Alaska Wired!

At Noatak, communications is restricted to very small aperture terminals (VSAT), like the one in the foreground.

We’re the most wired state in the nation. Even rural Alaska is jumping onboard. 

By Regan Stewart 

Though the least populous, most remote state in the country, Alaska is also considered the most wired, ranking No. 1 for home computer penetration and Internet access. A whopping 83.7 percent of Alaska homes are plugged in. It is estimated that Alaskans sign up for high-speed service three times more than the national average. According to Alaska’s top telecommunications providers, by the end of 2004, 99.5 percent of the state will have local Internet access, including most rural villages.

After Alaska, in terms of percentage of the population with Internet access, is Colorado at 47 percent, followed by Maryland and Utah, each with 46 percent. Mississippi is lowest with 17 percent of adults online. The state ranks high in the use of other communication products and services as well.

Anchorage is connected to the Lower 48 by two high-capacity fiber optic networks, with a third network being completed by press time. Anchorage is connected to Fairbanks and Juneau by fiber optic systems and is connected to the rest of Alaska by a state-of-the-art satellite network capable of efficiently delivering voice, data and IP services to regional centers and small rural communities.

High-speed Internet access is provided through both cable modem and DSL (digital subscriber line) infrastructure in Alaska. Anchorage is one of the nation’s most competitive telecom markets and is served by three major telecom providers–ACS, AT&T Alascom and GCI.

Andy Coon, director of business sales and service for Alaska Communication System Inc., says, “The future, especially in Alaska, is wireless.” The strengths of ACS are through the big corridors and residential service. With 28,000 businesses in Alaska, the business climate and all its new products, services and new applications are driving bandwidth. Coon says the same thing happening in Alaska is happening in the world. “Wireless application is going to be interesting in Alaska,” says Coon. “The world will come to Alaska. Companies can work anywhere they want as long as they have the infrastructure in place.”

Headquartered in Anchorage, ACS is Alaska’s first full-service, statewide telecommunications company. ACS is a diversified, full-service provider, with more than 400,000 businesses, government and residential subscribers for its long-distance and facilities-based local telephone, wireless, data, network and Internet services throughout the state.

A Competitive Market

Competition benefits business and consumers when providers have strong customer service orientation. Aggressive pricing is available on all product lines. According to Coon, rates have decreased by 85 percent. For a state with 600,000 people and three profitable telecommunications companies, it makes for a really competitive environment. When all the providers focus on the delivery of high quality services, providers get creative in developing and packaging new services. “It comes down to who can provide the best service; that is the company to go with,” says ACS’ Coon.

GCI has a 45 percent share of the state’s long-distance market, and is the state’s largest provider of Internet services with dial-up, cable modem, wireless, digital subscriber line and dedicated access. The company’s cable television services have a 65 percent household penetration. Digital cable and cable modem service is available to 90 percent of its subscribers.

The company offers facilities-based local telephone services in Anchorage, Fairbanks and Juneau, and has obtained a 20 percent statewide market share. GCI’s services are connected through company-owned fiber optic, satellite and metropolitan area network facilities to the Lower 48 states. This broadband platform is the only one of its kind in Alaska and allows the company to provide customized services to the Alaska market.

In 2001, GCI acquired the 800-mile fiber optic cable that follows the trans-Alaska oil pipeline. GCI fiber optic facilities now extend from the major energy-producing region of Alaska to the Lower 48 states. The design was to create a single network that is capable of delivering all its services and open to future innovations in communications technology. Much of the work required to make the cable phone service possible was done when GCI upgraded the cable network to deliver high-speed Internet service and digital cable TV. GCI is trying to connect as many as 10,000 of its 83,000 local phone lines in Anchorage to the new system by the end of this year.

Ron Duncan, president, CEO and co-founder of GCI, the state’s fastest growing telecommunications company, says, “we have cable systems today that pass about 90 percent of the homes in the state.” In Anchorage, that estimate is closer to 98 percent. Given the breadth of its coverage, GCI’s cable network will play an increasingly important role in the company’s local telephone service business moving forward. Some GCI customers will continue to be served by other technologies, but the majority of their residential service will be on cable. The company’s plan is to launch high-speed Internet service in all the Alaska communities it currently serves by November. The service is expected to provide 152 communities across the state with high-speed Internet services delivered via cable modem, DSL and wireless technologies.

Having the cable modem technology is what gets them to the 90 percent mark for high-speed Internet, which is comprised of about 20 communities. Duncan admits Alaska is a challenging state for service delivery. Therefore, his company must find unique ways to adapt. So the question is how to get to the other several hundred communities.

A Wired Rural Alaska

The telecom industry is continuing to work with communities and schools on integrating the technology into the curriculum. For the most part, Alaska’s classrooms are now wired to the Internet. This increased demand has resulted in improved high-speed connections to Alaska schools and communities.

“The core facility, particularly when serving the school or health facility, puts technology on the ground that you need to get the wireless Internet to the home,” says Duncan. Duncan says if he has an economic base to get into a community, such as a contract with a school or health core, then that puts technology on the ground that actually has a fair amount of excess capacity. “We size those facilities so that the school and health corporation can meet their peak need of demands,” says Duncan.

Outside of Anchorage, Juneau and Fairbanks, virtually everything is satellite delivery due to the vast distances betweens these cities. “You’ve got mountains and big swamps essentially in the way and you have to do everything through satellite,” says Duncan.

Duncan says bringing the Internet into the villages is like bringing the real world in. “It’s tangible,” says Duncan. “The key for us was to take a cheap consumer product and turn it into delivery into the home.” While the villages are far apart, they are dense little clusters. “There’s lots of dirt between communities,” says Duncan. The communities are small enough that by mounting an antenna 30 feet in the air, the reach covers enough bandwidth for 25 to 30 homes, which is about half a mile of range. This costs about $5,000 to $6,000 per community.

Duncan says they chose to do business in Alaska because that is where the opportunities are. Being the biggest Internet provider with about 50 percent share of customers in Alaska means having to find unique ways to make “good enough” access for rural areas, too. Basically, they put a pipeline of antennae that people can put on the outside of the home and connect that in through the wall using the USB connecter into the computer. While the smallest villages are the most difficult to serve, there are no competing units for bandwidth.

The children in the villages have computer access in school. Each school typically has high-speed Internet so they are exposed to the technology at school and this allows them to bring the technology home. “I, frankly, was surprised at the levels of penetration. I thought if we got 25 percent of the homes connected that would be just great,” says Duncan. “But we have a lot of communities that have over 50 percent. You can almost graph the community size by the level of penetration. The bigger the community is the fewer the percentage of people with Internet access. The smaller the community the higher the number of people that subscribes.”

If steps are not taken to ensure wide access to digital technologies, the Internet could worsen existing inequalities. Duncan says that GCI is committed to creating for rural Alaskans their personal ramp onto the Information Superhighway with urban quality service at urban level pricing. “We believe this high-speed Internet access throughout rural Alaska will foster new health, education and commerce opportunities for the entire state.” The communications revolution could power the transition in Alaska from a natural resource-based economy to a knowledge-based economy.

New Fiber Optic Cable

When the second fiber optic cable system is completed in 2004, it will deliver a minimum of 258,048 simultaneous clear channel voice or data circuits at transmission speeds of 20 billion bits per second. This means unlimited backup facilities. As demand increases, capacity can be increased to support a minimum of 8.3 million simultaneous clear channel voice or data circuits at speeds of 640 billion bits per second.

Fiber optics is the preferred method of carrying voice, video or data communications. It allows for optimization of transmission performance because of its lack of latency. Its superior information carrying capacity enables the deployment of new, bandwidth hungry applications such as faster Internet, Broadband ISDN and video conferencing.

Connectivity can unite Alaska’s villages to the rest of the state and the world for commercial and educational opportunities. GCI also is investing in technologies to connect with patients, improve patient safety and to connect with clinicians. Innovative use of the Internet, combined with low cost wireless devices, is already increasing knowledge, incomes and health care in isolated parts of the state.

A Quick Glance at AT&T Alascom

AT&T Alascom is Alaskans’ first choice for long-distance service, according to the company. The company’s history now extends to the satellites and fiber optics that link Alaska’s homes and businesses with each other and the world. AT&T Alascom operates more than 200 sites statewide with microwave and satellite communications stations providing every community in Alaska domestic and international long-distance connections. The company says their determination to deliver service to all Alaskans has resulted in one of the largest satellite networks for telephone service in the world. The growing list of AT&T Alascom’s products includes leased terrestrial and satellite channels and networks, high-speed data services, wide-band analog services, fast-packet switching data networks, frame relay, leased transportable earth stations, live radio and television broadcast transmissions and Internet.

[ Home ] [ Up ]

Send mail to webmaster@akbizmag.com with questions or comments about this web site.
Copyright © 2004 Alaska Business Monthly.