Alaska’s GCI announced that Fairbanks would be joining Juneau and Anchorage as cities that were slated for its 1-Gigabit service.
With the same deployment timeframe as last week’s Juneau announcement, the 1-Gig service, which is called “fiber re:D,” will be up and running near the end of 2016. The recent Gigabit announcements covered the three largest cities in Alaska, and gave GCI something to talk about in light of Verizon recently launching its services in The Last Frontier state.
“For more than 30 years, GCI has been committed to providing Alaskans the latest communications technology, and providing Fairbanks with the fastest possible broadband speeds with our fiber re:D service will be another example of that,” said GCI senior vice president and general manager of consumer services Paul Landes. “At GCI, we know that people use technology to enhance their experiences throughout every aspect of life, and as Alaska’s premier telecommunications provider we’re proud to deliver this enhanced service to the Fairbanks community.”
Borrowing a page from Google Fiber and AT&T’s Gigabit playbook, GCI is asking its customers to go to its website to express their interest in the 1 Gigabit offering, which will determine the neighborhoods that will get it first.
GCI announced the 1-Gigabit service during a company-sponsored scavenger hunt in Fairbanks on Sunday. GCI’s Fairbanks Tech Quest, which was held at Veternans Memorial Park, included prizes valued at approximately $15,000.
Earlier this year GCI launched 4G LTE service in Fairbanks, providing increased speeds to GCI wireless customers with LTE-capable devices at no additional cost.
GCI, which is Alaska’s biggest telecommunications company, has invested more than $2 billion in its products and services since it was founded in 1979.
