

 Date: Sun, 05 Apr 92 10:06:31 CST

 From: Mike.Riddle@ivgate.omahug.org (Mike Riddle)

 Subject: The Alascom Story



 From the Fidonet FCC echo:

 Originally posted: 02 Apr 92 23:45:00

 Originally from: Don Kimberlin



Here's some info for those who get propagandized about how "the phone

company" or "AT&T" is the only telecommunications entity in the world

that accomplishes anything.  The following was received here today

from Alascom, the original "interstate" and "international" common

carrier for Alaska, that in addition to a pretty illustrious history,

has today become one of the world's most called-upon "fast response"

providers of transportable satellite stations for public

communications, even down to being the real communications earth

station provider during Desert Storm, operating quietly behind the

scenes while AT&T and MCI beat their breasts about "providing the

troops with phones from Saudi Arabia":



                   THE ALASCOM STORY



        "From telegraph wires strung across vast stretches of

wilderness to the emergence of satellites, fiber optics and

solid-state digital technology, telecommunications in Alaska have made

a quantum leap in a relatively brief span of time.



        "What is now Alascom began as the Washington-Alaska Military

Cable and Telegraph System (WAMCATS), a "talking wire" strung overland

across Alaska's wilderness and linked to a submarine telegraph cable

connecting Seattle with Juneau, Sitka and Valdez.



        "Congress passed the act that created WAMCATS in 1900 in order

to open communication channels between Alaska's isolated military

outposts and the rest of the nation.  A provision in the bill set the

conditions for the eventual foundation of a civilian system.  That

year the first operational telegraph link was completed, with 25 miles

of line (part of a $450,000 plan by the Army Signal Corps) strung from

Nome Military headquarters to the Port Safety outpost.



        "Three years later, land lines connected western Alaska,

Prince William Sound, the Interior and Southeast.  An unsuccessful

underwater telegraph cable had been laid in 1900 across Norton Sound

from Port Safety to Fort Saint Michael.  This early effort was ripped

apart by ice blocks, but replaced in 1903 with a new wireless system.

The Norton Sound radio link was the world's first application of a

permanent radio-telegraph link for public communications, earning it a

place in telecommunications history.



        "By 1905, 1500 miles of land lines, 2,000 miles of submarine

cable and 107 miles of wireless links comprised WAMCATS' unique and

growing network.



        "With the discovery of gold and subsequent law enforcement

problems at this early part of the century, WAMCATS' telegraph linked

San Francisco and Washington military headquarters with their

far-flung Alaskan outposts.



        "The military allowed commercial and non-military traffic on

the system, providing it did not interfere with military operations.

The Alaska Railroad, completed in 1923, pused development from the

port of Seward through Anchorage and into the Interior.  Eventual

increase in commercial traffic led to a telegraph link with Ketchikan

and established that community as the main relay point between Seattle

and Seward.



        "By 1916, half of WAMCATS' land line were abandoned in favor

of wireless stations, which reduced costs and increased communications

reliability in the harsh climates that made maintaining wire lines so

difficult.  For the next two decades, little growth was experienced as

Alaska withdrew from the limelight of the post-goldrush era.



        "During the 1930's, submarine cables, supplemented by radio

links, slowly replaced the `talking wire.'  To reflect the changing

technology, Congress renamed WAMCATS as the Alaska Communications

System (ACS) in 1936.



        "With the outbreak of World War II, Alaska's geographic

importance became evident to the nation`s leaders and substantial

activity in communications began once again.  The Alaska Highway

project was pushing forward and communications with the outside world

were vital to the war effort.



        "Communications links with the Lower 48 were upgraded in the

mid-1950's when AT&T laid a submarine telephone cable between

Ketchikan and Port Angeles, Washington.



        "When Alaska was granted statehood in 1959, Western Electric

had been operating the strategic White Alice Communications System

(WACS) for the government.  WACS provided circuits for remote military

installations and to villages that had been beyond reach of the Alaska

Communications System.



        "WACS provided the technology that could relay voice

communications over high mountain ranges.  This system functioned by

bouncing strong radio signals off the Earth's troposphere, a costly

process due to the huge amounts of power required to produce

sufficiently strong signals at a distance.  Used in conjunction with

the Distant Early Warning line of radars (DEW line), White Alice sites

featured ten-story-high troposcatter antennas, some of which are still

standing as silent monuments to a bygone technology.



        "Meanwhile, RCA had established itself in the state by winning

contracts to supply personnel and maintenance to scattered armed

forces communications sites.  As private enterprise became more

involved in Alaskan communications, the Federal government decided to

stop providing communications to the commercial and private sectors.



        "In 1969, Congress passed the Alaska Communications Disposal

Act.  Among interested bidders to purchase the Alaska Communications

System were General Telephone, Continental Telephone and RCA Global

Communications.  RCA was the successful bidder at a price of $28.5

million in cash and a pledge to immediately invest an additional $30

million for badly needed improvements to the then seriously overtaxed

and outdated ACS.



        "RCA had purchased rights to provide the state's commercial

traffic with a network including toll centers at Anchorage, Fairbanks,

Juneau and Ketchikan; a network of marine radio stations, a submarine

cable terminating in Southwest and a scattering of high-frequency (HF)

radio communications sites.



        "Concurrent with the purchase of ACS, RCA's pioneering

satellite technology in long distance communications made its debut on

the international scene.



        "RCA renamed its Alaska operating unit Alascom, and in 1973

purchased the Bartlett Earth Station, then the only one in Alaska and

Alaska's sole satellite link with the outside world.  Shortly

thereafter, Alascom contructed its own first satellite station at Lena

Point, near Juneau, bringing Alaska into the era of modern satellite

technology.



        "The first functional domestic satellite system in the nation

appeared later than year when Alascom began using the Canadian Anik II

satellite on a regular basis.  Howard Hawkins, the forward-thinking

president of RCA Alascom's parent company, RCA Communications, pushed

full speed ahead on plans to construct earth stations across Alaska on

a substantial scale.



        "By 1974 Alascom had constructed earth stations at Prudhoe

Bay, Nome, Bethel and Valdez.  The same year, RCA launched its own

satellites, SATCOM 1 and 2, and all of Alascom's satellite traffic was

switched to the new "birds."



        "In July 1976 RCA Alascom entered into an agrement with the

Department of the Air Force to lease most of the military's antiquated

White Alice facilities and replace them with 22 modern satellite earth

stations.



        "Replacement of the military's aging communications system was

largely completed by Alascom in the late 1970's; the earth stations

built to replace the White Alice system required construction in

formidable places.  For example, a year of pre-planning was needed to

get equipment to Shemya in the Aleutian Islands on the once-a-year

supply barge.



        "In the late 1970's, the federal government was beginning to

look at reshaping the domestic telecommunications industry to foster

competition.  The giant RCA Global Communications, which also operated

worldwide communications of many sorts, was ordered by the FCC to

divest itself of domestic satellite communications -- of which RCA

Alascom was a foremost part.  RCA American Communications (RCA

Americom) was formed as a totally independent corporation and given

the responsibility for handling all domestic satellite business of

RCA.



        "In June, 1979, RCA Alascom was purchased by Pacific Power and

Light Company (now PacifiCorp) of Portland, Oregon.  The purchase

price was $200 million cash and taking over $90 million of Alascom's

long term debt.



        "Meanwhile, Alascom had expanded its service by constructing

more than 200 earth stations and serving even the smallest rural

communities in the state.  Company pride and committment to Alaska was

never more evident than on October 27, 1982, when Alascom launched its

own satellite -- Aurora I -- the only satellite of its kind and

devoted exclusively to use by a single state -- Alaska.



        "Along with the new `bird,' Alascom's plant improvements had

vastly upgraded its satellite and terrestrial links within the state

and to interstate points.  A new multipurpose building in Anchorage

was constructed on Government Hill, consolidating all local Alascom

components in one complex.



        "Always forging ahead with new technology, Alascom established

the first satellite communications for offshore oil rigs in the

mid-1980's, developing a gyro-stablized satellite antenna that

compensated for the pitch and roll of the drilling vessels.



        "Live television, a given anywhere else in the United States,

arrived late in Alaska.  Entertainment programs were a week or two

late arriving in Anchorage by film or tape.  After showing in

Anchorage, the material was sent onward for even later showing in

Fairbanks and then Juneau.  National news was taped off the air in

Seattle and put on the first available northbound plane.  In most

cases, Walter Cronkite addressed his Alaskan audience a day later than

the Lower 48.



        "Today, live programming is beamed throughout Alaska using

Alascom's Aurora I, and events of interest to the world are beamed out

from Alaska; events like the visit of Pope John Paul, the rescue of

the trapped whales, and coverage of the Valdez oil spill all traveled

out via Alascom's Aurora I.  The same Alascom satellite is used to

relay long distance learning to remote sites throughout the state.



        "Presently, Alascom employs more than 700 people in Alaska and

operates more than 300 sites statewide with microwave and satellite

communications.  Alascom also works under contract for several

companies that require specialized communications at remote mining and

oil drilling sites.  Alascom also operates the state's marine radio

network and an aviation weather service for pilots.



        "In the last few years, Alascom has become known throughout

the global telecommunications industry as the experts on rapid

deployment of transportable earth stations, delivering them to remote

sites by air freighter or helicopter and setting up operation within

hours.  Alascom was called upon by the oil industry in Alaska to

provide remote communications from the tragic spill site in Prince

William Sound when the tanker Exxon Valdez lost its cargo in the

pristine Alaskan waters.



        "In 1989, Alascom was called upon by the U.S. Navy to fly its

transportable earth station to Puerto Rico to re-establish

communications devastated by Hurricane Hugo on that Caribbean island.

The same year, Alascom transportable earth stations and personnel were

deployed to Panama in support of the U.S. forces in Operation Just

Cause.



        "One year later, as the Iraquis invaded Kuwait, Alascom was

once again thousands of miles from home providing satellite

communications support to our Armed Forces operating in the Saudi

theatre as part of Desert Shield, and then Desert Storm.



        "On May 29, 1991, Alascom launched its second satellite --

Aurora II -- as a replacement for the aging Aurora I which was almost

out of station-keeping fuel after nine years of faithful service.  The

new satellite, more sophisticated and powerful than its predecessor,

will continue to provide a variety of telecommunications services to

Alaska's growing population.



        "More recently, Alascom entered the era of international

submarine fiber optic cables by linking its communications network

with a spur that runs off the North Pacific Cable that runs between

Portland, Oregon and Japan.  The Alascom spur, which lands at Seward,

Alaska, proceeds underwater to a point 1,900 miles south, where the

transPacific portion of the cable is tapped, using methods like those

employed for joining multiple European nations on transAtlantic

cables.  This connects Alaskans not only with the Lower 48 but also

directly with the Orient via the latest in digital fiber optics

technology.



        "The story of Alascom has been the story of growth.  In 1971,

when the company took its first few steps, Alaska's long distance

telephone traffic amounted to 5 million calls per year.  Today,

Alascom handles in excess of 95 million calls annually and is doing so

at substantial rate reductions from jsut 20 years ago.  Over that

short history, Alascom has lowered its interstate calling rates by 85%

while reducing intrastate calls by 25%.  A call that cost $10.00 in

1971 today costs only $1.56.



THE FUTURE:



        "The years ahead are full of promise and excitement.  As

Alaska enters the last decade of this century, plans are already being

laid for Alascom to enter the twenty-first century in the way WAMCATS

entered the twentieth century, full of dedication and committed to

serving its state and its people -- and now increasingly expanding

that scope to the world, wherever and whenever needed.



