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High-Speed Internet Project for Rural Alaska Reaches MilestoneMore than 60 rural villages will soon have access to the same level of broadband services as urban cities.Related Content
Most of people don’t think twice when logging onto the Internet. In fact, our society does not find waiting for uploads acceptable. Southwestern Alaskans have never had the same luxury - but by December that’s all changing.
TERRA-SW, led by United Utilities, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of GCI, is bringing high-speed broadband service to Bristol Bay and the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta Region. Soon, 65 rural villages will be equally connected with the rest of the world. Thursday, federal, state and local officials gathered in Dillingham to celebrate this milestone for Alaska’s future in Internet services. Unlike Alaska’s bigger cities, the southwest uses a satellite to get their Internet. “It doesn’t work the way it does in Chicago or Seattle or Anchorage and we will be able to bring to them a service that is comparable to all those urban services,” said Curtiss Clifton, GCI corporate relations senior manager. Clifton said that rural Alaskans have never seen the differences between satellite and broadband due to their limitations in communication. TERRA-SW is funded with an $88 million loan/grant combination from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Utilities Service Broadband Initiatives Program, established by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, also known as the stimulus plan. Clifton said that although the project is moving a year ahead of schedule, it’s not been an easy road - considering most of the villages being worked on aren’t physically connected. “What this will do is bring the same level of broadband services [in the lower 48], to 65 communities, to 30,000 people, 72 health clinics, 65 schools, two hospitals… it is a big number and it’s big service, and it’s fast service,” Clifton said. By the end of 2011, GCI reports the system will be operational, which means schools, clinics and hospitals will have full access to the service. The company said that by 2012, broadband services will be accessible in people’s homes. Clifton said GCI also plans to expand high-speed Internet services beyond southwest Alaska to cover the entire state. |
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concerned said on Monday, Aug 29 at 1:18 PM
Living in Bethel, we have to pay for lower speed and a disgusting bandwidth usage a month. A 2MB plan gives you 20GB a month. Take a look on the G*C*I website and look up Bethel area services. I believe that the new 'faster' service will be higher priced and a lower bandwidth usage compared to Anchorage. As the track record for G*C*I, I expect the service to get out here around 2012. I took a few years for us to get GSM cell phone coverage out here.
73085244GCI, Squashing the local bush companies said on Friday, Aug 26 at 10:25 AM
I should add, bring high speed internet to the bush is a good thing; Letting GCI be the lead is bad. I have never run across such a predatory company as them. I will give them kudus for having an outstanding legal and lobbing team. Without those teams they would have to play fair.
72962454GCI, Squashing the local bush companies said on Friday, Aug 26 at 9:52 AM
I like how this is being heralded as a total good thing. I have been working for an ISP in one of the communities that GCI is going to be coming to. We have being trying to deliver broadband to our customers for all those years, and the biggest reason we couldn’t is because of the middle mile pricing which is something that GCI has been a player in for a number of years. When we asked if we will be able to purchase bandwidth on their new network (Which taxes dollars paid a large chuck of) we were told that if we wanted on it, the price would be more expensive then satellite bandwidth. Yet they are saying they will be selling bandwidth to residential customers less than 3 percent of the price it cost us to be on the satellite. I love that I’m going to be unemployed because of tax payers’ money. I would also like to add, if GCI cared so much about us in the bush where have they been all these years? They certainly have the infrastructure up to now to deliver internet to home users.
72960467Andrew said on Friday, Aug 26 at 6:45 AM
This is great
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