Alaska Communications debuted fiber service in 2022
Alaska Communications says that after a successful pilot of fiber-to-the-home service last year, it plans to extend its fiber network to another 14,000 homes over the course of 2023.
Alaska Communications’ fiber network already serves some neighborhoods in Anchorage, Fairbanks and Soldotna. The fiber service offers three pricing tiers of symmetrical speeds up to 2.5 Gbps.
While Alaska Communications is starting with fiber in the state’s urban areas, it also has longer-term plans which include a rural focus and federal funding.
Alaska Communications is part of the Alaska FiberOptic Project, a collaboration with Calista Corporation, Doyon Limited, Gana-A ‘Yoo Limited and the Tanana Chiefs Conference, to connect up to 20 communities along the Yukon River and Kuskokwim River with fiber.
The project is split into three phases, and the partners have applied for federal funding through the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, which is administering the largest of a number of federal broadband deployment funding mechanisms. According to the project’s website, two of the project segments have already been granted funding: The upper Yukon River and the lower Kuskokwim River portions. Completing those will connect 12 communities. The upper Yukon River phase has a total length of 445.6 miles, with 135 of those considered “terrestrial” and another 310.7 miles underwater, where the fiber will be embedded in the channel of the Yukon River. There is another 436-mile “middle Yukon” segment which has not yet been funded. The lower Kuskokwim fiber segment totals 180.3 miles, with 51.3 terrestrial miles and 129 miles underwater.
The partners intend to pursue full funding for the remaining phase which has not yet been awarded financial support.
The Alaska FiberOptic Project, which will provide gigabit speeds to residents “with pricing that equals Alaska Communications’ rates in urban areas”, is expected to be done by the end of 2025. Alaska Communications says that it began the permitting process for the build-out in January of this year.
