Alex Hills - Finding Alaskas Villages: And Connecting Them

2016 Alex Hills

All Rights Reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written permission of the author.

First published by Dog Ear Publishing

4011 Vincennes Rd

Indianapolis, IN 46268

www.dogearpublishing.net

ISBN: 978-1-4575-5110-9
ISBN: 978-1-0879-2022-1 (ebook)

This book is printed on acid-free paper.

Printed in the United States of America

Same as Wi-Fi and the Bad Boys of Radio, including:

This book is a work of nonfiction based on actual events. The author and publisher make no explicit guarantee as to the accuracy of the information contained in the book, although every effort has been made to be as historically authentic and error-free as possible. Some passages are similar to or the same as passages in Wi-Fi and the Bad Boys of Radio: Dawn of a Wireless Technology, whose copyright is held by the author of this book.

Dedication

For the young pioneers
who will follow the path of these Alaskan heroes
but dont yet imagine all that they can achieve.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

FOREWORD

Alaskas telecommunication systems have been built or attempted to be built by colorful characters, smart people and innovators whove changed the world. Success has also depended on working well with families who have lived in Alaska for 10,000 years Alaska Natives who have welcomed new connections across this vast, cold place, but who, often in the same breath, want to be sure that their own languages and customs are preserved and protected.

Throughout this history, there have been some common themes:

First, Alaska is a proving ground.

A second theme in Alaska telecom history has been intense competition.

A third common theme in this history of Alaska telecommunications is that weve tended to attract some colorful, hardy, visionary and inventive characters.

The fourth theme in Alaskas telecom history is that Alaskans themselves have consistently welcomed improvements.

This new book by Alex Hills amplifies all of these themes. After serving in Korea as a U.S. military officer, Alex arrived in Alaska and soon found himself in the states phone wars. But he was consistently on the side of advancing technology sometimes finding ways to make old technology work and sometimes helping to create new technology. He encountered life-threatening challenges and ornery bureaucrats with the sense of humor displayed in these pages. He has, again and again, been in uncomfortable situations and come out with innovation.

Alex came to Alaska with the perspective that anything is possible if you keep working the problem. He puts no limits on his thinking, and he uses his imagination. Hes as comfortable in a Silicon Valley boardroom as climbing a tower in Bethel or leading his students to a remote part of the world Malawi in southern Africa or an Amazon jungle town in Peru, for example.

When I first met Alex, I wasnt surprised to find that an Alaskan had led the team that built the first large Wi-Fi network. Since then Ive worked with Alex in several settings: as a member of the Alaska Science and Technology Foundation Board in the late 1990s, developing a wireless location-based technology at Venture Ad Astra, establishing the Alaska Innovators Hall of Fame, and now serving with him on Iridiums Polar Advisory Board, where were helping to build a global satellite network to help solve communication problems in the north.

Reading this book told me more about Alex than Id learned over coffee in the last 20 years, and helps me understand the human element behind our phone systems, more than any other account of telecommunications in Alaska. Now Ill be sure I dont take for granted that phone call to rural Alaska ever!

Mead Treadwell
President, Pt Capital
Lt. Governor of Alaska, 2010-2014
Commissioner, U.S. Arctic Research Commission, 2001-2010
Chair, U.S. Arctic Research Commission, 2006-2010
Anchorage, Alaska
September 2016

Note: A supplement to this Foreword appears near the end of the book. See Table of Contents.

PREFACE

I was a lucky guy. When I first set foot in Alaska, big things were about to happen. I had arrived just in time for the decade of the 1970s.

In 1971 the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act was signed into law, settling aboriginal land claims, clearing the way for construction of the trans-Alaska oil pipeline, and triggering a big upswing in the young states economy. By 1977, when the first oil flowed through the pipeline, Alaska was already starting to change.

Another landmark happened in 1971. The RCA Corporation purchased Alaskas long-distance telephone system. Then called the Alaska Communications System the ACS it was operated by the U.S. Air Force. As part of the ACS purchase, RCA agreed to provide phone service to Alaskas villages, a service that hadnt previously been available to most of them. The ACS purchase, combined with some serendipitous circumstances, set in motion a series of events that led to the delivery of modern telecommunication services to the villages.

And by 1971 Alaska had already recognized the benefits of public broadcasting then called educational broadcasting and created the Alaska Educational Broadcasting Commission. The new agency was poised to foster a new network of broadcast stations to serve the many Alaska communities then with no existing radio or television service, setting the stage for another new service for the villages.

By the end of the decade, Alaskas rural villages were well on their way to receiving broadcast radio and television, telephone service for all, and reliable medical communication links. But the path to full modern telecommunication service was not a smooth one. The journey along that rocky road is the story that waits in the pages ahead.

This is not a complete Alaska telecommunication history or even a complete telecommunication history of the 1970s. Its just a personal story based on my experiences from 1972 to 1976. Its a remembrance of the great people I knew and worked with during that period, people who became my friends. And its a story of how I found rural Alaska and its villages and how I discovered its people some of the finest Ive ever known.

Youre about to read the experiences of a young engineer who sought adventure in Alaska and found it!

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

There were many who worked on developing Alaskas telecommunication systems in the 1970s, but only some of them appear in this book. The absence of others certainly does not diminish the importance of their work. It only reflects the books focus on my personal experiences and the stories of those with whom I worked directly.

I am indebted to those who patiently answered my questions, reviewed drafts, provided advice, checked facts, and gave encouragement. They are: Brian Beard, David Cheezem, Richard Chiappone, Cathy Hiebert, Karen Hills, Rebecca Hills, John Lee, Greg Moore, Nellie (Ward) Moore, Doug Neal, Cecil Sanders, and Lee Wareham.