Review by cluth 
UPDATED: 2 years ago
member for 5.8 years, 303 visits, last login: 13 days ago
 Anchorage,Anchorage,AK
 $49 per month
 about 1 days
 "Extremely reliable service, FAR better download speeds than ACS, pseudo-static dynamic IP addresses"
 "Slow upload speeds, high price"
 "Much better than the competition in Alaska"
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I also have the Ultimate Package. I've added some upgrades to the basic package. I've detailed what I'm getting and what I'm paying for below:
$79.99: Ultimate Package
>LiteSpeed cable internet service (64k/32k)--upgraded below
>Digital cable TV (115 channels)
>Analog phone service with 13 features (caller ID, call waiting, etc.) and 150 minutes of out-of-state long distance--upgraded below (to be upgraded to PacketCable-based digital phone service when available)
$49.99: 5mbps/256kbps cable internet service upgrade (includes unlimited data transfer and unlimited dynamic IP addresses)
$10.00: Additional 350 minutes of out-of-state long distance (total of 500 minutes)
$4.99: 1GB email storage
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Total monthly price: $144.97, plus taxes--around $160 per month
While it sounds fairly expensive to folks from the Lower 48, it's not bad for the quality and breadth of services I'm receiving. An additional deal is available if you use GCI's GSM cellular service.
I also got 10,000 bonus miles for upgrading to the Ultimate Package. Previously, I had been a GCI subscriber to an older package--it's nice that they offered the bonus miles to both old and new customers.
A couple of comments on the services:
*I have dynamic IPs, but in practice (due to GCI's three-day DHCP lease) these change on average about once per year--long enough for me to register a domain and host my own mail server on my connection. Static IPs are available for $10 per month (a bit steep) but come with business accounts.
*The upload speed has been a bone of contention among a lot of GCI subscribers. 256kbps is slow compared to the 1mbps uploads offered on similar (and cheaper) services down south. Truthfully, though, it's not the end of the world--for now, when I have a large file to send to upload or I want to use Amazon's S3 service to back up my hard drive, I take my laptop over to the university and use their OC3.
*I consistently receive the rated download speed from GCI's local network. When I run the speed test at »speedtest.gci.net at the largest setting (97.66 MB), I get a consistent 650+ KB/sec in Mac OS X's Activity Viewer and a final rating of 5.0+mbps from the speed test tool. GCI does good at making sure the last mile isn't congested. However, downloads and especially speed tests from the Lower 48 can be a bit slow (I haven't gotten more than about 100-150 KB/sec on the standard DSLR speed tests from Megapath or LinkLine or the like)--which is strange, considering GCI's fat pipes to Seattle (I think they're running dual OC-192s, but I'm not sure). Maybe it's the latency of going through 1500 miles of fiber. Downloading multiple files at once or using a program that splits downloads into multiple connections at once usually results in me getting the full 5mbps rating.
A few other tidbits:
*The Ultimate Package plus $99 gets you 10mbps/384kbps with priority technical support and a static IP address.
*It's hard to put an accurate price for just the Internet service, as GCI is so heavy into bundling that they only offer my service plan to people who subscribe to the Ultimate Package. The $49.99 is an upgrade to the basic free cable modem service, so the true monthly cost of *just* the Internet portion is more like $74.98 ($24.99 for LiteSpeed and $49.99 for the speed upgrade), although I'm sure GCI would charge more if it weren't bundled with the other items. In fact, if you're just looking for cable Internet and want to skip TV and phone service, you can spend $99 for 4mbps/384kbps (the highest stand-alone service offered)--so packaging things together really gets you an, er, good deal (well, comparatively). Regardless, I chose to put $49.99 in the Monthly Cost field above, as most people getting Internet in Alaska are going to go with a bundle, whether it's from ACS or GCI.
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Update 10/30/07
I took an out-of-town job in the summer of 2006 and then spent the winter traveling, so while I was away, I downgraded my Internet connection to the free one included with my Ultimate Package (320k/128k--just fast enough to keep my email server usable). When I returned, I opted to upgrade to the 3m/256k plan for $10 cheaper than the 5m/256k plan. $10 per month isn't much, but I've found that 3mbps is more than fine for most of my usage (though I wouldn't go much slower).
However, there have been some rumors around DSLR that GCI is going to be upgrading their systems/offering a new tier with 15mpbs down and 3mbps up. (Perhaps their old analog cable platform is gone and those frequencies are available now or something.) There has been no official word from GCI on this, nor has there been any pricing information, but if it's available for the same price as their current top-of-the-line plan (10m/384k for the Ultimate Package plus $99), I'll be the first in line to upgrade (mostly for the upload; until more high-quality media offerings, such as good, HD streaming media or HD movie rentals/purchases, are widely available online, I doubt I'll find the extra download to be useful, though it would be fun). If it's much more than than an extra $99 on top of the Ultimate Package, I don't think I could justify the upgrade. We'll see what GCI comes out with.
I've now had the digital phone service (mentioned in the comment attached to this review) for almost exactly one year, and quality has been to POTS standards or better. I think it might have gone down for a short time once, but it was back up and running in hours (or less--I can't remember), and it's worked when the cable modem platform has gone down (though my cable modem service has only gone down two or three times in the year, at least that I've been aware of).
Oh, and I just noticed that at the beginning of October, I got 500 Alaska Airlines miles as an anniversary bonus from GCI. Can't complain about that!
Still happy with GCI and still [probably too] happy to fork over a large chunk of change every month...ah, the digital lifestyle...
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Update 11/21/07
I just got home and tried to use the phone and found that there was no dialtone. I played with a couple of the other extensions in the house before I finally looked at the EMTA and saw that half of the lights were unlit and one of the lights that doesn't normally blink was blinking. I opened up my laptop to look for the support number from the website (to call from my cell, since I obviously couldn't dial 611 from the landline). I pulled up the number and just as I was about to call it, I thought I'd test the landline again. Sure enough, I got a dialtone.
Supposedly, the digital phone service is continuously monitored by the GCI NOC, which enables them to begin repairs immediately rather than waiting for the customer to call and complain. Worked in my case: I don't know how long it had been down before I found out, but it was fixed within 10 minutes of me discovering it. Certainly better than the two days my old copper landline was down before ACS finally got around to coming out to fix it!
I do find it interesting that the cable modem platform remained up while the voice platform was down, so I'm guessing it wasn't something physical with the cable itself (e.g. a backhoe ripping it out of the ground, etc.). I will admit that my faith in its 100% reliability is a tad bit shaken, but I'm not too concerned, since I have my cell as a backup (and Cellular One recently improved the cell signal in my area, so my cell is [mostly] usable at home, now).
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