Alaskan operator GCI recently reported that it finished up tower construction in Buckland, Selawik, Noorvik, St. Michael, Golovin, Elim and Koyuk and expects to bring high-speed internet service to local clinics and schools in these communities in early 2017. The towers are part of the planned expansion of GCI’s Terrestrial for Every Rural Region in Alaska (TERRA) network. TERRA currently serves 72 rural communities, which GCI says allows it to deliver high-speed internet to some of the most remote locations on Earth.

In the Northwest Arctic, crews are working to install antennas that will deliver service to Buckland, Selawik and Noorvik, GCI says in a statement. It adds that in Norton Sound, crews will install a fiber connection from Stebbins and St. Michael once the ground is frozen this winter. “Crews have started tower and communication shelter construction in both Kiana and White Mountain,” the operator reports. “That work is expected to be complete in the coming days.”

Earlier this year, GCI announced its plans to deliver service to several new communities in the Northwest Arctic Borough and Norton Sound by the end of 2017.

“We’ve seen how much a community can benefit from the improved medical care, improved education and improved economic opportunities that accompany access to broadband,” Greg Chapados, EVP and COO of GCI said about that project. “We’re truly connecting Alaskans to the rest of the world. The projects are hard and the environment unforgiving, but we’re an Alaska company and we don’t expect things to be easy.”

More on the Northwest Arctic Borough and Norton Sound project is available here.

GCI’s TERRA began in 2010 and currently delivers broadband services to nearly 40,000 residents, according to the company.