Alaska Communications Systems has had a busy several weeks as the telecommunications company announced its new home Internet service and the addition of the iPhone to its smartphone lineup.
ACS first offered its home Internet service plan in March. The plan features download speeds up to 10 megabits per second, no data caps and uploads to 1 Mbps.
Customers do not need to install additional phone lines. Installation takes five steps and can be completed by the user. Technical support is available.
Alaska Communications also announced it would sell Apple’s iPhone with a choice of voice, text and data plans. It does not carry the iPad 3.
While the iPhone 4S is capable of sending data over one of the industry’s fastest data networks, Alaska Communications’ iPhone customers in Juneau do not yet have access to a 4G network. Alaska Communications is in the process of an upgrade to its third generation networks in the Juneau area. It plans to roll out the faster Long Term Evolution 4G in the near future with speeds around 12 Mbps.
The City and Borough of Juneau Assembly awarded Alaska Communications a lease renewal for a tower on North Douglas Island on April 2. The telecom’s lease now extends through 2045.
Verizon has also applied for permitting to build a broadband cellular tower in the Mendenhall Valley area. Verizon 4G phones use the LTE protocol.
For more information visit www.alaskacommunications.com.
• Contact reporter Russell Stigall at 523-2276 or at russell.stigall@juneauempire.com.
Comments (16)
Add commentACS was nasty to me and we switched!
Competition is great, but ACS was pretty nasty to me so we switched.
For years their billing was a disaster. Some month they didn't bill at all and once was on the phone for an hour to get a bill mailed to me. There were also lots of bizarre charges nobody at ACS was ever willing or able to explain to me. Not sure if they have fixed any of this.
I also bought a phone from them that was supposed to have a zillion standby hours that got hot and went dead after 2hrs. They told me there was nothing wrong with it and I couldn't exchange it. By the time it died completely a day later they said "sorry you have used more that X number of hours". To me that was a $300 phone with all of my data (back then you couldn't back that stuff up). Replacing that phone would have cost ACS next to nothing and would have kept me from jumping ship at my earliest convenience.
The other phone companies aren't perfect either, but just be sure to watch out for ACS.
Myself
I agree - ACS was nasty to me too - it was several years ago, before I ever had a cell phone, and I switched and never went back.
not happening for me either...........
I had home phone service with ACS years ago and the unexplained charges and late fees (when they had been paid timely !!), deplorable customer service and lack of true concern for their customer base caused me to jump ship and never look back. They could have the best internet service available and I wouldnt go back.
I haven't had any horrible
I haven't had any horrible experiences with ACS (fingers crossed) but I feel like when they say 10 Mbps they're pulling our legs. Isn't it physically impossible for that to happen when they're still using the cables that have limited capacity for supplying data?
I agree
Their still seems to be some internal disconnect at ACS that leaves me scratching my head. I've used their DSL service for a few years now and I love it. No slow downs during prime time, no data limits or overage charges is great. In the last few weeks I saw their new speed increases and called to have my DSL sped-up. "No problem", the woman said, "this will take 2 to 3 days and you'll notice a big increase in speed." 4 days later, nada. So this time I filled out the web-base subscription form and when the auto reply came in my email I sent that to their support people asking when it will take affect, "2 to 3 days, if you don't notice a difference call tech-support." Needless to say, I had to call and wait on the phone for 30 minutes while they tried to figure out why it wasn't working. I hate GCI, their product, their billing, their support people, and have all but refused to do business with them. ACS is an alternative, but not necessarily a better one.
Don't love ACS by any means
Don't love ACS by any means but I quit GCI when I had to pay $5.00 a month NOT to have cable TV if I wanted cable modem and phone.
ACS will sell this with the caveat that you can subscribe but they won't guarantee anything beyond 1mbps. That was the line they gave us in my neighborhood if we wanted 3mbps.
ACS
The only good thing ACS has going for them is at least they aren't GCI.
Back in September 2011
Back in September of last year, the wife and I was trying to decide between ACS, GCI, or ATT for our cell phones. We marked off GCI due to the great bill scam of 2010-2011. So basically the options were down to ACS and ATT.
ATT are well known for their FBI black box and fraudulent throttling (as does ACS and GCI). However, the throttling wasn't an issue for the cell phones (at that time).
ATT had the Iphone, while ACS had unsupported/discontinued Android phones. I wanted to stick with ACS due to using them for all of our other services.
However, I needed a phone with a good/relaxed development environment. That only left the IPhone, so ATT we went.
We have roughly 1.5y left with ATT on contract. After that, if ACS gets the IPhone 5, I'll switch over.
Now if only ACS actually provide TV/Cable service for renters ... As of 2 months ago, they have no plans to provide service to Juneau.
As for the speed of 10MB, it is fake. ACS only provides 10MB with in their network. So if you go from one computer to another in Alaska, and both computers are connected through ACS, you get the full 10MB. Anything outside of that, you get between 1MB and 5MB. AKA, ACS will not sell you real world 10MB.
This is interesting because ACS have capped the connection at the switch off. Up until the 30th of March, ACS did not cap the network.
In layman's terms, this means that oversold their bandwidth and cannot provide services paid for. They basically pulled a "GCI". Except ... ACS knows better then to provide a cap scam :)
Juneau is about 20 years behind in anything IT related. And for the small amount we get, we pay through the nose.
no love
ACS was always slappin' Treyshawn wif da hidden fees. Plus da' network goin down more often than Lewinsky. No love for ACS from muh.
Wow
The only thing newsworthy about this article is the medieval state of technology in Juneau. This is pathetic.
My cable company offers thee tiers of home internet access: 22/2.5 Mbps; 31/3 Mbps; and 55/5.5 Mbps (download/upload). I have the middle tier, and routinely get 35 Mbps download, and 8 Mbps upload.
On home wifi, my iPhone pegs the SpeedTest app at 20 Mbps, and just now it showed 7.23 Mbps on upload.
On ATT 3G, with only 3 signal bars, I get 3.5-4.0 Mbps download and 1.0 Mbps upload.
So, this wonderful improvement by ACS isn't much better than I would get on 3G with a full strength signal. And you PAY for that garbage???
All I know
All I know for a fact is that we only have one cable television provider in Juneau - GCI. I want to have more than just local, minimal coverage, so that costs me $76.25 a month. I have had ACS, Ptialaska telephone and internet connections for many years, that costs me about $69.45 a month.
Let's see, that is $145.70 a month.
Maybe I am just getting senile, but for almost $5 a day for television, phone and internet, isn't there something less expensive in Juneau? I guess not.
TV, phone and internet costs me more than my electrical bill at times for an all-electric condo.
It may be time to move elsewhere where a person can get services at a less expensive rate.
I hate GCI
Just thought I'd say that.
$110/month for internet really, really, really bugs me.
I am switching to ATT soon, even though they are as evil as ExxonMobil. Remember the 1980s?
Jo
I prefer GCI over ACS and I use ATT for my cell phone, but I had to thumbs up you anyway, since you were so d@mn funny with that Exxon comment!
Some of you are confusing Mbs
Some of you are confusing Mbs with MBs (especially Sync). Bandwidth speeds are measured in Mbs (megabits), whereas the download speeds on your computer are measured in MBs (megabytes). There are 8 bits in a byte, so internet service rated at 10 Mbps will download at a maximum of 1.25 MBps.
Good point Pers.
Good point Pers.
Ahem....
Persnickety said "so internet service rated at 10 Mbps will download at a maximum of 1.25 MBps." Not always true.
My cable service (and most others that I'm aware of) consistently outperforms the "rated" throughput. That's why I typically get 35 Mbps from a 31 Mbps service, and my uploads range between 250 and 300 percent the "rated" service.
Of course, many others only reach their rated service every 7th Monday morning at 3:02 a.m., when temperatures are precisely 68 degrees f., 62.5 percent humidity, no wind in the past 92 hours, and no solar events within 21 days. I'm guessing that's ACS.