Quintillion, which operates fiber optic cable service to many coastal communities, says the cable has broken again. This will create weak to no internet for some customers on the North Slope and Northwest Alaska. The break became known on Saturday morning.
It’s the second break for the company in one year and the third break in 18 months. The cable suffers from harsh conditions on the seafloor, where it can be broken by moving ice, although the current cause of the outage is not yet known. The company believes it is in the Beaufort Sea somewhere. Winter is going to make it impossible to affect a speedy fix, as repair ships cannot get through the solid sea ice on the surface. The last time the cable broke, it could not be repaired until late summer.
“Early Saturday morning, Quintillion became aware of a network outage affecting North Slope and Northwest Alaska communities. Our team immediately began assessing the situation and have determined via initial testing that there was a subsea fiber cut in the Beaufort Sea, said Mac McHale, Quintillion president. “Winter conditions – including sea ice and darkness – have made it impossible to pinpoint an exact location of the cut and the extent of the cable damage. Unfortunately, the outage will be prolonged, and sea ice will prevent a repair crew and vessel from entering the area and completing a subsea repair until late summer.
While conducting the assessment, Quintillion is assessing the damage and working with local service providers and communities to have some kind of service for critical infrastructure users, such as health care and public safety, while trying to devise a longer term repair.
“Given the importance of high-speed internet service to North Slope and Northwest communities, as well as U.S. national defense, Quintillion is aggressively exploring options to expedite an alternative solution. This includes building a ‘land bridge’ or terrestrial route from Utqiaġvik to Deadhorse to create a self-healing network ring. The good news is that Quintillion had previously invested millions of dollars to acquire the cable needed for such a route and has this hardware on hand in Fairbanks,” McHale said.
However, a quicker fix via a land bridge will require significant assistance from the federal government, he noted.
“Quintillion and Alaskan stakeholders have long understood the need for a resilient and redundant system that can withstand acts of Mother Nature. This need is expressly why Quintillion began working with ICAS more than a year ago to obtain a FEMA BRIC grant, a program designed to help Tribes and communities ‘reduce their hazard risk.’ 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 explained.
Working closely with our community partners and the Alaska Congressional Delegation, Quintillion will press for urgent support from FEMA and pursue the necessary Bureau of Land Management permits needed for construction of the new terrestrial route.
“To expedite a repair, we will need the full force and support of the incoming Trump Administration, including cutting federal government red tape and eliminating bureaucratic obstacles that will stand between Quintillion and system restoration. The time for federal agencies to act is now,” Quintillion said.
The over-land project would take months to complete, assuming full government cooperation, Quintillion said.
“Quintillion had previously purchased millions of dollars of cable for the project, and our work to move forward with this solution is already underway,” the company said.
Starlink to the rescue! Or build a road to Nome and beyond.
Exactly!!!
Totallly agree David, Starlink!!!
Ice? Hhhmmmm….yeah.
This whole deal is nothing g but corruption! Senators that did t announce their involvement and Star could have been the provider and no cost to Americans !
Can anyone say, “CCP”? … even though we can’t prove it yet, I’m almost sure they’re responsible … LOL!
Why Quintillion and not Starlink. Was this unreliable cable a result of Murkowski’s nudge where her decision was based on her personal campaign war chest enrichment?
One must observe that quintillion ripped off everyone to lay their cable to start with, and now they are seeking federal help – I smell another billion-dollar fleecing. Why is this cable so poorly designed that it keeps breaking? Or is this sabotage like Nordstream? Who stands to gain from this? Why is critical communication cut from North Slope Natives who want oil development and from oil companies using the cable to make their operations more efficient?
Abandon this cable and this company. I would much rather see another flock of low-earth-orbit satellites performing the same or better service.