Rural Businesses Benefitting from Alaska Communications’ Expanded Broadband Offerings
March 14 2018 - 04:05PM
Business Wire
New internet connectivity allows businesses in
underserved areas of the state to be more connected than ever.
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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version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180314005907/en/
Alaska CommunicationsInvestor Contact:Tiffany Smith,
907-564-7556Manager, Board and Investor
Relationsinvestors@acsalaska.comorMedia Contact:Hannah Blankenship,
907-564-1326Manager, Corporate
CommunicationsHannah.Blankenship@acsalaska.com
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