Alaska Communications Expansion

Alaska Communications expanded broadband availability and boosted speeds to almost 5,000 homes in the Interior region of the state in 2022. The company used a wide range of last-mile technologies – from XGS-PON to fixed wireless, even some DSL — to achieve that. The Alaskan Interior can be thought of as the center of the state – the area most removed from the state’s lengthy coastline. Much of the area is wilderness. One Interior town carries the name North Pole. North Pole was one of two communities, along with Fairbanks, the biggest Interior city, to receive service at symmetrical 2.5 Gbps speeds. A total of 1,200 homes in those communities now have access to the offering, which as the spokesperson confirmed, is based on XGS-PON fiber broadband. Some other people in Fairbanks and North Pole also have new options in broadband but at considerably lower speeds. Alaska Communications expanded service to 2,400 locations in those markets and in several others using a mix of DSL and fixed wireless supporting speeds up to 50 Mbps. That build was funded, in part, through the Connect America Fund II (CAF II) program. Fixed wireless also underlies a project completed in 2022 that made gigabit service available to more than 1,200 homes at Fort Wainwright. The company plans further expansion into the Interior in 2023 and beyond