Quintillion CEO: Alaska Outage Fix Could Come by Spring
An ice scour -- floating ice gouging the seabed -- was likely the culprit for this month's fiber-optic cable line break impacting Quintillion service to North Slope and northwestern Alaskan communities (see 2501220001), President Mac McHale said in a statement…
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Monday. He said Quintillion continues examining the area "and is working with commercial and government entities to possibly deploy remote operating vehicles with high-resolution cameras for additional forensic information." Quintillion "has aggressively moved forward with local partners to restore critical services in the near-term." The process will take weeks, though the company aims to restore some level of service by linking fiber between Nome and Utqiagvik with a network at the satellite ground stations in Nome for additional transport capacity. That hybrid solution will provide backup services until the fiber in the Beaufort Sea is fully repaired, McHale said. The company hopes that Federal Emergency Management Agency funds will be made available in coming weeks to help cover winter construction of a terrestrial route from Utqiagvik to Deadhorse, bypassing the subsea fault area, he said. That work, "with proper support and acceleration by federal agencies," could be done by spring.