Alaska Power and Telephone’s plans to install an 86-mile-long fiber optic submarine cable in the Upper Lynn Canal to boost Internet service are moving forward, and the company hopes to have the cable installed by October.
Bruce Messerschmidt, AP&T’s general manager for telecommunications operations, said the cable should give AP&T customers “more bang for their buck” when it comes to Internet service. Prices likely won’t go down, but the same money will buy faster speeds, he said.
“The service levels will probably go up and the pricing will stay the same,” Messerschmidt said.
Tom Ervine, AP&T’s vice president of telecom operations and engineering, concurred that the cable will be more cost-efficient for consumers.
“I don’t see what’s on your bill going down, but what will happen is you will get more bandwidth and higher usage caps for that same price,” Ervine said.
Prices won’t go down because the project requires considerable capital investment, he said.
The submarine cable will run from Juneau to Haines and Skagway. The Haines-Skagway line will run the same route as an existing submarine cable that interties power grids between the two communities.
The cable also will provide “redundancy,” doing the same job that an existing microwave system does. The fiber optic system will become the primary system, with the microwave acting as a backup in case something goes wrong with the new cable, Messerschmidt said.
“If it goes down, you have a microwave service that should pick up the slack,” he said.
The cable also will provide phone service. In addition to faster service, the fiber optic cable has more capacity than the microwave system. According to AP&T’s figures, the microwave system – which uses mountaintop and sea-level towers – will max out within the next three years.
“This would allow us to continue growth beyond that point,” Messerschmidt said.
According to AP&T’s Army Corps of Engineers permit application, the cable will have three landings in Haines, Juneau and Skagway and will involve burying the fiber optic cable in four-inch steel conduit in trenches leading from the marine intertidal area to adjacent areas.
“A standard cable laying ship would be used to lay the cable on the seabed. Prior to laying the cable a bathymetric survey would be conducted of the cable route to ensure there are no geographic submarine obstructions,” the application states.
The project has been reviewed for impacts to anadramous fish streams, essential fish habitat, species listed under the Endangered Species Act, and cultural resources, with a determination that there would be no effect to these resources.
The cable’s landing site in Haines will be near the ferry terminal – the same spot as the power cable from Skagway’s Goat Lake hydroelectric plant – and therefore will require little to no trenching work, Messerschmidt said.
Messerschmidt said he didn’t know the final cost of the project, but said it was “very expensive.” “It’s a monumental project for AP&T,” he said.
Ervine said the company hopes to complete its bathymetric survey during the first week of June. The cable will be custom-manufactured in Germany and then shipped to the Bahamas, where it will be loaded onto a cabling ship and sent to Haines.
Availability of the cabling ship could affect the time frame, though Ervine hopes to have the cable laid and tested by October.
The comment period on the Army Corps application closes Saturday. To comment, email [email protected] or call 907-790-4493.