On This Nearly Deserted Alaska Island, You Pay to Keep Hundreds of Empty Buildings Wired for Internet

U.S. phone customers pay more than $340,000 a year for an Anchorage company to keep homes and buildings on Alaska’s Adak Island wired for obsolete internet service. All but a few of them sit empty.

By Kyle Hopkins, Anchorage Daily News. Co-published with Anchorage Daily News. Originally published July 20, 2026. Recorded by News Over Audio.

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