GCI expects to close soon on its purchase of the Arctic coast's only fiber line

GCI's parent company said Thursday that GCI expects to close "shortly" on its purchase of Quintillion, the company that owns the only fiber-optic line connecting Alaska's Arctic coast to the rest of the state.

The $310 million deal, announced in April, would give Alaska's largest telecommunications company control of the fiber line that serves Utqiaġvik, Wainwright, Point Hope, Kotzebue and Nome. It would also make GCI the supplier for some of its own competitors.

"We expect to close Quintillion soon," Ron Duncan, CEO of the parent company, Liberty Capital, said in its third-quarter earnings release.

Quintillion doesn't sell internet service to the public. It sells capacity on its line to the companies that do, including GCI and rivals like Alaska Communications.

The line runs over land from Fairbanks to the North Slope, then under the sea along the coast to Nome. Sea ice scraping the seafloor has cut the undersea cable twice, in 2023 and 2025. Repairs had to wait months for the ice to clear enough for ships to reach the breaks. The 2025 break lasted nine months, GCI and Quintillion told federal regulators, and each outage affected service for about 20,000 users.

GCI says owning both networks will reduce the risk and length of outages. It says it would link Quintillion's line with its own to form three new loops, so that if one line is cut, traffic can take another way around. The Federal Communications Commission, which reviewed the deal, found that claim credible.

Some of GCI's competitors worry about price. Alaska Communications asked the FCC to block the sale unless rivals got guaranteed access at regulated rates, arguing that a single owner could raise what it charges them.

The FCC approved the sale Oct. 20 and denied that request. It made promises GCI had offered during the review into conditions of approval. GCI must keep honoring Quintillion's existing contracts, and for at least three years after closing, it can't add inflation increases when it extends them. On some routes, it must offer service to every wholesale customer at "just and reasonable" rates.

Pacific Dataport, which sells satellite internet, has since questioned whether those conditions will keep prices fair, taking its concerns to the FCC chairman's office. Parties have until Nov. 19 to ask the FCC to reconsider or review its approval.

The purchase agreement also requires Quintillion to finish a 171-mile backup line over land to Utqiaġvik and put it in service before closing, though GCI can waive that. The line would give Utqiaġvik a path around the stretch of undersea cable that ice has damaged. Its fiber is laid on the snow along the North Slope Borough's Community Winter Access Trail. As of April, Quintillion's project page said the first 100 miles were almost done and the rest was scheduled for the 2027 winter construction season. The earnings release didn't say whether that requirement has been met or waived.

GCI has already lent the seller $160 million, which would be credited toward the price at closing. It also agreed to pay the seller up to $50 million to cover Quintillion's spending before closing on the Nome-to-Homer Express, an extension now under construction, and may owe more later if certain Quintillion revenues top agreed targets, according to an April filing.