'Zombie' satellite wants rural Alaska's brains

Alaska Newspapers Inc. reported earlier this month that GCI is notifying satellite-based Internet and phone customers across rural Alaska that their service will be temporarily interrupted between Aug. 11 and 14, at somewhat predictable times, and may result in limited or no service for a number of them. A wayward satellite which lost its propulsion capabilities is wandering around in orbit and is on its way to cause problems for a satellite GCI uses primarily to provide service to rural areas. Service provided by land-line only will not be affected. Read the press release, including probable times of outage and a way to place a long-distance call if one doesn't go through, via The Tundra Drums. And for a long report about what the outages will mean to rural people, including which video game is reportedly Barrow's favorite to play live on the Web, read Anchorage Daily News's report about the "zombie" satellite, here.