Communications at the top of the world: Arctic Slope Telephone Association Cooperative Inc. has been providing services to the North Slope Borough of Alaska for more than 20 years.

• Author: Morgan, Barbara
• Position: Alaska Native Business News

"A phone in every home" is what ASTAC, Arctic Slope Telephone Association Cooperative, provides for the North Slope Borough of Alaska. The slogan of the 1930s telecom act promoted that what is general good for the nation is equal universal access footing for services and information for everyone. But what really motivated the need and desire for modem communication systems on the North Slope was the development of the Prudhoe Bay oil field.

When ASTAC first applied for a certificate in the late '70s, all the oil companies wanted to stick with their current provider, RCA. All filed petitions opposing this little cooperative start-up how could it possibly serve the big oil companies? But when everyone saw the benefit of low costs in ASTAC's proposed tariff for services, they withdrew their opposition.

"If we didn't provide good service, the oil companies would have a choice. They have the capability of running their own telecommunications business. They would drop us in a minute," says Dave Fauske, general manager for ASTAC. "The major oil industry companies have more complex systems than ASTAC. The benefit is, when we do it right, they have a very reasonable cost for a very good telecommunications service.

"At the local level we can do anything you could get in Seattle or New York City," he continues. The technically limiting and costly part is the satellite path and thus the high cost between villages. There are no terrestrial (land) lines from village to village.

To make service universal, all telephone subscribers contribute to a pool. The pool is distributed in areas where costs are higher than average. Most people in America have basic phone service at a roughly equivalent cost, although it varies from state to state. If your operating costs are 115 percent or higher than the national average, you receive the universal fund benefit. For example, the actual cost for phone service for residents in Kaktovik on Barter Island (located in the Beaufort Sea about 100 miles west of the Alaska/Canada border) is approximately $100 a month, but the subscribers only pay a basic residential rate of $15.30 a month. The Universal Service Fund makes up the difference.

Fauske has been with the not-for-profit cooperative since its inception. Prior to working with ASTAC, Fauske lived in Barrow, where he was a school principal and a teacher, and he worked for the Arctic Slope Regional Corp. and the North Slope Borough. He was involved in the initial formation, incorporation and certification process of ASTAC, and became assistant general manager of ASTAC in 1989. He has served as its general manager since 1992.

ASTAC's story is one about reciprocity of partnership between individuals and the community--the unique situation of the traditional Inupiat in the villages keeping up with the...