Broadband

GCI closes Quintillion purchase before Utqiagvik backup fiber line is finished

GCI now owns the Arctic coast's only fiber line. It closed the deal before the backup line to Utqiagvik was done, and the seller is chipping in to finish it.

by Walter AlaskaNews22h ago3 min read

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

More Alaska homes could qualify for federal internet money as challenge window grows

Over 5,000 more Alaska homes and businesses could qualify for federal internet money. The feds just gave challengers more time to try knocking some off.

by Walter AlaskaNews3d ago2 min readFrom Nov 6

FCC hasn't approved $162 million for Alaska cell service, past the October vote Trump cited

Trump told a Wasilla rally that Carr said the FCC would vote in October on $162 million for Alaska cell service. It's November, and it's still pending.

by Walter AlaskaNews6d ago3 min read

GCI says court ruling could disrupt subsidies behind nearly half its revenue

A court says the FCC illegally created the group that runs its telecom subsidy fund. GCI gets 47% of its revenue from it and can't say what that means yet.

by Walter AlaskaNews1w ago3 min read

GCI rival questions whether FCC's Quintillion conditions will keep wholesale prices fair

The FCC let GCI buy the Arctic fiber line serving Utqiagvik, Kotzebue and Nome. A rival met with FCC staff to question whether the deal's conditions are enough.

by Melinda Communities.News2w ago3 min readFrom Oct 23

Follows: Alaska Communications presses FCC to block or condition GCI-Quintillion sale

AIDEA board approves $75 million fiber company, bars partners on restricted lists

AIDEA's board created a $75 million company to buy into undersea fiber, hoping Alaska can stop being what the resolution calls a "data cul-de-sac."

by Walter AlaskaNews3w ago3 min read

Follows: AIDEA board to vote on a $75 million company to invest in undersea internet cables

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

Three telecoms holding $353 million in federal broadband grants told an Anchorage business crowd where they'll build. One expects to finish by 2030.

by Melinda Communities.News3w ago2 min read

Alaska House members ask FCC to preserve E-Rate school internet discounts

Twenty-one Alaska House members asked the FCC to preserve E-Rate, which discounts school internet. Alaska's own school broadband grant depends on it.

by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min readFrom Oct 7

Follows: The FCC review that could end E-Rate is filed under children and screens

FCC clears SpaceX to send satellite service straight to phones in Alaska and the rest of the U.S.

The FCC cleared SpaceX to beam service from 15,000 planned satellites straight to phones, Alaska included, with no wireless carrier in the middle.

by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read

Alaska Communications presses FCC to block or condition GCI-Quintillion sale

Alaska Communications asked the FCC to block or restrict GCI's $310 million purchase of Quintillion unless rivals get guaranteed access to the undersea fiber network at regulated prices.

by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago5 min readFrom May 19

Follows: GCI is buying the only fiber link connecting Alaska's Arctic coast to the state

Federal government takes back $5.56 million Alaska digital equity grant

The feds took back $5.56 million meant for Alaska digital skills classes, devices and internet access. What's left: $67,466, about 1.2% of the award.

by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min readFrom Sep 4

Alaska library internet grants delayed as E-Rate comments come due

State grants that help Alaska libraries pay their internet bills are running late, held up by federal E-Rate paperwork. Award letters are coming soon.

by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min read

FCC reconsiders how it sets rural clinic telecom subsidies, 97% of which go to Alaska

Alaska gets 97% of a federal subsidy that helps rural clinics pay for connectivity, and the FCC wants to rethink how it's calculated. Comments due Wednesday.

by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago3 min read

FCC weighs new ways to set prices for rural Alaska clinics' internet and phone service

A federal telecom subsidy that's about 97% Alaska is up for a rewrite. The FCC wants comments by Wednesday on how rural clinic internet prices get set.

by Melinda Communities.News1mo ago2 min read

Aniak's Bush-Tell has drawn more than $12 million in federal support to serve river villages

An Aniak phone company has drawn more than $12 million in federal support to keep calls and internet running in villages along the Kuskokwim and Yukon.

by Melinda Communities.News1mo ago2 min read

Homer asks FCC to keep internet discount that covers most of the public library's bill

Homer's library gets $11,970 a year from a federal internet discount the FCC is reviewing. The City Council would like it left alone, please.

by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min readFrom Sep 14

Follows: Alaska superintendents ask FCC not to cut school internet subsidy

The FCC review that could end E-Rate is filed under children and screens

The federal review that could end E-Rate is filed under a docket about children and screens. The program does not pay for a single screen at all.

by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min read

Four Yukon villages get money for broadband design, not construction

Four Yukon River villages are getting broadband drawings, not broadband. The trunk line they would connect to is now 17 months behind schedule.

by Maggie AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read

Federal grant of $500,000 would replace generators on the mountaintop relays that carry Akhiok's internet

A $500,000 federal grant will replace aging generators and batteries at two mountain relays that carry internet to Akhiok, a remote village on Kodiak Island.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min readFrom Aug 31

Fiber easement for four Koyukuk River villages grows to 96 acres, and comments close Oct. 12

Tanana Chiefs Conference expanded a fiber optic easement to 96 acres to bring high-speed internet to four Koyukuk River villages, with public comments due Oct. 12.

by Maggie AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read

Homer's library is asking the state to cover part of its internet bill

Homer's library wants $5,130 from the state toward its internet bill. That is less than last year, for the pleasant reason that the bill went down.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min readFrom Aug 10

E-Rate payments send $335,276 to broadband in three Alaska towns

Keeping King Salmon connected took $302,400 in a single federal payment. The FCC is now reviewing whether to keep the program that paid for it.

by Melinda Communities.News2mo ago2 min read

Rural Alaska's internet funding is changing hands as an old federal program ends

The federal program funding phone and internet in remote Alaska is ending, and three co-ops just drew some of its last payments — $14.86 million.

by Melinda Communities.News2mo ago2 min read

GCI is buying the only fiber link connecting Alaska's Arctic coast to the state

GCI, Alaska's biggest telecom, is buying the only wired link between the Arctic coast and the rest of the state for $310 million, a route rivals depend on.

by Walter AlaskaNewsadded 2mo ago2 min read

Alaska schools fight FCC proposals that could cut their internet lifeline

Alaska schools rely on $200 million a year in discounted internet through E-Rate, and education groups are fighting FCC proposals that could cut it back.

by Melinda Communities.Newsadded 2mo ago2 min read

A rural Alaska phone company says a subsidy cut costs $185 per connection

Alaska Power & Telephone told the FCC that ending a rural subsidy would cost the company $1.1 million yearly across its 40 remote communities.

by Melinda Communities.News2mo ago2 min read

Unalaska paid for library internet for three years before the council approved it

Unalaska ran a library internet contract for three years without the council vote its code required. The council approved it this month, going back to 2023.

by Walter AlaskaNewsadded 2mo ago2 min read

Alaska superintendents ask FCC not to cut school internet subsidy

Alaska superintendents told the FCC that districts reachable only by plane or boat would lose the discount that makes school internet affordable.

by Melinda Communities.News2mo ago2 min read

Alaska's mobile service through 2034 gets locked in next week

Alaska's mobile carriers must lock in coverage and speed commitments running through 2034 by Sept. 1, based on maps frozen at the end of 2024.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read

Unalaska council ratifies a library internet contract three years late

Unalaska's library ran internet for three years on a contract the council never approved. The council ratified it Tuesday, 5-0, without discussion.

by Walter AlaskaNewsadded 2mo ago1 min read

Akiachak is in line for fiber broadband, one of seven roadless villages getting wired

Akiachak is in line for fiber broadband, one of seven roadless Y-K Delta villages being wired in a project reaching nearly 3,000 long-unserved households.

by Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read

Unalaska council retroactively approves a three-year-old library internet contract

Unalaska City Council approved a five-year internet contract for the public library at $108,876 yearly, with federal E-Rate funding covering about half the cost.

by Walter AlaskaNewsadded 3mo ago1 min read

Alaska schools could face a choice between internet and teachers if a federal subsidy is cut

A federal review could cut E-Rate, the subsidy that sent $203.5M to Alaska schools and libraries last year — and school boards warn it's internet or teachers.

by Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago2 min read

North Slope phone co-op moves to keep its Deadhorse airport site

The North Slope's phone co-op wants five more years for its tower and shop on Deadhorse Airport land, a no-bid extension of an existing $14,250-a-year lease.

by Maggie AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read

For Alaska's rural broadband, federal permits are the bottleneck

Alaska has over $1B to build rural broadband. In a state 60% federal land, industry says the real holdup isn't money — it's getting permits to build.

by Melinda Communities.News3mo ago2 min read

Calista seeks airport land at Kwethluk, Napakiak to bring hardwired broadband

Calista Corporation wants to build broadband shelters on airport land in Kwethluk and Napakiak to bring hardwired internet to both villages.

by Alaska News3mo ago1 min read

Why an Arctic fiber company needs 30,000 yards of Dalton gravel

Quintillion wants 30,000 yards of Dalton Highway gravel to build a land backup for the Arctic's only fiber line — the one sea ice has cut twice, knocking whole communities offline.

by Maggie AlaskaNews4mo ago1 min read

Alaska school boards to FCC: don't make us choose internet over teachers

Alaska's school boards warned the FCC that gutting the E-Rate internet subsidy would force districts to choose between paying the broadband bill and paying teachers.

by Melinda Communities.News4mo ago1 min read

Starlink claims 10 Gbps in Utqiagvik, but maybe... not so much

Starlink says it hit 10 Gbps in Utqiagvik — but that's the firehose into town, not what reaches your house. A rooftop dish still gets about 200 Mbps.

by Melinda Communities.News4mo ago1 min read

The grant that keeps rural Alaska's libraries online is open again

In much of Alaska, the library is how you get online. The state's grant to cover those internet bills is open to every eligible library — no contest required.

by Walter AlaskaNews4mo ago2 min read