Telecommunications grow in the last frontier: expanded services, programs, and community involvement.

• Author: Anderson, Tasha
• Position: SPECIAL SECTION: Telecom & Technology

Technology is growing and expanding universally throughout the industry. Alaska is no exception. Some advances are even more obvious here because many areas of Alaska are remote and lack infrastructure taken for granted elsewhere--roads, power lines, technicians that can travel by car instead of boat--so any advance in technology is momentous, like suddenly having cell phone coverage where none existed before.

AT&T

Expanded cell phone coverage is an area in which AT&T has invested significantly recently and plans to do more in the future. According to President for AT&T Alaska Bob Bass, 4G LTE, "the latest and greatest in data speed that you can get," has been expanded to Ketchikan, Seward, Soldotna, Fairbanks, Juneau, and Kodiak.

"The LTE experience on a wireless device is incredible," Bass says. "I've been out in Alyeska [resort at Girdwood] the last couple days ... I took the tram to the top, and [the wireless service] was smoking."

Alaska is on par with the rest of the United States when it comes to how mobile and wireless devices have become a reality of everyday life. "It used to be that your wireless device, you could just make voice calls with it," Bass says. Mobile devices now allow people not only to perform different tasks, but to do many of them simultaneously--if, of course, the service is available to accommodate it.

"Over the last three years we've spent, on wireless and wiring networks, a little over $200 million in Alaska. We see ourselves on the same pace moving forward," Bass says. "We're constantly expanding out to areas where we don't currently have anything, [and] more and more fiber is being laid."

In an effort to save customers money, AT&T has been offering mobile share plans, which Bass reports are doing well. "Families look for ways to use their dollars more effectively and efficiently; it's one thing that consumers have really adopted."

Bass is proud of the fact that, when it comes to AT&T, Alaska isn't an exception to anything. "The same plans, products, and services that are available in Anchorage are available in Jacksonville, Florida--whatever is available here is available there and vice versa."

Looking forward, Bass is particularly excited about Voice Over LTE, or HD Voice, which is a feature available on the new Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini. "I've listened in on the calls where we're using HD Voice, and it's amazing how clear it is," Bass says.

In addition, AT&T is looking closely at "wearables," which are worn...