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ProPublica ·Behind the news

On This Nearly Deserted Alaska Island, You Pay to Keep Hundreds of Empty Buildings Wired for Internet

by Kyle Hopkins

Published 2026-07-20 09:00:00+00:00

Why run a fiber-optic cable into a house where grass grows on the living room floor?

0:00 / 12:59 · Narrator Rasalgethi

Context

ProPublica reporters flew to a nearly abandoned Alaskan island to look at houses with rotting walls and active fiber-optic cables. Published on 20 July 2026, the reporting traces the money behind a massive federal program meant to bring internet to rural America. The story asks a practical question about public spending. What happens when a government subsidy outlives the town it was supposed to serve? The result is a clear-eyed look at why cash keeps flowing to zombie infrastructure long after the locals move on.

Show notes

An investigation into a federal broadband program that pays an internet provider hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to wire abandoned buildings on a deserted Alaskan island. Reporters traveled to the former Navy base to check every address the company claimed to serve, finding ruined homes and zero actual subscribers. The report details how the government continues to fund the empty network even as the island's few remaining residents use private satellite connections.

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