarounds that cost time. We can sometimes fix this at the platform level.
- Rural edge sites on premium circuits. Thurston County has real rural edges; some Olympia businesses have branch or field operations out in those edges and are paying premium rates for modest service.
Case Study · Olympia Law Firm
20-attorney litigation-focused law firm with a downtown Olympia office. Existing setup: CenturyLink fiber on a contract from 2009 that had auto-renewed three times, a Comcast Business cable circuit labeled 'backup' but in practice not actually diverse, an aging PBX with a SIP trunk overlay, and a case management system that their phone system didn't integrate with. ITG audited everything, moved primary to Ziply fiber, set up Comcast as a truly diverse redundant path, replaced the PBX with a UCaaS platform integrated with their case management, and rationalized their analog line count. Net savings: about 24% monthly, and a workflow improvement the attorneys actually noticed.
Questions we hear from Olympia businesses
Do you work on direct Washington state agency contracts?
No. Direct state agency telecom procurement runs through Washington's Consolidated Technology Services and the state's own contracting vehicles, not through private carrier sales channels. Where we add value is in the ecosystem: contractors, nonprofits, agency-adjacent organizations, and private businesses that don't fall under state procurement but still interact with the state in their operations.
How do you handle HIPAA and compliance requirements for Olympia healthcare clients?
We work with carriers and UCaaS providers that offer HIPAA BAAs and we design networks and recording policies to the client's compliance needs. For Providence-affiliated practices and independent healthcare groups, the approach varies but we know how to handle it in both scenarios.
Is Ziply or Comcast the better bet in Olympia?
It depends on the address. Both have strong coverage across Olympia, Tumwater, and Lacey, and we benchmark them against each other on every deal rather than defaulting. In some submarkets one is clearly better than the other; in most, they're comparable on pricing and quality and the decision comes down to specific circuit characteristics.
Can you help with a small Olympia nonprofit budget?
Yes — happily. Small nonprofits are often exactly the kind of client that benefits most from a broker because the budget is tight, the in-house IT expertise is limited, and the savings from a proper carrier review have an outsized operational impact. We charge nothing for the engagement.
Let ITG Look at Your Bill
Send us a recent carrier invoice and we'll do a no-obligation first look. You'll hear back within two business days with a quick read on whether there's meaningful savings to find.
Start a Conversation