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  "description": "Repairs begin, but plan for terrestrial backup network remains on ice",
  "path": "/quintillion-to-repair-broken-arctic-fiber-line-after-six-month-delay/",
  "publishedAt": "2025-07-14T17:46:11.000Z",
  "site": "https://broadbandbreakfast.com",
  "tags": [
    "_soon be back online_",
    "_announced_",
    "_severed by Arctic ice_",
    "_affected several communities_",
    "_****There's a whole community behind your FREE membership...****_",
    "There's a whole community behind your FREE membership...",
    "_single cable break_",
    "_sea ice snapped_",
    "_three months_",
    "_was awarded_",
    "_from the_",
    "_planned_",
    "_article detailing_",
    "_single mile_",
    "_floated the idea_",
    "_in a release_"
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  "textContent": "WASHINGTON, July 14, 2025 – It’s been six months, but a damaged Alaskan fiber cable may _soon be back online_.\n\nQuintillion President **Michael McHale** _announced_ Friday that the company will dispatch vessels this July to repair an undersea cable line _severed by Arctic ice_ in January. The internet-service provider had to postpone repairs until summer because of Arctic conditions and thick sea ice surrounding the line. The repairs were anticipated to take several weeks to complete.\n\nThe January outage _affected several communities_ in the North Slope and Northwest Arctic Boroughs. These two boroughs are the northernmost county or county equivalents in the U.S., with a combined land area more than three times that of Virginia and a population less than one-third that of Cheyenne, Wyoming.\n\n\n\n_****There's a whole community behind your FREE membership...****_\n\n There's a whole community behind your FREE membership... \n\nThis was not the first time a _single cable break_ has disrupted Alaska’s internet connections. In June 2023, _sea ice snapped_ a Quintillion cable 34 miles offshore of the North Slope, leaving many of the same areas without service. That break took _three months_ to repair.\n\nTo address these vulnerabilities, Quintillion _was awarded_ an $88.9 million grant in June 2023 _from the_ National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s Enabling Middle Mile Broadband Infrastructure Program. The company _planned_ to use that grant, in addition to $61 million from its own coffers, to build a fiber beltway around the state that would have allowed the network to operate even in the instance of a subsea cable break.\n\nAn _article detailing_ the company’s plans to begin construction on the network this summer was published just four days before this latest cable break. As of this writing, Quintillion has yet to lay a _single mile_ of the network.\n\nIn the months following the January outage, Quintillion _floated the idea_ of building a terrestrial fiber route to restore broadband service in the spring while it waited for the repair window to open. In late February, the company _announced_ that it had completed most of the permits required to start the project, and urged the Federal Emergency Management Agency to rapidly approve work.\n\n“The window for a winter build is closing rapidly, so Quintillion will need decisive action from FEMA in the next week to allow for land bridge construction this spring,” the company said _in a release_.\n\nEvidently, that action never came, as the company was still awaiting approval from the agency in late March. It has not mentioned the terrestrial project as part of its outage updates since mid-April.",
  "title": "Quintillion to Repair Broken Arctic Fiber Line After Six-Month Delay",
  "updatedAt": "2026-03-11T05:49:46.172Z"
}