More residents in Ninilchik can now surf the web. Alaska Communications is setting up towers in the area as part of a larger project to bring high-speed broadband to underserved areas on the Kenai Peninsula.
Heather Cavanaugh is a spokesperson for the company:
“We’ve already turned up some of the towers and residents can get speeds of at least 10 megabytes down, one megabyte up, which is everything that you need to stream and watch Netflix and be online, and in some cases people are getting faster speeds,” she said.
Over the next few months, the company will finish setting up towers in the area.
The Federal Communications Commission is funding the project as part of the Connect America Fund program to ensure all Americans have access to the internet. Alaska Communications will also be providing high-speed broadband to other places on the Kenai Peninsula such as Sterling, Funny River and outlying areas near Homer. But she said Ninilchik is the first to receive service.
She hopes bringing high-speed internet to the area will boost the community.
“We know there are studies that show that with high speed broadband comes economic development, better healthcare, better education, and improved quality of life and so it really has positive impacts on communities,” she said.
Some residents in the area are already able to purchase internet services. Cavanaugh said roughly 600 people in Ninilchik will be able to access high-speed internet by the end of the year. For more information or to sign up, you can visit http://my.alaskacommunications.com/fiwifirstclub.
