[RiverCrochet]

Looks like they all use Starlink and no one uses the FCC-subsidized fiber.

Starlink is nice, but I'd still want the option to switch to an alternate provider if Starlink suddenly raises their prices or otherwise becomes uncompetitive for some reason. I guess they do have cell service out there, though.

I wonder how the copper PSTN is out there, or if it's totally replaced by that fiber.

[happyPersonR]

In a lot of rural places in general, don’t know about Alaska, it was either you got starlink or nothing after the fiber only rules were withdrawn

Which basically means if starlink goes if there’s not another sat vendor … basically there’s nothing. I don’t think any other providers service that far up(hughesnet maybe?)

I’m also not sure if starlink and the others will be forced to do COLR (carrier of last resort) but I think the answer might be “no”.

[jazzyjackson]

Small villages up the coast of Alaska are linked by a microwave backhaul.

When I worked in Togiak ten years ago, it was about a 100mbit connection shared with the other few hundred households in town. If you were up at 6am you could watch YouTube just fine, but the internet crawled once everyone got online checking Facebook (this is my villain origin story of building local first low bandwidth software, I couldn’t believe the megabytes that slack and Facebook soaked up)