Anchorage-based telecom company General Communication Inc. reported a first-quarter profit of $354,000, down 19 percent from the same three months of last year, on revenue of $149 million, up 10 percent. The company's selling, general and administrative expenses grew 22 percent and its interest expense, including noncash amortization of deferred loan fees, grew 42 percent.
GCI operations include local, long-distance and wireless phones, cable TV and Internet access.
Its consumer operations were up 15 percent and totaled 48 percent of its revenue. The company said its consumer local phone service grew as it added more lines, its cable TV grew as customers added higher-level service such as high-definition TV, its Internet revenue rose as more costumers got cable modems or upgraded their modem service, and its wireless revenue grew as it has added 33 percent more wireless lines from a year earlier.
GCI sells the same services to business customers, accounting for 19 percent of its first-quarter revenue. This revenue was up 5 percent from a year earlier.
The company also got 22 percent of its revenue from selling access to its network. But this revenue was down 15 percent, primarily because AT&T Mobility moved its customers to its own network, GCI said.
GCI said a key measure of its cash flow, called EBITDA, totalled $44.2 million, up 17 percent.
Funds for energy projects OK'd, NANA says
NANA Regional Corp. announced that state legislators recently approved $16.5 million in spending on new alternative energy projects in Northwest Alaska.
A $10 million project will install wind power generation in three Northwest Arctic Borough villages: Buckland, Deering and Noorvik. A $4 million project will expand the Kotzebue wind farm. A regional utility, Alaska Village Electric Cooperative, will receive $500,000 for a solar energy project in Ambler that will offset heating costs for part of the year. AVEC also received $1 million for a hydropower study for the Upper Kobuk region. The Northwest Inupiat Housing Authority received $250,000 for biomass energy research.
The projects will reduce regional energy costs, create jobs, and enable NANA to train new leaders in alternative energy, said Jay Hermanson, a program manager for WHPacific, a NANA subsidiary that assisted the other entities in securing the funds.
Power Broker Report lists 2 Alaska firms
Prudential Jack White/Vista Real Estate in Anchorage was ranked 105th of 600 in real estate sales volume and 112th of 600 in transactions in the RISMedia 2009 Power Broker Report, an annual report of the nation's largest residential real estate brokerages. The report showed Prudential Jack White handled $843 million in sales, and 3,166 transactions last year.
Keller Williams Realty Alaska Group ranked 320th in sales and 385th in transactions, with $250 million in sales and 906 transactions.
Alyeska named Distinguished Operator
Anchorage-based Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. has won the 2008 Distinguished Operator Award, for large operators, from the American Petroleum Institute. Alyeska runs the 800-mile trans-Alaska oil pipeline and Valdez tanker port for the oil companies that own them. The award recognizes excellence in safety, environment and integrity, as well as Alyeska's community outreach, Alyeska said. The company also won the award for 2005, and it won the 2008 Environmental Performance Award from API.
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