By Catherine Sbeglia
Copper Valley Telecom (CVT) has completed a fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) broadband deployment in Tatitlek, an off-grid indigenous village in Alaska, improving connectivity speeds from 10 Mbps download and 1 Mbps download to up to 25 Mbps downstream and 3 Mbps upstream.
Tatitlek is so remote that CTV had to use barges and helicopters to get the project done and actually providing the village with connectivity requires an Ethernet signal that is sent via microwave from a tower in Valdez and transferred to the village via towers in Shoup Bay and Naked Island.
“The fact that we can provide fiber to the home in an indigenous village that is off-the-grid, not otherwise connected, is exciting because it meets the FCC requirements for middle-mile broadband in the middle of Prince William Sound, Alaska,” commented Chris Mishmash, CVT director of facilities and wireless Operations.
In March, CTV announced its support of the FCC’s Keep Americans Connected Pledge, which was created as a response to the pandemic. The pledge stated that the operator, until further notice, will not terminate service to any residential or small business customers because of their inability to pay their bills due to the disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic; will waive any late fees that any residential or small business customers incur because of their economic circumstances related to the coronavirus pandemic; and will open its Wi-Fi hots pots to any American who needs them.
In general, Alaska presents a geographic and meteorological challenge for telecommunications providers, but that certainly does not mean that advances in broadband coverage and 5G deployment have not been made in the region.
For instance, Alaska Communications recently won spectrum in the FCC’s Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) band auction, and a month prior, promised to provide broadband to more than 16,000 rural residents in a project partially financed by the Connect America Fund II.
In addition, MTA Fiber Holdings completed and activated the Alaska Canada Overland Network in May 2020. And in April, GCI, with equipment support from Ericsson and network support from T-Mobile, turned on 5G in Anchorage.
