The State of Broadband in Alaska, 2020

Written by the BroadbandNow team. Last updated 9/1/2020.

At this time, the state of Alaska ranks last in terms of internet connectivity when compared to all of the other states and the state capital. Alaska’s average download speed is about 58.6 Mbps, according to recent user speed tests. Due to its many sparsely populated rural and wilderness areas, large parts of Alaska do not have any wired coverage at all. However, more populated areas, especially toward the southeast part of the state, experience relatively fair broadband coverage.

The Digital Divide in Alaska

As the least-connected state, Alaska is not only physically, but also digitally divided from the contiguous USA. This means that internet technologies are not equally available in Alaska. Despite being the biggest state in the country, Alaska has the lowest amount of broadband infrastructure. While some counties have up to 99% access for 25+ Mbps wired broadband services, the majority of the counties in Alaska have 0% access. Currently, 79.8% of Alaskans have access to a wired connection capable of 25 Mbps or faster, while 148,000 residents do not have such speeds available to them. Another 60,000 residents do not have any wired connection available at all. There are also 258,000 people who only have access to one of the 73 wired internet providers in Alaska, giving them no second choice if they are dissatisfied with their provider.

The most updated affordability data shows that 0% of Alaskans have access to a low-priced internet plan, costing $60 or less a month. On a national scale, a low-priced internet plan is available to 51.5% of consumers.

Best-Connected Cities

Although Alaska is the lowest ranking state when it comes to broadband connectivity, there are some cities that have good coverage. The best-connected cities in Alaska are Anchorage, Juneau, Jber, Fort Wainwright, and Sitka, with the first in the list ranking highest.

Worst-Connected Cities

Meanwhile, the worst-connected cities in Alaska are Nikolski, Atka, Port Alexander, Chignik Lake, and Hyder, with the last city in the list ranking lowest in the state.

Read up on how Alaska stacks up against the rest of the US here.

Governmental Initiatives

In partnership with the Alaska Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development, Connect Alaska has been awarded $6,378,198 in federal grants since 2010 to expand broadband access within the state.

The information on this page is gathered from both public and private datasets. Get more details about our data here.