Phone and internet service down for Juneau and Southeast; undersea cable break blamed

By
Suzanne Downing
-
16

AT%T internet and phone service is down in Juneau and across Southeast Alaska, due to a damaged undersea cable that sources say is near Whittier.

“Customers in the Juneau area may be experiencing service disruptions due to damage to an undersea cable operated by another provider,” said s a statement from AT&T. The other provider is Alaska Communications Services and that company said the problem started on Thursday night.

At 8:20 a.m., Alaska Communications wrote that a team worked through the night on the network issues impacting Southeast Alaska.

“We have technical teams dispatched to multiple locations to troubleshoot. This is our top priority and we’ll share an update as soon as we have more information,” ACS said.

At 12:30 p.m., the company confirmed the subsea cable damage: “We are dispatching a repair ship. We do not yet have an estimated time for restoral. We are also working to find alternate ways to restore connectivity in Juneau. This is our top priority and we deeply apologize for the inconvenience. We know how important staying connected is to you and we will not rest until this is fixed. We will continue to share updates as we have more information.”

At the Alaska Capitol, all internet and cell phone service is affected and there is no access to the Basis legislation information site. Some employees of the building are working from home with the use of their home internet.

16 COMMENTS

    • Aside from not being able to contact my daughter, who is attending UAS, that is the first thing I thought!

  6. Two thoughts:

    Are there any Russian or Chinese flagged / connected ships in the area? They have recently adopted the game of dragging anchors across known cable and pipeline runs, though not in US waters as yet.

    Starlink remains the best alternative. Refurbished ground station runs around $400. Service starts at $120/month for a personal account. Cheers –

  9. One thing I have learned about these “package” deals you get from providers. I have GCI for my internet and At&T for my phone. Two different companies that still charge too much but at least when one goes down I still have the other.

  11. How “Hotly” the feeling that Juneau is some sort of ‘Center of the Universe’ that China or Russia would come near Whittier to cut a cable. I am of the opinion, were it to disrupt the legislature, there is no need,following the legislative agenda, one could visualize all is going well with respects to their importance to these supposed ‘Cable cutters’. If anything, the Legislature is putting the “Fun” in Dysfunctional.
    Cheers, Johnson-Ketchikan

  12. It is a known fact that Russian and China ships and submarines are equipped with cable cutting devices. Seems a bit ironic that cables have been recently cut in Sitka, Quntillian lines for Artic and now Whittier. Time for more Naval sub chasers and Coast Guard assets to patrol Alaska waters like we used to have during the Cold War.
    Finland, Sweden, Taiwan, Great Britain are all having cables cut as well in the past 60 days. Coincidence?

    ‘https://www.forbes.com/sites/jillgoldenziel/2025/02/13/law-doesnt-protect-undersea-cables-russia-and-china-know-it/

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