Quintillion announces launch of Alaskan submarine fiber-optic cable system

Quintillion says that testing of its submarine fiber-optic cable system is finished, and the cable system was launched on December 1 in five northern Alaska communities. A bandwidth services provider, Quintillion expects its service provider customers to be able to deliver high-speed broadband to consumers and businesses in these communities in the near future.

The submarine cable system's performance was errorless during testing, and it will now be available to service providers in Utqiaġvik, Wainwright, Point Hope, Nome, and Kotzebue, introducing 21st century communications to the Alaska Arctic for the first time, Quintillion asserts. Most of the cable was installed in 2016, with crews adding resiliency to the system over the summer. In early October, crews completed installing the last 40 miles of cable, the Alaska Arctic portion, of the international Quintillion Subsea Cable System.

The Quintillion undersea cable system will give telecommunication service providers access to high-speed broadband capacity, with a lower cost and higherservice quality than current satellite and microwave options, the company says. According to Quintillion, bringing high-speed internet to its markets will improve health and education services, contribute to economic development, support local businesses, and give consumers access to video and other high-speed applications that potential Quintillion end-user customers could not afford or access in the past.

Quintillion's cable system will supply gigabit and higher bandwidth services on a 1,400 mile subsea and terrestrial fiber-optic network, which includes a subsea trunk line from Prudhoe Bay to Nome, with branching lines to the five Alaskan communities. Quintillion says it plans for the three-phase Quintillion Subsea Cable System to link Asia to Western Europe via the Northwest Passage, through the Alaska and Canadian Arctic.

Quintillion has also installed a new terrestrial fiber cable link between Fairbanks and Prudhoe Bay, linking the northern Alaska communities to the Pacific Northwest, and serving the Prudhoe Bay oil fields. Quintillion says the terrestrial system was launched and has been delivering commercial service since last spring.

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