Quintillion is working with Liberty Broadband-owned GCI, Alaska’s largest local telco, to expand its fibre network to Nome (pictured), population 3,850, and Kotzebue, population 3,287.
Quintillion CEO George Tronsrue said: “Our two Alaska companies have come together to provide the citizens of Nome and Kotzebue new capabilities to realize even greater social, family, medical, educational, and economic benefit and efficiency. We are happy to partner with GCI to bring these products to their customers. Quintillion is constantly seeking mutually beneficial partnerships that can have a positive impact on the state and its people, while narrowing the digital divide until we can eliminate it altogether.”
GCI CEO and co-founder Ron Duncan, said the plan “means these rural Alaska hub communities, which are hundreds of miles from the road system, will have access to the same service you could expect to get in Anchorage or in major urban centres in the Lower 48 like Chicago or Los Angeles.”
It’s four years since Quintillion put its subsea network into service, linking the northern town of Prudhoe Bay to coastal communities, including Nome and Kotzebue on the west coast. Prudhoe Bay at the eastern end is connected to Fairbanks and Anchorage via terrestrial fibre.
“At Quintillion, we have seen the need and benefits of high-speed internet first-hand, but we have also seen the negative impact of the digital divide, especially in rural and remote communities, of which Alaska has many,” said Tronsrue.
He took over a few months before that from former CEO Elizabeth Ann Pierce, who in 2019 was sentenced to five years in prison for a US$270 million fraud connected with the financing of the company.
Following the agreement, GCI will connect its Terra network to Quintillion’s subsea Arctic cable, providing service to residential, healthcare, education, government and business customers.
Quintillion still plans to expand its subsea cable system westwards to Asia and eastwards to Europe via the Northwest Passage through the Alaskan and Canadian Arctic.
Last year GCI teamed up with T-Mobile US to offer mobile service in Alaska.
