Rural

GCI Liberty CEO Says Universal Service Fund Is Essential for Alaska

GCI receives 40% of its $1 billion in annual revenue from the Universal Service Fund

Eric Urbach

Mar 5, 2026 — 1 min read

Photo of Ron Duncan (left), CEO of GCI Liberty, speaking at the ACA Connects Summit in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday

WASHINGTON March 5, 2026 – Rural Alaska would not be the same without the financial support of Universal Service Fund, according to CGI Liberty CEO Ron Duncan, who spoke at the ACA Connects summit on Wednesday.

Duncan said that Alaska’s unique size, geographic features and sparse population often connected by boat or small plane made it an essential state for high-quality broadband connectivity to participate in the “urban telecommunications ecosphere” that exists today.

“There's no way 600,000 people living over a land mass twice the size of Texas … could ever build out [broadband infrastructure] without the hundreds of millions of dollars [from the universal service fund],” Duncan said. “If you were to take it away, basically rural Alaska couldn't continue to exist.”