GCI expanding North Slope broadband

GCI Communication Corp. wants to build a small communication center at the Southern Miluveach unit as part of an ongoing effort to improve North Slope communications.

The company recently applied to the state to lease some 1,600 square feet at the North Slope unit for a new communication tower and two telecommunications buildings.

The state Division of Mining, Land & Water is taking comments through Feb. 13. The division received no offers when it solicited competing bids for the area late last year.

The proposed 25-year lease would allow GCI to build the center at the northeast corner of the Mustang pad at the Brooks Range Petroleum Corp.-operated Southern Miluveach unit. The company expects to install the first 10-foot by 24-foot telecommunications building immediately after acquiring the lease and the second building around 2019 or 2020. The project would also include an 85-foot lattice communication tower.

According to GCI, the proposed communication center is part of a long-term plan to “bring terrestrial high speed broadband services” to the nearby village of Nuiqsut and also to “generally improve broadband service on the North Slope.” The tower would “serve as a link to other towers and expand the communications service area.”

- ERIC LIDJI