Tech Head,
Thanks for sharing the telephone call. Happy is a relative term. Here is some news for what it is worth. GCI doesn't seem to be worried about weather in Alaska. Of course, repairing downed telephone lines due to weather may make this a relative problem.
NW
GCI Wins Alaska LMDS Rights; Wireless License Covers Two-Thirds of State
ANCHORAGE, Alaska, March 30 /PRNewswire/ -- The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) declared GCI (Nasdaq: GNCMA) the high bidder in its recent auction for the rights to a "B" block Local Multipoint Distribution Service (LMDS) license. The auction, which was held February 18, 1998 until March 25, determined the winners of 864 licenses throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, Guam, Virgin Islands, American Samoa and Northern Mariana Islands.
LMDS is a new fixed, broadband point-to-point microwave service, which, because of the amount of spectrum that was licensed, offers more capacity than is currently available from existing wireless services. LMDS has the flexibility and the potential to promote competition in the local telephone marketplace. It may be used for two-way voice, data and video applications.
"Winning this LMDS license means GCI can bypass the 'local loop' we lease from the local telephone company," said GCI President Ron Duncan. "This means a greater percentage of local traffic can be carried on our own facilities rather than on our competitor's."
According to Duncan, Alaska was divided into three Basic Trading Areas (BTA) including Anchorage, Fairbanks and Juneau-Ketchikan. Each BTA had an "A" and "B" -- with the B block license consisting of 150 MHz of spectrum.
GCI, the high bidder with $271,000 was awarded the Anchorage BTA license, which covers Anchorage, Valdez, Cordova, the Kenai Peninsula, Matanuska- Susitna Borough, Kodiak, Bethel, Bristol Bay, Dillingham, Nome, Northwest Arctic Borough and the North Slope Borough. GCI, as a cable television company, was not allowed to bid on "A" licenses.
GCI (Nasdaq: GNCMA) is an Alaska-based and operated company which provides local and long-distance telephone, cable television and data communication services to more than 125,000 customers throughout the state.
SOURCE GCI
CO: GCI
ST: Alaska
IN: TLS CPR
SU:
03/30/98 09:56 EST prnewswire.com |
