Internet, cell services down for most of Sitka

Most internet and cell services went down in Stika Thursday morning shortly after 11 a.m.

Sitkans who reached out to the GCI customer service line  to report the widespread internet and cell service outage got a message that said “GCI is aware of the outage that is affecting internet and TV service within the O’Malley area in Anchorage and Sitka.”

Sitka had 4,000 cruise passengers on Thursday. Many businesses reported having to resort to cash-only transactions to make sales. 

Around 2 p.m. on Thursday, the lights were on at the AT&T store in downtown Sitka, but the door was locked and a sign on the door read “Network down, No ETA.”

But, not every network is down. Melissa Henshaw is the public and government affairs director at Sitka City Hall. She said the city is using Starlink as a backup internet provider, and right now it’s working. 

Henshaw said the city was able to get some information about the outage from GCI after their IT Director reached out. She said they’re working as hard as they can to get things back up and running. 

The last time Sitka experienced a major internet outage was in 2016. At the time, KCAW reported that service was impacted for 12 days due to a damaged fiber optic cable at the bottom of the sea floor. So far, the reason for this outage is unclear. 

This is a developing story.