FCC’s Trusty Reports on Week-Long Visit to Alaska
Says FCC broadband programs spurring deployment.
WASHINGTON, August 26, 2025 – After returning from a week-long trip to Alaska, Commissioner Olivia Trusty of the Federal Communications Commission on Monday highlighted the efforts, investments, and policies to deliver high-speed internet to some of the nation’s most remote and difficult-to-serve areas.
“Broadband connectivity is a game-changer in rural America,” said Trusty in a press release. “Nowhere is the challenge of expanding broadband access more acute than in Alaska, where rugged terrain and vast distances make it both difficult and expensive to connect remote villages.”
Trusty spent the week meeting with broadband providers, as well as federal, state, local, and Tribal leaders to witness firsthand some of the work underway for broadband expansion. She began her trip in Bethel and Eek, where she toured wireless infrastructure sites and visited the Ayaprun Elitnaurvik Cultural School and YukonKuskokwim Health Corporation, a Tribal healthcare system serving rural communities across southwest Alaska.
Making her way to the Kenai Peninsula, accompanied by Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and staff from Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), Trusty toured the Central Peninsula Hospital, a facility supported through the FCC’s Rural Health Care Program that provides funding to eligible health care providers for telecommunications and broadband services necessary to deliver health care. She also viewed fixed wireless projects serving surrounding communities.
“Notwithstanding these challenges, Alaska’s providers are leveraging FCC programs to deliver high-speed broadband services to communities across the state, opening access to education, healthcare, commerce, and economic opportunity for thousands of Alaskans,” said Trusty.
Trusty’s final stops were Wasilla, where she met with internet and voice service providers from across Alaska to review fiber deployment initiatives, and Juneau, where she spoke with state and local officials, including staff from Gov. Mike Dunleavy and the Alaska Municipal League, and toured a subsea cable landing station.
Trusty noted that the FCC’s Build America Agenda has helped drive some of Alaska’s progress towards closing the digital divide in the state.
“The FCC’s recent efforts to accelerate broadband deployment under the Build America Agenda – including, streamlining Commission rules to speed high-speed infrastructure builds, removing outdated regulatory barriers, and promoting U.S. leadership in wireless services – are already making a tangible difference,” said Trusty.
Throughout her trip, Trusty also engaged with government officials and broadband providers participating in the Alaska Connect Fund and Connect America Fund Phase II, both FCC programs to fund broadband expansion.
“While Alaska remains one of the most challenging places in the country to close the digital divide, I look forward to working with my colleagues at the FCC to ensure that Alaskans have the same opportunity as all Americans to participate in the 21st century digital economy,” Trusty concluded.
Member discussion