Starlink, the satellite service owned in part by Elon Musk, said it is working with Alaska officials at the state and local level to restore internet and cell service to a wide swath of northern and northwestern Alaska, where a fiber optic cable break operated by Quintillion has has a breakdown.
Starlink is a satellite internet constellation division owned and operated by American aerospace company SpaceX, which uses low-orbit satellites to cover over 50 countries. Launched by SpaceX in 2019, Starlink is 44% owned by Musk, who also has controlling ownership of the social media company Twitter. Starlink now has a low-orbit satellite providing Alaska service, and it is designed for low-density areas such as rural Alaska.
“After ice severed a fiber optic cable in the Arctic Ocean, cutting internet & cell service across Northern Alaska, the Starlink team has been coordinating with the State of Alaska, various local governments & Native communities to help provide connectivity where it’s needed most,” Starlink reported on Twitter.
Regarding the baby moose illustration it uses, (copyrighted by Kelsey Morgan), Starlink added, “PSA for the baby moose in Alaska, Starlink is not edible.”
While $100 million in taxpayer borrowing is appropriated for Alaska build out of fiber-optic cable, these low-orbit satellites by Starlink, Pacific Dataport and OneWeb are another solution for rural areas, and they have been deployed largely without government subsidies.
Quintillion, a high-speed internet provider to Alaska, provided an update on the repair timeline for the damaged Arctic sea fiber optic cable, which has left northern Alaska without internet access for several weeks.
While no change has been made to the estimated time for repair, Quintillion is actively exploring various options to expedite the process, considering risk profiles, probability of success, and safety measures.
Quintillion has been closely monitoring ice-free estimates and forecasts to determine when it can access the area where the cable has broken.
The company has placed orders for 500Mbps capacity with the support of Pacific Dataport Inc. and OneWeb, satellite partners in the telecommunications industry. User terminals have been tested in Anchorage, with shipment for local installation commencing this week.
Quintillion has the initial plan of work for the cable repair from its marine maintenance vendor. The repair vessel, equipped with Quintillion’s spare equipment, is scheduled to be mobilized and stationed off Wainwright in anticipation of the expected Beaufort Sea ice-free opening window.
The availability of ice-strengthened vessels, which can be outfitted with cable repair equipment and personnel, is seen as an alternative to be developed concurrently with the contracted marine maintenance vessel, the company said.
Quintillion is also exploring unconventional options for temporary repairs or establishing temporary fiber connectivity around the faulted fiber segment, alternatives to be pursued alongside the primary marine maintenance vessel repairs.
The earliest estimated arrival of the repair vessels is anticipated to be in the first week of August.
6 weeks from now Quintillion Zillion Million will still be a massive steaming pile of ?.
It seems like starlink would be a much cheaper investment to bring rural Alaska internet than broadband. But I guess starlink wouldn’t grease enough pockets with taxpayer money.
That moose gotta keep its Tinder profile going.
Can’t miss out on a potential rut partner.
This is an example of private industry being smart and flexible enough to deal with those weird emergencies. Something no government agency will EVER have the ability to do.
We still don’t have Star Link in Northern Florida. Supposed to be this year sometime but that’s what they said last year.
Elon saves the day.
EVERYONE since the beginning of time on Earth has miscalculated the powerful destruction of the ice.
Titanic captain running full throttle trying to set a record sound familiar?
Obviously Quintillion engineers have never stood on the shores of the arctic after even a mild storm and witnessed the giant earth moving capabilities of the ice. Massive is an understatement!
The crime here is the cost to the working class who are being forced to pay for this ignorant failed experiment.
It does enable the Queen Murky and Princess Peltola to garner votes with the channelling of massive funds to the Natives in all of rural Alaska in exchange for their support.(they did all the heavy lifting)
Starlink is way too efficient in delivering the same service without fiber optic cables strung like a spider web across the entire region of the most of Alaska with only a handful of users in some areas.
Fiber optic repair technicians are scarce and expensive.
The biggest obstacle blocking common sense is Elon Musk.
His network wont fill everyones pockets like Quintillions massive project.
The left in control doesnt like Elon’s gall to expose the twitter files used to select POTUS.
Keep plowing ice Quintillion. Murkys sending a very expensive ice breaker your way to get that pesky ice out of the way so you can string some more web.
And it’s a good think that internet service to the Bush has been restored — after all, everyone knows how integral high-speed internet is to the traditional subsistence lifestyle.
Yuppers, a must have those movies, games and gossip to go along with soda pop and potato chips.
Where’s the muktuk!
Mungtuk.
One thing that is missing here, and very important is the “non-internet” communications needs of businesses and agencies. A huge amount of data passing through fiber in Alaska (and the rest of the world) is non-internet connections from businesses to hubs, and interconnections from agency to agency. These are things like FAA circuits from remote AK to Anchorage ARTCC, health clinics in remote AK to hospitals, POS systems, inventory management databases, etc. These types of networks are isolated from the “internet” for obvious reasons. To my knowledge, Starlink does not offer Private Line and Private LAN services. It’s a great solution for residential internet service, but doesn’t do much for commercial and .gov connectivity.
Have we heard from the people? That they have “services” back? The invisible rural people who do not exist in television eyes or minds may still have no “service” whatsoever. Bought and sold, alphabet alternative media informing noosniks, refusniks, operativniks everywhere are completely incurious about human life outside of Anchorage, Fairbanks or Juneau.
Matanuska Telephone Association received a $12.6 million grant to provide fiber optic service to Tyonek with a government grant.
The cost was $190,000 per household, for the instalation to provide internet to the 60 homes there.
MTA will then receive money every month for subscriptions fees.
If they used Starlink instead it would cover the cost of instalation and also be enough to cover the subsription cost for 143 years……..
Using Starlink it would have only cost $36 thousand to install internet in the 60 homes there. Hmmmmmm…….. know you know why the US is deep in Debt.
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