Major progress being made in Akutan as part of GCI’s Aleutians Fiber Project

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — With the new year underway, construction crews are nearing the completion of construction in Akutan. GCI technicians expect to finish deploying the bulk of the community’s fiber by the end of January. When construction is complete, teams will start laying fiber directly to local homes and testing before turning up lightning fast 2.5 gig consumer internet speeds in the coming months, which will give the small town (population of 1,588) the same internet speeds, plans and pricing as urban areas.

“We are right on track in Akutan and that’s a testament to our great crews on the ground doing the work,” said GCI Project Manager Jerry Walker. “With every community that we connect to our services we are getting closer and closer to closing the digital divide and this year is going to be a big one as we near the completion of phase one of the Aleutians Fiber Project.”

When the new service launches in the coming months, Akutan will join Unalaska and Sand Point with lightning-fast 2.5 gig residential internet speeds and the first phase of the Aleutians Fiber Project will be more than halfway complete. 

The first phase of the $100 million project is partially funded by a $27.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development’s ReConnect Program. It includes an 800-mile-long subsea fiber-optic backbone, deployed in 2022, and the delivery of high-speed internet to Unalaska, King Cove, Sand Point, Akutan, Chignik Bay and Larsen Bay.

“What once seemed far off is right around the corner! We are already nearing the end of phase one of the Aleutians Fiber Project,” said GCI Principal Program Manager Rebecca Markley. “We will take what we have learned over the past few years and build on it, for an even smoother rollout to the rest of our Aleutian Fiber Project communities.”

The second phase of the project leverages the 800-mile subsea fiber to deliver to six more communities in the region. The Native Village of Port Lions, in partnership with GCI, was awarded a $29.3 million grant from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration to bring connectivity to Chignik Lagoon, Chignik Lake, Cold Bay, False Pass, Ouzinkie and Port Lions.

For more information about the Aleutians Fiber Project, visit: https://www.gci.com/aleutianfiberproject.

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 $4 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.