in August 1972. As with much of
rural Alaska in the 1970s, this building contained the community's only telephone at the time. The company began in 1900 when the
U.S. Congress authorized the
U.S. Army Signal Corps to create the Washington-Alaska Military Cable and Telegraph System, or
WAMCATS. During the 1940s and
World War II, the U.S. Army completed the system and it became known as the
Alaska Communications System (ACS) and the
White Alice Communications System. In 1970,
RCA Corporation purchased ACS and renamed it
RCA Alascom. Alascom greatly built up the telecommunications infrastructure in the state during this time, due to RCA's major involvement in
communications satellites. In 1979,
Pacific Power & Light Company (later known as PacifiCorp), thru its subsidiary
Pacific Telecom, Inc., purchased RCA Alascom and it became known as
Alascom, Inc. The company launched three
communications satellites into orbit:
Aurora I on October 27, 1982,
Aurora II on May 29, 1991, and
Aurora III (later renamed AMC-8) in 2000. All three satellites are dedicated solely to providing telecommunications services to Alaska.
The original AT&T purchased Alascom in 1995 and gave the company its current name. Alaska regulatory approval of both that purchase and SBC's later purchase of AT&T required that AT&T Alascom continue to exist as a separate entity. ==See also==