Alaskan broadband initiative reaches a milestoneCreated: 4/29/2011 8:07:03 AMEvery geographic region presents unique conditions when it comes to fiber-optic installation, and the challenges faced by Alaska's broadband project may be among the most extreme to date.
According to the Alaska Dispatch, a statewide effort to connect isolated cities and towns across the expansive area reached a milestone recently. A total 43 miles of fiber-optic cable were installed between Igiugig to Levelock in the Bristol Bay region.
This installation was by no means typical, for the challenges presented by the Alaskan wilderness forced telecommunications planners to adopt creative methods for laying out the cable. The news source states that one of the state's service providers, GCI, hired a truck driver to lay out thousands of feet of cable by drilling holes into a frozen riverbed every 350 feet.
"Its completion indicates a significant level of progress toward bringing broadband, and all of the civic and economic benefits that come with it, to the people and organizations in Bristol Bay and the Y-K Delta," Martin Cary, general manager of CGI, told the media outlet.
In the lower 48 states, broadband installation to rural areas also encounters various challenges. According to the Berkshire Eagle, network projects in western Massachusetts encounter similar difficulties than those found in Alaska, though on a smaller scale.
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