Alaska Communications goes to 40G, lower 48

Alaska Communications Systems (ACS) is upgrading parts of its network with 40-Gb/s links in anticipation of traffic increases enabled by a pair of new network routes it is building that connect it to the continental United States.

The carrier isn’t saying how many of its in-state routes are being upgraded from 10 Gb/s to 40 Gb/s but expects to complete the first wave before the end of this year, commercializing them early next year.

The timing coincides with the planned turn-up of two new routes that will connect ACS’s network to the US mainland: the nine-year-old Northstar cable system, owned by Crest Communications (which ACS is currently acquiring) and a new network ACS is building now dubbed AKORN (for Alaska Oregon Network). ACS hopes to turn up both systems -- as well as a new redundant network operations center it is building somewhere in the lower 48 – in next year’s first quarter.

To reach the continental US today, ACS leases capacity on the Northstar system as well as on two other systems – Alaska United East and West – which are both owned by another Alaskan carrier, GCI Communications.

“AKORN will give us almost unlimited bandwidth and owner’s economics,” said Anand Vadapalli, senior vice president of network and IT for ACS.

The Northstar system stretches from Anchorage and Juneau, Alaska, to Nedonna, Oregon and from there to Seattle, Washington, while AKORN reaches land in Florence, Oregon -- more than 100 miles South of Nedonna – and connects to Seattle and Portland.

The anticipated increase in traffic attending the new networks is a key reason ACS is upgrading its in-state network to 40 Gb/s, Vadapalli said. “40G gives me consistency of bandwidth density over multiple fiber types and helps us carry AKORN traffic in-state.”