Carr’s ‘Broadband Frontier Tour’ Starts Sunday

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There’s nothing like a business trip to a cool destination, where one can do some sightseeing while focusing on the need to bring more broadband to some of the nation’s most difficult-to-serve communities.


That’s exactly what FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr will do from Sunday (8/5), when he arrives in Alaska for a broadband tour of the “Last Frontier.”

On Monday, Commissioner Carr will head from Anchorage to Palmer to tour a fiber deployment. Then, he’ll tour the National Tsunami Warning Center along with local businesses that rely on broadband. He’ll end the day by flying to Unalaska in the Aleutian Islands where he will meet with local officials, including the vice mayor and city manager to talk about broadband deployment.

On Tuesday, Carr will start the day by learning more about the key role that broadband
plays in the shipping and fishing industries. This will include a tour of the Carl E. Moses Boat Harbor and several dock projects to meet with Alaskan shippers. Then, he’ll meet with a local Unalaska wireless Internet service provider and tour the Alyeska Seafoods Plant. After a community forum at City Hall, Carr will tour a wireless tower and broadband deployment project. He’ll end the day with a visit to a connected health clinic.

Wednesday sees Carr in Anchorage with Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan, as he visits with  the Alaska Native Tribal Healthcare Consortium at the Alaska Native Medical Center for a demonstration of telehealth technology. Carr will then tour Southcentral Foundation’s Nuka System, an innovative healthcare facility. Then, the Commissioner will hold a roundtable on broadband deployment before visiting Gray Television-owned KTUU-2 to meet with Alaska broadcasters.

For Thursday, Carr is stopping in Deadhorse before flying to Utqiagvik (formerly known as Barrow), and then traveling to Wainwright. On these visits, he will meet with local officials to discuss broadband connectivity, including the role it plays in search and rescue operations. Then he’ll visit a fiber deployment site, followed by a visit to an Alaska cultural center. He will end the day by touring local businesses to hear from them about their perspectives on broadband deployment.

Lastly, on Friday (8/10) Carr starts his day with a flight to Dillingham for a visit to Kanakanak Hospital with the Bristol Bay Area Health Corporation for a discussion and demonstration of telemedicine applications. Then he’ll fly to a tower site for a tour and discussion of the engineering and logistical challenges of providing communications
services to remote areas. He’ll then drive to the Nushagak Cooperative to learn about the role of broadband in planned hydro projects before heading to Southwest Regional School District for a discussion on the importance of connectivity in delivering education to remote communities. He’ll end the day with a visit to Dillingham Library and Sam Fox Museum before making the long trip back to Washington, D.C.