One gigabit service deployment planned: GCI continues investments in Anchorage and Statewide.

• Author: Orr, Vanessa
• Position: SPECIAL SECTION: Telecom & Technology

Build it and they will come. In the case of Alaska's first one gigabit service for consumers, this not only means customers but also applications that haven't even been invented yet.

In December 2013, GCI announced plans to deploy Alaska's first 1 GB (gigabit) consumer Internet service, fiber re:D, in Anchorage by 2015. One gigabit is equal to 1,000 MB (megabits), which would enable customers to download a 2.2 GB HD movie in 18 seconds, versus an average US speed of 30 minutes. A 4 GB console game will download in 33 seconds instead of 55 minutes, and an Ultra HD movie of 50 GB will take 7 minutes versus 11.5 hours.

According to Ron Duncan, GCI president and CEO, the company decided to make this groundbreaking technological move in response to an initiative by the Federal Communications Commission, whose chairman issued a national challenge to make gigabit Internet service speeds available in every state by 2015. Currently, about a dozen cities in the United States offer residential gigabit Internet service.

"Since our founding, GCI has invested well in excess of $2 billion in Alaska's communications infrastructure, and we continue to lead the market in technological innovation," said Duncan in a press release. "We're focused on 'What's next?' to benefit Alaskans."

Pushing the Envelope

As users become more Internet savvy and more devices are created that connect to the Internet, the demand for faster speeds increases. "It seems that consumers have an insatiable appetite for quicker speeds," says Duncan Whitney, GCI's vice president of

product management and development. "Google and other providers in the Lower 48 have really prodded the industry forward, with some users already enjoying the early deployment of gigabit service.

"We've always prided ourselves on being the first to market new services in Alaska, especially since many areas of the state are, geographically speaking, separate from the rest of world, which makes it much more technology-dependent than metropolitan areas in the Lower 48," Whitney adds. "Not only will this service give customers more speed but it will prod the creation of applications that aren't even in existence today because the speeds are not available; it pushes the whole envelope forward."

This is not the first time that GCI has taken the lead in providing the most advanced technology available to its customers. GCI was the first Alaska carrier to provide single-hop satellite long distance calling; the first...