Severely iced-over cell tower causes service disruptions in Western Alaska

An unusually thick coat of ice encrusting a GCI cell tower in Western Alaska may have knocked an antenna astray, causing service disruptions in several villages, the company says.

The company's towers are designed to continue transmitting signals through Alaska's rough winter weather, but the ice and snowpack on the tower near Scammon Bay, along the Bering Sea coast, is heavier than the company has seen, said Heather Handyside, a GCI spokeswoman.

Reports of service disruptions began in early April, but car-sized chunks of ice that could drop off the tower have made it too dangerous for technicians hoping to make repairs, she said.

"It's like that during the wintertime, but this year it's worse. It may have to do with climate change," said James Akerelrea, a store manager in the village where temporary disruptions have frustrated his efforts to order new products.

"The landlines have been going in and out, along with the internet," said Akerelrea, who had to be contacted by Facebook when a reporter calling a store landline several times could apparently not be heard.

People in the region have attributed the thick sheath of ice to lots of periods of freezing-and-thawing, allowing a snowpack and ice to build up on the tower, Handyside said.

"We believe the ice and snow may have moved or dislodged an antenna, so it's not pointed in the direction it should be," she said.

Windy storms blowing around slushy snow may have helped cover the tower with ice, said Dennis Jones, the administrator in Chevak village.

Some calls are dropped, others don't connect at all, he said.

"We've managed so far," said Jones, having to repeat himself during a phone call with patchy service and buzzing in the background.

The mayor, trying to use the unusually slow internet, has struggled to research and submit a federal grant application, Jones said. The effort has taken days instead of hours, but the community received a deadline extension after explaining the problem of the iced-over tower.

Chevak and Hooper Bay experienced significant outages because of the problem, Handyside said. A few other communities, including Scammon Bay, have seen intermittent disruptions to telecommunications services, she said.

GCI has employed a backup satellite service to make sure key facilities in Chevak and Hooper Bay, such as the clinic, have priority service for internet, Handyside said. With the system, 911 and other calls work, but getting data on phones takes a while.

Handyside said technicians have mobilized equipment and are ready to fix the problem — as soon as the ice melts enough to allow repairs.