Nushagak Cooperative high-speed internet could be coming to Dillingham before the end of the year

The effort to bring a physical broadband connection to Dillingham is nearly complete after more than a year of work.

Fiber optics offer broadband speeds of up to 10 gigabits per second, a major upgrade for the region. Since last April, the Nushagak Electric and Telephone Cooperative has been laying a fiber-optic cable that will connect GCI’s network in Levelock to Dillingham. Along the way, it will serve the communities of Ekwok and Aleknagik.

Dennis Payne is the Telecom Operations Manager at Nushagak Cooperative.

“What the fiber represents is a physical connection between us and the rest of the world. It’s the first physical connection Dillingham will experience,” he said.

The cooperative originally planned to finish by spring 2024, but Payne says the project faced significant challenges crossing the tundra and its waterways.

He says the cooperative has worked closely with local villages as well as the state and federal agencies to avoid harming marshlands. And in October, the team cleared a major hurdle by placing the fiber cable beneath the Nushagak River.

“Today we are well North of 75% complete with the construction,” said Payne. “The current timeline has us sometime in December completing all of our fiber splicing, fiber construction, and fiber testing.”

Once the project wraps up, the new fiber will replace the co-op’s old microwave system. Payne says that will reduce maintenance costs, improve reliability, and significantly increase bandwidth.

“At the end of the day, what that’s going to provide us with is some redundancy – a much more reliable, robust network. With fiber, really, the sky’s the limit,” he said.

The project is fully grant-funded, which means cooperative members won’t shoulder the expense.

A broader effort for Western Alaska

The link to Dillingham is one piece of a broader effort to connect all of Western Alaska to broadband. Once it’s in place, GCI and the Bethel Native Corporation will use it to extend fiber to 13 Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta communities and eventually to coastal villages as far up the coast as Emmonak.

Jenifer Nelson, GCI’s Senior Director of Rural Affairs, says GCI laid the fiber off the coast this summer and fall.

“We have the subsea work that you might have seen the ships in Dillingham up to the YK delta,” she said.

Ana Hoffman, CEO of the Bethel Native Corporation, highlighted the collaboration behind the effort.

“These are difficult programs to administer and I’ve been able to call up people in Dillingham and people at Curyung to help support one another in working to deliver this service,” she said.

The Nushagak Cooperative hopes to establish its fiber optic connection before the end of the year, while the connection to Bethel is expected in early 2025.