Quintillion Releases New Report on Cable Landing Station Operations in the Alaska Arctic
The Quintillion Subsea System is 1200 miles long and has been serving the Alaska markets in Nome, Kotzebue, Point Hope, Wainwright, Utqiaġvik, and Prudhoe Bay/Deadhorse since 2017.
As the only network of its kind, the Quintillion system required a great deal of expertise and resilience to build. The US Arctic is a tough environment to construct and work in. This report describes in detail the challenges Quintillion and its partners faced and the solutions they utilized to build the system that exists today.
Matt Peterson, Quintillion’s Chief Technology Officer, contributed to this report and explained the feat Quintillion and its partners achieved with this project.
“The environment is tough in Alaska, and Quintillion has done a good job to adapt the subsea technology to the environment and operate successfully for the last five to six years… We constructed so that it could be maintained effectively in the environment. The success of this project pivoted on selecting the right team and having the proper leadership to understand where the challenges are and come up workable solutions with our partners.”
The report addresses many factors that Quintillion had to work with, including:
- Withstanding extreme weather conditions, including working in sub-zero temperatures
- Constructing in permafrost that extended hundreds of meters in depth
- Drilling with fast sea ice attached to the US Arctic coastline
- Addressing coastline erosion from rising sea levels and saltwater intrusion
- Minimizing interaction with the many types of wildlife in the area
- Utilizing horizontal directional drilling, instead of traditional trenching
- Transporting equipment to remote, hard-to-access locations
- Developing specialized system grounding methods, including offshore system earths
- Creating power feed equipment that could withstand a high geomagnetic interference
- Using resistant, modular cable landing station building designs
While Quintillion faced many challenges in building its subsea cable system in the Arctic, this feat has brought the company one major step closer to helping bridge the digital divide in Alaska and bringing the gold standard of connectivity to the unserved and underserved communities in the Arctic and beyond.
To learn more about Quintillion, keep up on the latest subsea news and updates, and more, contact our team or visit the Quintillion website.
Grace Jang
Grace Jang Solutions
+1 800-673-4394
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