ANCHORAGE, Alaska, May 19, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- GCI,
Alaska's largest
telecommunications company and leader in technology and
connectivity, announced today it will deliver 2 gig internet access
to 77% of Alaskans in 2022 and is on track to provide 10 gig speeds
in the next five years. GCI will be the first in the state, and
among the first in the country, to make 2 gig widely available to
customers, highlighting its commitment to expand and improve
connectivity in Alaska.
GCI was among the first companies in the nation to make 1 gig
service broadly available to customers when it launched 1 GIG red
service in Anchorage in 2015,
quadrupling customer speeds. The company rapidly expanded access to
1 gig service, and today 77% of Alaskans live within GCI's 1 gig
footprint.
"When I started GCI more than 40 years ago, Alaska lagged far behind the rest of the
nation in basic connectivity," said GCI CEO Ron Duncan. "Today I'm pleased to announce that
when upgrades are complete in 2022, Alaska will lead the nation in 2 gig speeds.
And it will be our turn, once again, to wait for the rest of the
country to catch up."
Alaska communities that
currently have access to GCI's 1 gig service will be the first to
experience 2 gig service when it becomes available. Customers on
GCI+ red plans will automatically be upgraded to 2 gig service,
doubling their current speeds at no additional cost. The
Alaska communities that will have
access to 2 gig speeds when the service launches next year
include:
Anchorage
|
Eagle
River
|
Girdwood
|
Fairbanks
|
Fort
Greely
|
Homer
|
Juneau
|
Kenai
|
Ketchikan
|
Kodiak
|
North Pole
|
Palmer
|
Petersburg
|
Seward
|
Soldotna
|
Sitka
|
Valdez
|
Wasilla
|
|
Wrangell
|
|
Additional Alaska communities
will soon be on the upgrade list. GCI will launch 1 gig service in
Nome and Kotzebue in 2021, and as part of the company's
ambitious AU-Aleutians Fiber Project, will deliver 1 gig speeds to
the remote Western Alaska
communities of Unalaska,
King Cove, Akutan, Sand
Point, Chignik Bay and Larsen
Bay. GCI's 2 gig speeds will be available in these
communities in a future phase of the upgrade project.
"Nome, Kotzebue and communities in the Aleutians are
among the most remote in the nation, but will soon have urban-level
internet comparable to Anchorage,
Chicago and Los Angeles," said Duncan. "It's another
example of GCI's commitment to closing the digital divide and
turning the Last Frontier into the First Frontier for
connectivity."
GCI President and COO Greg
Chapados emphasized GCI's commitment to investing in
projects across Alaska to close
the digital divide, and today announced GCI's consideration of
another major rural project.
"It's a challenge to deliver broadband service across
Alaska, but our team is always
looking for innovative ways to deliver cutting edge service to our
customers no matter where they live," said Chapados. "I'm pleased
to announce today that GCI is developing a business and technical
plan to build fiber to Bethel, connecting our customers there to 1,
2 and eventually 10 gig speeds. This project will transform the
lives of our Bethel customers and will also enable GCI to deliver
better data connectivity to surrounding communities."
"For decades, GCI has pioneered ground-breaking connectivity
solutions for rural Alaska,"
Chapados continued. "TERRA, our hybrid fiber-microwave
network, which brought terrestrial broadband service to
Western Alaska for the first time;
the AU-Aleutians Fiber Project, which should be substantially
complete by the end of next year; and the launch of 1 gig in
Kotzebue and Nome later this year illustrates our
longstanding commitment to serving rural Alaskans. We are
working to finalize a comprehensive plan for the next evolution of
data communications in rural Alaska. Bringing fiber to Bethel is a top
priority in that plan."
About GCI
Headquartered in Alaska, GCI provides data, mobile, video,
voice and managed services to consumer, business, government, and
carrier customers throughout Alaska, serving more than 200 communities. The
company has invested more than $3
billion in its Alaska
network and facilities over the past 40 years and recently launched
true standards-based 5G NR service in Anchorage, now the nation's northernmost 5G
service area. Learn more about GCI at www.gci.com. GCI is a wholly
owned subsidiary of Liberty Broadband Corporation (Nasdaq: LBRDA,
LBRDK, LBRDP). Learn more about Liberty Broadband at
http://www.libertybroadband.com.
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SOURCE GCI