An Enduring Commitment to Universal Service Transformed Alaska

It used to be a real challenge to talk to someone across Alaska, or across the country. Many Alaskans remember waiting in line to use the only telephone in a village. For me, it was the phone at the winter watchman's house in Ekuk. We each got a few minutes because everyone was waiting. Long-distance calls were expensive, and simply talking to family or conducting business required patience and persistence. Even after the internet arrived, connectivity remained limited in many parts of Alaska. Just a handful of years ago, I visited Unalaska, where businesses routinely copied payroll records onto DVDs and shipped them overnight because their internet connections couldn't support cloud-based applications. Those experiences were separated by decades, but they reflected the same challenge: in Alaska, the need for connectivity often arrived long before the infrastructure did. Today, those stories are history.  Students attend online classes. Patients meet with specialists hundreds of miles away through telehealth. Small businesses manage payroll and accounting in the cloud. Families share video calls. Commercial fishermen check weather forecasts and fishery announcements from their boats. Connectivity has become part of everyday life.

[Christine O'Connor is executive director of the Alaska Telecom Association]