Broadband's Benefit

GCI has been successfully delivering telecommunications to Alaska for decades under some of the most extreme conditions. Here is how broadband has helped to drive economic development. 

Intelligent Energy Systems

In 2005, local leaders from villages along the Kuskokwim River formed the Chaninik Wind Group (CWG) and began building a series of smart grids designed to integrate cheaper wind power into their energy systems. Initially the grids relied on satellite Internet service for remote communications and data transmission, but for a number of reasons it wasn’t up to the task. Weather, long lag times, and satellite dishes that needed frequent adjusting all hampered the CWG’s effort to use as much wind energy as possible.

Then in 2012, the TERRA network arrived in Southwest Alaska bringing terrestrial broadband to the region for the first time. Prior to TERRA, broadband speeds were delivered via cable modem and DSL. “TERRA made it all possible,” says Dennis Meiners of Intelligent Energy Systems, the Anchorage company that helped the CWG design and build its grids. “Whether it’s a wind turbine, a diesel generator, a protective relay, or a meter, the smart grids are a collection of controllers that need to work together. The Internet allows us to capture, share and understand the data that keeps those systems operating efficiently and reliably. Things happen on a micro-second basis, so a fast Internet connection like TERRA makes all the difference.”

Lower Kuskokwim School District

The Lower Kuskokwim School District (LKSD) has an impressive state-of-the-art technology infrastructure that supports a variety of online instructional platforms and links a system of 28 schools in a rural geographical area that spans 22,000 square miles. LKSD is about as remote as school districts come. Its 23 communities are spread throughout Southwest Alaska with access only by plane. LKSD is the size of West Virginia and the 4,000 student are spread throughout the community in 28 schools ranging from 15 to 520 students. With such a large terrain to cover, ensuring quality education is challenging. But in partnership with GCI SchoolAccess, LKSD implemented the state’s largest distance education program through video conferencing. How does it work? Each student has direct access to the teaching studio in Bethel and other schools within the district so that regardless of location, students receive instruction from highly qualified teachers in math, science, Alaska native languages and more. This has the ability to transform lives by giving all students equal opportunity. It is also helpful that the schools are able to share resources across the district.

Additionally, LKSD offers extensive professional development for staff members throughout the year over their distance learning network. These include interactive, live and recorded sessions that originate out of the district office teaching studios presented by content area specialist from the district. LKSD has also developed and implemented an effective employee recruitment and retention process that has resulted in one of the lowest turnover rates among all rural Alaska school systems.

LKSD recently became the first school district in Alaska to receive the AdvanceED Systems Accreditation award – a highly regarded achievement in education. AdvancED is the global leader in providing continuous improvement and accreditation services to more than 32,000 institutions worldwide.  

Seaview Community Services

Psychiatrists are rare across Alaska, but especially so in small towns. In Seward, a village of about 3,000 residents on Alaska’s south coast, the only way to obtain care without a long journey was to wait for a monthly visit from an Anchorage-based psychiatrist. Now SeaView Community Services, a Seward-based non-profit social-service agency, uses GCI’s ConnectMD to connect psychiatric patients with a psychiatrist – all remotely. Some 45 patients take advantage of the service each week. 

ConnectMD created a direct network connection to link SeaView Community Services with API’s psychiatric services network.  Because API also is a ConnectMD customer, SeaView and API can easily connect to one another. The telemedicine network provided by ConnectMD also meets HIPAA requirements for patient privacy.

Now, when a Seward resident needs care for depression, bipolar disorders, or even schizophrenia, they visit a room at the community center made comfortable for such sessions including a sofa, side chair, plants, and bookshelves. Through video-conferencing equipment and a 42-inch high-definition television, the patient talks with a psychiatrist. A SeaView Community Center case manager typically sits in on the sessions.