KPU Celebrates 90 Years of Keeping Ketchikan Connected to the World

KPU Telecommunications is part of the Ketchikan Public Utilities enterprise started by the City of Ketchikan in 1935. The City’s creation of KPU included Telephone, Electric and Power and was the first of its kind, a municipally owned utility. Phone service was new back then, but how far it has come since that 1935 launch. From operator controlled calls in the 1930s to party lines in the 1960s KPU Telecom was the original Social Network for Ketchikan. After introducing dial-up internet in the early 2000s, KPU now offers the fastest symmetric unlimited fiber optic internet in Alaska. By providing direct fiber to the home and business, with speeds up to one gig up and one gig down, with low ping and latency, KPU is now the most advanced communications network in Alaska. KPU owns its own undersea fiber cable that connects Ketchikan to the world with light-speed. We are proud to say at KPU that we are Totally Local. Simply Better.