Alaska Schools Get Faster Internet -- Partly Thanks to Global Warming

Three districts in northwestern Alaska are pioneering a high-speed fiber-optic cable connection that has the potential to transform how education is delivered in the state—and shrink a connectivity gap between rural Alaska and the majority of American schools. A little-known Anchorage-based company called Quintillion established rapid underwater pathways between global commerce centers, connecting an Alaska branch (phase one) to Asia (phase two) and the United Kingdom (phase three). The enterprise is aimed squarely at international stock traders who could, someday, hook into the fiber to shave milliseconds off their transaction speeds—a prospect worth millions of dollars. In March, Nome (AK) Public Schools became the first school district to connect to the cable. The fiber-optic route exists here in large part because of global warming, which has led to Arctic Sea ice inching farther away from Alaska’s shoreline each season.