The significance of a recently awarded USDA Community Connect Broadband grant to the predominantly Native town of Saint Paul, Alaska, can’t really be appreciated until you know about this isolated community on one of the Pribilof Islands in the middle of the Bering Sea. It is not served by the Alaska Marine Highway ferry system and the major shipping routes are 250 miles to the south. The island is too far from the closest urban centers (more than 700 miles) to reach by light aircraft. No commercial jet service is available. Most supplies arrive by charter or flying service while freight arrives by barge, seasonally when the Bering Sea is ice-free. Winter travel in the Bering Sea can be extreme with violent seas and high winds. Air travel throughout the remaining months is often disrupted by heavy fog and ice fog. To say this is a remote area is an understatement.
The Community Connect project is desperately needed on Saint Paul Island. Available 2010 Census statistics show the community in distress. In 1990 the population was 763; by 2010 it was 479. This is at a time when Alaska’s less remote non-Native rural population is growing. With few available natural resources on this treeless island, Internet Connectivity is the core foundation for economic and demographic turn around.