Ice breaks an underwater cable and leaves Alaska without Internet, Elon Musk to the rescue

When the Internet connection by land is compromised, there is no choice but to resort to the air connection… or space.

Ice has broken an underwater cable in Alaskaleaving a region with several locations without Internet for more than a month. starlinkElon Musk’s company, and OneWebThey are already working for focus your satellites there.

Alaska is the largest North American state, more than three times the size of Spain. Located almost at the North Pole and very sparsely populated, with widely dispersed populationsIt is difficult to bring the Internet to the entire population, both for the distances as for extreme weather.

Much of the connection reaches the country through submarine cables. One of them, from the Quintillion company, has broken this week, according to reports The Verge. Here you can see the breakpoint, the yellow star:

The problem is that it is in the Arctic Oceana point of difficult access, so the ship that will make the repairs will take weeks to arrive.

Quintillion has communicated that the cable will not be fixed for at least 4 to six weeks.

The Breaking of this submarine cable has left northwest Alaska without Internet, including towns like Utqiaġvik, Point Hope, Wainwright, Kotzebue and Nome. Many people have had to stop working there, and even ATMs and bank cards have stopped working.

While the repairs are being completed, Quintillion has contacted companies that offer Internet via satellitesuch as OneWeb or Elon Musk’s Starlink, to guarantee the connection:

“After ice severed a fiber optic cable in the Arctic Ocean, disrupting internet and mobile phone services in northern Alaska, the Starlink team has been coordinating with the State of Alaska, various local governments and Native American communities to help provide connectivity where it is needed most“says the tweet.

Quintillion will set terminals connected to OneWeb and Starlink satelliteswhich will offer 500 Mbps connections to the inhabitants of the affected areas.

He submarine cable broken by ice in Alaskademonstrates the usefulness of the Starlink satellite internet connections and others. It is a good solution for the most remote areas of the planet.