Three Alaska telecoms lay out plans for $353 million in federal broadband grants

Alaska Communications, GCI and Matanuska Telecom Association, which together won $353 million in federal broadband grants this spring, laid out where and how they plan to build at a Resource Development Council breakfast in Anchorage on Oct. 15.

The money comes from the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program, or BEAD, which pays to bring internet service to unserved and underserved locations. The grants were awarded in April, and Alaska Communications expects its grant agreement to be finalized "any day now," said Tony Dodge, who leads network strategy, planning and deployment there. "There's a 4-year commitment, so all of our construction that's BEAD-related will be finished in 2030," he said.

Alaska Communications received $124 million, plus a $26.7 million company match, for about 9,100 locations from Fort Yukon to Akhiok on Kodiak Island. A project with Doyon to reach Fort Yukon will also bring the company to Manley Hot Springs and Minto, which it doesn't serve today, Dodge said.

The company is splitting the work about 50-50 between fiber, in denser areas, and fixed wireless elsewhere. Building all fiber would have pushed the grant to five times its size, Dodge said. Fiber takes about two years from go-ahead to service, he said, and fixed wireless about six months.

GCI received three grants totaling $121 million for 18 communities in western Alaska and the greater Anchorage area, said Aaron Helmericks, GCI's vice president of corporate development. The company builds on a fiber backbone and uses hybrid microwave-fiber systems and fiber to homes and businesses, he said.

MTA received $108 million and is adding $36 million of its own to reach more than 10,000 locations, said Francis LaChapelle, MTA's vice president of strategic initiatives. MTA aimed at low-density areas where costs are highest, such as around Big Lake, Palmer and Wasilla, he said. With 17% of the state's grant money, he said, MTA will reach almost a quarter of the state's locations.

The awards are part of about $630 million in projects the Alaska Broadband Office announced from the state's $1.017 billion BEAD allocation. On Sept. 3, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration said more than 5,000 more Alaska locations could become eligible through a new round funded by program savings.

Helmericks said Alaska has one of the toughest permitting regimes, and industry has called federal permits the bottleneck for rural broadband, Alaska News reported in July. At a July 15 U.S. Senate subcommittee hearing, a federal witness said the Bureau of Land Management receives BEAD permit applications in year three of the four-year build, leaving one year to process them.