Building out Alaska's wireless network.

• Author: Colby, Nicole A. Bonham
• Position: SPECIAL SECTION: Telecom & Technology

It may be no surprise that the state of Alaska is so large that it is difficult to cover the entire state in the footprint of a single satellite in geosynchronous orbit. What is the significance of that scenario? As a result, providing wireless service to customers across the entire state requires an extraordinary degree of planning, infrastructure, deployment, and challenging maintenance. From ice fields to rainforest island peaks, telecommunications workers operating Alaska's wireless network are essentially adventurous explorers with a day job that looks something like a reality TV drama. Unlike the Lower 48, where four-wheel-drive makes most communications sites accessible, here it's a case of not trains, planes, and automobiles but instead snowcats, floatplanes, and helicopters.

It was not that many years ago when a single telegraph line was being constructed through Southeast Alaska to connect the state to the Lower 48. That eventually gave way to an underwater cable--considered "fiber"--and then to satellite communications, additional cable, even more fiber, and added communications companies. Nowadays, Alaska is as wired as the rest of the world--in some cases, much more so.

The state's backbone of communications to support the wireless network is a hybrid of wire, fiber, and microwave links that are, for the most part, transparent to the wireless user.

Transition Time

For the end user, Alaska's wired communications are fast becoming wireless in nature--from the user's perspective, that is. The offerings may end up sounding a bit like alphabet soup: mobile phones, both smart and basic; computers connected via Wi-Fi hot spots, 3G, 4G, 4G LTE, high speed packet access, CDMA, GSM and a variety of other technologies. There is almost nowhere along the population corridors of this state where wireless communication is not omnipresent.

The providers of these services consist of three primary communications service providers: AT&T, General Communications, Inc., and Alaska Communications Systems. The fourth-largest service provider, Matanuska Telephone Association, is also a major player in Alaska's telecommunication market. These are not the only providers that make up the "cloud" of wireless services in Alaska, but they are the largest.

Collectively, individual providers indicate there are more than 562,000 mobile device subscribers in the state, served by the three primary providers.

AT&T Mobility (AT&T)

"The wireless industry is arguably...