2023-06-25 16:50:05
Several local outlets are reporting that satellite internet giants OneWeb and SpaceX are racing to reconnect Alaska following ice destroyed an underwater fiber-optic cable in the Arctic Ocean. Repairs are expected to take an additional six to eight weeks, but the satellites will help local residents cope with widespread outages. When 1,200 miles of Quintillion-owned fiber cable was cut in Alaska last week, residents in rural towns like Utkiavik, Point Hope, Wainwright, Kotzebue, Nome, and other communities were left without internet or cellular service. as a result of the defrost event. “Our submarine system is currently down, and our dedicated team of experts is actively involved in diagnosing and resolving the problem, in coordination with our partners and submarine cable maintenance teams to restore service as quickly as possible,” Quintilion said. When Quintillion completed construction of its fiber-optic network in Alaska in 2017, the company initially had grand plans for a data cable across the North Pole that would improve connectivity around the world, but those plans never materialized, and the company’s former CEO Elizabeth Pierce was fired. Former FCC chairman Ajit Pai. Quintilion, the man chosen to lead the Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee (BDAC), was indicted in 2018 on charges of wire fraud following forging signatures and contracts to convince investors to put millions behind a worthy cause. Found guilty and sentenced to five years in prison in 2019, the company has since been acquired by investment firm Grain Management. The outage caused disruptions across the region, delaying 911 calls, closing businesses, and even affecting credit card transactions. Although Quintillion said it’s working on getting a repair ship to the area, it might arrive as early as August, depending on weather and conditions. Meanwhile, Quintillion searches for a satellite link to save the population. In a June 21 update, the company said it had ordered user terminals with a 500 Mbps connection from satellite internet company OneWeb. Neither Quintillion nor OneWeb immediately responded to The Verge’s request for more details on how the stations might help local residents reconnect with the service. Starlink also said it is “coordinating with the State of Alaska and various local governments and communities to help provide connectivity. It is badly needed.” .” As rural areas of the United States still struggle to get reliable internet connections and war-torn countries like Ukraine suffer outages, satellite has become an increasingly popular solution to poor connectivity. OneWeb, which currently has regarding 600 satellites in orbit, is competing with giants like SpaceX’s Starlink and Amazon’s Project Kuiper. Last year, the company teamed up with Eutelsat to bring satellite communications across Europe, and later completed its first constellation following launching the last satellite constellation over India in March.
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