Florence By The Sea By Paula Dobbyn
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A rare opportunity has emerged for owners of trans-Pacific submarine cable intent on landing on the West Coast of the United States. A new cable landing station, on the Oregon coast overlooking the Pacific Ocean, is now open for business. Located in Florence, Oregon, and owned by Alaska Communications Systems (ACS,) the landing station is a virtual turnkey operation boasting an array of attractive features. The facility is run by highly skilled staff in a state that embraces the fiber optic cable industry; it has an offshore marine environment conducive to cable-laying; and it provides diverse and robust backhaul transport to the major telecom hubs of Portland and Seattle. “It’s an ideal spot for landing a new undersea cable,” said Laura Dana, ACS Senior
Manager, Carrier Sales & Service. In addition to the Florence facility, ACS recently acquired an existing Oregon-based cable landing station in Nedonna Beach through its purchase of Crest Communications Corp. and its subsidiary, WCI Cable. Like the Florence station, the Nedonna facility also ties in to dual path terrestrial fiber routes interconnecting with major telecommunications infrastructure in Oregon and
Washington’s largest cities. The two landing stations are part of a strong Enterprise focus by Anchorage-based ACS, Alaska’s leading integrated telecom provider. The company is rapidly evolving from its past as an incumbent local exchange carrier into an advanced telecom firm capable of serving large commercial and government clients, as well as other telecom carriers, with rooftops in Alaska, the Lower 48 and beyond. Over the last five years ACS has worked to transform its network to better serve the fast-growing Enterprise market and in 2007 it invested $175 million in long-haul undersea fiber optics. A key part of the investment was the $105 million