Skagway fiber-optic link nixed

Yukon Territory turned thumbs-down to an overland fiber optic link from Whitehorse to Skagway, a blow to Alaska Power & Telephone, the regional U.S. telecom and power firm. The territory will instead participate with a Canadian company in an overland link up the Dempster Highway to Inuvik, in Northwest Territories. AP&T has build a marine fiber optic cable linking Juneau, Haines and Skagway, and the connection to Whitehorse would have added traffic to the system, which has ample spare capacity. Whitehorse now depends on a single terrestrial cable built along the Alaska Highway, which has been subject to breaks. The link to Ska

 

GCI talks with Unalaska about fiber-optic

General Communications Inc., or GCI, is talking with potential customers in the Aleutians about its planned “TERRA-Aleutian” undersea cable extending from Kodiak to Unalaska, with connections to Cold Bay, King Cove, Sand Point, and Chignik Lagoon. These are major fisheries area served now only by satellite. GCI has spent $2.5 million in planning but is not yet committed to proceed. Fifteen businesses operating in the region say they will support the project, including major fish processors Trident and Unisea. GCI has completed its Southwest and Northwest TERRA land-based systems that now extends Internet service to 84 communities, at a cost of $40 million. TERRA stands for Terrestrial for Every Rural Region in Alaska.