Feds announce broadband funding to map and connect gap communities in Alaska

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) — Federal telecommunications officials have cleared the way for Alaska to secure more funding to hook up thousands of rural homes and remote villages that previously didn’t exist on official government coverage maps.

The announcement came during a press conference on Thursday featuring U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, and Arielle Roth, the Administrator of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), capping off Roth’s first-ever tour of the state.

Under the new federal policy, states will be allowed to direct a portion of their savings from the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program to newly identified, unserved locations.

For Alaska, this means more than 5,000 additional properties and remote communities could now become eligible for high-speed internet funding.

“At the end of the day, this sounds like a lot of money — it’s not about the money. It’s about the goal that we all have, which is connecting every single Alaskan,” Sullivan said, calling internet connectivity the “infrastructure of the 21st century.”

Locating Alaska’s ‘No-G’ Communities

Sullivan recalled traveling to Napakiak with federal regulators a few years ago to point out that hundreds of residents lived in a blank spot on the government’s official maps.

“We did a town hall with the community. I said, ‘Oh, by the way administrator, this community, these people, these Alaskans, there’s probably 600-700 people, they’re not on your map. They don’t exist according to you guys. So obviously you’re wrong because we’re here and there are people here and there are buildings here and they need connectivity’” Sullivan said. “What the administrator is talking about today is fixing that.”

The funding adjustment represents a major victory for Alaska’s congressional delegation. During negotiations for the bipartisan infrastructure bill, Sullivan said he fought a ‘huge battle’ against senators from more populated states who wanted to prioritize upgrading existing networks.

“You had a lot of senators trying to say, ‘Hey, I want to take my state from 4G to 5G.’ You had senators like me saying, ‘Yo, what about no G, right?’” Sullivan explained.

Because the final law prioritized the nation’s most unserved locations, federal dollars have poured into the state. Current allocations include:

• BEAD Program: ~$1 billion
• USDA Reconnect: $565 million
• NTIA Tribal Broadband: $450 million
• FCC Alaska Plan: $1.5 billion
• NTIA Middle Mile: $90 million

An ‘All of the Above’ Technology Strategy

Roth, who toured Fairbanks, Fort Yukon, Juneau, and Wrangell during her trip, said seeing the state firsthand made it clear that a rigid, one-size-fits-all technological solution would fail in Alaska.

“That’s precisely why we reformed the BEAD program, to empower the states to select projects and technologies to suit local needs as expeditiously and cost-effectively as possible,” Roth said.

In Alaska, that means using an “all of the above” strategy combining subsea cables, terrestrial fiber, microwave links, and satellite options like Starlink.

Christine O’Connor, head of the Alaska Telecom Association, showcased maps illustrating the dramatic shift in Alaska’s connectivity over the last decade. O’Connor noted that while a single line cut in the past could take down communications for entire regions, building out terrestrial backbones is creating necessary redundancy.

“One line gets cut, the traffic will reroute the other direction, and it’s seamless to the user,” O’Connor said.

Permitting and National Security Challenges

Despite the historic funding, officials acknowledged major hurdles remain — specifically federal permitting delays.

Sullivan pointed to agencies like the National Park Service taking up to five years to complete environmental reviews for broadband lines, a delay that he said can kill projects given Alaska’s short summer construction windows.

Beyond education, healthcare, and small business benefits, Sullivan emphasized that robust and redundant telecom infrastructure is a ‘critical’ component of national security.

He pointed to a massive $7 billion military recapitalization at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson (JBER) and an upcoming $4 billion Department of Defense public announcement for missile defense under the Golden Dome initiative.

“You have to have seriously redundant communications capabilities to have those kind of national security assets located in our state,” Sullivan said.

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