ANCHORAGE, Alaska--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Doing business in Alaska’s arctic region, off the road system, comes with a unique set of logistical and technological challenges. Alaska Communications (NASDAQ: ALSK) is working with rural businesses to provide solutions, allowing them to be more connected than ever.
“Many businesses in the Arctic regions have offices in Anchorage and other metropolitan communities. Having access to competitive, high-speed broadband will allow them to connect without limits," said Bill Bishop, senior vice president, Business Markets. “Businesses can become more efficient and effective because they won’t be constrained by shared networks, slow connectivity and data caps.”
Alaska Communications is proud to provide support solutions to Nome-based Kawerak, a regional non-profit corporation, by offering competitive, high-speed broadband. This move will address the extremely high prices and substantial bandwidth constraints previously faced by the Bering Strait Regional corporation.
“This contract will have a positive impact on business, connectivity and how Kawerak works with companies and customers outside of Nome,” said Bishop.
In addition to its work in Nome, Alaska Communications is bringing new services to Utqiaġvik, Kotzebue, Point Hope and Wainwright. For the first time, Native corporations, government agencies, health care clinics, schools and businesses now can access competitive, high-speed, reliable broadband and managed IT services. Additionally, high-speed, reliable broadband is available through a fiber optic network where most new oil and gas development is occurring in Alaska’s North Slope.
The fiber optic broadband network is now available following a multi-year effort by Quintillion to lay infrastructure and connect two undersea fiber optic cable networks. The connection increases capacity and builds redundancy on the subsea fiber optic system, which allows Alaska Communications to expand broadband and managed IT service offerings to Arctic region businesses. Previously, only high-cost microwave and satellite were available from a sole provider.
Alaska Communications is first making this new network available to business customers and select telecom carriers. It will work with local exchange carriers in each community to bring high-speed broadband opportunities to homes.
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 Quintillion
Headquartered in Anchorage, Quintillion is bringing lower-cost, high-speed broadband service options to rural Alaska and enabling new ground-based national defense infrastructure in the Arctic for the first time. Quintillion, together with its partners, is changing Alaska's middle mile capabilities with the construction of new fiber optic cable systems that went live December 2017, including subsea fiber from Prudhoe Bay to Nome with additional connections into Utqiaġvik (Barrow), Wainwright, Point Hope, and Kotzebue, and terrestrial cable from Fairbanks to the oil and gas industry at Deadhorse/Prudhoe Bay. Quintillion is exploring the business case to establish the continent’s first North American Arctic Data Center on its network. The Alaska portion of the Quintillion Subsea Cable System is the first phase of a planned multiphase international subsea cable system designed to connect Europe to Asia along the Lower Northwest Passage, providing a diverse and shorter route between the two continents. For more information, please visit www.Qexpressnet.com.
About Kawerak
Kawerak’s mission is to advance the capacity of our people and tribes for the benefit of the region. With programs ranging from education to transportation, and natural resource management to economic development, Kawerak seeks to improve the Bering Strait Region's social, economic, educational, cultural and political conditions to see our people and tribes thrive. Kawerak, Inc. is a regional non-profit corporation formed by the tribes following the passage of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act in 1971.
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