While the rest of the country complains about the inconvenience associated with finding cheap fuel, Alaskan cable and telecom company GCI has got them all beat. Earlier last week the frontier cable operator began what has been an annual tradition — bringing more than 100,000 gallons of fuel to some of the harshest, most remote mountaintops in North America to help power nearly two dozen tower sites connected to its 3,300-mile Terrestrial for Every Rural Region in Alaska (TERRA) network.

The sites are far from commercial power grids and are reachable only by special helicopter and need to stay running and self-sufficient for months at a time. According to GCI, the 22 towers are some of the most remotely located in all of North America.

GCI said its crews will make more than 200 round trips this summer to deliver 106,000 gallons of diesel fuel to the tower sites. Through the TERRA network, the towers connect 45,000 Alaskans in 84 rural communities to the internet and other communications services. 

“Working closely with local partners like Bering Air is vital to keeping GCI’s TERRA network running smoothly,” senior manager of GCI Rural Network Operations & Maintenance Earl Merchant said in a press release. “Local pilots with years of flying experience in the region and a long history of working with GCI ensures both the safety of our crews and of the pristine wilderness in which we work.”

Also: Cable’s Last Frontier 

The TERRA initiative is just one of the programs GCI has started to bring faster, more reliable broadband service to Alaskans. Last May, the company committed to making 2 Gigabit per second service available to 77% of its footprint this year and increasing that to 10 Gbps in five years. 

As of February, more than 80% of its footprint had access to 2 Gbps. 

GCI said it takes special precautions to ensure that the impact on the environment is minimal during the refueling efforts. Flights are planned for certain times of year to avoid interfering with things like caribou migrations and subsistence hunting. During the TERRA refuel, helicopters fly at least 1,500 feet above the ground, weather permitting, to minimize disturbances to wildlife. And if there are caribou or other animals visible near the site, crews will adjust flight routes to avoid contact.

“Serving a state as big as Alaska with so many rural and remote communities is a challenge, but our dedicated rural-based technicians are more than up for the task,” senior director of GCI Facilities & Rural Network Operations JD Schultz said in a press release. “We have technicians and site agents in nearly every community we serve. We’re your neighbors. Our family and friends live here, too. That’s why we work so hard to make sure our techs are well-prepared to keep our network running and ready to serve all our customers.”

Each mountaintop repeater site has one or two 4,500-gallon tanks. Arctic diesel fuel is transported between 410 gallons and 440 gallons per load by helicopter and refueling each site can take as many as 16 different trips up the mountain, according to GCI.

GCI purchases the fuel from Alaska companies and works with local businesses throughout the process. The company expects the annual refueling project to be complete by mid-October. ■  

Alaskan cable and telecom provider GCI said it has entered into a $150 million partnership with Intelsat to expand its geosynchronous satellite capacity to meet growing demand in rural areas across the state.

According to GCI, the deal provides continued access to Intelsat’s C-band and Ku-band capacity -- already part of GCI’s portfolio -- but also provides new access to Ka-band spectrum across the state. 

As part of the deal Intelsat will supply a multiple-satellite solution over an enhanced managed earth station platform and a tri-band (C, Ku, and Ka) network that will cover the entire state of Alaska.

In a press release, GCI CEO Ron Duncan said the Intelsat deal will nearly quadruple the company’s available satellite capacity and is part of a much broader rural connectivity strategy that also includes its ambitious AU-Aleutians Fiber Project. 

“Today’s announcement is another example of GCI’s continued commitment to our rural customers and our willingness to make the investment necessary to serve small, remote communities across the state,” Duncan said in the press release.

Also Read: GCI Targets 17 Rural Communities for 2021 Broadband Upgrades 

GCI is Alaska’s largest telecommunications company and has delivered satellite-based connectivity for 35 years. The company said the Intelsat deal will ensure it has sufficient capacity to meet the needs of rural customers like regional tribal health care providers, school districts, government agencies, and businesses.

“What sets GCI’s satellite service apart is that we manage the network from end to end, combining Intelsat’s satellite capacity with GCI’s satellite engineering and remote logistics know-how,” GCI SVP of corporate development Billy Wailand said in a press release.

Also Read: GCI Commits to Deploy 2 Gbps Service in Alaska in 2022 

The agreement also adds another tool in GCI’s broadband service approach, which includes a mix of fiber, microwave, GEO satellites and eventually low earth orbit (LEO) satellites. GCI has been actively engaged in talks with LEO providers including SpaceX, OneWeb, and Telesat. 

Also Read: Cable’s Last Frontier 

“We are confident that LEOs will become an important part of GCI’s toolkit over time,” Wailand said in the release. “But before we begin encouraging some of our customers to consider a move to LEO satellites, we need to be confident in their performance and ability to meet our customers’ current and future demands. Our partnership with Intelsat provides GCI and our customers with an immediate solution that addresses capacity needs today, as well as the ability to integrate future technologies like LEOs when they become ready.”

As the broadband fate of rural communities nationwide remains in limbo in the wake of the apparent compromise concerning President Biden’s $65 billion broadband initiative, one rural telecom company -- GCI -- said it plans to connect 17 remote areas of Alaska this year using funds from the five-year old $1.5 billion Alaska Plan to bring high-speed internet to the frontier.  

Earlier this week, President Biden announced he had reached a compromise with Senate Republicans concerning his overall infrastructure plan, which would pump nearly $600 billion of federal funds to build bridges, roads, and fund environmental remediation and other projects, including earmarking $65 billion to bring broadband service to rural communities. Initially the broadband component was to include  increasing funding for municipal broadband projects, but where the money will go is still somewhat up in the air. Republicans have taken a harsher stance on muni broadband -- some have tried to eliminate it all together  -- and some reports have said it is unlikely that they would have agreed to give municipalities priority over private providers.   

Also Read: Building Out Broadband: Look Before You Leap 

In the meantime, GCI  said 11 communities -- Kodiak, Nome, Valdez, Kotzebue, Tok, Dillingham, Manokotak, Aleknagik, Clark’s Point, Becker Ridge, and Fritz Creek -- will receive faster wireless service via LTE upgrades this year. Another six communities -- Nikolai, Lime Village, Rampart, Central, Lake Minchumina, and Takotna -- will get terrestrial internet service for the first time. 

The news  comes weeks after GCI said it would deploy 2 Gigabit per second service to 77% of residents in the state in 2022 and that it is on track to provide 10 Gbps service in the next five years. . 

Also Read: Broadband Infusion in Biden Plan Faces Challenges 

The Federal  Communications Commission’s Alaska Plan was created in 2016 to allocate $1.5 billion over ten years to carriers to maintain, extend, and upgrade broadband service across certain areas of the state. GCI was one of 15 carriers and their eight wireless affiliates to sign on to the plan back in 2016. 

Also Read: More Muni, More Money 

According to GCI, the federal funding helps make rural investment and maintenance possible in extremely remote, costly and difficult-to-serve communities. GCI, along with other Alaska providers, receives a portion of Alaska Plan funding each year.

“As technology evolves, access to reliable connectivity is more crucial than ever, especially for those who live in remote communities,” GCI senior director of regulatory affairs Juliana Wayman said in a press release. “Through GCI’s Alaska Plan projects, more Alaskans can stay connected in their homes and on-the-go with wireless devices. Increased connectivity also expands entertainment options and enables Alaskans to grow small business opportunities, access online government services, and keep in touch with friends and family.”

So far, GCI said the plan has helped 79,000 rural Alaskans in 105 communities gain access to faster data speeds and improved broadband service. 

Also Read: Cable’s Last Frontier 

“While GCI is a key provider of wireless and wireline services throughout rural Alaska, we can’t do it alone,” Wayman said in the press release. “With the leadership of the Alaska Telecom Association, support from Alaska’s federal delegation and the dedication of 16 other providers across the state, keeping Alaskans connected is a group effort requiring innovative solutions to serve a state unlike any other. Through that collaboration, it’s our goal to be good stewards of Alaska Plan funding and investment so we are able to expand broadband access and better connect rural Alaska and close the digital divide.”

GCI, the largest telecom company in Alaska, said Tuesday that it will deliver 2 Gigabit per second internet access to 77% of residents of that state in 2022, and is on track to provide 10 Gbps speeds in the next five years. 

With that commitment, GCI said it would be the first in Alaska and one of the first in the country to make 2 Gbps speeds widely available to its customers. The company began making 1 Gbps speeds available to its customers in 2015, when it launched 1GIG Red service in Anchorage. Today, 77% of Alaskans live within GCI’s 1 Gbps footprint.

“When I started GCI more than 40 years ago, Alaska lagged far behind the rest of the nation in basic connectivity,” GCI CEO Ron Duncan said in a press release. “Today I’m pleased to announce that when upgrades are complete in 2022, Alaska will lead the nation in 2 gig speeds. And it will be our turn, once again, to wait for the rest of the country to catch up.” 

Also Read: Liberty Broadband, GCI Liberty to Merge 

GCI said communities that currently have access to its 1 Gbps service will be the first to receive the 2 Gbps service when it becomes available. Customers on GCI+ red plans will automatically be upgraded to 2 gig service, doubling their current speeds at no additional cost. 

Other Alaskan communities that will have access to 2 Gbps speeds when the service launches next year include: Anchorage, Eagle River, Girdwood, Fairbanks, Fort Greely, Homer, Juneau, Kenai, Ketchikan, Kodiak, North Pole, Palmer, Petersburg, Seward, Soldotna, Sitka, Valdez, Wasilla and Wrangell. 

GCI also plans to launch 1 Gbps service later this year in Nome and Kotzebue, and as part of its ambitious AU-Aleutians Fiber Project, will deliver 1 Gbps speeds to the remote Western Alaska communities of Unalaska, King Cove, Akutan, Sand Point, Chignik Bay and Larsen Bay.

Also Read: Cable’s Last Frontier

GCI’s 2 gig speeds will be available in these communities in a future phase of the upgrade project.

“Nome, Kotzebue and communities in the Aleutians are among the most remote in the nation, but will soon have urban-level internet comparable to Anchorage, Chicago and Los Angeles,” Duncan said in the press release. “It’s another example of GCI’s commitment to closing the digital divide and turning the Last Frontier into the First Frontier for connectivity.” 

GCI also said that it is developing a business and technical plan to build fiber to Bethel, the largest city in the western part of the state, to provide 1 Gbps, 2 Gbps and eventually 10 Gbps speeds. 

“For decades, GCI has pioneered ground-breaking connectivity solutions for rural Alaska,” GCI President Greg Chapados said in the release. “TERRA, our hybrid fiber-microwave network, which brought terrestrial broadband service to Western Alaska for the first time; the AU-Aleutians Fiber Project, which should be substantially complete by the end of next year; and the launch of 1 gig in Kotzebue and Nome later this year illustrates our longstanding commitment to serving rural Alaskans. We are working to finalize a comprehensive plan for the next evolution of data communications in rural Alaska. Bringing fiber to Bethel is a top priority in that plan.”

T-Mobile said it is now the one and only net delivering 5G to all 50 states. 

That 50th state is thanks to a roaming agreement with GCI in Anchorage, Alaska. 

The company said that it is now delivering 5G to more than a million square miles (there are about 3.5 million square miles in the U.S.) and almost 6,000 cities and towns. 

Providing a nationwide 5G network was one of the company's selling points in successfully securing approval of the Sprint merger with the Justice Department and FCC. 

The Trump Administration is heavily focused on winning the race to 5G.

“The massive nationwide 5G network we’re building and expanding by the day - paired with important partnerships like this - extend our 5G leadership over the competition and deliver meaningful 5G experiences to our customers,” said Neville Ray, president of technology at T-Mobile. 

WASHINGTON — Alaska-based cable and broadband provider General Communication Inc. (GCI) has said its home state should be excluded from the Federal Communications Commission’s planned repack of C-band spectrum.

GCI made that pitch in meetings with advisers to FCC chairman Ajit Pai and other commissioners. It told the FCC that Alaska’s harsh weather and unique topography, as well as federal land regulations, pose unique problems. The operator also faces demands for critical communications in remote areas, such as distance learning and telehealth, that require special regulatory treatment.

GCI wants the FCC to exclude Alaska from any reallocation of C-band spectrum now or in the future, to make it clear access to the full 500 MHz of spectrum remains for video distribution and to ensure satellite operators will maintain the “status quo” when it comes to delivery. Translation: No fiber transition.

GCI also wants the FCC to reimburse it and other Alaska earth station operators for any impact that reallocation in the Lower 48 might have on their operations.

ACA Connects and NCTA-The Internet & Television Association are backing GCI Communications' request for a limited waiver from the FCC's fiber mapping requirements.

The FCC last month denied a request from GCI, which serves Alaska, for a waiver from the requirement that it provide maps of more than 2,500 miles of its aerial and buried fiber to an accuracy of 7.6 meters throughout the state with a 95% level of confidence.

GCI had said it could provide maps of its fiber within 50 meters at 80% level of confidence, but to meet the FCC's requirement it would have to "physically walk the length of buried fiber and trace the signal above ground and record the accurate location of sufficient poles (for aerial fiber) to validate and supplement any other sources of aerial fiber location information," to achieve the requisite level of confidence.

GCI again sought the waiver, and NCTA and ACA are backing that effort.

"There is no public interest justification that would require GCI to expend excessive resources to achieve the 7.6-meter reporting requirement for buried and aerial fiber," they told the commission.

As part of the FCC's Connect America Fund broadband subsidy program's Alaska Plan, GCI said it has provided the information within the requisite 7.6/95% parameters on the "thousands of nodes on which it was required to report," including “cell sites, central offices, schools, clinics, libraries, internet peering points, and other locations.” But it said that having to report on the fiber between those nodes is a bridge too far.

Related: GCi Blames Job Cuts Partly on FCC Subsidy Cutback 

NCTA and ACA second that notion.

"The purpose of filing maps of middle mile fiber facility locations is to show where Alaska Plan funding recipients may have increased performance commitments, not to ensure that funding has been used to bring broadband to a specific location," they told the FCC.

The FCC, in denying the waiver the first time around, said that the 7.6 meter standard was to ensure that the maps jibed with census boundary data given that the Alaska plan was census-block based.

"This purpose can be adequately achieved through the filing of node locations at 7.6 meter accuracy and with a less stringent 50 meter accuracy reporting for the fiber facilities running between those nodes, as GCI proposes," the trade groups said.

The bureau also pointed out that other providers were able to supply data at the appropriately granular levels, but ACA and NCTA said that the fact that some could did not mean the waiver should not be granted to GCI, which couldn't without "tremendous burden and expense."

Alaska-based GCI has teamed with CSG to introduce an automated processing system that notifies subscribers of alleged copyright infringement complaints.  

CSG has partnered with Yaana, a provider of compliance solutions, on the copyright complaint system now in place at GCI that notifies and educates customers on alleged complaints and what measures they should take to rectify them.  

RELATED: TV's Scary New Threat 

CSG, which counts customers such as Charter Communications, Comcast, Dish Network, Telfonica, Telstra and Verizon, is an authorized reseller of several Yaana products, including legal compliance solutions.  

“As consumer appetite for digital content continues to grow, GCI is making sure that our subscribers can easily access the content they want, while also having the right processes in place to address subscribers who are repeat infringers,” Susannah Scholl, vice president of Information Technology at GCI, said in a statement. “The copyright complaint system will help us meet our compliance goals and free up valuable resources which we can devote to growing our business and satisfying our customers.” 

“The copyright complaint system is the latest step we have taken to help our clients better manage complex processes such as lawful compliance, subpoena search and data infringement requirements,” added Ian Watterson, head of Americas for CSG. “Local and national law enforcement communications requests are growing daily for service providers worldwide and CSG helps our clients respond to requests efficiently, securely and quickly.” 

Independent Operator of the Year:Northern Exposure|Cable’s Last Frontier

Though legacy QAM-based video platforms will stick around for years to come, cable operators big and small are already migrating to live, on-demand and even cloud DVR services delivered over a more flexible internet-protocol path.

GCI, honored as the 2017 Independent Operator of the Year by Multichannel News, has already begun to blaze that trail in the wilds of Alaska, starting with video-on-demand.

“I don’t think there’s anybody in the operator space that I’m aware of that … doesn’t believe that IP is the future for video,” Duncan Whitney, vice president of product management at GCI, said.

It’s a tricky proposition: GCI will have to push ahead to new platforms while supporting a legacy QAM video architecture that has significant headend, advertising and data management implications.

“You can’t flash-cut from legacy QAM video over to IP for every customer overnight. We have to be able to maintain both products,” Whitney said. “The challenge for us smaller operators is to trying to meet the modern customer need while not stranding our legacy customers who don’t want change. If you force change too quickly, you’re going to upset one side while you’re attempting to please the other.”

Adjusting to Changing Habits
But he also acknowledged that consumer viewing habits are changing as subscribers become more accustomed to options that allow on-demand access on a multitude of mobile and TV-connected devices.

To that end, GCI recently agreed to deploy Evolution Digital’s managed eVUE-TV IPTV platform in “select service regions,” including all markets serviced by GCI where VOD is available.

GCI’s eVUE-TV deployment is expected to begin this fall, and follows one announced last November in which GCI agreed to deploy the eBOX, a hybrid IP/QAM device from Evolution Digital that integrates linear TV, over-the-top apps, pay-per-view service and VOD on a common platform tied together with a TiVo-powered interface.

GCI, which ended Q1 with 106,100 basic video subs, will later expand that IP VOD offering to its more widely deployed base of IP-capable DVRs that also run the TiVo interface/platform.

GCI already offers a robust VOD service using QAM transport, but the move to IP-based VOD is “considered a first step in their [IP video] transition plans,” Marc Cohen, executive vice president of sales at Evolution Digital, said.

GCI’s QAM VOD platform will likely remain in place for as long as there are QAM-only boxes still in the field. But the transition will eventually have GCI move all of its VOD under the IP umbrella and to take more advantage of the capacity that’s fueling its DOCSIS network. That transition will also enable GCI to move on-demand services to a more advanced interface that offers the kind of look and feel and navigational features that consumers are getting with popular OTT services such as Netflix.

As IP video transitions go, VOD offers a great place to start, as it can be offered on a fresh interface and on both DVR and non-DVR boxes with IP capabilities, Chris Egan, Evolution Digital’s CEO and co-founder, said. It also opens new doors to dynamic ad insertion.

And GCI’s rollout of eVUE-TV eventually will extend beyond the set-top box. By leveraging IP transport, GCI will also lay the foundation for future offerings that, for example, will allow it to extend its VOD service to an array of other types of devices, including smartphones, tablets and PCs.

“We’re setting up ourselves architecturally to be able support customers so they can consume the content on whatever device they want as we work out the rights issues,” Whitney said.

eVUE-TV also provides the basis for future phases that could include linear channels as well as network DVR implementations.

On the linear side, GCI could create an IP-powered avenue for TV on authenticated mobile apps or to set-top boxes. And with proper rights secured, the underpinning technology could also become the foundation for operators to develop and deploy slimmed-down, OTT-based video packages that could be tailored to cord-cutters or to broadband customers who have yet to add pay TV to their bundle, while also employing a bring-your-own-device model.

OTT in the Content Mix
At the moment, GCI is embracing different sources of OTT content, starting with its rollout of the TiVo platform, which provides unified access to GCI’s video service alongside services such as Hulu, Netflix and YouTube.

Focusing on cord-cutters and cord-nevers, GCI has also teamed up with Sling TV on a unique promotion whereby GCI’s broadband customers can get a 30-day free trial of Dish Network’s OTT TV service (Sling TV regularly offers a seven-day free trial).

“We want to enable customers to have good experiences and get what they want, whether it’s our video product or somebody else’s,” Whitney said.

That promotion, which is being marketed online and featured at GCI stores that also offer Roku players and Apple TV devices that can run Sling TV, is “part of a recognition that there’s a multitude of ways customers may want to have a video experience,” he said. “We’re trying to modernize the video product offering so that it’s not a one-size-fits-all offering for the differing types of customers that exist today.”

GCI has also been speeding up the pipes that can deliver that OTT content as it now offers service at 1 Gbps across the bulk of its fiber and HFC plant.

Space may be the final frontier for sci-fi fans, but for cable operators, the last frontier lies square in the home territory of Anchorage-based General Communication Inc.

No marathon of Ice Road Truckers or Alaskan Bush People can prepare even grizzled cable veterans for Alaska’s harsh climate and the rugged terrain of the cold and, some say, lonely state.

All this came into focus when GCI undertook its most ambitious construction project to date — a 10-year sojourn to bring a hybrid terrestrial fiber and microwave based high-speed data network to all Alaskans, dubbed TERRA for Terrestrial for Every Rural Region in Alaska.

The project was spurred by $88 million in funding from the federal broadband stimulus program in 2010 (consisting of a $44 million grant and a $44 million loan). It subsequently grew to a $300 million undertaking, connecting rural customers to health care, educational and governmental services that would have literally taken days to access prior to the construction of the network.

Also: GCI Starts Down Video’s IP Pathway

Alaska is the least-dense state in the union: It has about 1.2 people per square mile, compared to 1,200 for the densest state, New Jersey. While that could present economic challenges, senior vice president of GCI Business Martin Cary, who was in charge of building the network, said that sense of sparseness could be a little misleading. Though small, he said, Alaskan villages are very highly concentrated.

The Long Middle Mile

“The great distances are between them,” Cary said. “Instead of the country road, where you have a house every four or five miles, these are villages of 100 to 1,000 people and the middle mile is the challenge.”

The biggest boost comes from the anchor tenants in each area, he said, hospitals and schools that are supported by the federal government’s Universal Service Fund to help pay the bills.

Even with that support, though, the actual construction of the network presents difficulties that the average cable operator can’t fathom.

For example, Cary said that most telecom networks follow the area’s highway system. Alaska has few highways, meaning that networks have to span huge tracts of open land. In addition, a large portion of the state consists of land owned and run by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which doesn’t give out permits to dig fiber trenches easily or often. In areas where telecom providers can dig, they have to be sensitive to native wildlife. And all of this must occur during an incredibly short building season. Alaskan summers are notoriously short, and only get shorter the further north you go.

“Everything in Alaska happens in the summer, including birds nesting,” Cary said. “Our permits are very much structured around the breeding habits of all of these animals. We can’t fly helicopters for certain months; we can’t disturb caribou. It really becomes a huge logistical challenge.”

Once those hurdles are cleared comes the challenge of working in the harshest climate in the country.

Braving the Elements

As part of the TERRA construction, workers had to install 22 mountaintop repeaters — essentially towers in remote areas that pass the microwave signal from one point to the next. One of the largest, the Harvey Repeater, sits atop a 2,400-foot mountain that is 400 miles from the nearest paved road. In the winter, they braved temperatures that could drop as low as minus-30 and minus-40 degrees.

GCI workers and contractors laid fiber across Lake Iliamna, the largest lake in Alaska, crossing inlets with 39-foot tides. “It’s like a river that runs both ways,” Cary said.

They hoisted 20,000-pound buildings up mountains using helicopters and sky cranes; they dealt with bears — brown bears apparently see fiber installations as play toys — and braved avalanches and long, cold nights. GCI, because of the harshness of the terrain and the unpredictability of the weather, builds camps at the job sites for workers, who usually stay for long stretches of time. But even the short jobs require that food, water and shelter be provided in the case of a freak storm or other unplanned event.

“You can easily go to a mountain top and the weather changes and have people stuck there for seven days,” Cary said.

GCI director of corporate communications Heather Handyside put it a little more bluntly.

“Have you ever interviewed anyone else who said, ‘One of our goals is to ensure our technicians survive?’ ” she asked.

It also means that GCI has to think of a lot of things other operators wouldn’t have to.

Cary pointed to part of the TERRA project that involved stringing fiber in a steep valley that was prone to avalanches. GCI came up with the idea of designing an aerial fiber run where the wires were loosely strung on poles that were placed far apart. In the case of an avalanche, the poles would snap but the fiber would flow with the snow. The idea was that there was enough slack in the cable to ensure its survival.

Said Cary, “So far, we’ve made it six years.”

Animals can be an obstacle, too. One day, a group of splicers came upon a vault near Prudhoe Bay that had been broken into by a large brown bear.

“He [the bear] had basically pulled the cable out of the vault and was running around playing with it,” Cary said. “We’ve had bears chew on cables in the southeast of Alaska. You just can’t leave anything exposed.”

But the benefits of TERRA far outweigh the hazards of building it.

Networks Save Lives

For some Alaskans, it means the difference between life and death. Cary noted that with the TERRA Network, a rural hospital can transfer an X-ray electronically to a hospital in Anchorage and receive a diagnosis in minutes. Before TERRA, that X-ray had to be loaded on a plane and flown to the bigger hospital, which could take days.

TERRA has also transformed the way rural schools teach students. In one remote community, the local high school only has 10 students with a handful of teachers teaching all subjects for all grades. TERRA allows them to offer courses via distance learning that may not have been possible.

While TERRA is bringing rural Alaska into the Internet Age, GCI has been offering high-speed data and business services to other, more-populated parts of the U.S. for decades. Business services, which make up about 55% of GCI’s total business, have expanded to the Pacific Northwest: GCI purchased a network engineering company, Northpoint Consulting, earlier this year and opened its Pacific Northwest headquarters in Seattle last summer. Today, GCI handles communications for the National Football League’s Seattle Seahawks and for Alaska Air. ▪️

Alaska’s GCI will add an IP-based video-on-demand platform to its pay TV mix after striking a deal to deploy Evolution Digital’s managed eVUE-TV IPTV platform in “select service regions," including all markets serviced by GCI where VOD is available.

It's expected that GCI's eVUE-TV deployment will begin in the September/November 2017. 

That agreement follows one announced last November in which GCI agreed to deploy the eBOX, a hybrid IP/QAM device from Evolution that weaves in linear TV, OTT apps, pay-per-view service and VOD via a TiVo-powered interface. Evolution Digital noted that the latest deal with GCI currently encompasses eVUE-TV IP VOD, but added that eVUE-TV also supports linear IPTV services and that it hopes to announce additional affiliates soon.

RELATED: GCI Rolls Out Evolution Digital’s ‘eBOX’

The latest agreement comes as GCI is in the process of being acquired by John Malone’s Liberty Interactive for $1.1 billion.

RELATED: Liberty Interactive to Buy Alaskan Cable Operator GCI in $1.1B Deal

Evolution Digital said GCI is the fifteenth operator to sign a deal for eVUE-TV, a group that includes several Nation Cable Television Cooperative (NCTC) such as Docomo Pacific, Antietam Communications, Frankfort Plant Board, Orbitel Communications, Easton Utilities, MTC Cable and Wyandotte Cable TV.  Others include WideOpenWest, Blue Stream, Vast Broadband, Click!, Westman Communications, Fidelity and Hiawatha/HTC.

RELATED: Evolution Digital Nets Video Deals With Seven NCTC Members

eVUE-TV, introduced by Evolution in February 2016, utilizes Conax digital rights management security/content protection system for connected devices and factors in technology that Evolution acquired in 2015 from i-Velozity, a startup that had developed a low-cost IP-VoD platform.

“We are excited to announce that GCI customers will have access to the best Video on Demand content through an advanced IP video platform with a pricing model that makes sense to the operator,” Marc Cohen, executive vice president at Evolution Digital, said in a statement. “Transitioning to an IP video platform sets the stage for GCI’s continued growth by capturing new revenue and expanding to new markets.”

RELATED: GCI Expands Its TiVo Reach

“We look forward to working with Evolution Digital, leveraging their expertise and ability to provide a low-cost solution that will deliver GCI’s next generation IP Video on Demand service,” added Eric Powelson, senior product manager of video at GCI. “Aggregating the most popular content available in the market today, including live Pay-Per-View, via a seamless and easy-to-use interface, eVUE-TV will represent the first step in our transition to IP video. Additionally, the solution plays a key role in our efforts to reduce costs by integrating Evolution Digital’s eBOX.” 

GCI ended Q1 2017 with 106,100 basic video subscribers.

The Justice Department is apparently OK with Liberty Interactive's proposed purchase of Alaska telecom GCI.

That came in an early termination notice released Thursday (June 8).

That means that Justice has found no reason to try and block or condition the deal, and put an early end to its Hart Scott Rodino antitrust review.

Related: Why John Malone Is Making Tracks to Alaska

The FCC must still weigh in on the deal. It goes beyond antitrust to look at the public interest impact of mergers in the communications space.

That review will not be concluded until at least next month. On May 19, the FCC created a pleading cycle for the deal, with comments due June 19 and reply comments due July 5.

The $1.1 billion deal was struck in April.

GCI has about 108,000 cable subscribers and is the state’s largest phone and wireless company. The deal was projected to close in early 2018.

Cable legend John Malone has figured out a novel and characteristically complicated way to turn his two tracking stocks — Liberty Interactive and Liberty Ventures — into asset-backed equities: buy a small cable company.

Malone’s target is General Communication Inc., a small cable and telephone company based in Anchorage, Alaska, with about 107,700 basic video customers.

GCI, as it is called, also has a history with Malone. Its founders, Ron Duncan and Bob Walp, got their original funding to start the business from Malone’s Tele- Communications Inc. and, until 1986, GCI was a wholly-owned subsidiary of TCI.

GCI went public in 1987 and has carved out a nice business for itself. As the largest cable and telephone company in Alaska, GCI had 2016 revenue of $933.8 million and cash flow of $288 million.

And though Malone’s GCI purchase harkens back at least slightly to another Liberty cable investment — the 2013 purchase of a 27% interest in Charter Communications — the purpose for the most recent deal is different. While Liberty saw in Charter an underperforming asset that could be used to acquire other cable operators, which it did by buying Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks last year, the GCI deal appears to be primarily a financial play.

COMPLEX MOVE
The structure of the GCI deal is, in typical Malone fashion, complicated. But it essentially kills two birds with one cable stone.

As part of the deal, Liberty Interactive, currently a tracking stock that follows the performance of home-shopping channel QVC, will purchase GCI in a reorganization where certain assets and liabilities of its other tracking stock, Liberty Ventures, will be contributed to GCI in return for a controlling interest in the MSO. Liberty Interactive will then spin off its controlling interest in GCI in the combined company — renamed GCI Liberty — to the holders of Liberty Ventures, in return for their shares of Liberty Ventures. Liberty Interactive would then officially become QVC Group.

Basically, what the transaction does is this: It allows Malone to transform Liberty Interactive and Liberty Ventures into asset-backed equities, with Liberty Interactive becoming a pure-play programmer with QVC as its largest holding. GCI Liberty, the former Liberty Ventures, which had been an amalgamation of investments — including online invitation and social planning service Evite, interests in Liberty Broadband and florist FTD, and minority interests in Time Warner Inc. online vacation lodging company Interval Leisure Group, Charter Communications and online lender and real estate business LendingTree — becomes a purer-play distributor.

Per to the deal, QVC Group would assume the interests in Time Inc., Time Warner and Interval, while GCI Liberty would keep the Liberty Broadband and Charter interests with GCI as its anchor asset. According to Pivotal Research Group CEO and senior media and communications analyst Jeff Wlodarczak, GCI Liberty will contain 95% cable-business assets after the deal is done.

Malone is also paying a hefty premium for GCI: The price, $1.1 billion or $32.50 per share, is a 58% premium to the price the stock was trading at on April 3, the day before the deal was announced. GCI investors flocked to the stock on April 4, driving it up 64% ($12.83 each) to $33.39, suggesting they believe the price could go higher. GCI stock continued to rise on April 5, trading at $35.68 each (up 7%) that afternoon.

Tracking stocks are a good vehicle for unlocking value of assets otherwise trapped in a larger public company — Liberty has used them to showcase programming and other assets, and other companies like Sprint, which issued a PCS tracker in the 1990s, used it to let shareholders participate in the rising value of its Personal Communications Service technology. But trackers can’t be merged into other entities — they need to be asset-backed. There are also some favorable debt connotations to converting a tracker into an asset-backed stock.

Wlodarczak said that while trackers can take on debt, any borrowing is usually backed by the parent company that created the tracker and actually owns the asset. Trackers can take on margin loans, which can be risky if the market drops. Having a security with hard assets that generate meaningful cash flow “makes it less risky to put higher value margin loans on those stakes in the event the market declines materially,” he said.

While GCI Liberty is attracting all the investor attention, FBN Securities analyst Robert Routh noted that the deal could also facilitate a long-awaited merger between rival retailers QVC and HSN. Liberty Interactive owns a 38% interest in HSN, and making the stock an asset-backed one could be the final piece of the puzzle in putting the two assets together.

PATH TO HSN-QVC
Routh said he expects QVC Group to begin buying back shares almost immediately — it has about $376 million remaining on its buyback authorization, and the analyst expects that to increase significantly. That new, asset-backed equity currency could also be “used in the future to effect a merger of QVC with HSN, something that should have happened years ago, at least in our opinion,” he wrote.

Liberty and Malone have been creating and unwinding tracking stocks for decades, dating back to the first iteration of Liberty Media back in the 1990s, a tracking stock that emerged after Malone’s sale of TCI to AT&T in 1999.

In the past several years, Liberty has converted a handful of trackers into asset-backed equities, including Liberty Starz, which became Starz in 2009 and was sold to Lionsgate Entertainment in 2015; and Liberty Entertainment, which in 2009 spun out its interest in DirecTV and created the Liberty Starz tracker. He’s also created a few: Formula One Group, the tracker that was formerly Liberty Media Group; Liberty Braves, which includes its interest in Major League Baseball’s Atlanta Braves; and Liberty Sirius, which includes its interest in Sirius XM Radio.

SIDEBAR: Tracking Malone
Cable legend John Malone has been a pioneer in the tracking stock concept and has created and unwound trackers for years. Here are just a few examples.

May 2006: Liberty completes its restructuring and issues two new tracking stocks, Liberty Capital Group and Liberty Interactive Group
March 2008: Liberty completes its reclassification of the Liberty Capital Group tracking stock and issues a new tracking stock for the Liberty Entertainment Group
November 2009: Liberty completes the split-off of Liberty Entertainment and business combination with DirecTV. The remaining businesses are redesignated as Liberty Starz Group.
August 2012: Liberty issues a new tracking stock, Liberty Ventures Group.
August 2014: Liberty Ventures completes the spin-off of its controlling interest in TripAdvisor Inc. and BuySeasons into a new asset backed stock; Liberty TripAdvisor Holdings.
July 2016: Liberty Ventures Group tracking stock completes the spin-off of its subsidiary, CommerceHub Inc., into a new asset-backed stock
November 2016: Liberty Ventures Group tracking stock completes the split-off of its interest in Expedia Inc. and its subsidiary Bodybuilding.com into a new asset backed stock, Liberty Expedia Holdings Inc.

SOURCE: Liberty Interactive

General Communications Inc. (GCI) said Bob Walp, one of the company’s co-founders and the company’s first president, has died. He was 89.

Walp, along with Ron Duncan, founded the Alaska-based service provider in 1979, when they initially operated the company from Walp’s small apartment in Anchorage. GCI,  now a publicly-traded, multi-service company that serves about 108,900 video customers and has about 226,400 wireless lines in service, completed its first long-distance call on Thanksgiving Day 1982, the company said. 

Walp is also credited with helping to guide the development of commercial satellite communications in Alaska as the appointed director of the State of Alaska’s Office of Telecommunications. When funding for the office was eliminated in 1978, Walp turned his focus to creating competition for Alascom, which was the sole long-distance telephone service in the state at the time.

Walp originally came to Alaska in the early 1970s as a consultant on a NASA project he initiated to demonstrate telephone and television services in medicine and education, GCI said.

Walp, who earned a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree, both in physics, from the California Institute of Technology, retired from GCI in 1989, but continued in the role as employee emeritus for a time. In 1998, Walp was elected as a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

Walp is survived by his children Mary Cay, Patrick, Paul, Robert and Susan Walp.

GCI said it will remember Walp at a memorial ceremony this spring. 

“We are deeply saddened by this news, and our hearts go out to Bob’s children and the entire Walp family,” Ron Duncan, GCI president and CEO, said in a statement. “Bob was a true pioneer in the Alaska communications industry and made a major contribution to GCI’s success. Much of what we do at GCI today can be traced back to Bob’s vision and entrepreneurial spirit.”

Alaska-based service operator GCI said it is expanding its reach into the Pacific Northwest  via the acquisition of Northpoint Consulting, a network consulting firm based in Seattle.

GCI said the deal will enable it to broaden the national reach of its offerings, including unified communication, network security and cloud integration.

Examples of Northpoint Consulting customers and clients include the Seattle Seahawks,  Cisco Systems, and Getty Images.  GCI has also been a customer.

Tied to the deal, Northpoint president and founder Nathan Clark will become vice president of business development in the Pacific Northwest for GCI. Northpoint's staff of 23 will join GCI.

"We are thrilled to welcome Northpoint's team of network experts to the GCI family," said Martin Cary, senior vice president and general manager of GCI Business.

"As we expand our footprint in the Pacific Northwest and across the nation, GCI will continue to recruit expert staff and invest in the latest technology in order to deliver the best possible solutions to our customers,” Martin Cary, SVP and GM of GCI Business, said in a statement.

"GCI has been delivering services for more than 35 years and we're excited for Northpoint customers to be able to benefit from GCI's extensive portfolio," Clark added. "We recognize the value of offering managed services to our customers to free up valuable resources and reduce costs."

GCI of Alaska has joined a growing mix of mid-sized MSOs to deploy the eBOX, a hybrid QAM/IP box from Evolution Digital that’s being used to help operators make the transition to IP.

GCI is rolling out a version of eBOX powered by TiVo’s software and user interface. That falls in line with GCI’s current rollout of TiVo-made hardware as well as set-tops and gateways that have ported the TiVo experience, including the Pace (now Arris)-made XG1. Evolution also offers a version of eBOX that runs the eGUIDE, a UI that’s based on Fan TV, a platform that is also offered by TiVo following its recent merger with Rovi.

RELATED: GCI Rolls Out Pace Gateway With TiVo On Board

Evolution Digital noted that GCI will offer eBOX in “select service regions.”  GCI ended Q3 with 108,900 basic video subs, with 54,400 of them on a digital video tier.

Like other MSOs running the TiVo platform, GCI has been pairing its traditional pay TV offering with integrated access to OTT services such as Netflix and Hulu.

RELATED: GCI Adds Hulu on TiVo Platform 

Other operators that are deploying eBOX include WideOpenWest, which has a cloud DVR on its roadmap that will utilize the new device, as well as Mediacom Communications, Advanced Cable Communications and operators that are part of the National Cable Television Cooperative.

RELATED: WideOpenWest Rolls Hybrid ‘eBOX’

Broadband data policies that place a soft cap on monthly usage and charge more for additional buckets of data are rapidly becoming the norm among the nation’s Internet-service providers.

Such policies are now commercially deployed by Suddenlink (now part of Altice USA), Mediacom Communications and AT&T, as well as smaller service providers such as GCI. Meanwhile, Comcast continues to expand its usage-based trials, while CenturyLink is slated to start kicking the tires on a new broadband data policy later this week.

Comcast, the nation’s largest cable operator, confirmed that it recently notified customers in the Chicago market area that the MSO’s data plan trial will get underway Aug. 1. When that trial launches, it will become the largest market in Comcast’s footprint so far to test the MSO’s new policy. In addition to greater Chicago, Comcast is also poised to test usage-based policies in Quincy and Rockford, Ill., and in its Northern Indiana systems, also starting Aug. 1.

Comcast introduced a 1-TB plan in April, replacing a 300- GB plan it had been implementing in most of its trial markets.

If customers exceed the 1-TB limit, they have the option to purchase additional buckets of 50 GBs of data for $10 each (up to a maximum of $200), or move to a new unlimited data plan that runs an additional $50 per month.

Comcast has not announced if or when it will expand the policy to all markets. In addition to the new markets coming online Aug. 1, other trial markets include Huntsville, Mobile and Tuscaloosa, Ala.; Tucson, Ariz.; Little Rock, Ark.; Fort Lauderdale, the Keys and Miami, Fla.; Atlanta, Augusta and Savannah, Ga.; Central Kentucky; Houma, LaPlace and Shreveport, La.; Maine; Jackson and Tupelo, Miss.; Chattanooga, Greeneville, Johnson City/Gray, Knoxville, Memphis and Nashville, Tenn.; Charleston, S.C.; and Galax, Va.

Reed Hastings, the CEO of Netflix, the OTT giant and critic of usage-based policies, praised Comcast when it announced the new 1-TB plan, tweeting: “Huge for me as a Comcast customer. Now I’ll never be able to watch enough to hit my cap.”

Perhaps not too coincidentally, Comcast and Netflix announced a deal a few weeks later that calls for the MSO to integrate Netflix on Comcast’s X1 platform sometime this year.

GCI, the Alaska-based operator, also made some waves last week, announcing that it had raised the monthly limit of “Red,” its 1 Gigabit-per-second residential cable modem service, from 750 GBs to 1 TB. Customers on Red, which is paired with an upstream that maxes out at 50 Mbps, have the option to purchase additional 30-GB buckets of data for $10 when they exceed their monthly limit.

But GCI has added a different twist to the usage-based approach. Under a “No Worries” option launched in January 2015, customers can buy additional buckets of data, upgrade to a different plan, or shift temporarily to a “basic” level of service of less than 1 Mbps with no overages.

CenturyLink is the latest provider to jump on the usage-based bandwagon. It confirmed last week that it will launch a usage-based billing trial in Yakima, Wash., on Tuesday (July 26) that will charge $10 for a bucket of 50 GBs of data (up to a maximum of $50) when customers exceed their monthly limit.

Under the trial, subscribers of service plans with speeds up to 7 Mbps can consume up to 300 GBs per month, while those that have speeds of more than 7 Mbps will be capped at 600 GBs before the usage-based policy is applied.

CenturyLink has not announced the length of the Yakima trial or when it might look to expand it to other markets. “CenturyLink will analyze the data from this trial to determine next steps and make decisions regarding further rollout of usage-based billing,” a company official said.

Though usage-based broadband policies and overage charges are increasingly becoming part of ISP strategies, critics of them maintain that they are in place to increase revenue while keeping OTT video competition in check.

For its part, Comcast has argued that its trials “are based on principles of flexibility and fairness” and that more than 99% of its high-speed Internet subscribers don’t come within a whiff of using a terabyte.

One MSO that will be sitting on the sidelines with regard to usage-based broadband pricing for the foreseeable future is Charter Communications. Charter, per a condition of its acquisitions of Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks, is prohibited from imposing data caps or implementing usage-based polices for a period of seven years.

Alaskan MSO GCI said it has bumped the monthly limit of “Red,” its 1 Gbps residential cable modem service, from 750 gigabytes to 1 terabyte

Customers on Red, which is paired with an upstream that maxes out at 50 Mbps, have the option to purchase additional 30 GB buckets of data for $10 when they exceed their monthly limit.

Under a “No Worries” option launched in January 2015, customers have the option to buy additional buckets of data, upgrade to a different plan, or shift temporarily to a “basic” level of service of less than 1 Mbps with no overages.

GCI said its other No Worries Internet plans will also receive bigger data plans and faster speeds later this year. Currently, it’s 100 Mbps service is paired with a 300 GB limit, alongside 50 Mbps/150 GB, and 10 Mbps/40GB.

“GCI is excited to be the only company is Alaska offering 1 Gig speeds with a terabyte of data each month in communities all over the state - from Anchorage to Fairbanks to Juneau to Mat-Su,” Paul Landes, GCI’s SVP and GM, consumer services, said in a statement.

GCI currently offers the 1-Gig Red tier in Anchorage, Fairbanks, the Mat-Su Borough and Juneau.

Comcast is testing a 1-TB data policy and an unlimited data option in select markets.

Per the conditions tied to its acquisition of  Time Warner Cable, Charter Communications is prohibited from imposing data caps and usage-based data pricing for a period of seven years.

The FCC's Enforcement Bureau has settled a wireless 911 outage complaint against Alaska telecom and cable company General Communications Inc. (GCI) for $2.4 million.

In addition to the monetary forfeiture, GCI agreed to "strengthen its procedures" for delivering 911 service and to adopt a "robust" compliance regime.

At issue were service outages between 2008 and April of this year. The FCC concluded that all the outages, which affected 911 service, could have been prevented or minimized if GCI had had the "appropriate" safeguards.

The FCC also said GCI did not file timely outage reports with the FCC in four of the five outages.

Related:CenturyLink to Pay Record FCC 911 Outage Fine

GCI joined Suddenlink and Cablevision Systems among a growing group of U.S. MVPD to integrate Hulu on MSO-leased boxes, but also like those operators, GCI's integrated offering does not support content from CW and Univision.

The Hulu sites for GCI, Suddenlink and Cablevision all include the following disclaimer: "CW and Univision content is not available through Hulu on your cable provider’s set top box. You may still be able to watch this content through other Hulu-supported devices." 

Due to streaming rights, content from select partners -- in this case,  CW and Univision – isn’t available on certain devices, Multichannel News has learned.  However, users can still stream that content through other Hulu-supported platforms.

GCI, meanwhile, follows Suddenlink to offer Hulu on its TiVo-powered set-top boxes. Cablevision, the first U.S. MVPD to distribute Hulu on set-top boxes, is enabling Hulu using ActiveVideo’s CloudTV StreamCast, a technology that converts user interfaces, video and other content from Web formats to formats that can be rendered and displayed by non-IP or incompatible IP set-tops.

Hulu has also announced distribution deals with MVPDs and ISPs including AT&T, Armstrong, Atlantic Broadband, Mediacom Communications, Midcontinent Communications and WideOpenWest (WOW!).

“At GCI, we’re always looking for ways to add value for our GCI TV customers and ensure they have access to the programs they want most,” Paul Landes, SVP of GCI, said in a statement. “We understand that many of our customers prefer on-demand content, and they can now use TiVo powered by GCI to access even more on demand and exclusive content with Hulu.”

GCI ended Q1 2016 with 112,200 basic video subs, and 57,700 digital programming tier subscribers. 

Giving a nod to ever-popular over-the-top options, Alaska-based service operator GCI has launched a promotion that will make it easier for some of its customers to get their hands on a new Apple TV device.

Depending on the option, some customers can get the device for free (via credits that accrue over multiple months), and others have the option to finance it from the provider.

All GCI customers can finance the Apple TV (32 GB version) for $5 for 24 months.

GCI is offering the giveaway option to customers on its “No Worries 100” (100 Mbps down by 5 Mbps up, with a monthly 300 GB data plan), or its “red” 1 Gbps Internet service. Those customers will receive a $5 credit each month for as long as they are on qualifying plan.  GCI launched its “No  Worries” plan in January 2015 -- customers who exceed their monthly data ceilings can either buy additional buckets of data for $10,  upgrade to a different plan, or shift to a “basic” level of service of less than 1 Mbps with no overages).

GCI customers can also device finance the Apple TV with 64 GB for $7.50 per month.

Apple launched its app-friendly, fourth-gen Apple TV platform last year. The 32 GB model regularly sells for $149 while the 64GB option fetches $199.

GCI is also making similar offers to customers on its “Epic Life” packages that are available to all customers on the company’s No Worries plans.  Epic Life is GCI’s loyalty program that offers monthly discounts to customers who take three or four  services from the provider.

Newsmax TV has reached carriage agreements with CenturyLink and GCI, the cable news network announced Wednesday (Feb. 24).

With the deals -- terms of which were not disclosed -- Newsmax now reaches nearly 45 million US homes through its cable partners, DirecTv and Dish Network, according to network officials.

 “We are pleased that CenturyLink and GCI are embracing Newsmax TV’s approach along with our programming and look forward to welcoming new audiences in these key parts of the country,” Newsmax TV CEO Christopher Ruddy said in a statement.

Alaskan cable operator GCI is throwing down the gauntlet against high programming rate increases, telling customers Monday that it will not renew carriage of AMC Networks and Univision because their proposed rate increases are too high.

AMC has been in a carriage dispute with the National Cable Television Cooperative over its carriage deal, with more than 70 members of the buying co-op telling customers that they may drop the channel. But that deal does not expire until Dec. 31, and there appears to be some chance that a deal could be done.

In a statement Dec. 28, GCI, which is the largest cable operator in Alaska, said beginning Jan. 1 it will no longer carry AMC Networks outlets AMC, WeTV, IFC and IFC Films (BBC America will still be available) adding that proposed 200% increase for all of the AMC Networks brands was too much to pass on to customers. It also will stop carrying Spanish language broadcaster Univision, for similar reasons.

GCI, which is a member of the NCTC, said it will add several new channels to its 2016 lineup, including One World Sports, Discovery Family and Outside Television.

GCI is encouraging customers to access AMC programming like The Walking Dead through the VUDU app on its TiVo boxes, as well as through a growing list of online services. Whether AMC will be able to block that access if there is no deal with the cable operator, was not clear.

UPDATE: Univision Communications Inc. told Multichannel News in a statement Tuesday that "UCI is committed to reaching a fair agreement with all of our distributors. Despite us making every effort over the last several months to reach a deal with General Communication, Inc. (GCI), we were surprised and disappointed to learn of their plans to no longer offer the Univision Network to their customers in Anchorage, Fairbanks and Juneau, Alaska. UCI's mission is to entertain, empower and inform our community, which is why we continue to invest in the technology and content to better serve our loyal audiences. Univision's news, entertainment and sports programming are a lifeline for our viewers and we will continue to work diligently to reach a mutually beneficial agreement with GCI."

GCI, through a spokesman, elaborated that "Univision’s expensive programming proposal would result in increased costs and just didn’t make sense for GCI customers. Luckily, our subscribers have more choices than ever about what they watch and how they watch it. GCI carries other Spanish-language options including Telemundo, more than 40 Spanish-language films on GCI on Demand, and 50+ channels with SAP Spanish feeds plus all the additional content available through GCI’s TiVo service, including Netflix, VUDU and YouTube."

AMC officials were not immediately available for comment.

“We know Alaska ‘Walking Dead’ fans will be disappointed that AMC’s sky-high rates prevent GCI from carrying the show on our traditional TV lineup,” GCI vice president of content and product management Bob Ormberg said in a statement. “The good news is that our customers have more viewing choices than ever before and GCI has made sure that fans can watch ‘The Walking Dead’ by other methods with GCI so they won’t miss an episode when season 6 resumes in February.” 

To encourage existing customers to explore new content available through apps such as VUDU and Netflix, GCI is offering its TiVo customers a $50 Visa gift card. Customers can request the gift card by calling 844-754-3711.

GCI has booted up a residential 1-Gig broadband service in parts of  Anchorage that will run on DOCSIS 3.0 and require a Hitron-made modem that’s capable of bonding 32 downstream channels.

GCI’s new service called 1 GIG red, pumps out a max downstream of 1 Gbps. Pricing for the service and the capabilities of the tier’s upstream were not immediately known.

Update: GCI, an official said via email, is selling 1 GIG red for $174.99 per month, the same price as the MSO’s prior 250 Mbps service. The 1-Gig downstream is paired with an upstream that maxes at 50 Mbps, up from 10 Mbps with the prior red service ("red" is the brand assigned to GCI’s top Internet service tier. It also offers 100 Mbps, 50 Mbps and 10 Mbps services). 

The operator said it will make the new service available to “virtually all” of its cable subs in Anchorage by year-end. GCI serves about 100,000 homes in the city. 

It has not provided specific plans to offer 1-Gig to other markets other than to say that Juneau, Fairbanks and Mat-Su are among the markets in line, expecting to expand on rollouts in early 2016 . In the meantime, GCI said upgrades Mat-Su, Juneau, Fairbanks, Kenai/Soldotna, Sitka will enable downstream upgrades for the operator’s fastest tiers there – rising from 250 Mbps to 500 Mbps.

From a modem standpoint, GCI is following a similar game plan that’s being run by Suddenlink and Mediacomm Communications, which are also using the new Hitron D3.0 model (the CDA3-35) for their respective 1-Gig residential tiers. The GCI official noted that DOCSIS 3.1, an emerging multi-gigabit platform for HFC networks, "is the next step in meeting technology needs of the future and GCI is getting ready for it."

According to an FAQ, GCI’s 1 GIG red service will be subject to the MSO’s new “No  Worries” data usage policy, setting a monthly ceiling of 750 GB (up from 600 GB for the prior "red" tier.  Once customers on the 1-Gig plan exceed that limit, they can purchase addition buckets of data (30 GB) for $10 each, upgrade to a different plan, or be set at a “basic level of service” (less than 1 Mbps) with no overages.

“Today we’re proud to begin the launch of 1 GIG red in Anchorage while many major Lower 48 cities like Los Angeles, Boston, and Washington D.C. wait for comparable 1-gigabit service,” said GCI president and CEO Ron Duncan, in a statement. ““With 1 GIG red, we’re quadrupling Internet speeds for our red customers and propelling Alaska to the forefront of technology, all without any increase in our red customers’ bills.”

GCI is also delivering 1-Gig service (branded as “fiber re:D”)  in select areas of cities such as Anchorage and Juneau using fiber-to-the-premises technology.

GCI said it has launched a managed WiFi across the Pacific Northwest through a partnership with Aruba Networks, a unit of HP

GCI’s said its managed WiFi service offers clients a turnkey solution for a monthly fee that covers physical assessment, design, equipment procurement, installation, testing, monitoring and lifecycle replacement of hardware. To support the service and the WiFi expansion, GCI said it has added engineering, sales, technical and support staff in Spokane, Seattle and Portland.

“This partnership continues to strengthen GCI’s position in the Pacific Northwest. We know our customers want reliable, secure Wi-Fi they don’t have to worry about and we are delivering on this,” said Martin Cary, vice president of managed broadband Services at GCI. “We have the experience and expertise to deliver a complete and reliable solution and the resources to support our customers from start to finish.”

GCI already offers a range of services in the Pacific Northwest region, including managed network services, secure Internet access, managed video conferencing and network security.

GCI, the largest telecom provider in Alaska, placed a bigger bet on cloud services by acquiring Anchorage-based Network Business Systems, an Anchorage-based company that specializes in hosted and managed and IT services for commercial customers.

GCI did not disclose the financial terms of the deal, but said it was closed on Thursday (August 6) And that it has offered positions to all employees of NBS, which counts tech partners such as NetApp, Microsoft, Cisco Systems and HP.

GCI said the deal will help it bring a range of cloud services to Alaska-area businesses and bolster its growing cloud services team.

“We strive to bring our business customers state-of-the-art IT options at the best value,” said Greg Pearce, vice president of business services for GCI, in a statement. “More and more businesses are realizing that cloud services are the best option for data storage, processing and security.”

TiVo’s OnePass, a feature that helps viewers catch up and binge out on TV shows, is getting some additional northern exposure.

GCI, Alaska’s largest cable operator, has added OnePass to the Season Pass recording option available on its TiVo-powered platform. OnePass, introduced by TiVo in January, enables users to create and organize custom playlists in their “My Shows” folder, showing if it’s available on linear TV and  video-on-demand or from over-the-top sources such as Hulu and Netflix. OnePass  also maintains a unified playlist across multiple platforms.

“GCI is dedicated to continuously improving our customers’ entertainment experiences, and we are confident that our already-popular GCI powered by TiVo service has become even better with OnePass,” Paul Landes, GCI’s SVP and GM of consumer services, said in a statement.

GCI ended the first quarter of 2015 with 114,700 basic video subs, with 62,300 taking a digital programming tier. 

Bright House Networks and GCI are the latest MSOs to join the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers's Corporate Alliance Partner (CAP) program, an initiative that offers new training and education opportunities and one that aims to expand the SCTE’s base of individual members.

They join Comcast, Cablevision Systems, Cox Communications, Liberty Global, Shentel, Suddenlink  Communications, Time Warner Cable, among others. Alpha Technologies and Arris Group are among the known “beta vendor partners” that will SCTE develop a full vendor program that’s expected to launch sometime in 2015.

The SCTE announced the CAP in April, with Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Suddenlink Communications on board as charter members. Program benefits include discounts on individual employee memberships, downloads and registgraotns for SCTE online courses, and seats at SCTE Leadership Institute programs at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth and the Georgia Tech Scheller College of Business.

“The Corporate Alliance Program’s unified approach leverages the commitments of operators to enable development of training that anticipates, rather than responds to, industry needs,” said Lindsay Johnston, senior vice president of operations for SCTE, in a statement. “The additional perspectives of Bright House Networks and GCI will allow us to further sharpen the focus of our membership, training and leadership initiatives.” 

GCI of Alaska has booted up a new set of “No Worries” broadband plans that’s designed to eliminate surprise charges by enabling customers to manage their data consumption through a set of options that become available when they exceed their monthly allotments -- buy buckets of extra data for $10 based on their speed plans, upgrade to a faster tier, or temporarily move to a sub-broadband level of service. 

While operators such as Comcast, Suddenlink Communiations and Mediacom Communications are testing or have rolled out usage-based policies that let subs buy a fixed amount of data when they surpass their monthly consumption thresholds (typically $10 for a bucket of 50 Gigabytes), GCI’s new plan lets customers purchase additional gobs of data that are adjusted (in the range of 5 Gigabytes to 30 GB) based on the speed of their current level of service.

By tier, here’s how GCI’s new plans stack up: 

-R:10 (10 Mbps down/1 Mbps up for $59.99): 40 GB  of fixed monthly usage, with option to buy additional 5 GB data data buckets for $10.

-R:50 (50 Mbps/2 Mbps for $84.99): 150 GB fixed data, and bucket of 10 GB for $10.

-R:100 (100 Mbps/5 Mbps for $134.99): 300 GB fixed data, and bucket of 20 GB for $10.

-re:D (250 Mbps/10 Mbps for $174.99): 600 GB fixed data, and bucket of 30 GB for $10.

Buying extra data isn’t the only option available to customers who reach their monthly ceiling. They can also upgrade to a plan that offers more data, or stay on their current plan until their next billing cycle at a “more basic level of service.”  Update: According to the FAQ (hat tip: DSL Reports), that means "less than 1 Mbps." 

Under that last option, “the connection will no longer be at broadband speeds,” GCI marketing exec Shahid Butt explained via email.  “Consumers will be able to surf the net, check emails, shop online, etc. Consumption of real time entertainment may necessitate the customer adding a bucket or going to the next higher plan.”

The FCC currently defines “broadband” as 4 Mbps down by 1 Mbps upstream, but will soon vote on a proposal to raise it to 25 Mbps/3 Mbps. The National Cable & Telecommunications Association has urged the FCC to tread carefully on the idea. The FCC is also working on new network neutrality rules, with a vote on its proposal expected to tak place in February. 

GCI said its new plans and new policies, introduced last week, were developed based on a series of customer surveys and focus groups over the past several months, finding that customers wanted to have greater control and certainty over their monthly bill.

To help customers keep track of their data consumption, GCI, Butt noted, notifies customers via email when they have reached 80%, 90% and 100% of their monthly data allowance, and provide the same message at 90% and 100% via a browser-based message. GCI, he added, has also introduced an online tool that helps customers track their usage.

“With these new plans, customers pick a speed and data package combination, and if they need additional data usage customers can chose to add a data bucket,” GCI SVP and GM of consumer services Paul Landes said in a statement. “Since customers will make the choice to add a data bucket, there should never be a situation where their monthly bill is a surprise.” 

GCI ended the third quarter of 2014 with 117,000 residential cable modem subscribers. 

The editors of Multichannel News have announced the 2015 class of Wonder Women.

The 13 women, who appear in a congratulatory announcement on page 27 of Monday’s Multichannel News, comprise the 17th class of cable, telecommunications and related entertainment and technology executives to be so honored. Their profiles will appear in the Jan. 26, 2015, edition of the magazine, and they will be saluted at a luncheon event at the Hilton New York on Thursday, March 19, 2015. The event, as always, is co-sponsored by the New York chapter of Women In Cable Telecommunications.

More information -- including photos and bios of the honorees, event details and a roster (and videos) of past speeches from Wonder Women luncheons -- are available now at a newly re-launched microsite, mcnwonderwomen.com. Keep that site bookmarked for future news, including celebrity hosts and an upcoming separate class of Women to Watch.

Here is the 2015 class of Wonder Women (alphabetically).

• Lynn Charytan, Senior Vice President of Legal Regulatory Affairs, Senior Deputy General Counsel, Comcast Corp.
• Katy Ferguson, Executive Vice President, Managing Partner, Entertainment, Horizon Media
• Jennifer Hightower, Senior Vice President, Law and Policy, General Counsel, Cox Communications
• Sandra Howe, Senior Vice President, Global Marketing, ARRIS
• Susette Hsiung, Executive Vice President, Production, Disney/ABC Cable Networks Group
• Sandra Kapell, Executive Vice President, Human Resources and Administration, Cablevision Systems
• Judi Lopez, Senior Vice President, Affiliate Distribution & Marketing, NUVOtv and Fuse
• Sarah Madigan, Executive Vice President, Content Distribution, Univision Communications
• Melissa Maxfield, Senior Vice President of Federal Government Affairs, Comcast Corp.
• Courteney Monroe, Chief Executive Officer, National Geographic Channels U.S.
• Tina Pidgeon, General Counsel, Chief Compliance Officer, Senior Vice President of Government Affairs, General Communication Inc.
• Jane Rice, Senior Vice President, Distribution, A+E Networks  
• Claudia Teran, Executive Vice President, Business and Legal Affairs, Deputy General Counsel, Fox Networks Group, and General Counsel, Fox Sports

Alaska’s top telecommunications company will tip off its title sponsorship of the largest state’s biggest basketball event.

The 2014 GCI Shootout begins tonight in the new 5,000-seat Alaska Airlines Center on the campus of the University of Alaska Anchorage campus.  The event runs through Nov. 29 and features the host Seawolves in eight-team men’s and four-squad women’s fields.

GCI, which is also the venue’s official technology partner, is using the event to expand its brand presence and product sampling with a number of on-site and on-air executions.  The MSO, which succeeded Carrs Safeway as the tourney's title sponsor, will give attendees a chance to win 1 million Alaska Airlines miles, as well as the latest smartphones, tablets and accessories via its Tech Toy Giveaway.

Every child in attendance can take home a free GCI Great Alaska Shootout basketball, as well as become festooned with temporary tattoos at the operator’s new retail store within the venue. 

“As Alaska’s leading telecommunications company, it is fitting that we would be the company now dedicated to renewing the original interest and excitement around this tournament,” said GCI senior vice president and general manager of consumer services Paul Landes. “GCI is looking forward to finding new ways to engage Alaskan fans and families. Our goal is to get everyone in the community excited about coming to experience the Great Alaska Shootout at the new Alaska Airlines Center.”

From a television perspective, GCI will televise five of the games on its origination channel.  CBS Sports Network, which is not distributed by GCI, will air eight of the games nationally.

In addition to the host team, former tournament champion Washington State, four-time competitor Pacific University and newcomers Colorado State, Mercer, Missouri State, Rice and University of California Santa Barbara will vie for the men’s crown.

On the distaff side of the court, the she Seawolves will be up against Boise State, Long Beach State and Yale for the title of GCI Shootout champion.

Alaskan service operator GCI said it will deploy its 1-Gbps “fiber re:D” service in Fairbanks before the end of 2016. 

That commitment expands on plans to offer fiber-fed 1-Gig service in Juneau, also before the end of 2016, and its  initial plan to bring 1-Gig to Anchorage by 2015.

Taking a demand-driven rollout approach popularized by Google Fiber, GCI will also target fiber re:D initially to areas within Anchorage, Juneau and Fairbanks that demonstrate the most consumer demand.

“For more than 30 years, GCI has been committed to providing Alaskans the latest communications technology, and providing Fairbanks with the fastest possible broadband speeds with our fiber re:D service will be another example of that,” said Paul Landes, GCI’s SVP and GM of consumer services, in a statement.

Outside of its recent fiber-focused commitments,  GCI recently rolled out a free upgrade for its DOCSIS-powred “re:D” broadband service that doubled upload speeds to 10 Mbps and increased the downstream to 250 Mbps, or 25%, in several markets.

GCI launched 4G LTE service in Fairbanks earlier this year, and recently inked an LTE roaming deal with T-Mobile.

Alaskan service operator GCI said it will launch its 1-Gbps ‘fiber re:D’ broadband service to Juneau before the end of 2016, expanding on  initial plans announced late last year to bring 1-Gig to Anchorage by 2015.

Taking a page from the Google Fiber playbook that has been growing in popularity among other ISPs that are teeing up 1-Gig services, GCI will also target fiber re:D initially to areas within Anchorage and Juneau that demonstrate the most consumer demand.

“For more than 30 years, GCI has been committed to providing Alaskans with the latest communications technology, and providing Juneau with the fastest possible broadband speeds through our fiber re:D service will be another example of that,” Paul Landes, GCI’s SVP and GM of consumer services, said in a statement.

Earlier this month, GCI rolled out a free upgrade for its “re:D” broadband service that doubled upload speeds to 10 Mbps and increased the downstream to 250 Mbps, or 25%, in several markets.

GCI also touted a third-party study from Score Technologies showing that GCI’s Juneau LTE network averaged download speeds that were 47% higher than AT&T’s LTE and 76% higher than Verizon’s LTE. GCI recently inked an LTE roaming deal with T-Mobile.

GCI talked up the coming 1-Gig expansion and the LTE speed study at GCI Tech Quest, a local event and scavenger hunt held in partnership with several local businesses. GCI said the event gave away prizes totaling $15,000, a haul that included five Apple iPhone 5s, five Samsung Galaxy S5s, nine Apple iPad Air devices, and five round-trip airline tickets from Alaska Airlines.  

GCI of Alaska said the reach of its Long Term Evolution (LTE) network is getting extended thanks thanks to a new roaming deal with a “national wireless operator” that the company confirmed is T-Mobile.

Calling it the “nation’s first LTE roaming partnership,” GCI said the agreement will provide its wireless subs with access to LTE “from Fairbanks, Alaska to Miami, Florida.” GCI did not disclose the financial terms of the deal.

“GCI is committed to meeting the growing technology needs of Alaskans, and now our capabilities of providing top data speeds on a LTE network is extended across the country,” said Paul Landes, GCI senior vice president and general manager of consumer services, in a statement. “Alaskans want access to the LTE network whether they’re at the Alaska State Fair or at CenturyLink Field in Seattle cheering the Seahawks, today, we can provide that.” 

GCI ended the second quarter of 2014 with 143,400 total wireless lines in service, and generated total wireless revenues of $69 million, a figure comprised of wholesale wireless ($25 million), roaming and backhaul ($30 million) and USF support ($14 million).

T-Mobile U.S., which has about 50.5 million customers, says its 4G LTE network currently reaches 233 million people in 325 metro areas.

Alaska-based operator GCI has rolled out a free upgrade for a its “re:D” broadband service that doubles uploads to 10 Mbps and increases the downstream side to 250 Mbps, or 25%, in several markets, including Anchorage, Fairbanks, Juneau, Ketchikan, Mat-Su Valley, and Sitka.

The latest round of upgrades follows one in May 2014, when GCI doubled its max downstream speed to 200 Mbps. Areas that are on the 200 Mbps version of re:D will be bumped to 250 Mbps by the end of the year.

GCI prices its re:D tier at $174.99 per month when bundled with other services or $184.99 per month as a stand-alone, with a two-year agreement. Both are $5 more per month without a term agreement.

The DOCSIS 3.0-powered service is currently being fed by a system that can bond 24 downstream channels in most locations, but the MSO is looking to move to 32 bonded channels, according to GCI senior director of marketing Shahid Butt. GCI has been delivering D3.0 services with modems that can bond eight downstream channels but is starting to move to products that can bond up to 24 channels, he said in an email.

GCI announced late last year that it would offer a 1 Gbps broadband service in Anchorage by 2015. Similar to the demand-driven approach favored by Google Fiber, GCI will also target its coming 1-Gig service, to be called fiber re:D, in areas where it’s getting the most interest.

GCI ended the second quarter with 115,600 residential cable modem subscribers, and 14,200 business-level cable modem subs.

 GCI, Alaska’s largest cable operator, has added BTN2GO, MTV, VH1, Fox and Spike to its TV Everywhere platform, GCI GO.

Additionally, GCI subs can use their credentials to view Fox broadcast programming online at both www.Fox.com and www.Hulu.com through Fox apps on GCI GO, the operator said, noting that the latest additions enable it to offer content from more than 50 networks to authenticated video subs.

“GCI GO allows customers to experience entertainment everywhere,” said GCI Senior Vice President and General Manager of Consumer Services Paul Landes. “Adding new channels to this service gives our customers more options to view their favorite content when and where they want, whether that’s on the big screen in their living rooms or with the convenience of a mobile device, said Paul Landes, GCI’s VP and GM of consumer services, in a statement.

GCI, which ended the first quarter with 66,900 digital video subs, recently added Netflix to its leased TiVo-powered video platform.