Damage to an offshore fiber-optic cable in the Beaufort Sea on June 11 has led to internet and cellphone outages across rural Alaska. Following that outage, the president of the company that owns the cable, Quintillion, said that an $88.8 million grant from the federal government announced on June 16 could not have been more timely.
The money is coming from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, or NTIA, and will go toward a project dubbed the Nome to Homer Express Route, expanding existing networks to create a system less vulnerable to single points of failure.
“If we had had this in place today, we would still have a fiber cut because it was a an act of Mother Nature. But we would not have any system outage,” Quintillion president Michael McHale said. “Let's get the repair done, and then let's get mobilized on building the ring around Alaska.”
According to NTIA, the total cost of the Nome to Homer Express Route is more than $150 million. McHale said that he wasn't sure when the project would see completion.
Alaska's Sen. Lisa Murkowski echoed McHale on the issue of timing.
“We now have a situation where the federal government is making an investment that could have prevented the impacts of this widespread outage,” Murkowksi said. “The extensive internet outage caused by significant ice scouring underscores the importance of Arctic infrastructure and redundancy.”
McHale said that under current conditions, the subsea cable repairs in the Arctic could take up to two months.
“We're looking at all different options, from icebreakers, to dive teams, to submarines, but the ice in the area is problematic,” McHale said. “And safety has got to be the first concern there. So we're looking at all those options.”
The ice is still there. And the way it severed the cable underneath was not something the company anticipated, McHale said.
“This is the first and only cut or service outage we've had in five and a half years of operation. So it is somewhat of an anomaly,” McHale said. “It's not to make any excuses for it. Of course it's been cut and we need to deal with that, but it is not not the normal state of operation.”
“We know that this is a hardship. And we are doing everything humanly possible. We are working around the clock,” McHale said. “And all the resources of the company are brought to bear on this. And we are bringing in lots of outside contract help and we're pulling out all the stops.”
