Federal Communications Commission Chair To Visit Alaska

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by The Associated Press

Story Created: Aug 25, 2011 at 10:24 PM AKDT

Story Updated: Aug 25, 2011 at 10:24 PM AKDT

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission will be in Alaska this week.

U.S. Sen. Mark Begich's office said Julius Genachowski will attend several events focused on bringing high speed broadband and overall improved telecommunications to the state.

Those include a stop in Dillingham Thursday to mark the progress of a project extending broadband service to the Bristol Bay and the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta regions.

Begich and Genachowski are also slated to speak on telecommunications issues at Commonwealth North in Anchorage Friday and to participate in a roundtable discussion.

Begich said high-speed Internet provides opportunities for economic development and jobs, better education and improved access to health care. He said he's pleased Genachowski accepted his offer to visit the state.

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GCI, Squashing the local bush companies said on Friday, Aug 26 at 11:52 AM

I like how this is being heralded as a total good thing. I have been working for an ISP in one of the communities that GCI is going to be coming to. We have being trying to deliver broadband to our customers for all those years, and the biggest reason we couldn’t is because of the middle mile pricing which is something that GCI has been a player in for a number of years. When we asked if we will be able to purchase bandwidth on their new network (Which taxes dollars paid a large chuck of) we were told that if we wanted on it, the price would be more expensive then satellite bandwidth. Yet they are saying they will be selling bandwidth to residential customers less than 3 percent of the price it cost us to be on the satellite. I don’t have a problem with competition, but I can’t complete when the competition is being funded by the government. I would also like to add, if GCI cared so much about us in the bush where have they been all these years? They certainly have the infrastructure

GCI, Squashing the local bush companies said on Friday, Aug 26 at 11:50 AM

I like how this is being heralded as a total good thing. I have been working for an ISP in one of the communities that GCI is going to be coming to. We have being trying to deliver broadband to our customers for all those years, and the biggest reason we couldn’t is because of the middle mile pricing which is something that GCI has been a player in for a number of years. When we asked if we will be able to purchase bandwidth on their new network (Which taxes dollars paid a large chuck of) we were told that if we wanted on it, the price would be more expensive then satellite bandwidth. Yet they are saying they will be selling bandwidth to residential customers less than 3 percent of the price it cost us to be on the satellite. I don’t have a problem with competition, but I can’t complete when the competition is being funded by the government. I would also like to add, if GCI cared so much about us in the bush where have they been all these years? They certainly have the infrastructure

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