PETROLEUM DIRECTORY: New portable repeater extends cellular service on North Slope

A telephone cooperative on Alaska’s North Slope has added a new cellular repeater on wheels to extend cellular telephone for construction and drilling crews working along the route from the Alpine field into the exploration areas of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska and Oliktok Point.

Arctic Slope Telephone Association Cooperative announced installation of the equipment Dec. 19, saying the new repeater will extend cellular coverage as much as 30 miles past the area covered by any service before.

No cell phone service previously existed beyond the co-op’s Alpine coverage areas and along the remote ice roads, according to ASTAC.

Once the construction season has ended, the company will be able to move the repeater to support other remote operations on the North Slope.

ASTAC has about 6,000 access lines in a territory spanning 90,000 square miles and including eight North Slope communities in addition to the oil industry complex in and around Deadhorse.

For more information on cellular service, call Nina Murtagh at 800-563-1931.