Juneau, Alaska. Photo: Pixabay.

Alaska Communications announced that it has signed a non-exclusive Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to become the first reseller of OneWeb enabled broadband access in Alaska. Starting in 2019, this new broadband service will be available to every Alaska home, school, business, and community center, according to the company.

OneWeb’s system includes 900 high-throughput Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites capable of providing more than 7 Tbps of new global capacity. OneWeb will align the constellation in a polar orbit to ensure coverage of 100 percent of the United States, including Alaska, which historically has had poor coverage from the satellite industry due to its high latitude.

According to OneWeb, the constellation will provide a service that matches terrestrial quality latency of less than 50ms. This low latency service enables the same lag-free web browsing, streaming capabilities, video conferencing, voice communications, and enterprise applications access customers would expect from a fiber or cable network. According to OneWeb, because of the polar orbit, its terminals can view the satellites almost directly overhead at any time, providing clear line of sight access.