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Web posted
Monday, February 16, 2004
This Week in Alaska Business History
Editor's note: "This Week in Alaska Business History" revisits events that shaped our past.
Feb. 21, 1994
ATU leaps aboard information express
By Ed Bennett
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For the Journal of Commerce
Anchorage Telephone Utility intends to enter the interstate long-distance telephone market, going head-to-head with Alascom and GCI. "If you can believe it, there will be three companies in the phone wars," said ATU chief executive officer James Morrison.
But there's more. At a press briefing Feb. 14, Morrison made a series of other announcements that will place ATU - and its Anchorage customers - on the fast lane of the information highway.
They include:
A 2,000-channel video-on-demand system using existing phone lines to bring TV to the home.
A plan to bid for a license to build a personal communication system, the next-generation cellular phone system.
Completion of an ongoing project to install fiber optic transmission lines throughout Anchorage, and expanding the system to the neighborhood level.
These developments come more than three years after Anchorage voters decided to retain the city's ownership of ATU, but removed it from the political process by creating an independent board of directors. The phone company provided $11.5 million to city coffers in 1993.
But major changes in the telecommunications world are threatening the once-cozy monopoly enjoyed by most phone companies, including ATU. By the end of this year, Morrison expects an end to federal law which prevents phone companies from distributing video and cable companies from carrying phone calls. He also expects new legislation soon permitting competition for local telephone calls.
Feb. 21, 1994
Fort Knox construction may begin in spring
By Margaret Bauman
Alaska Journal of Commerce
Construction of the Fort Knox Gold Mine near Fairbanks appears likely this spring, with the state's decision to issue the necessary permits for the first big hardrock mine on state land.
The open pit surface gold mine is expected to make a significant contribution to the Fairbanks and state economies, the latter through royalty fees, mining license and corporate taxes.
The state stands to earn 3 percent of net profits in royalties, 7 percent of net profits as the mining license tax, plus corporate tax fees. "Our internal estimate is $400,000 a year in royalties, but that is subject to a lot of variables," said Jerry Gallagher, director of the state Division of Mines.
"The is the first major hard rock mining operation to be permitted on state lands," said Gov. Walter J. Hickel, announcing plans to issue state permits for the mine in mid-February.
The Fort Knox deposit, about 15 miles northeast of Fairbanks, is owned by Fairbanks Gold Mining Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Amax Gold Inc. of Colorado. The mine is expected to employ 450 workers at the peak of construction and about 250 during the estimated 12 years of production. The deposit is estimated to hold at least 4.1 million ounces of gold and to produce as much as 350,000 ounces a year, state mining officials said.
- Compiled by Ed Bennett
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