Remote, rural Alaska telecom: providers enhance services for communities and worksites.

• Author: Barbour, Tracy
• Position: TELECOM & TECHNOLOGY

In Alaska's Bush and rural areas, telecommunications services provide an important link to the rest of the state--and world. That connection keeps steadily improving, thanks to enhancements that providers are making to increase the accessibility and quality of their services to remote communities and worksites from the North Slope to Unalaska/Dutch Harbor.

GCI Making Strides with 3G and TERRA Upgrades

As the largest Alaska-based and--operated, integrated telecommunications provider, GCI offers an array of wireless, voice, data, and video services throughout the state. GCI customers in the Bush and rural areas have access to many of the same services that are available in Alaska's larger cities, from cable television, voice, and wireless to high-speed Internet and video. "We can offer urban-quality service in almost any part of the state," says Craig Mollerstuen, vice president of United Utilities, Inc. (UUI). A wholly-owned subsidiary of GCI, Anchorage-based UUI serves customers primarily in the Yukon Delta area.

GCI also supplies telecom services to residential customers in rural areas--which indirectly helps businesses attract and retain high-value employees. "GCI has made the commitment to get into as many communities as we can and provide as many services as we can," Mollerstuen says.

Currently, GCI is upgrading its network to improve services in rural Alaska. For example, the company is deploying 3G wireless data service in twenty-eight communities, ranging from Alakanuk to the village of Upper Kalskag. The 3G upgrade is being supported by a Tribal Mobility Fund Phase 1 award from the FCC (Federal Communications Commission). As part of the award, GCI will deploy 3G and 4G wireless services to a total of forty-eight rural Alaska communities by 2018.

The company is also increasing the backbone capacity of TERRA, its terrestrial broadband network, from Levelock to Bethel by deploying new microwave radio technology. TERRA is a hybrid fiber optic-microwave system that removes the restrictions of satellite and gives private, public, nonprofit, and individual users unlimited access to critical bandwidth. The network also affords businesses an opportunity to expand their geographic reach outside the confines of their remote location, according to Rebecca Markley, project manager IV, TERRA. "It's giving them the opportunity to post their business on the Web and increase their coverage area from local to worldwide," Markley says.

Perhaps the biggest qualitative change from TERRA is the always-on and high-speed nature of the Internet. While city dwellers tend to take this technology for granted, many rural residents have been amazed by it. According to Mollerstuen, some of the feedback GCI has been getting is: "'It's fast,' and 'It's like being in town.'"

The TERRA network enables GCI to serve approximately seventy communities and forty-three thousand people in the western part of the state. "It has allowed us the ability to vastly improve our wireless network in rural Alaska," says David Morris, GCI spokesperson. "We have a vision for rural Alaska," he says. "We put our money where our mouth is, and we will continue to do that."

But implementing technology is one issue; keeping it serviced is another. In Bush and rural Alaska, repair situations can involve multiple plane hops and service outages that can last for days--not hours. Consequently, GCI is diligently working to reduce the time it takes to complete repairs for its customers, according to Morris.

Safety is another key area of concern for GCI. In fact, it's...