Over the past couple days, technicians could be seen dangling from the cellular tower operated by GCI at Watson's Corner in the center of Bethel. This followed a June 25 text message notifying customers that wireless service would potentially be unavailable in areas around the tower for several days while upgrades were completed. GCI's chief communications officer, Heather Handyside, said that the upgrades are part of the company's long-term strategy in Bethel.
"This is the third tower that we've upgraded. We did upgrades to the tower at the airport, and then by the UUI building. And it's all part of our plan for investing so that wireless service will be greatly improved once we bring in the fiber to the community at the end of 2024," Handyside said. "So this is the foundation, so that once the fiber is there, and we have additional capacity on it on our network, we'll be able to upgrade wireless service to LTE, 5G, 6G, as technology improves."
Handyside also addressed the slow service that has plagued GCI customers in Bethel since mid-June following damage to a subsea fiber-optic cable in the Beaufort Sea operated by Quintillion. She said that traffic from communities in Northern Alaska directly affected by the damage had been channeled back to the TERRA Network that Bethel is a part of.
"When the Quintilion fiber broke, we had to bring all those users, all that data, all that traffic back to the TERRA Network. And that's what's slowing things down," Handyside said.
Handyside said that GCI would be providing financial relief for non-business consumers throughout the duration of the repairs to the subsea cable, which Quintillion has said could run through August 2023.
"Just to let folks know, until service is fully restored on the Quintilion network and we can restore Bethel to its former levels of service, customers will be getting a 100% credit for their internet bills, consumer customers, and a 50% credit for their wireless service. Just to kind of recognize the inconvenience that's been been happening for folks out there," Handyside said.