Alaska Native Leaders Being Offered a Direct Voice in State Broadband Planning

By Jeremy Thacker, Communications Specialist, Connect Alaska

There is truly no place in America in greater need of broadband access, adoption, and use than bush Alaska. This week, village leaders from across the state are getting an opportunity to start changing that with an important workshop being held at the annual Alaska Federation of Natives Convention.

Thousands of Native leaders are in Anchorage, representing some of the state’s most isolated populations. One-hour discussion-style Connect Alaska workshops are being held at four different times over the course of the convention to help give the village leaders a voice in planning for the expansion on quality broadband service in their regions.

“High-speed Internet is a critical modern lifeline to crucial services that support and improve quality of life,” said Connect Alaska Project Coordinator Therese Dolan. “Telemedicine, educational opportunities, jobs, and government services including future Alaska PFD submissions all depend largely on broadband access, adoption, and use.”

AFN workshop attendees will learn about the community support, tech support, relationship advocacy, and other free resources that are available to them through the Connect Alaska initiative. The Connect Alaska workshops are planned for the Tubughnenq’ Room of the Dena’ina Civic and Convention Center. The sessions are scheduled for:

Thursday, October 20

2:00 - 3:00 p.m.

3:00 - 4:00 p.m.

Saturday, Oct 22

2:00 – 3:00 p.m.

3:00 - 4:00 p.m.

The AFN Convention is the largest representative annual gathering in the United States of any Native peoples. Delegates are elected on a population formula of one representative per 25 Native residents in the area and delegate participation rates at the annual convention typically exceed 95 percent. Each year the AFN Convention draws between 4,000–5,000 attendees.

Telemedicine Takes Center Stage in Anchorage

By Jeremy Thacker, Communications Specialist, Connect Alaska

With remote villages and rugged bush, there is simply no state that faces more challenges to quality individual medical care than Alaska. It is a fact that recently made the state the perfect backdrop for an important meeting of the American Telemedicine Association (ATA).

ATA’s Fall Forum 2011 was held in Anchorage late last month to showcase the most groundbreaking, unusual, and extraordinary ideas and uses for telemedicine. The goal of the conference was to focus on big ideas that will revolutionize telemedicine in the next three to five years.

American Telemedicine Association Fall Fourm

In the spirit of telemedicine, the event was live simulcast via Internet videocast with the support of GCI ConnectMD. GCI is an Alaska-based telecommunications company. Its medical network is a telemedicine tool that is making a huge positive impact on the quality of medical care in once isolated villages in Alaska’s remote bush. Currently, GCI ConnectMD is the largest medical network in the Pacific Northwest, connecting more than 200 clinics, hospitals, and medical organizations.

CGI ConnectMD Network Map

A recent article by InformationWeek.com predicts that the telemedicine industry is headed for an explosive growth spurt over the next decade. The main reason for the prediction centers on the growing use of remote patient monitoring systems. The systems are being used more and more to keep a close monitor on patients, which cuts down on hospital visits and the length of patient stays.

There are already many life-improving and life-saving telemedicine technologies being used in Alaska and across the United States. Access to these services through quality, reliable broadband is critical. Telemedicine is just one more reason Connect Alaska is working with the Alaska Broadband Task Force to expand high-speed Internet access, adoption, and use across the state.

Building Broadband Infrastructure: Alaska Under Construction

By Jeremy Thacker, Communications Specialist, Connect Alaska

When it comes to Internet connection, there’s simply no state that faces Alaska’s challenges to broadband expansion. The job is immense and expensive, but with life-saving technologies and opportunities for economic growth at stake, it’s clear that the price of continued isolation is even more costly.

Lt. Governor Mead Treadwell, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, USDA RUS Administrator Jonathan Adelstein & USDA Rural Development Alaska State Director Jim Nordlund

It’s a landscape that Alaska Senator Mark Begich knows well. This week, he’s sharing his experience with the head of the Federal Communications Commission. Chairman Julius Genachowski found himself at a construction site on Thursday that is promising a major step forward in connecting bush Alaska to fast and reliable high-speed Internet. Our team was there with them to see the site of this historic broadband project first-hand. When it’s complete, TERRA-Southwest is set to provide broadband service to 65 communities and more than 9,000 households in the Bristol Bay and Yukon Kuskokwim Delta regions.

Senator Mark Begich leads TERRA-Southwest Ribbon-Cutting

Senator Begich and Chairman Genachowski were joined by Lieutenant Governor Mead Treadwell, USDA, Alaska DCCED, and several of the state’s Broadband Task Force members for a ceremonial ribbon cutting at CGI’s centerpiece construction site near Dillingham. GCI is Alaska's largest telecommunications company. It’s using $88 million made up of both federal loans and stimulus money to build an infrastructure it’s calling, “A historic investment.” According to the company’s website, TERRA-Southwest, “ Will provide the first ever high speed fiber optic and microwave connection to Southwest Alaska.”

The prospect of faster and more reliable broadband service is something that Connect Alaska staff hears excitement about from residents in every town they visit. Quality broadband brings telemedicine, educational opportunities, jobs, and direct access to state and federal government that many Alaska bush villages have never had. And those opportunities are just the tip of the iceberg. Recent Connect Alaska research shows that local business using broadband earn an average of $100,000 more each year in revenue, yet nearly a third either don’t or aren’t able to subscribe.

Kulukak Mountain Microwave Repeater Site

TERRA-Southwest broadband is set to connect to communities by the end of the year. And when area homes and businesses start getting the equipment they need to connect to the new service early next year, it will certainly mark a new era in opportunity for the entire region. In the meantime, state and local leaders are looking carefully at the project as they focus on the Connect Alaska mission of figuring out how to spread quality broadband service to every corner of the state.

For more on the TERRA-Southwest project, you can watch KTUU Channel 2’s “Closer Look” report by reporter Rhonda McBride.

Today, we are covering the Alaska Broadband Task Force meeting and a roundtable discussion with Senator Begich and Chairman Genachowski. Follow us on Twitter for updates: www.twitter.com/connectalaska

Policy & Need: Bringing Broadband to Alaska

By Jeremy Thacker, Communications Specialist, Connect Alaska

Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Julius Genachowski is in Alaska today kicking off a three-day visit. The chairman plans to spend the rest of the week getting a first-hand look at the state’s critical need for expanded broadband service and the progress being made on some of the solutions to the problem.

The Chairman’s visit is planned to include a tour of the TERRA-Southwest project that is currently under construction and will eventually extend terrestrial broadband service for the first time to Bristol Bay and the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta. The Chairman also plans to tour several remote villages across the state and take part in a meeting on Friday with Senator Mark Begich and the Alaska Broadband Task Force.

According to Connect Alaska’s recent Business Technology Assessment study, nearly 6,000 businesses in the state remain unconnected to broadband technology and miss out on an average of $100,000 in added revenue. A similar residential survey is now underway that is expected to clearly quantify what the majority of Alaskans already know: High-speed Internet is desperately needed, but in short supply across the Last Frontier. That leaves most Alaskans cut off from the life-enriching resources of online education, telemedicine, and e-government, not to mention online shopping, entertainment, and the basic communication of e-mail and social media.

Connect Alaska is a statewide public-private partnership working on broadband expansion under a federal grant administered by the state Department of Commerce, Community, and Economic Development (DCCED). The department recently established the statewide broadband task force chaired by Bill Popp of the Alaska Partnership for Economic Development. The task force is charged with creating a plan for Alaska’s future broadband deployment as well as accelerating the availability of affordable broadband technology throughout the state.

Connect Alaska Releases New Broadband and Business Report

Access the Findings

Statewide survey estimates nearly 6,000 Alaska businesses remain unconnected

Anchorage, Alaska — A new report by Connect Alaska reveals that even in today’s wired world, there is still much work to be done to connect Alaska businesses to the global economy. The newly released Business Technology Assessment study took an in-depth look at broadband use across all sectors of the state’s economy and found that an estimated 5,562 Alaska businesses remain unconnected to broadband technology.

The survey found that:

•Alaska businesses with high-speed Internet connections report having median annual revenues that are $100,000 greater than businesses without broadband;

•28 percent of all businesses – and 31 percent of small businesses with fewer than five employees – do not use broadband for their daily business needs;

•Alaska businesses pay a median monthly price of $74.62 for broadband service; and,

•Approximately 5,000 Alaska businesses allow their employees to telework, reducing the number of miles that employees are forced to commute and allowing businesses to remain operational in the event of inclement weather.

Connect Alaska is a statewide public-private partnership working on broadband expansion under a federal grant administered by the state Department of Commerce, Community, and Economic Development (DCCED). The department recently established a statewide broadband task force to create a plan for Alaska’s future broadband deployment, as well as to accelerate the availability of affordable broadband technology throughout the state.

“Findings from this survey help to illustrate the correlation between high-speed Internet adoption and a business’s bottom line,” said DCCED Commissioner Susan Bell. “This will help the task force in its efforts to create a statewide plan for the future and more economic opportunity for Alaska businesses and families.”

The Business Technology Assessment, and its interactive application on the Connect Alaska website (www.connectak.org), reveals how technology is being used by Alaska businesses and where gaps remain. The assessment is designed to measure business technology adoption and the awareness of available broadband service and establish benchmarks for these metrics.

“In the digital economy, businesses must embrace broadband and other transformative technologies like it in order to survive,” said Brian Mefford, CEO of Connected Nation, Connect Alaska’s parent organization. “The Internet is driving products and services to the marketplace in an environment where creativity and innovation are both reinforced and rewarded.”

The Connect Alaska program has developed a statewide broadband inventory map, which was incorporated into the National Broadband Map unveiled in February. Funding for Connect Alaska and the broadband initiative are part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and is administered by the National Telecommunications and Information Agency (NTIA) under the State Broadband Data and Development (SBDD) grant program. For more information about what DCCED and Connect Alaska are doing to accelerate technology in Alaska’s communities, please visit: www.connectak.org.

The Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development works to create economic opportunity to promote a healthy economy and strong communities in Alaska. This is accomplished through six divisions and six corporate agencies and a staff of more than 500 people in seven statewide offices with a focus on: economic development, sustainable energy, strong communities, and consumer protection.

Download Press Release

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Related Links:

Press Release: Statewide broadband task force named

Press Release: Connect Alaska Receives ARRA Grant for Broadband Expansion Efforts

Press Release: Alaska Department of Commerce, Community, and Economic Development & Connect Alaska Unveil Interactive Map to Increase High-Speed Internet Access

Connected Nation Receives Recovery Act Funding For Broadband Mapping and Planning Initiatives in Alaska and Kansas

NTIA Awards Lay the Groundwork For Launch of Connect Alaska and Connect Kansas Initiatives

Washington, DC – Today, the Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) announced approximately $4 million in grant awards for Alaska and Kansas, enabling Connected Nation to launch comprehensive broadband mapping initiatives in partnership with those states.

“Connected Nation’s mission is to see that every American, no matter where he or she lives, has access to high-speed Internet,” said Brian R. Mefford, Connected Nation’s chief executive officer. ”Whether it is making a purchase online or filling out a job application, broadband is key to accessing and sharing information in this technology-driven economy. By plotting broadband availability on a map, we can find the quickest path to closing the digital gaps that still exist for many Americans.

“We applaud NTIA for working diligently to create a national broadband map and are honored to have been selected to help Alaska and Kansas in their efforts to increase broadband in rural areas.”

Connected Nation will soon be working with 12 states and one U.S. territory on the national broadband mapping effort. These efforts comprise approximately 42 percent of the country’s landmass and encompass approximately 39.5 million households.

More than $7 billion in stimulus funds have been designated to help expand broadband access to unserved and underserved communities across the United States. These funds are available through NTIA’s Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) and the Rural Utilities Service’s Broadband Initiatives Program (BIP). NTIA has received applications for the grant program from all 50 states, five territories, and the District of Columbia and the agency is currently reviewing the remaining 35 applications. The remaining awards are expected to be announced in the next few weeks.

As the organization that produced the nation’s first granular statewide broadband availability map in 2005, Connected Nation is a prominent voice for the nation’s need for better broadband data. Connected Nation has worked closely with national leaders and provided numerous filings in support of a process for broadband data collection at the national level. To learn more about the programs that are helping more families and communities connect through broadband, visit http://www.connectednation.org/.

Related Links:

Kansas awarded $2 million from National Telecommunications and Information Administration for broadband mapping initiative