Arctic Directory: GCI proven to be the best choice for Alaska’s remote communications

Skilled individuals and Arctic experience makes GCI a premier network provider

Q. What do you most want people to know about your company?

A. GCI’s Industrial Telecom Group is an experienced team of approximately 60 telecommunication engineers, project managers and technicians that have extensive expertise in oil, gas and other industrial applications. We safely support the full life cycle of industrial projects with a primary focus on the oil and gas industry, brining value to our relationships through communication, focus and integrity. We have also acted as the subject matter experts (SME) for many large engineering firms, bringing our Arctic communication experience to projects throughout Alaska, Wyoming, New Mexico and the Gulf of Mexico.

Q. Where is your company located?

A. GCI has offices in Anchorage and Deadhorse, Alaska. In December 2009 we opened an office in Houston, Texas.

Q. What year was the company founded and by whom?

A. GCI is an Alaska company founded in 1979 by our President, Ron Duncan. The Industrial Telecom team was formed in 1995 to manage the operations and maintenance of major operators on the North Slope.

Q. What is the company’s primary business sector?

A. GCI offers a wide variety of services including consumer and commercial wireless services, cable TV and cable modem internet. The Industrial Telecom team’s focus is on professional services including telecommunication project engineering and project management. We also have the resources available to implement and maintain what we have designed and are a full life-cycle telecom shop.

Q. How many employees does your company have?

A. GCI has more than 1,600 employees and GCI Industrial Telecom has more than 60 employees, with approximately 20 permanent staff in Deadhorse and four are currently working out of our Houston office.

Q. Describe the equipment your company might use and are there any new purchases planned?

A. GCI owns and operates more than 5,500 miles of fiber optic cable (FOC) throughout Alaska that connects to the Lower 48 via two separate GCI owned and operated routes. We also have more than 250 satellite earth stations, providing services to hundreds of communities throughout Alaska. GCI’s wireless division is the fastest growing in Alaska and provides both CDMA and GSM connectivity in both the rural and urban communities throughout the state.

The Industrial Telecom team has rapid-deploy communication modules that can bring voice, data and video services to any remote location throughout the world quickly and safely. These self-contained units are tried and tested under the harshest environments. We own and operate a licensed wireless broadband service on the North Slope and have hundreds of wireless end points managed through this reliable, cost effective mobile wireless product.

Q. Is your company expanding any of its operations or locations?

A. Our Houston office currently has four employees and continues to grow with the increased demand for quality engineering and project management resources for the oil patch. We anticipate continued growth in the future.

Q. What is your company’s main strength or its edge over the competition?

A. A very important strength that GCI has is industrial knowledge of the oil and gas exploration and production business; our experienced staff has deep roots in the oil patch. Our mission statement says it all “To provide customer driven, quality focused oil and gas communication expertise to industrial communication infrastructure projects and operations. We leverage our proven, safe practices and cost effective professional services into profitable results.”

Q. What is the average length of time employees work for the company?

A. GCI is such a great place to work for and we provide competitive incentives to retain our highly valued employees, so we have very low turnover. It is a truly collaborative work place with a strong focus on safety both at home and at work.

Q. What is your company’s safety record and what steps does GCI take to ensure a safe work environment?

A. Within the Industrial Telecom team of GCI our recordable incident rate is 0, and our last lost time accident was in 2002. We embrace the behavioral based safety process and have adopted the SafeStart Behavior Based Safety (BBS) program for our staff. At GCI we strongly believe that all work should be assessed for risk and as a result have adopted the task hazard analysis (THA) for risk identification and mitigation.

Q. Has your company received any awards or recognition?

A. In 2009, GCI was awarded the Outstanding Business Award by the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) Alaska, for our ongoing philanthropic efforts throughout Alaska.

Our group is active in community events, youth sports and health and safety awareness. Annually, a large group of our employees participate in efforts like the United Way campaign.

Q. Has your company been involved in any community projects or charities events?

A. GCI is a huge supporter of the American Red Cross of Alaska and the United Way, as well as many other nonprofits throughout Alaska. We are proud to be an Alaskan company.

Q. Does your company have a Web site?

A. Our Team’s website is www.GCI-Industrialtelecom.com and GCI can be found at www.gci.com