Alaska Comm Extends with Quintillion Subsea Cable

Alaska Communications announced that leveraging Anchorage-based infrastructure company Quintillion's new submarine optical cable it is bringing new services to Alaska's northernmost communities, including Utqiaġvik (formerly known as Barrow), Nome, Kotzebue, Point Hope and Wainwright.

Through the project, corporations, government agencies, healthcare and education institutions in the northwest region of Alaska will gain access to reliable high-speed broadband and managed IT services for the first time.

Quintillion's infrastructure will enable the provision of commercial high-speed connectivity in areas where previously only costly microwave and satellite communications were available from a single provider. The new fibre network will support lower cost, high-speed access to the communities in northwest Alaska.

Alaska Communications, the leading broadband and managed IT services provider in the state, noted that when the new network becomes available later in 2017 it will act as a reseller to select telecom carriers, as well as serving business customers using the expanded network. In addition, as part of the agreement Quintillion will purchase capacity services for its new terrestrial system linking the oil fields of the North Slope on Alaska Communications' fibre network from Fairbanks to the U.S.

Alaska Communications noted that it first partnered with Quintillion in 2015 when it acquired a fibre network from ConocoPhillips in the part of Alaska's North Slope where most recent oil and gas exploration is occurring. The new agreement allows Alaska Communications to connect the original fibre to its existing network via Quintillion's new terrestrial network, providing redundancy and extending broadband and managed IT services to more oil and gas companies on the North Slope.

Quintillion is aiming to deliver affordable, carrier-class broadband services in Alaska, and with partners is specifically seeking to develop Alaska's middle-mile capabilities via the construction of new cable systems.

In May 2016 Quintillion announced it had acquired the assets of Arctic Fibre as part of a plan to build a submarine fibre optic cable from Asia to Europe, with the first phase in Alaska. Arctic Fibre is planning to deploy a Europe-Asia submarine cable system linking Nome to Prudhoe Bay in Alaska, Nome to Tokyo, Japan and form Prudhoe Bay to England, with additional spurs to Arctic Canada.