Unlike most of the United States, AT&T had no role in Alaskan telecommunications as a local or long distance telephone provider until the purchase of Alascom in 1995. Alaska was also never served by any of the Regional Bell Operating Companies.
Alascom and General Communications, Inc. have been the two primary competitors for long-distance telephone service in Alaska since GCI's founding in 1979.
History
Alascom (then owned by RCA) building in Unalaska in August 1972. As with much of rural Alaska in the 1970s, this building contained the community's only telephone at the time.
The company began in 1900 when the U.S. Congress authorized the U.S. ArmySignal Corps to create the Washington-Alaska Military Cable and Telegraph System, or WAMCATS.
In 1970, RCA Corporation purchased ACS and renamed it RCA Alascom. Alascom greatly built up the telecommunications infrastructure in the state during this time, due to RCA's major involvement in communications satellites.
The company launched three communications satellites into orbit: Aurora I on October 27, 1982, Aurora II on May 29, 1991, and Aurora III (later renamed AMC-8) in 2000. All three satellites are dedicated solely to providing telecommunications services to Alaska.
The original AT&T purchased Alascom in 1995 and gave the company its current name. Alaska regulatory approval of both that purchase and SBC's later purchase of AT&T required that AT&T Alascom continue to exist as a separate entity.
