FAIRBANKS, Alaska (AP) - An Anchorage-based telecommunications company has recently finished installing 250 miles of fiber-optic cable connecting two communities in Alaska as part of a larger project to improve communications between Europe and Asia using the underwater cables.
Quintillion Holdings spokesman Tim Woolston said the cable linking Fairbanks to Prudhoe Bay on Alaska’s North Slope will bring broadband internet to the Arctic for the first time starting in mid-April, The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reported (https://bit.ly/2nKwDFl).
Quintillion’s efforts in Alaska mark the first phase of the project to lay a fiber-optic cable linking Europe and Asia through the Arctic Ocean.
Last summer, the company started working to connect six Alaska coastal communities with 900 miles of underwater cables. But construction was delayed due to difficulty with ice, Woolston said.
Woolston did not provide an exact date for when the villages of Nome, Kotzebue, Point Hope, Wainwright, Utqiagvik (formerly Barrow) and Deadhorse will have high-speed internet access. But it will happen soon, he said.
“There will be crews back on the water as soon as the ice opens up,” Woolston said. “Basically finishing what didn’t get done last year, which is pretty small.”
Arctic Slope Regional Corp. spokeswoman Tara Sweeney said the satellite or microwave connections used in Alaska’s rural communities are expensive, with internet service costing more than $215 a month in some places.
When the first phase wraps up this summer, Quintillion will head to Asia for the next round of construction. The company will eventually make a return to Alaska to start the third phase, which involves running fiber-optic cables from Deadhorse east to the Northwest Passage.
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Information from: Fairbanks (Alaska) Daily News-Miner, https://www.newsminer.com
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