Long-term internet outage affects several communities in North Slope & Northwest

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - A long-term internet outage caused by a subsea fiber cut has left many North Slope and Northwest communities scrambling for alternative solutions.

Early Saturday morning, one of the Quintillion subsea fibers was cut in the Beaufort Sea. The exact location and cause is unknown due to the fact the area is dark and covered by ice, according to Quintillion.

Quintillion said in a statement this will be a prolonged internet outage as they cannot fix the cut until late this summer.

The outage is not related to the September 2023 repair, according to Quintillion, which lasted 18 months.

The outage has left some communities with slow internet and others without access to internet and mobile services from GCI, Arctic Slope Telephone Association Cooperative (ASTAC) and AT&T.

North Slope Borough Mayor Josiah Aullaqsruaq Patkotak put out a statement Sunday saying they are actively working to understand the situation and assess the availability of services on a community-by-community basis.

“We are committed to minimizing the impact on residents and ensuring access to critical services,” Patkotak said.

Patkotak said their initial priorities include ensuring that emergency services remain operational and uninterrupted, gathering details on the extent of the disruption and establishing backup connectivity through alternative sources.

North Slope Borough teams will visit each community to install and test alternative communication solutions.

The Iḷisaġvik College has reported disruptions for their work, on-call phones and online student platforms. In a statement on Facebook, the college said it is working with GCI to get temporary phones to restore on-call phone functionality.

“We understand how frustrating and disruptive this situation is, and we deeply appreciate your patience and understanding as we work through it,” Iḷisaġvik College wrote. “Restoring reliable access for everyone remains a top priority and we will continue to post updates as they become available.”

ASTAC said in a statement that affected members and customers will be receiving credits due to the outage.

“We will be applying credits to all affected members and are working on alternative repair solutions. Quyanaqpuk and please stay tuned,” read a statement on ASTAC’s Facebook.

The Quintillion Subsea Cable Network runs over 1,000 miles from Prudhoe Bay to Nome.

McHale says they are looking for a short-term solution. They are asking FEMA and the Bureau of Land Management to possibly speed up the planned land bridge from Utqiaġvik to Deadhorse to create a “self-healing network ring.” This proposed fiber optic cable route would allow Quintillion to reverse the direction of power in case a subsea fiber cut happens again.

According to McHale, Quintillion has been working on this project for over a year and is waiting for a grant from FEMA.

“ICAS filed our joint application last March, and despite positive signals from FEMA, valuable time has been lost as we await an official decision and notification,” McHale wrote.

Quintillion hopes that FEMA, BLM and the new Trump administration will help expedite this land bridge and bring power back to affected communities.

Alaska’s News Source reached out to FEMA and BLM about Quintillion’s request, but have not heard back at the time of publishing.

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