Alaskan VARs Stand Behind Sen. Ted Stevens

Stevens, a Senate member for 37 years and chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, is being criticized for comments explaining his stance against Net neutrality, the concept of keeping all Web traffic equal.

His statements last month during consideration of the Communications, Consumers' Choice and Broadband Deployment Act of 2006 included the following: "[The Internet] is just a series of tubes" and "Now we have a separate Department of Defense Internet now, did you know that?" He also confused the term "Internet" with "e-mail."

For the last two weeks, Stevens has been the butt of jokes in the Lower 48 in places ranging from Youtube.com to "The Daily Show," much to the consternation of some of his solution provider constituents that build and support the "tubes" in Stevens' home state.

"It's much ado about nothing. The senator has lot of things on his mind. He was probably working hard and blurted out whatever was going through his mind. He's always been a well-informed guy, and he's done a lot to promote technology in Alaska," said Scott Thorson, CEO at Network Business Systems, an Anchorage, Alaska-based solution provider.

Thorson has met Stevens on several occasions--"It's a small state," he said--and he finds the attention on the senator undeserved. "It's not like he's a bonehead," Thorson said.

Some Alaskan solution providers said the notoriety gives Alaska a bad rap. If anything, Alaska could be even more technologically savvy than other parts of the country because of its remote location, they said.

"We have to be able to provide full telecommunications services to communities that are 500 miles from the nearest road and have less than 100 people. We do that routinely," Thorson said. "It's incredibly challenging when everything is built on permafrost. And we get blizzards that last weeks at a time, and you have visibility of less than 100 feet."

Marshel Reed, owner of Alaska Data Technologies, an Anchorage-based solution provider that serves small and midsize businesses, thinks Stevens' comments are being overanalyzed.

" 'Tubes' are just another word for 'pipes,' and people use the term 'pipes' all the time [when] talking about the Internet. It's just a big yada-yada about nothing," said Reed, a Stevens supporter. "He's an older gentlemen, very experienced in the ways of Congress, power brokering and getting things for Alaska. People here don't care what Sen. Stevens says. They care about what he does." Edward Hoppas, business development director at Core Communications, an Anchorage-based carrier and systems integrator, feels the senator's comments were just a verbal faux pas.

"There's a lot of play on this, a lot of Alaska-bashing going on in [Washington] based on his comments. It's pretty common to use the word 'tubes' instead of 'pipes,' " Hoppas said. "I know he understands telecommunications from a high level and how the Internet works at a high level."

Core Communications is currently involved with a massive undersea fiber-optic cabling project to connect numerous remote communities, Hoppas said.

"People need to take an informed look at what we're doing up here and at our senator," Hoppas said. "They hear about [federal] money coming up, but they don't have a clue about the challenges we face and what we have accomplished. If it was not for guys like Ted Stevens, we would be way back technically."

But at least one solution provider finds Stevens' comments troubling. "It's completely embarrassing. We're one of the most connected states in the union," said Jennifer Peterson, manager of blueWire Technologies, Fairbanks, Alaska. "For our senator to have that little understanding of the Internet is both laughable and sad."

After all, the Internet has revolutionized Alaskans' lifestyle, she said. "Before, it was difficult to get goods that aren't standard up here. Now with the Internet, you can get just about anything, and we feel more connected to the news and media," she said.

Peterson believes Net neutrality is important to Alaskans. "If it goes away, I think we'll see a decrease in our ability to get goods and services and stay connected to the outside world," she said. "It's doubly upsetting that our senator is the one that said all the stupid stuff."