By Sentinel Staff

An outage of the GCI network now will start early Thursday, the company said today.

Megan Webb, senior director of corporate communications, said GCI customers in Sitka will experience the network outage for up to nine days while the company completes emergency maintenance of an underwater fiber network

The planned outage for emergency repairs originally was set for March 7, then rescheduled three times due to weather. The start date for the repairs now is Thursday.

"Internet services will be unavailable, and mobile services will be limited to voice calls and text-only messages," she said in a message this afternoon. "We anticipate the repairs to be complete by March 21, and we will notify you when the work is done. Customers will automatically receive credits for a full month of plan fees for affected services. We regret any inconvenience this may cause and appreciate your understanding as we carry out this essential maintenance."