GCI says the Northwest Arctic communities of Deering and Kivalina may soon see internet speeds and pricing comparable to those in larger cities like Anchorage.
In a press release today, the internet and cellular provider announced the completion of a 170-mile fiber optic cable linking the two communities. GCI representatives said the service is now live.
“This project will bring high speed internet unlimited data. It's a subsea fiber cable project that will deliver two and a half gig of speed per second to residential customers,” said Jennifer Nelson, GCI’s director of rural affairs.
Nelson said that will dramatically change connectivity in the communities.
“What that allows you to do is not only to have super fast speeds when you're streaming and downloading but it also allows for more users in your household to have a super fast experience without the network lagging,” Nelson said.
GCI’s announcement comes one day after an announcement for a separate project that would bring the same internet speeds to the North Slope community of Utqiaġvik. GCI has several other fiber optic projects in Western Alaska, including in the Y-K Delta, Bristol Bay and Aleutian Islands regions.
Nelson said right now there's a lot of federal funding and partnerships for communication infrastructure, but the Deering to Kivalina project is funded entirely from company capital.
Nelson said the cable, which passes through Kotzebue, is the first connecting villages in the Northwest Arctic. According to Nelson, the fiber optic cable is the same type that was severed last year in the North Slope and more recently in Sitka in September.
