May 2017 Vol. 72 No. 5
Newsline
Rural Alaska Gets High-speed Internet In Europe-Asia Project
By installing 900 miles of fiber-optic cable connecting Fairbanks to Prudhoe Bay on Alaska’s North Slope, Anchorage-based telecommunications company Quintillion Holdings is bringing broadband internet to the Arctic for the first time.
Marking the first phase of a larger project to lay a fiber-optic cable linking Europe and Asia through the Arctic Ocean, efforts began last summer, but were delayed due to difficulty with the ice. Tim Woolston, Quintillion Holdings spokesman, expects completion in mid-April.
Six Alaska coastal communities will have high-speed internet access with this first phase: Nome, Kotzebue, Point Hope, Wainwright, Utqiagvik (formerly Barrow) and Deadhorse. The second phase of construction will take place in Asia, and Quintillion will return to Alaska for the third phase, to run fiber-optic cables from Deadhorse east to the Northwest Passage.
Arctic Slope Regional Corp. spokeswoman Tara Sweeney said the satellite or microwave connections currently used in Alaska’s rural communities are expensive, with internet service costing more than $215 a month in some places.
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