Update: Zombie Satellite Galaxy 15 is after Rural Alaska
We reported in a previous post on the zombie satellite Galaxy 15 that went rogue on April 5th about the potential interference this “zombie satellite” could cause, at the time with AMC 11.
This time, roughly 35,000 people in rural Alaska may experience problems caused by the zombie satellite. They may lose Internet access, long-distance phone service or both for periods of 90 minutes to as long as 5.5 hours between Wednesday August 11th and Saturday August 14th. “Almost every single person out in rural Alaska uses one of those services somehow,” said General Communications Inc. (GCI) spokesman David Morris. In an effort to warn people in nearly 100 communities of the problems that could occur while it still has a signal, GCI is airing radio ads, posting fliers and hopes to send text messages to cell phone customers.
GCI estimates that 4,000 residential customers, about 1,000 businesses, 78 village clinics and 49 schools could lose Internet access. As it stands, neither ATMs nor credit card processors will work. GCI is unsure if the zombie satellite will affect 911 service in the affected areas.
The estimated outages are:
Wednesday: 7 to 8:30 a.m.; 6 to 10 p.m.
Thursday: 6 to 10:30 a.m.; 5 to 10:30 p.m.
Friday: 5 to 10 a.m.; 5:30 to 9:30 p.m.
Saturday: 5 to 9:30 a.m.
