D.C. Memo: Is Fiber the Right Technology for Alaska? GCI Rushing to Fix New Subsea Fiber Tear in the Aleutians
GCI is also buying Quintillion, which suffered a fiber break in the Beaufort Sea in 2025 that could not be repaired for nine months because of freezing conditions in the Arctic region
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Alaska: Anchorage-based GCI is confronting a growing list of subsea fiber failures as Alaska’s harsh environment continues to batter the state’s communications lifelines. Over the past two years, storms, ice scours and unexplained breaks have knocked out service from Sitka to the Aleutians to the North Slope, sometimes for months at a time. The longest disruption came in 2025, when a Quintillion cable north of Oliktok Point was severed by shifting sea ice in the Beaufort Sea, leaving enterprise customer GCI and North Slope communities with degraded service until late that year. (More after paywall)
