ANCHORAGE, Alaska--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Alaska Communications (NASDAQ: ALSK) announced today that it has signed a non-exclusive memorandum of understanding (MOU) to become the first reseller of OneWeb enabled broadband access in Alaska. Starting in 2019, this new high-speed, low latency broadband service will be available to every Alaska home, school, business, and community center.
OneWeb’s system is unprecedented in scale, including 900 ultra-high throughput Low Earth Orbit satellites capable of providing more than 7 Tbps of new global capacity. Even more unique is that OneWeb is specifically designed with a polar orbit to ensure coverage of 100 percent of the United States, including Alaska which has historically, because of its high latitude, had poor coverage from the satellite industry.
“We are building this system exactly for this purpose,” said Greg Wyler, OneWeb’s Founder and Executive Chairman. “OneWeb is designed to connect the world’s rural and underserved populations, so connecting every school, health center and community will be extremely exciting.”
With tens of thousands of Alaskans lacking broadband access across the state, OneWeb will provide a service that matches terrestrial quality latency of less than 50ms. This low latency service enables seamless connectivity and the same user experience and lag-free web browsing, streaming capabilities, video conferencing, voice communications, and enterprise applications access you would expect from a fiber or cable network. Uniquely, because of the polar orbit, OneWeb’s terminals can view the satellites almost directly overhead at any time, providing clear line of sight access.
“Alaska Communications is dedicated to providing high quality broadband access across the state. Partnering with OneWeb this early will allow us to prepare for an Alaska-wide roll out in 2019,” said Anand Vadapalli, CEO of Alaska Communications. “Combined with the recent announcements we have made about partnering for fiber access in Northwest Alaska, this partnership with OneWeb demonstrates our commitment to quality and affordable broadband access across Alaska.”
About Alaska Communications
Alaska Communications (NASDAQ: ALSK) is the leading provider of advanced broadband and managed IT services for businesses and consumers in Alaska. The company operates a highly reliable, advanced statewide data network with the latest technology and the most diverse undersea fiber optic system connecting Alaska to the contiguous U.S. For more information, visit www.alaskacommunications.com or www.alsk.com.
About OneWeb
OneWeb’s mission is to enable affordable internet access for everyone. To accomplish this goal OneWeb is building a communications network of unprecedented size including nearly 900 Low Earth Orbit satellites and an integrated ground support infrastructure. With more than 7 terabits per second of new capacity, the first phase of OneWeb’s system will extend the networks of mobile operators and ISPs to serve new coverage areas, enabling broadband for businesses, schools, healthcare institutions and other end users. Backed with over $1.7 billion of funding from a diverse group of global investors, OneWeb will launch its first satellites in early 2018. To learn more, please visit www.oneweb.world.
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