GCI last week announced that it turned up 5G service in Unalaska, an area in Alaska that is one of the most remote parts of the U.S. and home to Dutch Harbor. Think the Discovery Channel’s “Deadliest Catch” and that’s the part of the world we’re talking about. (Go ahead, lose an afternoon Googling it.)
Sure, it’s great (and dangerous) for crab fishing, but it’s not an easy place to get to and from. Dutch Harbor is the central port for Unalaska, which has a population of about 5,000 when factoring in year-round and transient populations.
In a press release announcing GCI’s 5G launch in Unalaska, the company noted that it’s near the tail end of the Aleutian Chain of islands – more than 4,000 miles away from New York City and now, arguably, boasts better connectivity.
GCI has been working for years to bring better service to its customers in the Aleutians and a big part of making it all happen was a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) grant in 2020, according to Heather Handyside, GCI’s chief communications officer.
GCI was awarded a $25 million grant in support of its Aleutians Fiber Project, which for the first time provided terrestrial broadband service to Unalaska/Dutch Harbor and five other communities – King Cove, Sand Point, Akutan, Chignik Bay and Larsen Bay.
Last December, GCI announced that its customers in Unalaska now have access to some of the fastest internet in the nation. GCI crews and contractors worked to ensure the fiber network was up and running. The fiber network is enabled by subsea cabling and it’s all supporting the 5G network.
600 MHz for 5G
Most wireless communications in Unalaska, until now, were dependent on satellites.
In 2018, GCI brought LTE data to the community, but that was still served via satellite, so customers weren’t getting the throughput speeds one would expect from LTE, said Chris Galipeau, senior staff program manager at GCI.
Knowing fiber was coming, they started doing rapid upgrades to the wireless sites, spending about $5 million over the past year. GCI is using about 20 megahertz of 600 MHz spectrum. Ericsson supplied the 5G gear.
The difference is “transformational” for the affected communities, Galipeau said. Speeds are about 60 times faster, going from about 2 Mbps to 120+ Mbps. The entire project cost about $58 million.
Both AT&T and Verizon offer wireless service in the more urban areas and along the road systems in Alaska. T-Mobile has a reciprocal roaming agreement with GCI.
About that distance…
As one might imagine, getting fiber and 5G to this part of the country is no small feat. It might take a couple weeks to get some of the heavier equipment there on a barge, depending on where the vessel is coming from. Some of the lighter equipment can be carried via air freight.
It’s not uncommon for crews or contractors to plan to be on the island for a couple weeks and watch that stretch into six weeks due to weather. Forget a vital tool and you’re looking at waiting for a shipment to come from Anchorage or beyond.
Handyside said it’s possible to leave on a flight from Anchorage, get halfway to Unalaska only to find out the weather is so bad that they have to turn around. Flights already are few and far between and chartering a flight can cost on the order of $50,000. “The transportation issues are real,” she said.
“It’s just very unstable weather all the time,” Galipeau said.
Suffice it to say, GCI didn’t go the usual route from 2G to 3G to 4G and then 5G like much of the rest of the U.S. They just now launched VoLTE in the region. Voice over New Radio, or VoNR, is on the roadmap, but there’s no definitive timeline for that.