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From: cybrspc!roy@cs.umn.edu (Roy M. Silvernail)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: Telecom in Alaska
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Date: 14 Sep 90 16:55:23 GMT
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judice@sulaco.enet.dec.com (Lou Judice, 908-562-4103) writes:

> For example, 60 miles north of the Arctic Circle, in Coldfoot, AK, we
> were able to make AT&T credit card calls on any of the two or three
> phones located in this town/truckstop of 23 residents. The only
> seemingly possible means of communication with the outside would be
> satellite (there were crude downlinks in the town) or possibly sharing
> the Alaska Pipeline microwave system?

Satellite, it is. During the heyday of oil wealth in Alaska, nearly
every village got a small earth station. I'd hesitate to call them
crude, as well. They are small-dish sites, but very capable. The state
distributes entertainment TV to the villages over them, as well as
telephone and datalink services. (before the oil crash, the state ran
2 seperate channels, one dedicated to education. budget cuts forced
one of the channels to be cut ... care to guess which one? :-( )

> In the cities (Fairbanks and Anchorage) it appeared as though the
> local telcos were municipal utilties.

I believe only Anchorage is municipally owned. There was a great big
stink last year when the Mayor tried to strongarm the city into
selling Anchorage Telephone Utility to Pacific Tel. The Mayor
claimed that selling the utility was a Good Thing, and that there
would be dozens of offers. When the bids closed, only one company had
bid at all (Pacific Tel), and they bid just over the minimum. The
Municipal Assembly forced a ballot initiative, and then ensued one of
the biggest PR whitewashes I have ever seen. Pacific Tel spent
over a million dollars in advertising and promotion to try and get the
sale approved.  They failed, but I'm sure the Mayor will try again.
(he sees selling the city's assets as a quick fix for their cash-flow
problems.)

> As a former RCA-er, I know that Alaskcom, the long distance carrier in
> Alaska was formerly part of that great old company. I seem to recall
> it being sold to a west coast power utility in the early 1980's.

'Twas 1978, and the buyer was Pacific Tel ... in fact, PT owns
something like 67% of the telephone service providers in Alaska,
including Alascom and Alaskanet. That was part of the concern over PT
obtaining ATU. It would have increased their control to over 80%.

Still, Alaska's telephone service is a far cry from what it was when I
first arrived there in 1970. Back then, all long-distance was carried
on the White Alice Communications System, which was run by the Army.
In the early 70's, WACS was sold to RCA and became RCA Alascom, but it
still operated over ancient Tropo Scatter microwave links. Satellite
links were placed in the major cities by about 1976, and the oil boom
extended the satellite coverage through the early 80's.


Roy M. Silvernail |+|  roy%cybrspc@cs.umn.edu