MTA completes AlCan ONE

PALMER — On Tuesday, Matanuska Telephone Association celebrated the completion of the state’s first all-terrestrial fiber network connecting Alaska to the contiguous United States.

AlCan ONE (Alaska Canada Overland Network) completed construction on time and will begin expanding internet capabilities for MTA customers and internet users across Alaska.

“After decades of talk about a terrestrial fiber optic path out of Alaska, our whole organization is proud to have accomplished this historic feat safely and efficiently,”said MTA CEO Michael Burke.“Especially during this pandemic, connection via technology is absolutely vital, and whatever short-term capacity forecast that we had when we began this project a year ago has been blown out of the water due to the COVID-19 crisis. We don’t know what the new normal going to look like,but the AlCan ONE network lays the groundwork to meet the needs for today, while helping us plant the seeds to meet future demand and help Alaska grow.”

As a wholly owned subsidiary of MTA, MTA Fiber Holdings completed the construction of the nearly 300-mile overland fiber network to improve Alaskan connectivity at no increase in charge to MTA customers. Construction began in the spring of 2019 with the hope to establish a secure and reliable fiber connection to any point in the contiguous United States.

“As all of our internet providers are seeing tremendous demand for internet connectivity with Alaskans working from home or attending school remotely, this is coming online just in time. Thank you to all the people that helped make this happen at MTA, their contracts and partners in Canada,” said Gov. Mike Dunleavy in a prepared video.

The network will provide capability of over 100 terabits per second with possibilities to expand as demand increases. The AlCan ONE line runs nearly 300 miles from North Pole to the Canadian border where it links with Canadian carriers, extending MTA’s network through Canada. United States Sen. Dan Sullivan said that broadband infrastructure also bolsters armed forces and their military bases.

“Great news for our state for our country but we have a lot of very important work to do here in D.C. continuing with regard to broadband issues, but this is great news and everybody should be celebrating,” said Sullivan. “We understand the deep need for Alaskans to be able to connect, we all in our state need high speed reliable broadband for faster connection.”