Juneau, Alaska (KINY) – Sitka experienced a widespread internet and cell service outage on Thursday morning, shortly after 11 a.m., leaving many residents and businesses without connectivity.
The outage occurred on a busy day in Sitka, with around 4,000 cruise passengers visiting the town. Due to the lack of internet access, many local businesses were forced to switch to cash-only transactions.
Local First News contacted the City and Borough of Sitka but received no confirmation of the cause of the outage. The last major internet disruption in Sitka occurred in 2016 when a damaged undersea fibre optic cable left the town without reliable service for 12 days.
GCI announced that the repair vessel is anticipated to reach the location of the undersea cable break, approximately 30 miles from Sitka, by September 6. The repair process is estimated to take up to a week, suggesting that normal communication services might not be fully restored until around the middle of September.
