GCI Internet Back After 17-Day Outage
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- Created on Monday, 16 September 2024 15:40
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By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
The communications company GCI notified Sitka customers by text message today that a technical team “successfully restored services” that were disrupted for more than two weeks by a fiberoptic cable break on the bottom of Salisbury Sound.
“We will continue to closely monitor our network over the next several days for any intermittent issues that may arrive as the network stabilizes,” the text message said.
The break in the cable on August 29 shut down GCI’s internet service, and also affected texting and telephone service.
Company spokesman Josh Edge said this morning the cause of the break still isn’t known, and no photos of the work at the repair site were available to the media. The GCI repair ship Cable Innovator is headed back to Victoria B.C.
An update on Friday announced repairs and testing of the subsea cable were complete, and starting that night GCI teams would begin the process of moving stopgap services from alternate technologies back onto the fiber. The repair work started September 8, with the arrival of the Cable Innovator at the break site. Work was delayed for a time late last week when the ship had to relocate due to weather.
The company said Friday there may be “intermittent loss of connectivity” as services were migrated onto the cable.
During the outage, a substantial amount of Sitka’s essential internet services was carried over the satellite-based system Starlink that was already installed for a number of high-volume users, including Sitka’s city offices. But an unexpected good Samaritan also stepped in to help fill the communications gap.
The Central Council of Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska, which is in the midst of a federally funded program to install high bandwidth satellite systems to underserved rural communities in Southeast, immediately shipped a number of Starlink terminals and hookup instructions to Sitka for distribution on “a triage basis” to serve the organizations most seriously affected by the cable outage. The tribal government loaned out 24 Starlink terminals in Sitka and is in the process of recalling them.
“We were glad to help and we’re looking forward to providing more service to Sitka in the future,” said Chris Cropley, director of Tlingit & Haida’s Tidal Network.
Thanks to the generosity and expertise of the the Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska broadband department, Tidal Network ; Christopher Cropley, director of Tidal Network; and Luke Johnson, Tidal Network technician, SitkaSentinel.com is again being updated. Tidal Network has been working tirelessly to install Starlink satellite equipment for city and other critical institutions, including the Sentinel, following the sudden breakage of GCI's fiberoptic cable on August 29, which left most of Sitka without internet or phone connections. CCTHITA's public-spirited response to the emergency is inspiring.
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