Ouzinkie, AK, United States

Ouzinkie, AK: Submarine Cable Landing Point

Ouzinkie is a hamlet located on Spruce Island in Kodiak Island Borough, Alaska, United States. Situated in the Gulf of Alaska, this small community serves as a submarine cable landing point, hosting one submarine cable that connects it to other points within the United States. The cable landing here supports domestic connectivity along the Aleutian corridor, a geographically remote stretch of the North Pacific.

The single cable landing at Ouzinkie is the AU-Aleutian system, which links communities and infrastructure across Alaska and the broader United States domestic network. As an intra-national cable, it reflects the particular connectivity challenges of remote Alaskan communities, which often depend on submarine cable infrastructure to supplement or replace terrestrial and satellite options.

Cables Landing at Ouzinkie, AK

AU-Aleutian is a submarine cable system with a length of 1,491 km, with a ready-for-service (RFS) year of 2022 (draft status). The cable connects landing points entirely within the United States, running along the Aleutian region of Alaska. At 1,491 km, it is a relatively compact domestic system designed to serve the connectivity needs of communities along this remote coastal and island chain. Ouzinkie represents one of the termination points on this system.

Regional Context

Within the United States, Ouzinkie ranks among the more modestly served landing points by cable count. The country hosts 113 submarine cables across 160 landing points, with major hubs such as Boca Raton, FL and San Juan, PR each served by eight cables, and Hermosa Beach, CA, Kapolei, HI, and Myrtle Beach, SC each hosting five. Ouzinkie, with one cable, sits in the top 69% of United States landing points by cable count, reflecting its role as a specialized domestic terminus rather than a major international gateway.

Network Role

Ouzinkie functions as a single-cable terminus on the AU-Aleutian system, a domestic submarine cable operating within the United States. Rather than serving as a hub for intercontinental or multi-system traffic, it represents a point of connectivity for a remote Alaskan island community, extending the reach of submarine cable infrastructure into one of North America's more geographically isolated regions. The AU-Aleutian cable's 1,491 km span addresses the particular distances involved in connecting Alaskan communities that are separated from the continental network by open water.

As a single-cable landing point in a country with 113 submarine cables distributed across 160 locations, Ouzinkie illustrates how the United States submarine cable network extends well beyond its densely connected coastal hubs to serve remote domestic endpoints. Its presence in the submarine cable graph highlights the geographic breadth of intra-national cable deployment across Alaska.