Sitka still without internet, cell service after undersea cable break

Sitka continued to experience a wide internet and cell service outage Friday.

Nearly all Sitkans use GCI for both services, but that went out Thursday shortly after 11 a.m. On Friday, GCI said in a statement posted to social media that they are investigating a break in a subsea fiber optic cable.

The company said technicians were working to temporarily reroute Sitka’s internet traffic with hopes to restore basic voice and text service and limited internet sometime Friday.

Emergency services are still available. The Sitka Police Department announced that it is still receiving 911 calls from both landlines and cell phones. Mt. Edgecumbe Medical Center’s emergency room is still open, and they are accepting local patients but are diverting other communities from sending in patients until internet access is restored.

Tricia Bruckbauer is a spokesperson for Alaska Airlines. She said that all Alaska Airlines regularly scheduled flights are operating normally. The airline flew in an IT tech Friday morning to restore some internet access for their local site by installing Starlink, which is satellite internet. Before Starlink was installed, they were able to check in passengers in Sitka Friday morning through the Juneau station.

A representative from the Sitka Trial Court told KCAW that they cannot access online filings, which is slowing things down, but as of Friday, they were still holding court proceedings as scheduled.

The last time Sitka experienced a major internet outage was in 2016. At the time, KCAW reported that service was impacted for 12 days due to a damaged fiber optic cable.

In its statement on Friday, GCI did not confirm where the current break is located or how it occurred.