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posted by Fnord666 on Friday May 03 2019, @07:02PM   Printer-friendly
from the that's-a-lot-of-cable dept.

Submitted via IRC for AndyTheAbsurd

Late last year, Republican FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr got an "earful" from remote Alaskan residents who were concerned with how poor their access to the internet is — and they weren't wrong. Alaska has, on average, some of the slowest internet connections in the country, primarily due to its distance from the rest of the continental United States.

But remote Alaskans may see faster speeds soon. MTA Fiber Holdings announced today that it would build the "first and only all-terrestrial" fiber optic network running from Alaska and into the Lower 48. The line will begin in North Pole, Alaska and will travel through Canada, connecting with Canadian carriers, where it will finally connect with "any major hub" in the US. A vast majority of Alaska's current connections to the global internet either run through a handful of submarine cables, satellites, or wireless connections.

"This is a major step for Alaska that will ensure future capacity requirements for MTA members and can support the continuing growth of broadband across the state of Alaska," MTA CEO Michael Burke said in a statement.

According to the press release, only internet traffic that both originates and terminates in the US will be carried over the network.

Source: https://www.theverge.com/2019/5/1/18525866/alaska-fiber-optic-network-cable-continental-us-100-terabit


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  • (Score: 2) by insanumingenium on Friday May 03 2019, @11:34PM (2 children)

    by insanumingenium (4824) on Friday May 03 2019, @11:34PM (#838626) Journal

    What is this Russia, what is the point of emphasizing domestic traffic only?

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  • (Score: 2) by takyon on Friday May 03 2019, @11:51PM (1 child)

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Friday May 03 2019, @11:51PM (#838628) Journal

    Shock: Most Alaskans are going to access English language content, hosted on servers located primarily in the U.S.

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    • (Score: 2) by insanumingenium on Monday May 06 2019, @04:13PM

      by insanumingenium (4824) on Monday May 06 2019, @04:13PM (#839672) Journal

      No doubt that the majority of the traffic from Alaska would be headed to the US, but who benefits from bragging that ONLY internal traffic will flow over this pipe?

      I don't know what the rest of Alaska's large connections look like, but what are they worried this would become a transit network for rural Canada or something?

      I'm not that old, but I remember when a major selling point of the internet was it's lack of borders. Now, we have the great firewall of China, and the Russian motherland intranet, and the 'Laska 'Muricanneciton. I don't want an internet where it is called border gateway protocol because it is supposed to enforce a national border...