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Tech upgrade in Southwest on a roll

February 3rd 2:57 pm | Hannah Heimbuch Print this article   Email this article   Create a Shortlink for this article

Southwest Alaska is logging on to Terra-Southwest's broadband Internet connection one step at a time, after two years of work and hundreds of miles of cable.

The Bristol Bay Area Health Corporation in Dillingham was first to boot up on the new network, and so far, all systems are a go, said Krag Johnsen, Director of GCI's Rural Broadband Development.

GCI is the parent company to Terra-Southwest.

A symbolic test of the system took place between Juneau and Bethel in mid-January, when Gov. Sean Parnell video-conferenced with Gene Peltola, chief executive of the Yukon-Kuskokwim Hospital. Johnsen said the crystal clear, delay-free conference was everything you'd expect from a high quality connection.

"A high definition video teleconference really shows the true technical capability of a terrestrial network like this," Johnsen said.

The goal is to put an end to the halting communications, pixelated images and toe-tapping speeds of the previous system. While Internet users at home will certainly enjoy the benefit of a faster, higher quality connection, the benefits to area hospitals and schools goes beyond convenience. The connection will allow improvements to training programs, healthcare correspondence and other timely concerns.

While the success of these initial connections in Bethel and now Dillingham are a major milestone in the project, that doesn't mean the network will be ready to link into area living rooms just yet.

The portion of the project complete at this point is the "middle mile," said Johnsen. That's the super highway that brings the initial connection to the region — the one that health facilities and schools in Bethel and Dillingham are tapped into now.

"Here in 2012, we'll be constructing the last mile," Johnsen said, "so that there are new consumer broadband offerings to homes and businesses in the 65 communities that Terra-Southwest encompassed."

That "last mile" will roll out one village at a time, said Johnsen, with new connections made on a week-by-week basis.

When all is said and done, 9,000 households and 750 public and private institutions in the region will have access to this high-speed connection, providing a long-awaited link to an area accessibly only by plane or boat.

Johnsen said he gets regular e-mails from residents and business owners, wondering when they can plug in.

Casey Cruz, manager of N&N Market in Dillingham, is one of those looking forward to the switch and watching for that last-mile rollout to hit his area. He said his IT guy is just waiting for the OK from Terra-Southwest. That OK will come first to Bethel, then to Dillingham.

Johnsen said the funding for this $88 million project came half from a federal stimulus grant GCI received two years ago and half from USDA loan funds.

Initially the plan was to lay cable over the course of two summers, but they accelerated that process and packed it all into the 2011 summer season.

"From a schedule standpoint, we're very proud of getting this thing done," Johnsen said. "We're 18 months ahead of schedule."

That speedy schedule saw a mighty and varied array of cable-laying techniques over the past year, as 400 miles of fiber optic cable and 13 microwave towers were put into place.

The process began with underwater cable stretching from the Homer Spit in Homer to Levelock. As the vital cable inched closer to Southwest communities it was carried by helicopter to tower connections — including four on remote mountaintops — and strung by divers beneath the frozen surface of the Kvichak River.

Southwest residents can expect to be online in 2012, though when depends on where one lives along this last line of progress. Updates will appear in this publication.

 

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