Alaska United Fiber Optic Cable System (abbreviated AUFS or AU) is a submarine fiber-optic cable owned by GCI that links Anchorage, several places in Southeast Alaska including Juneau, to Oregon and Washington State. Alaska United East (AU-East) is 3,751 kilometers long with landing points at Anchorage and Lena Point in Juneau, and at the shore of Puget Sound at Norma Beach near Picnic Point in Lynnwood, Washington; AU-West has landings at Seward and on the Pacific coast at Warrenton, Oregon. [1] [2] [3] Both are OC-192 rated (10 G bit/s) as of 2018. [4] Additional overland segments (AU-North/NW) connect Anchorage to Fairbanks and Prudhoe Bay along the Alaska Pipeline corridor and Parks Highway.
Laying cable for the first segment, AU-East from Anchorage to Lynnwood, was accomplished in the second half of 1999. [5] AU-East's initial cost was $120 million and it was one of two 1999 projects bringing high-speed communications including Internet access to Alaska, supplanting the 45 Mbit/s North Pacific Cable (NPC) Alaska Spur. [6] NPC was shut down in 2004.
Alaska Communications depends on fiber connectivity to provide service.
A January 2013 earthquake broke the cable near Wrangell. The cable ship Wave Venture was sent to locate the cable with an ROV and effect repairs. [7]
References
- ^ Alaska United East, Fiber Atlantic, retrieved 2018-02-09
- ^ Cable locations, Oregon Fishermen's Cable Committee, retrieved 2018-02-09
- ^ "Submarine Cable Landing Directory", telegeography.com, archived from the original on 2014-11-09, retrieved 2018-02-09
- ^ System FAQ, Alaska United, retrieved 2018-02-09
- ^ Laying of Under Sea Fiber Optic Cable Scheduled to Commence August 5, 1998, CGI, July 16, 1998
- ^ Will Swagel (August 1, 1997), "Bandwidth comes to Alaska", Alaska Business Monthly, archived from the original on February 10, 2018
- ^ GCI ship to repair earthquake-damaged fiber optic cables, Wrangell, Alaska: KSTK, January 11, 2013