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EX-31.1 - EXHIBIT 31.1 - GCI, LLCexhibit31-1.htm
EX-32.1 - EXHIBIT 32.1 - GCI, LLCexhibit32-1.htm
EX-31.2 - EXHIBIT 31.2 - GCI, LLCexhibit31-2.htm
EX-32.2 - EXHIBIT 32.2 - GCI, LLCexhibit32-2.htm
EX-21.1 - EXHIBIT 21.1 - GCI, LLCexhibit21-1.htm
EX-10.171 - EXHIBIT 10.171 - GCI, LLCexhibit10-171.htm
EX-10.172 - EXHIBIT 10.172 - GCI, LLCexhibit10-172.htm

 
 

 

UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
 
Washington, D.C. 20549
 
 
FORM 10-K
 
x ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 or 15(d) OF THE
SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934
For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2009
or
o TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 or 15(d) OF THE
SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934
For the transition period from             to           
Commission File No. 0-5890

 
GCI, INC.
 
 
(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)
 

 
State of Alaska
 
91-1820757
 
 
(State or other jurisdiction of
 
(I.R.S Employer
 
 
incorporation or organization)
 
Identification No.)
 

 
2550 Denali Street
     
 
Suite 1000
     
 
Anchorage, Alaska
 
99503
 
 
(Address of principal executive offices)
 
(Zip Code)
 

Registrant’s telephone number, including area code: (907) 868-5600
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Exchange Act:  None
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Exchange Act:  None
 
Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act.
 
Yes o   No x
 
Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Securities Act.
 
Yes o   No x
 
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days.
 
Yes x   No o
 
Indicate by check mark if disclosure of delinquent filers pursuant to Item 405 of Regulation S-K (section 229.405 of this chapter) is not contained herein, and will not be contained, to the best of registrant’s knowledge, in definitive proxy or information statements incorporated by reference in Part III of this Form 10-K or any amendment to this Form 10-K. o
 
 

 
 
 
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Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, or a smaller reporting company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” "accelerated filer" and "smaller reporting company" in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.

Large accelerated filer o
Accelerated filer o
Non-accelerated filer x (Do not check if a smaller reporting company)
Smaller reporting company o

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Act). Yes o   No x

THE REGISTRANT MEETS THE CONDITIONS SET FORTH IN GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS I(1)(a) AND (b) OF FORM 10-K AND IS THEREFORE FILING THIS FORM WITH THE REDUCED DISCLOSURE FORMAT.

 
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GCI, INC.
A WHOLLY-OWNED SUBSIDIARY OF GENERAL COMMUNICATION, INC.
2009 ANNUAL REPORT ON FORM 10-K
TABLE OF CONTENTS


Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
        4
           
Part I
          4
           
 
Item 1. Business
        4
 
Item 1A. Risk Factors
        25
 
Item 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments
        32
 
Item 2. Properties
        32
 
Item 3. Legal Proceedings
        32
 
Item 4. Omitted per General Instruction I(1)(a) and (b) of Form 10-K
        32
           
Part II
          33
 
Item 5. Market for the Registrant's Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities
        33
 
Item 6. Selected Financial Data
        33
 
Item 7. Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations
        34
 
Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures about Market Risk
        56
 
Item 8. Consolidated Financial Statements and Supplementary Data
        56
 
Item 9. Changes In and Disagreements With Accountants on Accounting and Financial Disclosure
        56
 
Item 9A. Controls and Procedures
        56
 
Item 9B. Other Information
        58
           
Part III
          58
 
Items 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14 are omitted per General Instruction I(1)(a) and (b) of Form 10-K
        58
           
Part IV
          59
 
Item 15. Exhibits, Consolidated Financial Statement Schedules
        59
           
SIGNATURES
        114



This Annual Report on Form 10-K is for the year ending December 31, 2009. This Annual Report modifies and supersedes documents filed prior to this Annual Report. The Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) allows us to “incorporate by reference” information that we file with them, which means that we can disclose important information to you by referring you directly to those documents. Information incorporated by reference is considered to be part of this Annual Report. In addition, information that we file with the SEC in the future will automatically update and supersede information contained in this Annual Report.


 
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Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

You should carefully review the information contained in this Annual Report, but should particularly consider any risk factors that we set forth in this Annual Report and in other reports or documents that we file from time to time with the SEC. In this Annual Report, in addition to historical information, we state our future strategies, plans, objectives or goals and our beliefs of future events and of our future operating results, financial position and cash flows. In some cases, you can identify those so-called “forward-looking statements” by words such as “may,” “will,” “should,” “expects,” “plans,” “anticipates,” “believes,” “estimates,” “predicts,” “potential,” “project,” or “continue” or the negative of those words and other comparable words. All forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors that may cause our actual results, performance, achievements, plans and objectives to differ materially from any future results, performance, achievements, plans and objectives expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. In evaluating those statements, you should specifically consider various factors, including those identified under “Risk Factors,” and elsewhere in this Annual Report. Those factors may cause our actual results to differ materially from any of our forward-looking statements. For these forward-looking statements, we claim the protection of the safe harbor for forward-looking statements provided by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.

You should not place undue reliance on any such forward-looking statements. Further, any forward-looking statement, and the related risks, uncertainties and other factors speak only as of the date on which they were originally made and we expressly disclaim any obligation or undertaking to update or revise any forward-looking statement to reflect any change in our expectations with regard to these statements or any other change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is based. New factors emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for us to predict what factors will arise or when. In addition, we cannot assess the impact of each factor on our business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements.


Part I

Item 1. Business

General
In this Annual Report, “we,” “us,” “our,” and “the Company” refer to GCI, Inc. and its direct and indirect subsidiaries.

GCI, Inc. was incorporated in 1997 to effect the issuance of Senior Notes.  GCI, Inc. as a wholly owned subsidiary of General Communication, Inc. ("GCI"), received through its initial capitalization all ownership interests in subsidiaries previously held by GCI, GCI was incorporated in 1979 under the laws of the State of Alaska and has its principal executive offices at 2550 Denali Street, Suite 1000, Anchorage, AK 99503-2781 (telephone number 907-868-5600).

GCI, Inc. is primarily a holding company and together with its direct and indirect subsidiaries, is a diversified communications provider in the State of Alaska.

Availability of Reports and Other Information
Internet users can access information about the Company and its services at http://www.gci.com/, http://www.gcinetworksolutions.com/, http://www.unicom-alaska.com/, http://www.alaskadigitel.com/, http://www.alaska-wireless.com/ and http://www.alaskaunited.com/. The Company hosts Internet services at http://www.gci.net/, broadband delivery of health services at http://www.connectmd.com, and SchoolAccess® services at http://www.schoolaccess.net/. Our online telephone directory and yellow pages are hosted at http://www.gcidirectory.com/.

We make available on the http://www.gci.com/ website, free of charge, access to our Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K, GCI's Proxy Statement on Schedule 14A and amendments to those materials filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934 as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically submit such material to the SEC. In addition, the SEC’s website is http://www.sec.gov/. The SEC makes available on this website, free of charge, reports, proxy and information statements, and other information regarding
 
 
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issuers, such as us, that file electronically with the SEC. Information on our websites or the SEC’s website is not part of this document.

Financial Information about Industry Segments
Our five reportable segments are Consumer, Network Access, Commercial, Managed Broadband, and Regulated Operations services.

For financial information about our reportable segments, see “Part II — Item 7 — Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.”  Also refer to note 9 included in “Part II — Item 8 — Consolidated Financial Statements and Supplementary Data.”

Narrative Description of our Business

General
We are the largest communications provider in Alaska as measured by revenues. We offer facilities-based local and long-distance voice services, cable television, data and Internet access to residential and business customers across the state under our GCI brand. In addition, we provide wireless telephone services over our own facilities under the GCI, Alaska DigiTel and Alaska Wireless brand names. Due to the unique nature of the markets we serve, including harsh winter weather and remote geographies, our customers rely extensively on our systems to meet their communication and entertainment needs. We benefit from the attractive demographic and economic characteristics of Alaska. Also, the state of Alaska does not levy personal income taxes or collect sales taxes.

Since GCI's founding in 1979 as a competitive long distance provider, we have consistently expanded our product portfolio and facilities to become the leading integrated communication services provider in our markets. Our facilities include redundant and geographically diverse digital undersea fiber optic cable systems linking our Alaska terrestrial networks to the networks of other carriers in the lower 48 contiguous states. As of December 31, 2009, our cable systems passed 89% of Alaska’s households, and we have achieved 56% basic cable penetration of the homes we reach. We believe we offer superior video services relative to digital broadcast satellite (“DBS”), which is limited by Alaska’s geographic location, challenging climate and terrain features. We have continued our statewide deployment of digital local phone service (“DLPS”) utilizing our own coaxial cable facilities enabling us to move off of facilities that we previously leased from telecom incumbents. At December 31, 2009, 74% of the local access lines we served were carried on our own last mile facilities. In recent years, we expanded our efforts in wireless and presently operate the only statewide wireless network. Our network provides access for both global system for mobile communications (“GSM”) and code division multiple access (“CDMA”) based devices, and can provide us with an eventual path to fourth generation Long Term Evolution (“LTE”) based wireless communications.

Our Consumer segment serves residential customers. Our Network Access segment serves other common carriers. Our Commercial segment serves small businesses, local, national and global businesses, governmental entities, and public and private educational institutions. Our Managed Broadband segment serves rural school districts, hospitals and health clinics. The financial results of the long-distance, local access and Internet services sold to consumer and commercial customers that we serve due to our acquisitions of United Utilities, Inc. (“UUI”) and United-KUC, Inc. (“United-KUC”) are reported in the Regulated Operations segment.

For the year ended December 31, 2009, we generated consolidated revenues of $595.8 million. We ended the period with approximately 100,600 long-distance customers, 144,700 local access lines in service, 147,600 basic cable subscribers, 125,400 wireless subscribers and 110,700 cable modem subscribers.

Recent Developments
Loan/grant Approval. In January 2010 the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Utilities Service (“RUS”) approved our wholly-owned subsidiary, UUI's application for an $88.2 million loan/grant combination to extend terrestrial broadband service for the first time to Bristol Bay and the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, an area in Alaska roughly the size of the state of North Dakota.  Upon completion, UUI’s project, TERRA-Southwest (“TERRA-SW”), will be able to serve 9,089 households and 748 businesses in the 65 covered communities.  The project will also be able to serve numerous public/non-profit/private community anchor institutions and entities, such as regional health care providers, school districts, and other regional and Alaska Native organizations. The RUS award, consisting of a $44.2 million loan and a $44.0 million grant, will be made under the RUS Broadband Initiatives Program established pursuant to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.  The grant portion of the award will fund backbone network facilities that we would not otherwise
 
 
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be able to construct within our return-on-investment requirements.  UUI expects to start construction on TERRA-SW in 2010 and complete the project by the end of 2012.

Senior Credit Facility.  On January 29, 2010, we signed an agreement for a new $75.0 million line of credit under our Senior Credit Facility. The line of credit replaces our previous line of credit and extends the maturity date to January 2015.

Development of our Business During the Past Fiscal Year
Wireless Business Strategy.  During 2009 we continued our GSM and CDMA network expansion.  We have expended $30.8 million in 2009 and plan to spend approximately $41.0 million over the next two years.

Debt Refinance. In November 2009, we issued $425.0 million principal amount of Senior Notes.  These Senior Notes bear interest at 8.625% and are due in November 2019.  We used the proceeds from the issuance of these Senior Notes to repay all indebtedness under our Senior Credit Facility totaling $389.8 million and for general corporate purposes.

You should see “Part I — Item 1. Business — Regulation” for regulatory developments.

Business Strategy
We intend to continue to increase revenues using the following strategies:

Offer Bundled Products. We offer innovative service bundles to meet the needs of our consumer and commercial customers. We believe that bundling our services significantly improves customer retention, increases revenue per customer and reduces customer acquisition expenses. Our experience indicates that our bundled customers are significantly less likely to churn, and we experience less price erosion when we effectively combine our offerings. Bundling improves our top line revenue growth, provides operating cost efficiencies that expand our margins and drives our overall business performance. As a measure of success to date, over 59,700 of our residential customers subscribe to one of our service bundles that include two or more services.

Maximize Sales Opportunities. We successfully sell new and enhanced services and products between and within our business segments to our existing customer base to achieve increased revenues and penetration of our services. Through close coordination of our customer service and sales and marketing efforts, our customer service representatives suggest to our customers other services they can purchase or enhanced versions of services they already purchase. Many calls into our customer service centers or visits into one of our 32 retail stores result in sales of additional services and products. We actively encourage our existing customers to acquire higher value, enhanced services.

Deliver Industry Leading Customer Service. We have positioned ourselves as a customer service leader in the Alaska communications market. We have organized our operations to effectively focus on our customers. We operate our own customer service department and maintain and staff our own call centers. We have empowered our customer service representatives to handle most service issues and questions on a single call. We prioritize our customer services to expedite handling of our most valuable customers’ issues, particularly for our largest commercial customers. We believe our integrated approach to customer service, including service set-up, programming various network databases with the customer’s information, installation, and ongoing service, allows us to provide a customer experience that fosters customer loyalty.

Leverage Communications Operations. We continue to expand and evolve our integrated network for the delivery of our services. Our bundled strategy and integrated approach to serving our customers creates efficiencies of scale and maximizes network utilization. By offering multiple services, we are better able to leverage our network assets and increase returns on our invested capital. We periodically evaluate our network assets and continually monitor technological developments that we can potentially deploy to increase network efficiency and performance.

Expand Our Product Portfolio and Footprint in Alaska. Throughout our history, we have successfully added and expect to continue to add new products to our product portfolio. We have a demonstrated history of new product evaluation, development and deployment for our customers, and we continue to assess revenue-enhancing opportunities that create value for our customers. In addition to new services such as additional high definition television ("HDTV") channels, video-on-demand, on-line advertising placement, on-line content delivery such as streaming music, and mobile high speed data, we are also expanding the reach of our core products to new markets. Where feasible and where economic analysis supports geographic expansion of our network coverage, we are currently pursuing or expect to pursue opportunities to increase the scale of our facilities, enhance our ability to serve our existing customers’ needs and attract new customers.

 
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Make Strategic Acquisitions.  We have a history of making and integrating acquisitions of in-state telecommunications providers. In 2008, we completed three acquisitions of telecommunications providers in various Alaska communities. Our management team is adept at sourcing, acquiring and integrating these acquired companies, and we will continue to actively pursue and buy companies that we believe fit with our strategy and networks and that are accretive to earnings.

Description of our Business by Reportable Segment

Overview
Our five reportable segments are Consumer, Network Access, Commercial, Managed Broadband, and Regulated Operations. Our reportable segments are business units that offer different products, are each managed separately, and serve distinct types of customers.

 Following are our segments and the services and products each offers to its customers:

 
Reportable Segments
Services and Products
Consumer
Network Access
Commercial
Managed Broadband
Regulated Operations
Voice:
         
Long-distance
X
X
X
 
X
Local Access
X
X
X
 
X
Directories
   
X
   
           
Video
X
 
X
   
           
Data:
         
Internet
X
X
X
X
X
Data Networks
 
X
X
X
 
Managed Services
   
X
X
 
Managed Broadband Services
     
X
 
           
Wireless
X
X
X
   

Many of our networks and facilities are utilized by more than one segment to provide services and products to our customers. The following description of our business by reportable segment includes a comprehensive discussion within the Consumer segment section with references to that section if such common network and facility use exists in another segment. Similarly, many of the same services and products are sold to our customers in different segments.

The following discussion includes information about significant services and products, sales and marketing, facilities, competition and seasonality for each of our five reportable segments.  For a discussion and analysis of financial condition and results of operations please see “Part II – Item 7 – Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.”

Consumer Segment
Consumer segment revenues for 2009, 2008 and 2007 are summarized as follows (amounts in thousands):

   
Year Ended December 31,
 
   
2009
   
2008
   
2007
 
Total revenues 1
  $ 294,925       255,632       223,502  

1  See “Part II — Item 7 — Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and note 9 included in “Part II — Item 8 — Consolidated Financial Statements and Supplementary Data” for more information regarding the financial performance of our Consumer segment.

 
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Services and Products
Our Consumer segment offers a full range of voice, video, data and wireless services and products to residential customers.

Voice Services and Products
Revenues derived from Consumer segment voice services and products in 2009, 2008, and 2007 totaled $52.7 million, $47.0 million, and $46.2 million, respectively, or 9%, 8%, and 9% of our total revenues, respectively.

Long-Distance
We are a full-service long-distance provider including intrastate, interstate and international calling. The value of our long-distance services is generally designed to be equal to or greater than that for comparable services provided by our competitors.

Local Access
We offer local access services in many communities and areas in Alaska, including the state’s five largest population centers, Anchorage, Fairbanks, the Matanuska-Susitna Valley, the Kenai Peninsula, and Juneau.  Our own DLPS facilities and collocated remote facilities that access the ILEC unbundled network elements ("UNE") loops allow us to offer full featured local service products to customers. In areas where we do not have our own DLPS facilities or access to ILEC UNE loop facilities, we offer service using total service resale of the ILEC’s local service or UNE platform.

Video Services and Products
Revenues derived from Consumer segment video services and products in 2009, 2008, and 2007 totaled $111.0 million, $105.2 million, and $96.3 million, respectively, or 19%, 18%, and 19% of our total revenues, respectively.

Our cable television systems serve 40 communities and areas in Alaska, including the state’s five largest population centers, Anchorage, Fairbanks, the Matanuska-Susitna Valley, the Kenai Peninsula, and Juneau.

We offer a full range of video services over our broadband cable systems. Our video service offerings include the following:

Basic cable. Our basic cable service consists of digital basic service with access to between 13 and 21 channels of programming and an expanded digital basic service with access to between 40 and 102 additional channels of programming. These services generally consist of programming provided by national and local broadcast networks, national and regional cable networks, and governmental and public access programming.  We transmit an entirely digital signal for all cable television channels in all markets we serve.

High-definition television. Our high definition television ("HDTV") service provides our digital subscribers with improved, high-resolution picture quality, improved audio quality and a wide-screen, theater-like display. Our HDTV service offers a broad selection of high-definition programming with access of up to 82 high-definition channels including most major broadcast networks, leading national cable networks, premium channels and national sports networks.

Digital video recorder. Our advanced digital video recorder ("DVR") service lets digital cable subscribers select, record and store programs and play them at whatever time is convenient. DVR service also provides the ability to pause and rewind “live” television.

Premium channel programming. Our premium channel programming service, which includes cable networks such as Home Box Office, Showtime, Starz and Cinemax, generally offers, without commercial interruption, feature motion pictures, live and taped sporting events, concerts and other special features.

Video on demand.  Our video on demand service permits our cable subscribers to order at their convenience, individual feature motion pictures and special event programs, on an unedited, commercial-free basis.

Pay-per-view programming. Our pay-per-view service permits our cable subscribers to order, for a separate fee, scheduled individual feature motion pictures and special event programs, such as professional boxing, professional wrestling and concerts, on an unedited, commercial-free basis.

Data Services and Products
Revenues derived from Consumer segment data services and products in 2009, 2008, and 2007 totaled $50.3 million, $42.7 million, and $34.2 million, respectively, or 8%, 7%, and 7% of our total revenues, respectively.

 
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Internet
We primarily offer four types of Internet access for consumer use: high-speed cable modem, dial-up, mobile wireless and fixed wireless. Value-added Internet features, such as e-mail virus prevention, personal web site and domain hosting, and additional e-mail accounts, are available for additional charges. Our consumer high-speed cable modem Internet service offers up to 12 Mbps download and 2 Mbps upload speeds as compared with up to 56 Kbps upload and download speeds through standard copper wire dial-up modem access. Our fixed wireless Internet product is available in 120 communities.

Wireless Services and Products
Revenues derived from Consumer segment wireless services and products in 2009, 2008, and 2007 totaled $81.0 million, $60.7 million, and $46.7 million, respectively, or 14%, 11%, and 9% of our total revenues, respectively.

We offer mobile wireless voice and data services by selling services over our own facilities under the GCI, Alaska DigiTel, and Alaska Wireless brand names. We offer fixed wireless local access services over our own facilities and have purchased personal communication services ("PCS") and local multipoint distribution system ("LMDS") wireless broadband licenses in Federal Communications Commission ("FCC") auctions covering markets in Alaska. We offer mobile wireless service to our customers in the state’s five largest population centers, Anchorage, Fairbanks, the Matanuska-Susitna Valley, the Kenai Peninsula, Juneau and many other small Alaska communities.

We offer our customers a variety of rate plans so they can choose the plan that best fits their expected calling needs. Consumer voice service is generally offered on a contract basis for one or two year periods. Under the terms of these contracts, service is billed and provided on a monthly basis according to the applicable rate plan chosen. Our offerings include regional and national rate plans at a variety of pricing tiers. Our wireless voice plans generally combine a fixed monthly access charge, a designated number of minutes-of-use, per minute usage charges for minutes in excess of the included amount and additional charges for certain custom-calling features. Most of our plans include basic features such as voice messaging, caller ID, call forwarding and call waiting, and two-way text messaging.  Wireless data service is included in certain plans or can be purchased as a feature to a plan.

We sell a variety of handsets and personal computer wireless data cards manufactured by various suppliers for use with our wireless services. We also sell accessories, such as carrying cases, hands-free devices, batteries, battery chargers and other items. We provide contract subscribers substantial equipment subsidies to initiate, continue or upgrade service.

Bundled Services and Products
We combine one or more of our individual service and product offerings into bundles that we sell to our Consumer segment customers at attractive prices.  Our most popular bundled offering includes long-distance, cable television, cable modem Internet access and local access services.  In addition to several other bundled offerings we also offer a bundle of wireless services, cable television and cable modem Internet access.

Sales and Marketing
Our Consumer segment sales efforts are primarily directed toward increasing the number of subscribers we serve, selling bundled services, and generating incremental revenues through product and feature up-sell opportunities.

Facilities
We operate a modern, competitive communications network employing digital transmission technology based upon fiber optic facilities within Alaska and between Alaska and the lower 48 states. Our facilities include three self-constructed digital undersea fiber optic cable systems linking our Alaska terrestrial networks to the networks of other carriers in the lower 49 states:

·  
Alaska United East was placed into service in 1999 and connects Whittier, Valdez and Juneau, Alaska and Seattle, Washington,
·  
Alaska United West was placed into service in 2004 and connects Seward, Alaska to Warrenton, Oregon, and
·  
Alaska United Southeast was placed into service in 2008 and connects Ketchikan, Wrangell, Petersburg, Angoon and Sitka, Alaska to Alaska United West.

The combination of our Alaska United East, Alaska United West and Alaska United Southeast systems provides us with the ability to provide fully protected geographically diverse routing of service between Alaska and the lower 48 states.

 
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Our Alaska United North-West self-constructed terrestrial fiber optic cable system connects Anchorage and Fairbanks, Alaska along the Parks Highway corridor and we own a terrestrial fiber optic cable system that extends from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska to Valdez, Alaska via Fairbanks, Alaska.

We have indefeasible rights to use ("IRU") capacity in the Kodiak-Kenai Cable Company, LLC’s undersea fiber optic cable system linking Anchorage to Kenai, Homer, Kodiak, Narrow Cape on Kodiak Island, and Seward, Alaska.

Another carrier operates a pair of fiber optic cable facilities connecting points in Alaska to the lower 48 states. The additional fiber system provides direct competition to services we provide on our owned fiber optic cable facilities.

We serve many rural and remote Alaska locations solely via satellite communications. Each of our C-band and Ku-band satellite transponders is backed up on the same spacecraft with multiple backup transponders. The primary spacecrafts we use to provide voice, data and Internet services to our rural Alaska customers are Intelsat’s Galaxy 18 for C-band and Intelsat's Horizons 1 for Ku-band, but we also lease capacity on two other spacecraft for services we provide, SES Americom’s AMC-7 and AMC-8.

We also lease one 36 MHz transponder on SES Americom's AMC-7 spacecraft.  We use this transponder to distribute multi-channel, digitally encoded video programming and services to remote locations within Alaska.  We may use this transponder along with two others that we reserve on AMC-7 to restore service during any fiber outage that may occur in our network.

We operate digital microwave systems to link Anchorage with the Kenai Peninsula, our Prudhoe Bay Earth Station with Deadhorse, Alaska, and to link Bethel, Alaska with 40 rural communities. Virtually all switched services are computer controlled, digitally switched, and interconnected by a packet switched SS7 signaling network.

Other facilities include major earth stations at Adak, Barrow, Bethel, Cordova, Dillingham, Dutch Harbor, Eagle River, Galena, Juneau, Ketchikan, King Salmon, Kodiak, Kotzebue, McGrath, Nome, Prudhoe Bay, Sitka, Unalakleet, and Yakutat, all in Alaska, serving the communities in their vicinity, and at Issaquah, Washington, which provides interconnection to Seattle and the lower 48 states for traffic to and from major Alaska earth stations. The Eagle River earth station is linked to the Anchorage distribution center by fiber optic facilities.

We use a synchronous optical network ("SONET") as a service delivery method for our terrestrial metropolitan area networks and long-haul terrestrial and undersea fiber optic cable systems.

A fiber optic cable system from our Anchorage distribution center connects to the Matanuska Telephone Association (“MTA”), Eagle River central office and to our major hub earth station in Eagle River. The Issaquah earth station is connected with the Seattle distribution center by means of diversely-routed leased fiber optic cable transmission systems, each having the capability to restore the other in the event of failure. The Juneau earth station and distribution centers are collocated. We have digital microwave facilities serving the Kenai Peninsula communities. We maintain earth stations in Fairbanks (linked by digital microwave to the Fairbanks distribution center), Juneau (collocated with the Juneau distribution center), Anchorage (Benson earth station), and in Prudhoe Bay as fiber network restoration earth stations. Our Benson earth station also uplinks our statewide video service; such service may be pre-empted if earth station capacity is needed to restore our fiber network between Anchorage and Prudhoe Bay.

We use our demand assigned multiple access ("DAMA") facilities to serve 69 additional locations throughout Alaska. DAMA is a digital satellite earth station technology that allows calls to be made between remote villages using only one satellite hop, thereby reducing satellite delay and capacity requirements while improving quality. In addition, 54 (for a total of 123) C-band facilities provide dedicated Internet access and private network services to rural public schools, hospitals, health clinics, and natural resource development industries throughout Alaska. Our network of 83 Ku-band facilities provides dedicated Internet access and private network services to rural public schools, hospitals, health clinics, and natural resource development industries throughout Alaska, and in ten locations in the lower 48 states.

Our Anchorage, Fairbanks, and Juneau distribution centers contain electronic switches to route calls to and from local exchange companies and, in Seattle, to obtain access to other carriers to distribute our southbound traffic to the remaining 49 states and international destinations. Our extensive metropolitan area fiber network in Anchorage supports cable television, Internet and telephony services. The Anchorage, Fairbanks, and Juneau facilities also include digital access cross-connect systems, frame relay data switches, Internet platforms, and in Anchorage and Fairbanks, collocation facilities for interconnecting and
 
 
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hosting equipment for other carriers. We also maintain an operator and customer service center in Wasilla, Alaska. Our operator services traffic is processed by an integrated services platform that also hosts answering services, directory assistance, and internal conferencing services.

We continue our DLPS deployment utilizing our coaxial cable facilities. This delivery method allows us to utilize our own cable facilities to provide local access service to our customers and avoid paying local loop charges to the ILEC.

Our statewide cable systems consist of 3,023 miles of installed cable plant having 450 to 625 MHz of channel capacity. Our cable television businesses are located throughout Alaska and serve 40 communities and areas in Alaska, including the state’s five largest population centers, Anchorage, Fairbanks, the Matanuska-Susitna Valley, the Kenai Peninsula, and Juneau. Our facilities include cable plant and head-end distribution equipment. Some of our locations on the fiber routes are served from the head-end distribution equipment in Anchorage.  All of our cable systems are completely digital.

We provide access to the Internet using a platform that includes many of the latest advancements in technology. The physical platform is concentrated in Anchorage and is extended into many remote areas of the state. Our Internet platform includes the following:

 
·
Our Anchorage facilities are connected to multiple Internet access points in Seattle through multiple, diversely routed networks;
 
·
We use multiple routers on each end of the circuits to control the flow of data and to provide resiliency; and
 
·
Our Anchorage facility consists of routers, a bank of servers that perform support and application functions, database servers providing authentication and user demographic data, layer 2 gigabit switch networks for intercommunications and broadband services.

Our dedicated Internet access and Internet protocol ("IP") data services are delivered to a router located at the service point. Our Internet management platform constantly monitors this router and continual communications are maintained with all of the core and distribution routers in the network. The availability and quality of service, as well as statistical information on traffic loading, are continuously monitored for quality assurance. The manage­ment platform has the capability to remotely access routers, servers and layer two switches, permitting changes in configuration without the need to be physically located at the service point.

We own state-wide wireless facilities that cover 94% of the population providing service to urban and rural Alaska communities and we will continue to expand these networks throughout the terrestrially and satellite served portions of Alaska in 2010.  We own GSM and CDMA wireless facilities serving urban Alaska locations. Our urban network includes Ericsson and Nortel wireless switches located in Anchorage and more than 160 cell sites that serve the following areas of Alaska: Anchorage and Eagle River, the Matanuska-Susitna Valley, Kenai Peninsula, Southeast, Kodiak and Fairbanks.  Our rural network consists of GSM facilities that are located through out Alaska’s rural villages and communities. We extend our network coverage through roaming arrangements with other GSM and CDMA carriers.

Competition
A discussion of competition by product and service in our Consumer segment follows.

Voice Services and Products Competition
Long-Distance
The long-distance industry is intensely competitive and based upon price and bundling.

In the intrastate, interstate and international long-distance market, we compete against AT&T Alascom, Inc. (“AT&T Alascom”), Alaska Communications Systems Group, Inc. (“ACS”), MTA, long-distance resellers, and certain smaller rural local telephone companies. AT&T Alascom, as a subsidiary of AT&T, Inc., has access to greater financial, technical and marketing resources than we have. There is also the possibility that new competitors will enter the Alaska market. In addition, wireless and voice over Internet protocol ("VoIP") services continue to grow as an alternative to wireline services as a means of reaching customers. Wireless local number portability allows consumers to retain the same phone number as they change service providers allowing for interchangeable and portable fixed-line and wireless numbers. Some consumers now use wireless service as their primary voice phone service for local and long-distance calling.

We have competed in the long-distance market by offering discounts from rates charged by our competitors and by providing desirable bundles of services. Discounts have been eroded in recent years due to lowering of prices by AT&T Alascom and entry of other competitors into the long-distance markets we serve. In addition, our competitors offer their own bundles of services.

 
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Our ability to compete successfully will depend on our ability to anticipate and respond to various competitive factors affecting the industry, including new services that may be introduced, changes in consumer preferences, demographic trends, economic conditions and pricing strategies.

Local Access
We compete against ACS, the ILEC, in Anchorage, Juneau, Fairbanks and the Kenai Soldotna area. We compete against MTA, the ILEC, in the Matanuska-Susitna Valley. We compete against other smaller ILECs in other communities.

In the local telephone services market, the 1996 Telecom Act, judicial decisions, state and federal legislative and regulatory developments, and new technologies have increased the overall likelihood that barriers to local telephone competition will be substantially reduced or removed. These initiatives include requirements that ILECs negotiate with entities, including us, to provide interconnection to the existing local telephone network, to allow the purchase, at cost-based rates, of access to UNEs, to establish dialing parity, to obtain access to rights-of-way and to resell services offered by the ILEC. We have been able to obtain interconnection, access and related services from the ILECs, at rates that allow us to offer competitive services. However, if we are unable to continue to obtain these services and access at acceptable rates, our ability to offer local access services, and our revenues and net income, could be materially adversely affected. To date, we have been successful in capturing a significant portion of the local telephone market in the locations where we are offering these services. However, there can be no assurance that we will continue to be successful in attracting or retaining these customers.

We believe that we have certain advantages over ILECs in providing communications services, including awareness by Alaskan customers of the GCI brand name, our facilities-based communications network, and our prior experience in, and knowledge of, the Alaskan market.

See “Regulation — Wireline Voice Services and Products” below for more information.

Video Services and Products Competition
Our cable television systems face competition from alternative methods of receiving and distributing television signals, including direct broadcast satellite ("DBS"), digital video over telephone lines, broadband IP-based services, wireless and satellite master antenna television ("SMATV") systems, and from other sources of news, information and entertainment such as Internet services, off-air television broadcast programming, newspapers, movie theaters, live sporting events, interactive computer services, and home video products, including video disks. Our cable television systems also face competition from potential overbuilds of our existing cable systems by other cable television operators and municipally-owned cable systems, and alternative methods of receiving and distributing television signals. The extent to which our cable television systems are competitive depends, in part, upon our ability to provide quality programming and other services at competitive prices.

We believe that the greatest source of potential competition for video services could come from the DBS industry. Two major companies, The DirecTV Group, Inc. and EchoStar Communications Corporation are currently offering nationwide high-power DBS services. The ILECs in the Matanuska-Susitna Valley and Ketchikan offer digital video service over telephone lines in limited areas. Their product offerings and price points are similar to our product offerings. With the addition of Anchorage local broadcast stations, increased marketing, ILEC and DBS alliances, and emerging technologies creating new opportunities, competition from these sources has increased and will likely continue to increase.

Competitive forces will be counteracted by offering expanded programming through digital services.  Digital delivery technology is being utilized in all of our systems. We have retransmission agreements with Anchorage broadcasters and provide for the uplink/downlink of their signals into all our systems, and local programming for our customers.

Other new technologies may become competitive with non-entertainment services that cable television systems can offer. The FCC has authorized television broadcast stations to transmit textual and graphic information useful to both consumers and businesses. The FCC also permits commercial and non-commercial FM stations to use their subcarrier frequencies to provide non-broadcast services including data transmissions. The FCC established an over-the-air interactive video and data service that will permit two-way interaction with commercial and educational programming along with informational and data services. ILECs and other common carriers also provide facilities for the transmission and distribution to homes and businesses of interactive computer-based services, including the Internet, as well as data and other non-
 
 
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video services. The FCC has conducted spectrum auctions for licenses to provide PCS, as well as other services. PCS and other services will enable license holders, including cable operators, to provide voice and data services. We own a statewide PCS license in Alaska.

Cable television systems generally operate pursuant to franchises granted on a non-exclusive basis. The 1992 Cable Act gives local franchising authorities jurisdiction over basic cable service rates and equipment in the absence of “effective competition,” prohibits franchising authorities from unreasonably denying requests for additional franchises and permits franchising authorities to operate cable systems. Well-financed businesses from outside the cable industry (such as the public utilities that own certain of the poles on which cable is attached) may become competitors for franchises or providers of competing services.

We expect to continue to provide, at reasonable prices and in competitive bundles, a greater variety of communication services than are available off-air or through other alternative delivery sources. Additionally, we believe we offer superior technical performance and responsive community-based customer service. Increased competition, however, may adversely affect our market share and results of operations from our cable services product offerings.

Data Services and Products Competition
The Internet industry is highly competitive, rapidly evolving and subject to constant technological change. Competition is based upon price and pricing plans, service bundles, the types of services offered, the technologies used, customer service, billing services, and perceived quality, reliability and availability. We compete with other Alaska based Internet providers and domestic, non-Alaska based providers that provide national service coverage. Several of the providers headquartered outside of Alaska have substantially greater financial, technical and marketing resources than we do.

With respect to our high-speed cable modem service, ACS and other Alaska telephone service providers are providing competitive high-speed data subscriber line services over their telephone lines in direct competition with our high-speed cable modem service. Competitive local fixed wireless providers are providing service in certain of our markets as is a national WiMax-based provider in Anchorage with plans for Juneau and Fairbanks. WiMax is a standards-based wireless technology that provides high-throughput broadband connections over long distances. WiMax can be used for a number of applications, including last mile broadband connections, hotspots and cellular backhaul, and high-speed enterprise connectivity for business. DBS providers and others provide wireless high speed Internet service in competition with our high-speed cable modem services.

Niche providers in the industry, both local and national, compete with certain of our Internet service products, such as web hosting, list services and e-mail.

Wireless Services and Products Competition
We compete against AT&T Mobility, ACS, MTA, and resellers of those services in Anchorage and other markets.  The GCI and Alaska DigiTel brands compete against each other.

Regulatory policies favor robust competition in wireless markets. Wireless local number portability, which was implemented by the FCC late in 2003, has also increased the level of competition in the industry. Number portability allows subscribers to switch carriers without having to change their telephone numbers.

The communications industry continues to experience significant technological changes, as evidenced by the increasing pace of improvements in the capacity and quality of digital technology, shorter cycles for new products and enhancements and changes in consumer preferences and expectations. Accordingly, we expect competition in the wireless communications industry to continue to be dynamic and intense as a result of the development of new technologies, services and products.

We compete for customers based principally upon price, bundled services, the services and enhancements offered, network quality, customer service, network coverage and capacity, the type of wireless handsets offered, and the availability of differentiated features and services. Our ability to compete successfully will depend, in part, on our marketing efforts and our ability to anticipate and respond to various competitive factors affecting the industry.

Seasonality
Our Consumer segment services and products do not exhibit significant seasonality. Our ability to implement construction projects is hampered during the winter months because of cold temperatures, snow and short daylight hours.

 
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Network Access Segment
Network Access segment revenues for 2009, 2008 and 2007 are summarized as follows (amounts in thousands):

   
Year Ended December 31,
 
   
2009
   
2008
   
2007
 
Total revenues 1
  $ 122,072       153,821       163,377  

1  See “Part II — Item 7 — Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and note 9 included in “Part II — Item 8 — Consolidated Financial Statements and Supplementary Data” for more information regarding the financial performance of our Network Access segment.


Services and Products
Our Network Access segment offers wholesale voice, data, and wireless services and products to other common carrier customers. We provide network transport, billing services and access to our network to other common carriers. These services allow other common carriers to provide services to their customers that originate or terminate on our network, or on the networks of other communication companies to which we connect.

Voice Services and Products
Revenues derived from Network Access segment voice services and products in 2009, 2008, and 2007 totaled $49.8 million, $79.7 million, and $96.9 million, respectively, or 8%, 14%, and 19% of our total revenues, respectively.

We are engaged in the transmission of interstate and intrastate-switched message telephone service. We terminate northbound message telephone service traffic for several large resellers who do not have facilities of their own in Alaska. We also provide origination of southbound calling card, toll-free services, and toll services for interexchange carriers. Services are generally provided pursuant to contracts.

Data Services and Products
Revenues derived from Network Access segment data services and products in 2009, 2008, and 2007 totaled $63.9 million, $71.4 million, and $61.2 million, respectively, or 11%, 12%, and 12% of our total revenues, respectively.

Data network services include multi-protocol label switching, frame relay, private line and dedicated Internet service.

Wireless Services and Products
Revenues derived from Network Access segment wireless services and products in 2009, 2008, and 2007 totaled $8.4 million, $2.7 million, and $5.3 million, respectively, or 1%, 0%, and 1% of our total revenues, respectively.  We provide roaming services on our wireless network within Alaska to other GSM and CDMA wireless carriers.

Sales and Marketing
Our Network Access segment sales and marketing efforts are primarily directed toward increasing the number of other common carriers we serve, the number of billable minutes of long-distance and wireless traffic we carry over our network and the number of voice and data transmission circuits leased. We sell our voice, data and wireless services primarily through direct contact marketing.

Facilities
Our Network Access segment shares common facilities used for voice, data and wireless services by other segments. You should refer to “Consumer Segment — Facilities” above for additional information.

Major Customer
During the years ended December 31, 2009, 2008 and 2007, we had Verizon as a major customer. Revenues attributed to our major customer during the years ended December 31, 2009, 2008 and 2007, totaled $64.5 million, $65.0 million and $71.5 million or 11%, 11% and 14% of total revenues, respectively.

Competition
Our Network Access segment competes against AT&T Alascom, ACS, and certain smaller rural local telephone carrier affiliates. There is also the possibility that new competitors will enter the Alaska market. You should refer to “Consumer Segment — Competition” above for additional information.

 
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Other common carrier traffic routed to us for termination in Alaska is largely dependent on traffic routed to our carrier customers by their customers. Pricing pressures, new program offerings, revised business plans, and market consolidation continue to evolve in the markets served by our carrier customers. If, as a result, their traffic is reduced, or if their competitors’ costs to terminate or originate traffic in Alaska are reduced, our traffic will also likely be reduced, and we may have to respond to competitive pressures. We are unable to predict the effect of such changes on our business.

Historically, we have competed in the Network Access segment market by offering rates comparable to or less than our competitors, by providing a comprehensive service model to meet the complete needs of our carrier customers, and by providing responsive customer service.

Seasonality
Network Access segment long-distance and wireless services revenues derived from our other common carrier customers have historically been highest in the summer months because of temporary population increases attributable to tourism and increased seasonal economic activity such as construction, commercial fishing, and oil and gas activities.  Our Network Access segment data services do not exhibit significant seasonality.

Commercial Segment
We offer a full range of communications services and products to commercial and governmental customers. Commercial segment revenues for 2009, 2008 and 2007 are summarized as follows:

   
Year Ended December 31,
 
   
2009
   
2008
   
2007
 
Total revenues 1
  $ 110,135       114,660       104,640  

1  See “Part II — Item 7 — Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and note 9 included in “Part II — Item 8 — Consolidated Financial Statements and Supplementary Data” for more information regarding the financial performance of our Commercial segment.


Services and Products
Our Commercial segment offers a full range of voice, video, data, wireless and managed services and products to small businesses, local, national and global businesses, governmental entities, and public and private educational institutions.

Voice Services and Products
Revenues derived from Commercial segment voice services and products in 2009, 2008, and 2007 totaled $30.8 million, $29.4 million, and $30.8 million, respectively, or 5%, 5%, and 6% of our total revenues, respectively.

Long-Distance
We are engaged in the transmission of interstate and intrastate-switched message telephone service between the major communities in Alaska, and the remaining United States and foreign countries. Our message toll services include intrastate, interstate and international direct dial, toll-free services, calling card, operator and enhanced conference calling services. Small business subscribers generally may cancel long-distance service at any time. Certain small business and most large business, governmental and educational institution customers generally contract with us for service over one to five year periods.

Local Access
We offer full featured local access service to our Commercial segment customers using our own fiber and coax facilities and collocated remote facilities that access the ILEC’s UNE loops and wholesale facilities. In areas where we do not have our own facilities or access to ILEC loop facilities, we offer service using total service resale of the ILEC’s local service or UNE platform.

Our package offerings are competitively priced and include popular features, including caller ID, voice messaging, three-way calling, call forwarding, and call waiting.

Directories Services
We sell advertising in our yellow pages directories to Commercial segment customers, distribute white and yellow pages directories or CD directories to customers in certain markets we serve, and offer an on-line directory.  We offer three yellow pages directories with each directory covering multiple locations and including custom features for each area. Our directories cover the following communities: Anchorage and
 
 
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Southcentral Alaska; Fairbanks and vicinity; and Juneau and Southeast Alaska

Video Services and Products
Revenues derived from Commercial segment video services and products in 2009, 2008, and 2007 totaled $9.2 million, $9.6 million, and $8.0 million, respectively, or 2% of our total revenues.

Commercial segment subscribers such as hospitals, hotels and motels are charged negotiated monthly service fees. Our video on demand platform is available to hotels in Anchorage that are connected using our fiber facilities. Programming services offered to our cable television systems subscribers differ by system as described in the Consumer segment Video Services and Products section above. You should refer to “Consumer Segment — Services and Products” above for additional information.

Data Services and Products
Revenues derived from Commercial segment data services and products in 2009, 2008, and 2007 totaled $63.4 million, $70.1 million, and $61.1 million, respectively, or 11%, 12%, and 12% of our total revenues, respectively.

Internet
We currently offer several Internet service packages for commercial use. Our business high-speed cable modem Internet service offers access speeds ranging from 512 Kbps to 12 Mbps, free monthly data transfers of up to 250 gigabytes and free 24-hour customer service and technical support.

We also provide dedicated access Internet service to commercial and public organizations in Alaska. We offer a premium service and currently support many of the largest organizations in the state such as BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc. and the State of Alaska. We have hundreds of other enterprise customers, both large and small, using this service.

Data Networks
Data network services utilize voice and data transmission circuits, dedicated to particular subscribers, which link a device in one location to another in a different location. Private IP, private lines, metro Ethernet and frame relay offer a secure solution for frequent communication of large amounts of data between sites.

Managed Services
We design, sell, install, service and operate, on behalf of certain customers, communications and computer networking equipment and provide field/depot, third party, technical support, communications consulting and outsourcing services. We supply integrated voice and data communications systems incorporating private IP, interstate and intrastate digital data networks, point-to-point and multipoint data network and small earth station services.

Wireless Services and Products
Revenues derived from Commercial segment wireless services and products in 2009, 2008, and 2007 totaled $6.7 million, $5.6 million, and $4.8 million, respectively, or 1% of our total revenues.

Wireless services and products offered to our Commercial segment customers are the same as those described in the Consumer Wireless Services and Products section above. You should refer to “Consumer Segment — Services and Products” above for additional information.

Bundled Services and Products
We combine one or more of our individual service or product offerings into bundles that we sell to our Commercial segment customers at attractive prices as described further in the Consumer segment Services and Products section above. You should refer to “Consumer Segment — Services and Products” above for additional information.  Additionally, we use master service agreements with larger enterprise customers to capture the overall relationship.

Sales and Marketing
Our Commercial segment sales and marketing efforts focus on increasing the number of subscribers we serve, selling bundled services, and generating incremental revenues through product and feature up-sell opportunities. We sell our Commercial segment services and products primarily through direct contact marketing.

 
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Facilities
Our Commercial segment uses many facilities to provide services and products that are common to the Consumer segment. You should refer to “Consumer Segment — Facilities” above for additional information.

We provide our own facilities-based local access services to many of Anchorage’s larger business customers through expansion and deployment of SONET, optical ethernet, and gigabit passive optical network fiber transmission facilities, digital loop carrier facilities, and leased facilities.
 
 
Our dedicated Internet access and Internet protocol/Multi-Protocol Label Switching data services are delivered to an Ethernet port located at the service point. Our management platform constantly monitors this port and continual communications are maintained with all of the core and distribution elements in the network. The availability and quality of service, as well as statistical information on traffic loading, are continuously monitored for quality assurance. The manage­ment platform has the capability to remotely access routers, servers and layer two switches, permitting changes in configuration without the need to physically be at the service point. This management platform allows us to offer network monitoring and management services to businesses and governmental entities. Many of the largest commercial networks in Alaska use this service, including the State government.

Competition
Many of our Commercial segment voice, video, data and wireless services and products are also common to the Consumer segment. You should refer to “Consumer Segment — Competition” above for additional information.

We expect continued competition in commercial customer telephone access, Internet access, wireless and data markets. Competition is based upon price and pricing plans, the type of services offered, customer service, billing services, performance, and perceived quality, reliability and availability.

Presently, there are a number of competing companies in Alaska that actively sell and maintain data and voice communications systems. Our ability to integrate communications networks and data communications equipment has allowed us to maintain our market position based on customer support services rather than price competition alone. These services are blended with other transport products into unique customer solutions, including managed services and outsourcing.

We compete with two other major yellow page directories and several local community directories. We compete based on reduced advertising and listing prices, broad circulation, and directory quality and features.

Seasonality
Our Commercial segment voice, video, data and wireless services do not exhibit significant seasonality. Our ability to implement construction projects to expand our outside plant facilities is hampered during the winter months because of cold temperatures, snow and short daylight hours.

Managed Broadband Segment
Managed Broadband segment revenues for 2009, 2008 and 2007 are summarized as follows:

   
Year Ended December 31,
 
   
2009
   
2008
   
2007
 
Total revenues 1
  $ 44,875       37,047       28,792  

1  See “Part II — Item 7 — Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and note 9 included in “Part II — Item 8 — Consolidated Financial Statements and Supplementary Data” for more information regarding the financial performance of our Managed Broadband segment.


Services and Products
Our Managed Broadband segment offers Internet access and related services to rural schools and health organizations.

SchoolAccess® is a suite of services designed to advance the educational opportunities of students in underserved regions of the country. Our SchoolAccess® division provides Internet and distance learning services designed exclusively for the school environment. The Schools and Libraries Program of the Universal Service Fund ("USF") makes discounts available to eligible rural school districts for telecommunication
 
 
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services and monthly Internet service charges. The program is intended to ensure that rural school districts have access to affordable services.

Our network, Internet and software application services provided through our Managed Broadband segment’s Medical Services division are branded as ConnectMD®. Our ConnectMD® services are currently provided under contract to medical businesses in Alaska, Washington and Montana. The Rural Health Care Program of the USF makes discounts available to eligible rural health care providers for telecommunication services and monthly Internet service charges. The program is intended to ensure that rural health care providers pay no more for telecommunications services in the provision of health care services than their urban counterparts. Customers utilize ConnectMD® services to securely move data, images, voice traffic, and real time multipoint interactive video.

We offer a managed video conferencing product for use in distance learning, telemedicine and group communication and collaboration environments. The product is designed to offer customers enhanced communication services that support video, audio and data presentation. Our product benefits customers by reducing travel costs, improving course equity in education and increasing the quality of health services available to patients. The product bundles our data products, video conferencing services and optional rental of video conferencing endpoint equipment. Our video conferencing services include multipoint conferencing, integrated services digital network gateway and transcoding services, online scheduling and conference control, and videoconference recording, archiving and streaming. We provide 24-hour technical support via telephone or online.

Our videoconferencing network is the largest in Alaska, and network coverage includes parts of the states of Washington and Montana. The network supports all H.323 IP videoconferencing standards including the newer H.264 standard, and supports call data rates from 128 Kb per second up to and including multi-megabit high definition calls. In 2009 and 2008, we terminated over 32,000 and 30,000, respectively, videoconferencing endpoint connections amounting to over 2.0 million and 1.8 million, respectively, videoconferencing minutes on our network.

Sales and Marketing
Our Managed Broadband segment sales and marketing efforts focus on increasing the number of subscribers we serve, selling bundled services, and generating incremental revenues through product and feature up-sell opportunities. We sell our Managed Broadband segment services and products primarily through direct contact marketing.

Facilities
Our Managed Broadband segment services and products are delivered using a platform including many of the latest advancements in technology through a locally available circuit, our existing lines, and/or satellite earth stations. Our Internet services are partially provisioned over a satellite based digital video broadcast carrier that reduces the requirement for new satellite transponder bandwidth to support growth in rural health, SchoolAccess® and other broadband services.

We employ a packet data satellite transmission technology for the efficient transport of broadband data in support of our rural health and SchoolAccess® initiatives. Our SchoolAccess® Internet service is delivered as follows:

 
·
In communities where we have terrestrial interconnects or provide existing service over regional earth stations, we have configured intermediate distribution facilities. Schools that are within these service boundaries are connected locally to one of those facilities;
 
·
In communities where we have extended communications services via our DAMA earth station program, SchoolAccess® is provided via a satellite circuit to an intermediate distribution facility at the Eagle River earth station; and
 
·
In communities or remote locations where we have not extended communications services, SchoolAccess® is provided via a dedicated (usually on premise) very small aperture terminal ("VSAT") satellite station. The VSAT connects to an intermediate distribution facility located in Anchorage.

Our facilities include DeltaNet, a long-haul broadband microwave network ringing the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta – a region of approximately 50,000 square miles in western Alaska. DeltaNet links more than 30 villages to Bethel, the region’s hub.  We utilize DeltaNet to support growth in wireless and broadband services including rural health and SchoolAccess®.

You should refer to “Consumer Segment — Facilities” above for additional information.

Competition
There are several competing companies in Alaska that actively sell broadband services. Our ability to provide end-to-end broadband services solutions has allowed us to maintain our market position based on “value added” services and products rather than solely based on price competition. These services are blended with other transport and software products into unique customer solutions, including SchoolAccess® and rural health applications such as video conferencing and unique web content services.

Seasonality
Our Managed Broadband segment does not exhibit seasonality.

Regulated Operations Segment
We offer voice and data services and products to commercial and residential customers in 60 rural communities in the Bethel, Alaska area. Regulated Operations segment revenues were $23.8 million and $14.3 million in 2009 and from the June 1, 2008 date of acquisition of UUI and United-KUC through December 31, 2008, respectively.

Services and Products
Our Regulated Operations segment offers wireline communications services to our residential and commercial customers, including local access, long-distance, and Internet services and products.

Sales and Marketing
Our Regulated Operations segment sales efforts are primarily directed toward increasing the number of subscribers we serve. We sell our Regulated Operations segment services through local media advertising, retail stores, and through our website.

Facilities
Our Regulated Operations segment services are delivered by switching, outside plant, terrestrial microwave, and satellite facilities.  Our outside plant is primarily aerial and buried copper and fiber optic cables.

 
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Competition
In the intrastate, interstate and international long-distance market, we compete against AT&T Alascom. AT&T Alascom, as a subsidiary of AT&T, Inc., has access to greater financial, technical and marketing resources than we have.  Our Regulated Operations segment has no competition for its local access services.

Seasonality
Our Regulated Operations segment services do not exhibit significant seasonality.

Sales and Marketing – Company-wide
Our sales and marketing strategy hinges on our ability to leverage (i) our unique position as an integrated provider of multiple communications, Internet and cable services, (ii) our well-recognized and respected brand names in the Alaskan marketplace and (iii) our leading market positions in the services and products we offer. By continuing to pursue a marketing strategy that takes advantage of these characteristics, we believe we can increase our customer market penetration and retention rates, increase our share of our customers’ aggregate voice, video, data and wireless services expenditures and achieve continued growth in revenues and operating cash flow.

Environmental Regulations
We may undertake activities that, under certain circumstances may affect the environment. Accordingly, they are subject to federal, state, and local regulations designed to preserve or protect the environment. The FCC, the Bureau of Land Management, the United States Forest Service, and the National Park Service are required by the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 to consider the environmental impact before the commencement of facility construction.

We believe that compliance with such regulations has had no material effect on our consolidated operations. The principal effect of our facilities on the environment would be in the form of construction of facilities and networks at various locations in Alaska and between Alaska, Seattle, Washington, and Warrenton, Oregon. Our facilities have been constructed in accordance with federal, state and local building codes and zoning regulations whenever and wherever applicable. Some facilities may be on lands that may be subject to state and federal wetland regulation.

 
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Uncertainty as to the applicability of environmental regulations is caused in major part by the federal government’s decision to consider a change in the definition of wetlands. Most of our facilities are on leased property, and, with respect to all of these facilities, we are unaware of any violations of lease terms or federal, state or local regulations pertaining to preservation or protection of the environment.

The engineered routes of our projects to construct terrestrial and undersea fiber optic cable facilities pass over wetlands and other environmentally sensitive areas. We believe our construction methods used for buried cable have a minimal impact on the environment. The agencies, among others, that are involved in permitting and oversight of our cable deployment efforts are the United States Army Corps of Engineers, National Marine Fisheries Service, United States Fish and Wildlife Service, United States Coast Guard, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Alaska Department of Natural Resources, and the Alaska Office of the Governor-Governmental Coordination. We are unaware of any violations of federal, state or local regulations or permits pertaining to preservation or protection of the environment.

In the course of operating our cable television and communications systems, we have used various materials defined as hazardous by applicable governmental regulations. These materials have been used for insect repellent, paint used to mark the location of our facilities, and pole treatment, and as heating fuel, transformer oil, cable cleaner, batteries, diesel fuel, and in various other ways in the operation of those systems. We do not believe that these materials, when used in accordance with manufacturer instructions, pose an unreasonable hazard to those who use them or to the environment.

Patents, Trademarks and Licenses
We do not hold patents, franchises or concessions for communications services or local access services. We do hold registered service marks for the letters GCI®, and for the terms SchoolAccess®, Alaska United Fiber Optic Cable System®, GCI ConnectMD®, ConnectMD®, GCI Hypernet®, My GCI®, MyGCI®, Keep Talking Alaska®, Digiminutes®, Unicom®, Cell-ID®, and United-KUC®.  The Communications Act of 1934, as amended, gives the FCC the authority to license and regulate the use of the electromagnetic spectrum for radio communications. We hold licenses through our subsidiary GCI Communication Corp. for our satellite and microwave transmission facilities for provision of long-distance services provided by our Consumer, Commercial and Network Access segments.

We are licensed for use of a 30 MHz block of spectrum for providing PCS services in Alaska. The PCS license was renewed in 2005 for an additional 10 year term. Licenses may be revoked and license renewal applications may be denied for cause.

We hold the following licenses, among others:
·  
We acquired a LMDS license in 1998 for use of a 150 MHz block of spectrum in the 28 GHz Ka-band for providing wireless services. The LMDS license was renewed in 2008 for an additional 10-year term, following the grant of an extension until June 1, 2012 of the requirement to provide “substantial service” in the service region,
·  
Two licenses for use of a 30 MHz block of spectrum, which together authorize provision of PCS services in Alaska. Both licenses have an expiration date of June 23, 2015.  Licenses may be revoked and license renewal applications may be denied for cause. We expect the PCS license will be renewed in due course, when, at the end of the license period, a renewal application will be filed,
·  
A cellular A license 25 MHz for sites located in the Bethel AK-2 B2 portion of RSA 316, serving the Aleutians West Census Area, and
·  
Several cellular B licenses 25 MHz are held by our subsidiary Unicom for sites located in the Wade Hampton AK-1 portion of CMA 315 and the Bethel AK-2 portion of CMA 316, throughout the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta.

Earth stations are licensed generally for fifteen years. The FCC also issues a single blanket license for a large number of technically identical earth stations (e.g., VSATs). Our operations may require additional licenses in the future.

Regulation
Our businesses are subject to substantial government regulation and oversight. The following summary of regulatory issues does not purport to describe all existing and proposed federal, state, and local laws and regulations, or judicial and regulatory proceedings that affect our businesses. Existing laws and regulations are reviewed frequently by legislative bodies, regulatory agencies, and the courts and are subject to change. Any change in the Act that loosened regulatory oversight of ILECs’ control of bottleneck facilities could have an adverse impact on our businesses. We cannot predict at this time the outcome of any present or future consideration of proposed changes to governing laws and regulations.

 
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Wireline Voice Services and Products
General. As an Interexchange carrier, we are subject to regulation by the FCC and Regulatory Commission of Alaska ("RCA") as a non-dominant provider of interstate, international, and intrastate long-distance services. As a state-certificated competitive local exchange carrier, we are subject to regulation by the RCA and the FCC as a non-dominant provider of local communications services. Military franchise requirements also affect our ability to provide communications services to military bases.

Rural Exemption and Interconnection. A Rural Telephone Company is exempt from compliance with certain material interconnection requirements under Section 251(c) of the 1996 Telecom Act, including the obligation to negotiate Section 251(b) and (c) interconnection requirements in good faith, unless and until a state regulatory commission lifts such “rural exemption” or otherwise finds it not to apply.  All ILECs in Alaska are Rural Telephone Companies except ACS in its Anchorage study area.  We have had to participate in numerous proceedings regarding the rural exemptions of various ILECs, including ACS for its Fairbanks and Juneau operating companies, MTA and Ketchikan, in order to achieve the necessary Interconnection Agreements with the remaining ILECs. In other cases the Interconnection Agreements were reached by negotiation without regard to the implications of the ILEC’s rural exemption.

We have completed negotiation and/or arbitration of the necessary interconnection provisions and the RCA has approved current wireline Interconnection Agreements between GCI and all of the major ILECs.  We have entered all of the major Alaskan markets with local access services.

See “Description of Our Business by Reportable Segment — Consumer — Competition — Voice Services and Products Competition” for more information.

Access Charges and Other Regulated Fees. The FCC regulates the fees that local telephone companies charge long-distance companies for access to their local networks. The FCC is considering proposals to restructure and possibly reduce interstate access charges. Changes to the interstate access charge regime or introduction of new technologies not subject to access charges could fundamentally change the economics of some aspects of our business.

Carriers also pay fees for switched wholesale transport services in and out of Alaska. The rates for such services offered by and to any provider are currently governed by a federal law that was effective through December 31, 2009.  We cannot predict at this time the effect of the expiration of the applicable federal law, but a decrease in the rates for services would result in a reduction of revenues.

Access to Unbundled Network Elements. The ability to obtain UNEs is an important element of our local access services business. We cannot predict the extent to which existing FCC rules governing access to and pricing for UNEs will be sustained in the face of additional legal action and the impact of any further rules that are yet to be determined by the FCC. Moreover, the future regulatory classification of services that are transmitted over facilities may impact the extent to which we will be permitted access to such facilities.  Changes to the applicable regulations could result in a change in our cost of serving new and existing markets.

Recurring and non-recurring charges for UNE-loops and other UNEs may increase based on the rates adopted in RCA proceedings to establish new Interconnection Agreements or renew existing agreements. These increases could have an adverse effect on our financial position, results of operations or liquidity.

Universal Service. The USF pays Eligible Telecommunications Carrier's ("ETC") to support the provision of facilities-based wireline telephone service in high-cost areas. Under FCC regulations and RCA orders, we are an authorized ETC for purposes of providing wireline local exchange service in Anchorage, Juneau, Fairbanks, and the MTA study area (which includes the Matanuska-Susitna Valley) and other small areas throughout Alaska. Without ETC status, we would not qualify for USF support in these areas or other rural areas where we propose to offer facilities-based wireline telephone services, and our net cost of providing local telephone services in these areas would be materially adversely affected.

On May 1, 2008, the FCC issued an order adopting the recommendation of the Federal State Joint Board on Universal Service (“Joint Board”) to impose a state-by-state interim cap on high cost funds to be distributed to competitive ETCs.  As part of the revised policy, the FCC adopted a limited exception from the cap for competitive ETCs serving tribal lands or Alaska Native regions.  While the operation of the cap will generally reduce the high cost fund amounts available to competitive ETCs as new competitive ETCs are designated and as existing competitive ETCs acquire new customers, providers like us who serve tribal lands
 
 
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or Alaska Native regions were provided some relief.  On March 5, 2009, the FCC issued an additional order waiving a previously adopted limitation to the exception, the result of which is to provide uncapped support for all lines served by competitive ETCs for tribal lands or Alaska Native regions during the time the interim cap is in effect.  The uncapped support for tribal lands or Alaska Native regions and the cap for all other regions will be in place until the FCC takes action on proposals for long term reform.

Local Regulation. We may be required to obtain local permits for street opening and construction permits to install and expand our networks. Local zoning authorities often regulate our use of towers for microwave and other communications sites. We also are subject to general regulations concerning building codes and local licensing. The 1996 Telecom Act requires that fees charged to communications carriers be applied in a competitively neutral manner, but there can be no assurance that ILECs and others with whom we will be competing will bear costs similar to those we will bear in this regard.

Video Services and Products
General. Because cable communications systems use local streets and rights-of-way, they generally are operated pursuant to franchises (which can take the form of certificates, permits or licenses) granted by a municipality or other state or local government entity. The RCA is the franchising authority for all of Alaska. We believe that we have generally met the terms of our franchises, which do not require periodic renewal, and have provided quality levels of service. Military franchise requirements also affect our ability to provide video services to military bases.

The RCA is also certified under federal law to regulate rates for the Basic Service tier on our cable systems. Under state law, however, cable television service is exempt from regulation unless subscribers petition the RCA. At present, regulation of basic cable rates takes place only in Juneau. The RCA does not regulate rates for cable modem service.

Must Carry/Retransmission Consent. The 1992 Cable Act contains broadcast signal carriage requirements that allow local commercial television broadcast stations to elect once every three years to require a cable system to carry the station, subject to certain exceptions, or to negotiate for “retransmission consent” to carry the station.

The FCC has adopted rules to require cable operators to carry the digital programming streams of broadcast television stations. The FCC requirement that cable operators carry both the analog and digital programming streams of broadcast television stations while broadcasters are transitioning from analog to digital transmission does not apply to all-digital systems like ours.  Further, the FCC has declined to require any cable operator to carry multiple digital programming streams from a single broadcast television station, but should the FCC change this policy, we would be required to devote additional cable capacity to carrying broadcast television programming streams, a step that could require the removal of other programming services.

Cable System Delivery of Internet Service. The FCC has defined high-speed Internet over cable as an “information service” not subject to local cable-franchise fees, as cable service may be, or any explicit requirements for “open access.” The Supreme Court affirmed the FCC’s position in a decision issued in 2005.

Although there is at present no significant federal regulation of cable system delivery of Internet services, this situation may change as cable systems expand their broadband delivery of Internet services. Proposals have been advanced at the FCC and Congress to require cable operators to provide access to unaffiliated Internet service providers and online service providers and to govern the terms under which content providers and applications are delivered by all broadband network operators. If such requirements were imposed on cable operators, it could burden the capacity of cable systems and frustrate our plans for providing expanded Internet access services. These access obligations could adversely affect our financial position, results of operations or liquidity.

Segregated Security for Set-top Devices. The FCC mandated, effective July 1, 2007, that all new set-top video navigation devices must segregate the security function from the navigation function. The new devices are more expensive than existing equipment, and compliance would increase our cost of providing cable services. Subject to a waiver granted by the FCC on May 4, 2007, we may continue providing low-cost integrated set-top boxes to consumers to facilitate our all-digital cable networks.

Pole Attachments. The Communications Act requires the FCC to regulate the rates, terms and conditions imposed by public utilities for cable systems’ use of utility pole and conduit space unless state authorities can demonstrate that they adequately regulate pole attachment rates. In the absence of state regulation, the FCC administers pole attachment rates on a formula basis. This formula governs the maximum rate certain utilities may charge for attachments to their poles and conduit by companies providing communications services, including cable operators. The RCA, however, does not use the federal formula and instead
 
 
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has adopted its own formula that has been in state regulation since 1987. This formula could be subject to further revisions upon petition to the RCA and the FCC has an open rulemaking proceeding to consider application of the federal formula. We cannot predict at this time the outcome of any such proceedings.

Copyright. Cable television systems are subject to federal copyright licensing covering carriage of television and radio broadcast signals. In exchange for filing certain reports and contributing a percentage of their revenues to a federal copyright royalty pool that varies depending on the size of the system, the number of distant broadcast television signals carried, and the location of the cable system, cable operators can obtain blanket permission to retransmit copyrighted material included in broadcast signals. The possible modification or elimination of this compulsory copyright license is the subject of continuing legislative review.  We cannot predict the outcome of this legislative review, which could adversely affect our ability to obtain desired broadcast program­ming. Copyright clearances for non-broadcast programming services are arranged through private negotiations.

Internet-based Services and Products
General. There is no one entity or organization that governs the Internet. Each facilities-based network provider that is interconnected with the global Internet controls operational aspects of their own network. Certain functions, such as IP addressing, domain name routing, and the definition of the TCP/IP protocol, are coordinated by an array of quasi-governmental, intergovernmental, and non-governmental bodies. The legal authority of these bodies is not precisely defined.

Although the FCC does not regulate the prices charged by Internet service providers or Internet backbone providers, the vast majority of users connect to the Internet over facilities of existing communications carriers. Those communications carriers are subject to varying levels of regulation at both the federal and the state level. Thus, non-Internet-specific regulatory decisions exercise a significant influence over the economics of the Internet market.

Many aspects of the coordination and regulation of Internet activities and the underlying networks over which those activities are conducted are evolving. Internet-specific and non-Internet-specific changes in the regulatory environment, including changes that affect communications costs or increase competition from ILECs or other communications services providers, could adversely affect the prices at which we sell Internet-based services.

Wireless Services and Products
General. The FCC regulates the licensing, construction, interconnection, operation, acquisition, and transfer of wireless network systems in the United States pursuant to the Communications Act.  As a licensee of PCS, LMDS, and other wireless services, we are subject to regulation by the FCC, and must comply with certain build-out and other license conditions, as well as with the FCC’s specific regulations governing the PCS and LMDS services (described above). The FCC does not currently regulate rates for services offered by commercial mobile radio service providers.

Commercial mobile radio service wireless systems are subject to Federal Aviation Administration and FCC regulations governing the location, lighting and construction of antenna structures on which our antennas and associated equipment are located and are also subject to regulation under federal environmental laws and the FCC’s environmental regulations, including limits on radio frequency radiation from wireless handsets and antennas on towers.

Interconnection. We have completed negotiation and the RCA has approved current direct wireless Interconnection Agreements between GCI and all of the major ILECs.  These are in addition to indirect interconnection arrangements utilized elsewhere.

Universal Service. The USF pays ETCs to support the provision of facilities-based wireless telephone service in high-cost areas. A wireless carrier may seek ETC status so that it can receive support from the USF. Several wireless carriers, including us, have successfully applied to the RCA for ETC status in Alaska.  Under FCC regulations and RCA orders, we are an authorized ETC for purposes of providing wireless telephone service in Anchorage, Juneau, Fairbanks, and the MTA study area (which includes the Matanuska-Susitna Valley) and other small areas throughout Alaska. Without ETC status, we would not qualify for USF support in these areas or other rural areas where we propose to offer facilities-based wireless telephone services, and our net cost of providing wireless telephone services in these areas would be materially adversely affected.

See “Description of Our Business by Reportable Segment — Regulation — Wireline Voice Services and Products — Universal Service” for more information.

 
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Emergency 911. The FCC has imposed rules requiring carriers to provide emergency 911 services, including enhanced 911 services that provide to local public safety dispatch agencies the caller’s communications number and approximate location. Providers are required to transmit the geographic coordinates of the customer’s location within accuracy parameters set forth by the FCC, either by means of network-based or handset-based technologies. Providers may not demand cost recovery as a condition of doing so, although they are permitted to negotiate cost recovery if it is not mandated by the state or local governments.

State and Local Regulation. While the Communications Act generally preempts state and local governments from regulating the entry of, or the rates charged by, wireless carriers, it also permits a state to petition the FCC to allow it to impose commercial mobile radio service rate regulation when market conditions fail to adequately protect customers and such service is a replacement for a substantial portion of the telephone wireline exchange service within a state. No state currently has such a petition on file, and all prior efforts have been rejected. In addition, the Communications Act does not expressly preempt the states from regulating the “terms and conditions” of wireless service.

Several states have invoked this “terms and conditions” authority to impose or propose various consumer protection regulations on the wireless industry. State attorneys general have also become more active in enforcing state consumer protection laws against sales practices and services of wireless carriers. States also may impose their own universal service support requirements on wireless and other communications carriers, similar to the contribution requirements that have been established by the FCC.

States have become more active in attempting to impose new taxes and fees on wireless carriers, such as gross receipts taxes. Where successful, these taxes and fees are generally passed through to our customers and result in higher costs to our customers.

At the local level, wireless facilities typically are subject to zoning and land use regulation. Neither local nor state governments may categorically prohibit the construction of wireless facilities in any community or take actions, such as indefinite moratoria, which have the effect of prohibiting construction. Nonetheless, securing state and local government approvals for new tower sites has been and is likely to continue to be difficult, lengthy and costly.

Financial Information about our Foreign and Domestic Operations and Export Sales
Although we have several agreements to help originate and terminate international toll traffic, we do not have foreign operations or export sales. We conduct our operations throughout the western contiguous United States and Alaska and believe that any subdivision of our operations into distinct geographic areas would not be meaningful.

Customer-Sponsored Research
We have not expended material amounts during the last three fiscal years on customer-sponsored research activities.

Geographic Concentration and the Alaska Economy
We offer voice, data and wireless telecommunication services and video services to customers primarily throughout Alaska. Because of this geographic concentration, growth of our business and operations depends upon economic conditions in Alaska. The economy of Alaska is dependent upon the natural resource industries, and in particular oil production, as well as investment earnings, tourism, government, and United States military spending. Any deterioration in these markets could have an adverse impact on us. A significant part of the Alaska economy is the state government.  All of the federal funding and the majority of investment revenues are dedicated for specific purposes, leaving oil revenues as the primary source of general operating revenues for the State of Alaska. The State of Alaska reported in fiscal 2009 that oil, federal funding, and investment revenues supplied 89%, 7% and 4%, respectively, of the State's unrestricted revenues. In fiscal 2010 state economists forecast that Alaska’s oil, federal funding and investment revenues will supply 87%, 8% and 5%, respectively, of the State’s projected unrestricted revenues.

The volume of oil transported by the TransAlaska Oil Pipeline System over the past 20 years has been as high as 2.0 million barrels per day in fiscal 1988. Production has been declining over the last several years with an average of 0.69 million barrels produced per day in fiscal 2009. The State forecasts the production rate to decline from 0.66 million barrels produced per day in fiscal 2010 to 0.52 million barrels produced per day in fiscal 2019.

Market prices for North Slope oil averaged $68.34 in fiscal 2009 and are forecasted to average $66.93 in fiscal 2010. The closing price per barrel was $78.48 on February 2, 2010. To the extent that actual oil prices vary materially from the State’s projected prices, the State’s projected revenues and deficits will change. The production policy of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its ability to continue to act
 
 
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in concert represents a key uncertainty in the State’s revenue forecast.

Should new oil discoveries or developments not materialize or the price of oil become depressed, the long term trend of continued decline in oil production from the Prudhoe Bay area is inevitable with a corresponding adverse impact on the economy of the State, in general, and on demand for telecommunications and cable television services, and, therefore, on us, in particular. Periodically there are renewed efforts to allow exploration and development in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (“ANWR”). The United States Energy Information Agency has estimated that it could take nine years to begin oil field drilling after approval of ANWR exploration.

No assurance can be given that the driving forces in the Alaska economy, and in particular, oil production, will continue at appropriate levels to provide an environment for expanded economic activity.

No assurance can be given that oil companies doing business in Alaska will be successful in discovering new fields or further developing existing fields which are economic to develop and produce oil with access to the pipeline or other means of transport to market. We are not able to predict the effect of changes in the price and production volumes of North Slope oil on Alaska’s economy or on us.

Deployment of a natural gas pipeline from the State of Alaska’s North Slope to the lower 48 states has been proposed to supplement natural gas supplies. There are two competing companies that are studying the economic viability of a natural gas pipeline, which depends upon the price of and demand for natural gas.

The State of Alaska maintains the Constitutional Budget Reserve Fund (“CBRF”) that is intended to fund budgetary shortfalls. If the State’s current projections are realized and no surpluses are deposited into the CBRF it is projected that the fund would not be depleted before 2020. The date the CBRF is depleted is highly influenced by the price of oil. If the fund is depleted, aggressive state action will be necessary to increase revenues and reduce spending in order to balance the budget. The governor of the State of Alaska and the Alaska legislature continue to evaluate cost cutting and revenue enhancing measures.

We have, since our entry into the telecommunication marketplace, aggressively marketed our services to seek a larger share of the available market. The customer base in Alaska is limited, however, with a population of approximately 690,000 people. The State of Alaska’s population is distributed as follows:

 
·
42% are located in the Municipality of Anchorage,
 
·
14% are located in the Fairbanks North Star Borough,
 
·
12% are located in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough,
 
·
8% are located in the Kenai Peninsula Borough,
 
·
4% are located in the City and Borough of Juneau, and
·      The remaining 20% are located in other communities across the State of Alaska.

Employees
We employed 1,635 persons as of December 31, 2009, and we are not subject to any collective bargaining agreements with our employees. We believe our future success will depend upon our continued ability to attract and retain highly skilled and qualified employees. We believe that relations with our employees are satisfactory.

Other
No material portion of our business is subject to renegotiation of profits or termination of contracts at the election of the federal government.

Item 1A. Risk Factors.

Factors That May Affect Our Business and Future Results

Additional risks and uncertainties not currently known to us or that we currently deem to be immaterial may also materially and adversely affect our business operations. Any of the following risks could materially and adversely affect our business, financial position, results of operations or liquidity.

 
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We depend on a small number of customers for a substantial portion of our revenue and business. The loss of any of such customers would have a material adverse effect on our financial position, results of operations or liquidity.

For the year ended December 31, 2009, we provided services to a major customer which generated revenues of 11% of our total 2009 revenues. This customer is free to seek out long-distance communications services from our competitors upon expiration of its contracts or earlier upon the occurrence of certain contractually stipulated events including a default, the occurrence of a force majeure event, or a substantial change in applicable law or regulation under the applicable contract. Additionally, the contracts provide for periodic reviews to assure that the prices paid by our major customer for its services remain competitive.

Mergers and acquisitions in the communications industry are relatively common. If a change in control of our major customer were to occur it would not permit it to terminate its existing contracts with us without a negotiated settlement, but it could in the future result in the termination of or a material adverse change in our relationships with this customer.  In addition, our major customer’s need for our long-distance services depends directly upon its ability to obtain and retain its own long-distance and wireless customers and upon the needs of those customers for long-distance services.  The loss of our major customer, a material adverse change in our relationships with it or a material loss of or reduction in its long-distance customers would have a material adverse effect on our financial position, results of operations and liquidity.

We face competition that may reduce our market share and harm our financial performance.

There is substantial competition in the communications industry.  The traditional dividing lines between long-distance, local access, wireless, Internet and video services are increasingly becoming blurred. Through mergers and various service integration strategies, major providers are striving to provide integrated communications services offerings within and across geographic markets. We face increasing video services competition from DBS providers.

We expect competition to increase as a result of the rapid development of new technologies, services and products. We cannot predict which of many possible future technologies, products or services will be important to maintain our competitive position or what expenditures will be required to develop and provide these technologies, products or services. Our ability to compete successfully will depend on marketing and on our ability to anticipate and respond to various competitive factors affecting the industry, including new services that may be introduced, changes in consumer preferences, economic conditions and pricing strategies by competitors. To the extent we do not keep pace with technological advances or fail to timely respond to changes in competitive factors in our industry and in our markets, we could lose market share or experience a decline in our revenue and net income. Competitive conditions create a risk of market share loss and the risk that customers shift to less profitable lower margin services. Competitive pressures also create challenges for our ability to grow new businesses or introduce new services successfully and execute our business plan. Each of our business segments also faces the risk of potential price cuts by our competitors that could materially adversely affect our market share and gross margins.

For more information about competition by segment, see the sections titled “Competition” included in “Item 1 — Business — Narrative Description of our Business — Description of our Business by Reportable Segment.”

Our business is subject to extensive governmental legislation and regulation. Applicable legislation and regulations and changes to them could adversely affect our business, financial position, results of operations or liquidity.

Local Access Services. Our success in the local telephone market depends on our continued ability to obtain interconnection, access and related services from local exchange carriers on terms that are reasonable and that are based on the cost of providing these services. Our local telephone services business faces the risk of the impact of the implementation of current regulations and legislation, unfavorable changes in regulation or legislation or the introduction of new regulations. Our ability to enter into the local telephone market depends on our negotiation or arbitration with local exchange carriers to allow interconnection to the carrier’s existing local telephone network, to establish dialing parity, to obtain access to rights-of-way, to resell services offered by the local exchange carrier, and in some cases, to allow the purchase, at cost-based rates, of access to UNEs. In some Alaska markets, it also depends on our ability to gain interconnection at economic costs. Future arbitration proceedings with respect to new or existing markets could result in a change in our cost of serving these markets via the facilities of the ILEC or via wholesale offerings.

 
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Video Services. The cable television industry is subject to extensive regulation at various levels, and many aspects of such regulation are currently the subject of judicial proceedings and administrative or legislative proposals. The law permits certified local franchising authorities to order refunds of rates paid in the previous 12-month period determined to be in excess of the reasonable rates. It is possible that rate reductions or refunds of previously collected fees may be required of us in the future. Currently, pursuant to Alaska law, the basic cable rates in Juneau are the only rates in Alaska subject to regulation by the local franchising authority, and the rates in Juneau were reviewed and approved by the RCA in September 2009.

Other existing federal regulations, currently the subject of judicial, legislative, and administrative review, could change, in varying degrees, the manner in which cable television systems operate. Neither the outcome of these proceedings nor their impact upon the cable television industry in general, or on our activities and prospects in the cable television business in particular, can be predicted at this time. There can be no assurance that future regulatory actions taken by Congress, the FCC or other federal, state or local government authorities will not have a material adverse effect on our business, financial position, results of operations or liquidity.

Proposals may be made before Congress and the FCC to mandate cable operators provide “open access” over their cable systems to Internet service providers. As of the date of this report, the FCC has declined to impose such requirements. If the FCC or other authorities mandate additional access to our cable systems, we cannot predict the effect that this would have on our Internet service offerings.

Internet Services. Changes in the regulatory environment relating to the Internet access market, including changes in legislation, FCC regulation, judicial action or local regulation that affect communications costs or increase competition from the ILEC or other communications services providers, could adversely affect the prices at which we sell Internet services. Legislative or regulatory proposals under the banner of “net neutrality”, if adopted, could interfere with our ability to reasonably manage and invest in our broadband network, and could adversely affect the manner and price of providing service.

Wireless Services. The licensing, construction, operation, sale and interconnection arrangements of wireless communications systems are regulated by the FCC and, depending on the jurisdiction, state and local regulatory agencies. In particular, the FCC imposes significant regulation on licensees of wireless spectrum with respect to:
 
 
 
·
How radio spectrum is used by licensees;
 
·
The nature of the services that licensees may offer and how such services may be offered; and
 
·
Resolution of issues of interference between spectrum bands.

The Communications Act of 1934, as amended, preempts state and local regulation of market entry by, and the rates charged by, commercial mobile radio service providers, except that states may exercise authority over such things as certain billing practices and consumer-related issues. These regulations could increase the costs of our wireless operations. The FCC grants wireless licenses for terms of generally ten years that are subject to renewal and revocation. FCC rules require all wireless licensees to meet certain build-out requirements and substantially comply with applicable FCC rules and policies and the Communications Act of 1934, as amended, in order to retain their licenses. Failure to comply with FCC requirements in a given license area could result in revocation of the license for that license area. There is no guarantee that our licenses will be renewed.

The FCC has initiated a number of proceedings to evaluate its rules and policies regarding spectrum licensing and usage. Changes proposed by the FCC could adversely impact our utilization of our licensed spectrum and our operation costs.

Commercial mobile radio service providers must implement enhanced 911 ("E911") capabilities in accordance with FCC rules. Failure to deploy E911 service consistent with FCC requirements could subject us to significant fines.

The FCC, together with the Federal Aviation Administration, also regulates tower marking and lighting. In addition, tower construction is affected by federal, state and local statutes addressing zoning, environmental protection and historic preservation. The FCC adopted significant changes to its rules governing historic preservation review of projects, which makes it more difficult and expensive to deploy antenna facilities. The FCC is also considering changes to its rules regarding environmental protection as related to tower construction, which, if adopted, could make it more difficult to deploy facilities.

 
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For more information about Regulations affecting our operations, see “Competition” contained in “Item 1 — Business — Regulation.”

Loss of our ETC status would disqualify us for USF support.

The USF pays support to ETCs to support the provision of facilities-based wireline and wireless telephone service in high-cost areas. If we were to lose our ETC status in any of the study areas where we are currently an authorized ETC, we would be ineligible to receive USF support for providing service in that area. Loss of our ETC status could have an adverse effect on our business, financial position, results of operations or liquidity.

Revenues and accounts receivable from USF support may be reduced or lost.

We receive support from each of the various USF programs: high-cost, low income, rural health care, and schools and libraries programs.  The programs are subject to change by legislative or regulatory actions taken by the FCC.  Changes to any of the USF programs that we participate in could result in a material decrease in revenue and accounts receivable, which could have an adverse effect on our business, financial position, results of operations or liquidity.

See “Description of Our Business by Reportable Segment — Regulation — Wireline Voice Services and Products — Universal Service” for more information.

We may not be able to satisfy the requirements of the loan/grant we obtained to build TERRA-SW and/or we may have to spend considerably more than expected to complete the project.

The TERRA-SW project requires us to construct network facilities in rural areas of Alaska where extensive network facilities have never been built.  Our ability to complete the TERRA-SW project will require us to obtain permits from various government agencies as well as construct facilities in rural locations.  We will be unable to meet the requirements of the grant if we are unable to obtain necessary construction permits and if we are unable to construct the necessary facilities in the rural locations.  Additionally, we may be required to incur significant unplanned costs if we encounter unplanned construction challenges.  These additional unplanned costs may require us to modify our other network expansion plans so that we may meet the requirements of the grant.  Our inability to meet the requirements of the grant and/or significant cost overruns in the construction of TERRA-SW could have an adverse effect on our business, financial position, results of operations or liquidity.

Failure to complete development, testing and deployment of new technology that supports new services could affect our ability to compete in the industry.  In addition, the technology we use may place us at a competitive disadvantage.

We develop, test and deploy various new technologies and support systems intended to enhance our competitiveness by both supporting new services and features and reducing the costs associated with providing those services or features.  Successful development and implementation of technology upgrades depend, in part, on the willingness of third parties to develop new applications in a timely manner.  We may not successfully complete the development and rollout of new technology and related features or services in a timely manner, and they may not be widely accepted by our customers or may not be profitable, in which case we could not recover our investment in the technology.  Deployment of technology supporting new service offerings may also adversely affect the performance or reliability of our networks with respect to both the new and existing services.  Any resulting customer dissatisfaction could affect our ability to retain customers and may have an adverse effect on our financial position, results of operations, or liquidity.

Unfavorable general economic conditions in the United States could have a material adverse effect on our financial position, results of operations and liquidity.

Unfavorable general economic conditions, including the current economic downturn in the United States, could negatively affect our business.  While it is often difficult for us to predict the impact of general economic conditions on our business, these conditions could adversely affect the affordability of and demand for some of our products and services and could cause customers to shift to lower priced products and services or to delay or forgo purchases of our products and services.  One or more of these circumstances could cause our revenue to decline.  Also, our customers may not be able to obtain adequate access to credit, which could affect their ability to make timely payments to us.  If that were to occur, we could be required to increase our allowance for doubtful accounts, and the number of days outstanding for our
 
 
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accounts receivable could increase.  For these reasons, among others, if the current economic conditions persist or decline, this could adversely affect our financial position, results of operations, or liquidity, as well as our ability to service debt, pay other obligations and enhance shareholder returns.  The government has taken various measures in an attempt to help improve the economy, however, we are unable to predict the success or outcome of such programs.

Our businesses are currently geographically concentrated in Alaska. Any deterioration in the economic conditions in Alaska could have a material adverse effect on our financial position, results of operations and liquidity.

We offer voice, data and wireless communication and video services to customers primarily in Alaska. Because of this geographic concentration, our growth and operations depend upon economic conditions in Alaska. The economy of Alaska is dependent upon natural resource industries, in particular oil production, as well as tourism, and government spending, including substantial amounts for the United States military. Any deterioration in these markets could have an adverse impact on the demand for communication and cable television services and on our results of operations and financial condition. In addition, the customer base in Alaska is limited. Alaska has a population of approximately 690,000 people, 54% of whom are located in the Anchorage and Matanuska-Susitna Borough region. We have already achieved significant market penetration with respect to our service offerings in Anchorage and in other locations in Alaska.

We may not be able to continue to increase our market share of the existing markets for our services, and no assurance can be given that the Alaskan economy will continue to grow and increase the size of the markets we serve or increase the demand for the services we offer. As a result, the best opportunities for expanding our business may arise in other geographic areas such as the lower 49 states. There can be no assurance that we will find attractive opportunities to grow our businesses outside of Alaska or that we will have the necessary expertise to take advantage of such opportunities. The markets in Alaska for voice, data and wireless communications and video services are unique and distinct within the United States due to Alaska’s large geographical size, its sparse population located in a limited number of clusters, and its distance from the rest of the United States. The expertise we have developed in operating our businesses in Alaska may not provide us with the necessary expertise to successfully enter other geographic markets.

Prolonged service interruptions could affect our business.

We rely heavily on our network equipment, communications providers, data and software to support all of our functions. We rely on our networks and the networks of others for substantially all of our revenues. We are able to deliver services only to the extent that we can protect our network systems against damage from power or communication failures, computer viruses, natural disasters, unauthorized access and other disruptions. While we endeavor to provide for failures in the network by providing back-up systems and procedures, we cannot guarantee that these back-up systems and procedures will operate satisfactorily in an emergency. Should we experience a prolonged failure, it could seriously jeopardize our ability to continue operations. In particular, should a significant service interruption occur, our ongoing customers may choose a different provider, and our reputation may be damaged, reducing our attractiveness to new customers.

To the extent that any disruption or security breach results in a loss or damage to our customers’ data or applications, or inappropriate disclosure of confidential information, we may incur liability and suffer from adverse publicity. In addition, we may incur additional costs to remedy the damage caused by these disruptions or security breaches.

If failures occur in our undersea fiber optic cable systems, our ability to immediately restore the entirety of our service may be limited and we could incur significant costs, which could lead to a material adverse effect on our business, financial position, results of operations or liquidity.

Our communications facilities include undersea fiber optic cable systems that carry a large portion of our traffic to and from the contiguous lower 48 states one of which provides an alternative geographically diverse backup communication facility to the other. If a failure of both sides of the ring of our undersea fiber optic facilities occurs and we are not able to secure alternative facilities, some of the communications services we offer to our customers could be interrupted which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial position, results of operations or liquidity.  Damage to an undersea fiber optic cable system can result in significant unplanned expense which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial position, results of operations or liquidity.

 
29

 
 
If a failure occurs in our satellite communications systems, our ability to immediately restore the entirety of our service may be limited.

Our communications facilities include satellite transponders that we use to serve many rural and remote Alaska locations. Each of our C-band and Ku-band satellite transponders is backed up on the same spacecraft with multiple backup transponders. If a failure of our satellite transponders occurs and we are not able to secure alternative facilities, some of the communications services we offer to our customers could be interrupted which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial position, results of operations or liquidity.

We depend on a limited number of third-party vendors to supply communications equipment. If we do not obtain the necessary communications equipment, we will not be able to meet the needs of our customers.

We depend on a limited number of third-party vendors to supply cable, Internet, DLPS, wireless and telephony-related equipment. If our providers of this equipment are unable to timely supply the equipment necessary to meet our needs or provide them at an acceptable cost, we may not be able to satisfy demand for our services and competitors may fulfill this demand. Due to the unique characteristics of the Alaska communications markets (i.e., remote locations, rural, satellite-served, low density populations, and our leading edge services and products), in many situations we deploy and utilize specialized, advanced technology and equipment that may not have a large market or demand. Our vendors may not succeed in developing sufficient market penetration to sustain continuing production and may fail. Vendor bankruptcy (or acquisition without continuing product support by the acquiring company) may require us to replace technology before its otherwise useful end of life due to lack of on-going vendor support and product development.

We do not have insurance to cover certain risks to which we are subject, which could lead to the incurrence of uninsured liabilities that adversely affect our financial position, results of operations or liquidity.

As is typical in the communications industry, we are self-insured for damage or loss to certain of our transmission facilities, including our buried, undersea and above-ground transmission lines. If we become subject to substantial uninsured liabilities due to damage or loss to such facilities, our financial position, results of operations or liquidity may be adversely affected.

We must perform impairment tests of our goodwill, cable certificate and wireless license assets on an annual basis. Impairment testing may result in a material, non-cash write-down of our cable certificate, wireless license, or goodwill assets and could have a material adverse impact on our results of operations.

In accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (“GAAP”), we must test our goodwill and other intangible assets with indefinite lives for impairment at least annually. Our cable certificate and wireless license assets are our only indefinite-lived intangible assets other than goodwill as of December 31, 2009. Our goodwill, cable certificate and wireless license assets are tested annually for impairment, and are tested for impairment more frequently if events and circumstances such as, but not limited to an extended decline in our stock price or a significant decrease in future expected cash flows indicate that the asset might be impaired. The impairment test consists of a comparison of the fair value of the asset with its carrying amount. If the carrying amount of the assets exceeds its fair value, an impairment loss is recognized in an amount equal to that excess.  Impairment testing of these assets in future periods may result in a material, non-cash write-down of these assets and could have a material adverse impact on our results of operations.

Our significant debt could adversely affect our business and prevent us from fulfilling our obligations under our senior notes.

We have and will continue to have a significant amount of debt. On December 31, 2009, we had total debt of $877.9 million.  Our debt balance is expected to increase by $44.2 million with the construction of TERRA-SW between 2010 and 2012.  Our high level of debt could have important consequences, including the following:

 
·
Use of a large portion of our cash flow to pay principal and interest on our senior notes and our other debt, which will reduce the availability of our cash flow to fund working capital, capital expenditures, research and development expenditures and other business activities;
 
·
Increase our vulnerability to general adverse economic and industry conditions;
 
·
Limit our flexibility in planning for, or reacting to, changes in our business and the industry in which we operate;
 
·
Restrict us from making strategic acquisitions or exploiting business opportunities;
 
·
Make it more difficult for us to satisfy our obligations with respect to the senior notes and our other debt;
 
·
Place us at a competitive disadvantage compared to our competitors that have less debt; and
 
·
Limit, along with the financial and other restrictive covenants in our debt, among other things, our ability to borrow additional funds, dispose of assets or pay cash dividends.

 
30

 
 
We will require a significant amount of cash to service our debt, complete our planned network expansion and to meet other obligations. Our ability to generate cash depends on many factors beyond our control. If we are unable to meet our future capital needs it may be necessary for us to curtail, delay or abandon our business growth plans.  If we incur significant additional indebtedness to fund our plans, it could cause a decline in our credit rating and could increase our borrowing costs or limit our ability to raise additional capital.

We will continue to require a significant amount of cash to satisfy our debt service requirements and to meet other obligations.  We expect to incur $44.2 million in additional debt for the construction of TERRA-SW in 2010-2012 and, to meet our capital needs, we may incur additional debt in the future.  Our ability to make payments on and to refinance our debt and to fund planned capital expenditures and acquisitions will depend on our ability to generate cash and to arrange additional financing in the future. These abilities are subject to, among other factors, our credit rating, our financial performance, general economic conditions, prevailing market conditions, the state of competition in our market, the outcome of certain legislative and regulatory issues and other factors that may be beyond our control. Our business may not generate sufficient cash flow from operations and future borrowings may not be available to us in an amount sufficient to enable us to pay our debt or to fund our other liquidity needs.  We may need to refinance all or a portion of our debt on or before maturity.  We may not be able to refinance any of our debt on commercially reasonable terms or at all.

The terms of our debt impose restrictions on us that may affect our ability to successfully operate our business and our ability to make payments on the Senior Notes.

The indentures governing our Senior Notes and/or the credit agreements governing our Senior Credit Facility and other loans contain various covenants that could materially and adversely affect our ability to finance our future operations or capital needs and to engage in other business activities that may be in our best interest.

All of these covenants may restrict our ability to expand or to pursue our business strategies. Our ability to comply with these covenants may be affected by events beyond our control, such as prevailing economic conditions and changes in regulations, and if such events occur, we cannot be sure that we will be able to comply. A breach of these covenants could result in a default under the indenture governing our Senior Notes and/or the Senior Credit Facility. If there were an event of default under the indenture for the Senior Notes and/or the Senior Credit Facility, holders of such defaulted debt could cause all amounts borrowed under these instruments to be due and payable immediately. Additionally, if we fail to repay the debt under the Senior Credit Facility when it becomes due, the lenders under the Senior Credit Facility could proceed against certain of our assets and capital stock of our subsidiaries that we have pledged to them as security. Our assets or cash flow may not be sufficient to repay borrowings under our outstanding debt instruments in the event of a default thereunder.

Concerns about health risks associated with wireless equipment may reduce the demand for our wireless services.

Portable communications devices have been alleged to pose health risks, including cancer, due to radio frequency emissions from these devices.  Purported class actions and other lawsuits have been filed against numerous other wireless carriers seeking not only damages but also remedies that could increase the cost of doing business.  We cannot be sure of the outcome of those cases or that the industry will not be adversely affected by litigation of this nature or public perception about health risks.  The actual or perceived risk of mobile communications devices could adversely affect us through a reduction in subscribers.  Further research and studies are ongoing, and we cannot be sure that additional studies will not demonstrate a link between radio frequency emissions and health concerns.

Additionally, new government regulations on the use of a wireless device while driving may affect us through a reduction in subscribers.  Studies have indicated that using wireless devices while driving may impair a driver’s attention.  Many state and local legislative bodies have passed or proposed legislation to restrict the use of wireless telephones while driving vehicles.  Concerns over safety and the effect of future legislation,
 
 
31

 
if adopted and enforced in the areas we serve, could limit our ability to market and sell our wireless services.  Litigation relating to accidents, deaths or serious bodily injuries allegedly incurred as a result of wireless telephone use while driving could result in adverse publicity and further governmental regulation.  Any of these results could have a material adverse effect on our financial position, results of operations or liquidity.

A significant percentage of GCI's voting securities are owned by a small number of shareholders and these shareholders can control shareholder decisions on very important matters.

As of December 31, 2009, our executive officers and directors and their affiliates owned 8% of GCI's combined outstanding Class A and class B common stock, representing 16% of the combined voting power of that stock. These shareholders can significantly influence, if not control, our management policy and all fundamental corporate actions, including mergers, substantial acquisitions and dispositions, and election of directors to GCI's Board.

Item 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments.
None.

Item 2. Properties
Our properties do not lend themselves to description by location of principal units.  The majority of our properties are located in Alaska.  It is not practicable to allocate our properties to our reportable segments since many of our properties are employed by more than one segment to provide common services and products.  Additionally our properties are managed at the consolidated company level rather than at the segment level.

We lease our executive, corporate and administrative facilities and business offices. Our operating, executive, corporate and administrative properties are in good condition. We consider our properties suitable and adequate for our present needs and they are being fully utilized.

Our properties consist primarily of undersea and terrestrial fiber optic cable networks, switching equipment, satellite transponders and earth stations, microwave radio and cable and wire facilities, cable head-end equipment, wireless towers and equipment, coaxial distribution networks, connecting lines (aerial, underground and buried cable), routers, servers, transportation equipment, computer equipment and general office equipment, land, land improvements, landing stations and other buildings. Substantially all of our properties are located on or in leased real property or facilities.  Substantially all of our properties secure our Senior Credit Facility. See note 6 included in “Part II — Item 8 — Consolidated Financial Statements and Supplementary Data” for more information.

Item 3. Legal Proceedings
Except as set forth in this item, neither the Company, its property nor any of its subsidiaries or their property is a party to or subject to any material pending legal proceedings. We are parties to various claims and pending litigation as part of the normal course of business. We are also involved in several administrative proceedings and filings with the FCC and state regulatory authorities. In the opinion of management, the nature and disposition of these matters are considered routine and arising in the ordinary course of business. In addition, in September 2008, the FCC's Office of Inspector General ("OIG") initiated an investigation regarding Alaska DigiTel’s compliance with program rules and requirements under the Lifeline Program. The request covers the period beginning January 1, 2004 through August 31, 2008 and relates to the amounts received for Lifeline service.  Alaska DigiTel was an Alaska based wireless communications company of which we acquired an 81.9% equity interest on January 2, 2007 and the remaining 18.1% equity interest on August 18, 2008 and was subsequently merged with one of our wholly owned subsidiaries in April 2009. Prior to August 18, 2008, our control over the operations of Alaska DigiTel was limited as required by the FCC upon its approval of our initial acquisition completed in January 2007. We have been and intend to continue fully complying with this request on behalf of Alaska DigiTel and the GCI companies as affiliates.  The OIG investigation is still pending, and we presently are unable to assess the ultimate resolution of this matter.

Item 4. Submissions of Matters to a Vote of Security Holders
Omitted per General Instruction I(1)(a) and (b) of Form 10-K.

 
32

 
 
Part II

Item 5. Market for the Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities

Market Information for Common Stock
All issued and outstanding shares of GCI, Inc's Class A common stock are held by GCI and are not publicly traded.  GCI's Class A and Class B common stock are publicly traded.
Dividends
GCI and GCI, Inc. have never paid cash dividends on GCI's common stock, and we have no present intention of doing so. Payment of cash dividends in the future, if any, will be determined by GCI's Board of Directors in light of our earnings, financial condition and other relevant considerations. Our existing debt agreements contain provisions that limit payment of dividends on common stock, other than stock dividends (see note 6 included in “Part II — Item 8 — Consolidated Financial Statements and Supplementary Data” for more information).

Stock Transfer Agent and Registrar
BNY Mellon Shareowner Services is GCI's stock transfer agent and registrar.

Item 6. Selected Financial Data
The following table presents selected historical information relating to financial condition and results of operations over the past five years.  The consolidated financial results have been recast for all periods presented to reflect the retrospective application of adopting the presentation and disclosure requirements of ASC Topic 810-10-65-1, “Consolidation” (formerly SFAS No. 160, “Non-Controlling Interests in Consolidated Financial Statements, an Amendment of Accounting Research Bulletin No. 51”).

   
Years ended December 31,
 
  (Amounts in Thousands)  
2009
   
2008
   
2007
   
2006
   
2005
 
Revenues
  $ 595,811       575,442       520,311       477,482       443,026  
Income (loss) before income tax expense and cumulative effect of a change in accounting principle
  $ 7,452       (2,295 )     25,859       34,253       36,835  
Cumulative effect of a change in accounting principal, net of income tax expense of $44 in 2006
  $ ---       ---       ---       64       ---  
Net income (loss)
  $ 3,516       (3,372 )     13,697       18,520       20,831  
Net loss attributable to the non-controlling interest
  $ ---       1,503       36       ---       ---  
Net income (loss) attributable to GCI, Inc. common stockholders
  $ 3,516       (1,869 )     13,733       18,520       20,831  
Total assets
  $ 1,417,763       1,335,090       984,233       914,659       873,775  
Long-term debt, including current portion and net of unamortized discount
  $ 776,380       716,831       538,398       489,462       475,840  
Obligations under capital leases, including current portion
  $ 95,914       100,329       2,851       2,857       672  
Total GCI, Inc. stockholder’s equity
  $ 266,683       258,704       252,955       240,395       243,620  
Dividends declared per common share
  $ 0.00       0.00       0.00       0.00       0.00  

The Selected Financial Data should be read in conjunction with “Part II — Item 7 — Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.”

 
33

 
Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations
In the following discussion, GCI, Inc. and its direct and indirect subsidiaries are referred to as “we,” “us” and “our.”
 
Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations discusses our consolidated financial statements, which have been prepared in accordance with GAAP. The preparation of these financial statements requires us to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and the disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the financial statements and the reported amounts of revenues and expenses during the reporting period. On an on-going basis, we evaluate our estimates and judgments, including those related to the allowance for doubtful receivables, unbilled revenues, accrual of the USF high-cost area program subsidy, share-based compensation, reserve for future customer credits, valuation allowances for deferred income tax assets, depreciable and amortizable lives of assets, the carrying value of long-lived assets including goodwill, cable certificates and wireless licenses, our effective tax rate, purchase price allocations, the accrual of cost of goods sold (exclusive of depreciation and amortization expense ("Cost of Goods Sold")), depreciation, and contingencies and litigation. We base our estimates and judgments on historical experience and on various other factors that are believed to be reasonable under the circumstances, the results of which form the basis for making judgments about the carrying values of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. Actual results may differ from these estimates under different assumptions or conditions. See also our “Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements.”

GCI, Inc. was incorporated under the laws of the State of Alaska in 1997 to affect the issuance of Senior Notes. GCI, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of GCI, received through its initial capitalization all ownership interests in subsidiaries previously held by GCI. Shares of GCI’s Class A common stock are traded on the Nasdaq National Market tier of the Nasdaq Stock Market under the symbol of GNCMA. Shares of GCI’s Class B common stock are traded on the Over-the-Counter market. Shares of GCI, Inc.’s common stock are wholly owned by GCI and are not publicly traded.  The GCI and GCI, Inc. consolidated financial statements include substantially the same account activity.

The following discussion and analysis of financial condition and results of operations should be read in conjunction with our consolidated financial statements and supplementary data as presented in Item 8 of this Form 10-K.

General Overview
Through our focus on long-term results, acquisitions, and strategic capital investments, we strive to consistently grow our revenues and expand our margins. We have historically met our cash needs for operations, regular capital expenditures and maintenance capital expenditures through our cash flows from operating activities. Historically, cash requirements for significant acquisitions and major capital expenditures have been provided largely through our financing activities.  The ongoing weakness in the national economy continues to negatively impact consumer confidence and spending.  There are some indicators that consumer confidence might be improving; however, there is no clear indication that the economy is in a recovery.  Continued stress in the economy could lead to reductions in consumer spending which could impact our revenue growth.  We believe the Alaska economy continues to perform well compared to most other states at the current time. Mortgage foreclosure rates in Alaska are the lowest in the nation and the commercial real estate market is steady. Alaska appears to be relatively well positioned to weather recessionary pressures. The State of Alaska has large cash reserves that should enable it to maintain its budget for at least the next two fiscal years. This is important for Alaska’s economy as the State is the largest employer and second largest source of gross state product. The majority of our revenue is driven by the strength of the Alaska economy which appears relatively well positioned to weather the recessionary pressures, nonetheless we cannot predict the impact the economic crisis may have on us.

Effective June 1, 2008, we purchased 100% of the outstanding stock of UUI and Unicom.  The financial results of the long-distance, local access and Internet services sold to consumer and commercial customers of certain of these acquired companies are reported in the Regulated Operations segment.  The financial results of the long-distance services sold to other common carrier customers and the managed broadband services components of certain of these acquired companies are included in the Network Access and Managed Broadband Services segments, respectively.  Effective July 1, 2008, we closed on our purchase of 100% of the ownership interests of Alaska Wireless whose results are included in the Consumer segment.

Results of Operations
The following table sets forth selected Statements of Operations data as a percentage of total revenues for the periods indicated (underlying data rounded to the nearest thousands):
 
 
34

 

 
                     
Percent­age Change 1
   
Percent­age Change 1
 
                     
2009
   
2008
 
   
Year Ended December 31,
   
vs.
   
vs.
 
(Unaudited)
 
2009
   
2008
   
2007
   
2008
   
2007
 
Statements of Operations Data:
                             
Revenues:
                             
Consumer segment
    49 %     45 %     43 %     15 %     14 %
Network Access segment
    21 %     27 %     31 %     (20 %)     (6 %)
Commercial segment
    18 %     20 %     20 %     (4 %)     10 %
Managed Broadband segment
    8 %     6 %     6 %     21 %     29 %
Regulated Operations segment
    4 %     2 %     0 %     68 %  
                        NM
 
Total revenues
    100 %     100 %     100 %     4 %     11 %
Selling, general and administrative expenses
    36 %     37 %     34 %     1 %     20 %
Depreciation and amortization expense
    21 %     20 %     17 %     8 %     31 %
Operating income
    11 %     8 %     12 %     39 %     (22 %)
Other expense, net
    10 %     9 %     7 %     17 %     42 %
Income (loss) before income taxes
    1 %     0 %     5 %     425 %     (109 %)
Net income (loss)
    1 %     (1 %)     3 %     204 %     (125 %)
Net loss attributable to the non-controlling interest
    0 %     0 %     0 %     100 %     4,075 %
Net income (loss) attributable to GCI, Inc.
    1 %     0 %     3 %     288 %     (114 %)
________________________________
1  Percentage change in underlying data.
NM – Not meaningful.                           

Year Ended December 31, 2009 (“2009”) Compared to Year Ended December 31, 2008 (“2008”)

Overview of Revenues and Cost of Goods Sold
Total revenues increased 4% from $575.4 million in 2008 to $595.8 million in 2009.  Revenue increases in our Consumer, Managed Broadband and Regulated Operations segments were partially off-set by decreases in our Network Access and Commercial segments.  See the discussion below for more information by segment.

Total Cost of Goods Sold decreased 5% from $203.1 million in 2008 to $193.7 million in 2009. Cost of Goods Sold increases in our Consumer, Managed Broadband and Regulated Operations segments were partially off-set by decreases in our Network Access and Commercial segments.  See the discussion below for more information by segment.

Consumer Segment Overview
Consumer segment revenue represented 49% of 2009 consolidated revenues. The components of Consumer segment revenue are as follow (amounts in thousands):

         
Percentage
 
   
2009
   
2008
   
Change
 
Voice
  $ 52,654       47,042       12 %
Video
    110,986       105,238       5 %
Data
    50,327       42,692       18 %
Wireless
    80,958       60,660       33 %
Total Consumer segment revenue
  $ 294,925       255,632       15 %

 
35

 
 
Consumer segment Cost of Goods Sold represented 50% of 2009 consolidated Cost of Goods Sold. The components of Consumer segment Cost of Goods Sold are as follows (amounts in thousands):

             
   
2009
   
2008
   
Percentage
Change
 
Voice
  $ 14,952       18,121       (17 %)
Video
    45,350       40,279       13 %
Data
    4,367       6,554       (33 %)
Wireless
    32,225       24,899       29 %
Total Consumer segment Cost of Goods Sold
  $ 96,894       89,853       8 %

Consumer segment earnings before depreciation and amortization expense, income tax expense, share-based compensation expense and non-cash contribution adjustment ("adjusted EBITDA"), representing 45% of 2009 consolidated adjusted EBITDA, is as follows (amounts in thousands):

         
Percentage
 
   
2009
   
2008
   
Change
 
Consumer segment adjusted EBITDA
  $ 86,587       58,949       47 %

Selected key performance indicators for our Consumer segment follow:

   
December 31,
   
Percentage
 
   
2009
   
2008
   
Change
 
Voice:
                 
Long-distance subscribers1
    90,500       88,600       2 %
Long-distance minutes carried (in millions)
    114.7       128.6       (11 %)
Total local access lines in service2
    84,200       80,700       4 %
Local access lines in service on GCI facilities2
    75,200       68,700       9 %
                         
Video:
                       
Basic subscribers3
    130,500       132,500       (2 %)
Digital programming tier subscribers4
    79,600       71,900       11 %
HD/DVR converter boxes5
    81,500       67,800       20 %
Homes passed
    232,400       229,300       1 %
Average monthly gross revenue per subscriber6
  $ 70.36     $ 67.40       4 %
                         
Data:
                       
Cable modem subscribers7
    100,200       94,400       6 %
                         
Wireless:
                       
Wireless lines in service8
    115,100       88,700       30 %
Average monthly gross revenue per subscriber9
  $ 58.23     $ 55.23       5 %
   
A long-distance customer is defined as a customer account that is invoiced a monthly long-distance plan fee or has made a long-distance call during the month.
A local access line in service is defined as a revenue generating circuit or channel connecting a customer to the public switched telephone network.
A basic cable subscriber is defined as one basic tier of service delivered to an address or separate subunits thereof regardless of the number of outlets purchased. On January 1, 2009, our Consumer segment transferred 2,900 basic cable subscribers to our Commercial segment.
A digital programming tier subscriber is defined as one digital programming tier of service delivered to an address or separate subunits thereof regardless of the number of outlets or digital programming tiers purchased. Digital programming tier subscribers are a subset of basic subscribers.
A HD/DVR converter box is defined as one box rented by a digital programming or basic tier subscriber. A digital programming or basic tier subscriber is not required to rent an HD/DVR converter box to receive service.
Year-to-date average monthly consumer video revenues divided by the average of consumer video basic subscribers at the beginning and ending of the period.
A cable modem subscriber is defined by the purchase of cable modem service regardless of the level of service purchased. If one entity purchases multiple cable modem service access points, each access point is counted as a subscriber. Cable modem subscribers may also be video basic subscribers though basic cable service is not required to receive cable modem service.
A wireless line in service is defined as a revenue generating wireless device.
Year-to-date average monthly consumer wireless revenues divided by the average of consumer wireless subscribers at the beginning and ending of the period.
 
   
 
 
36

 
 
Consumer Segment Revenues
The increase in voice revenue is primarily due to a $3.7 million or 82% increase in recognized support from the USAC and an increase in monthly recurring local service fee revenue.  The increase in USAC support is primarily due to an FCC order issued in March 2009, the result of which provided uncapped support for all lines served by competitive ETCs for tribal lands or Alaska Native regions retroactive to August 2008.  The issuance of this order allowed us to recognize in 2009 $674,000 in additional USAC support for services provided from August 2008 to December 2008 that is included in the revenue increase discussed above, and the removal of the cap allowed us to increase the USAC support revenue that we recognized in 2009.

The increase in monthly recurring local service fee revenue is due to increased subscribers.  The increase in voice revenue was partially offset by decreased long-distance billable minutes carried.

The increase in video revenue is primarily due to the following:

 
·
A 4% increase in programming services revenue to $88.1 million in 2009 primarily resulting from an increase in digital programming tier subscribers in 2009 and a rate increase on certain cable service offerings beginning in August 2009, and
 
·
A 12% increase in equipment rental revenue to $21.6 million in 2009 primarily resulting from our customers’ increased use of our HD/DVR converter boxes.

The increase in data revenue is primarily due to a 19% increase in cable modem revenue to $43.4 million due to increased subscribers and their selection of more value-added features.

The increase in wireless revenue is primarily due to the following:

·  
An $11.9 million or 162% increase in recognized support from the USAC primarily due to the following:
o  
Increased wireless subscribers in areas that receive USAC support,
o  
Recognition of $3.1 million to be received from the USAC for interstate common line support for a new local access area for which we received ETC status in May 2009 of which $1.7 million was related to services provided during 2008.  Collectability was not reasonably assured until we were awarded ETC status, therefore, we deferred revenue recognition until such status was confirmed,
o  
Recognition of $1.1 million upon a change in our estimate of support to be received from the USAC for interstate common line support of which $77,000 was related to 2008.  We accrue estimated program revenue quarterly and adjust our revenue as we obtain new information that changes the variables used to calculate our estimate, and
o  
The FCC order issued in March 2009, the result of which provides uncapped support for all lines served by competitive ETCs for tribal lands or Alaska Native regions retroactive to August 2008.  The issuance of this order allowed us to recognize $810,000 in additional USAC support from August 2008 to December 2008 in 2009 that is included in the revenue increase discussed above.
·  
An increase in the number of wireless subscribers.

The increase in wireless revenue was partially off-set by receipt of $2.8 million in July 2008 from the USAC for retroactive interstate common line support at Alaska DigiTel for which revenue was recognized in 2008.

Consumer Segment Cost of Goods Sold
The decrease in voice Cost of Goods Sold is primarily due to cost savings resulting from the increased deployment of local access services DLPS lines on our own facilities during 2009 and decreased voice minutes carried.

 
37

 
 
The video Cost of Goods Sold increase is primarily due to increased channels offered to our subscribers, increased rates paid to programmers, increased costs associated with delivery of digital services offered over our HD/DVR converter boxes due to the increased number of boxes in service, an increase in digital programming tier subscribers, and the recognition of a $594,000 liability in 2009 to settle a billing issue with a cable programmer.

The decrease in data Cost of Goods Sold is primarily due to the transition of traffic to our own facilities from leased facilities and the addition of more peering partners for Internet traffic, which was partially offset by an increase in costs due to an increased number of cable modem subscribers.

The increase in wireless Cost of Goods Sold is primarily due to increased costs for wireless handset equipment sales associated with the increased number of wireless subscribers and the inclusion of premium wireless handsets which have higher costs in certain promotions offered in 2009.  The increase was partially offset by decreased costs due to the June 4, 2008 implementation of the new distribution agreement with AT&T Mobility.

AT&T Mobility acquired Dobson, including its Alaska properties, on November 15, 2007. In December 2007 we signed an agreement with AT&T Mobility that provided for an orderly transition of our wireless customers from the Dobson/AT&T network in Alaska to our wireless facilities that we began building in 2008 and are expected to be substantially completed in 2010 or 2011.  The agreement required our customers to be on our wireless network by June 30, 2009, but allowed our customers to use the AT&T Mobility network for roaming during the transition period.  We started transitioning our customers to our wireless facilities in November 2008.  We successfully migrated all but 200 customers from the AT&T Mobility network to our network by the required transition date of June 30, 2009.  The four-year transition period, which expires June 30, 2012, provides us adequate time to replace the Dobson/AT&T network in Alaska with our own wireless facilities. Under the agreement, AT&T Mobility’s obligation to purchase network services from us terminated as of July 1, 2008. AT&T Mobility provided us with a large block of wireless network usage at no charge to facilitate the transition of our customers to our facilities.  We will pay for usage in excess of that base transitional amount.  Under the previous agreement with Dobson, our margin was fixed.  Under the new agreement with AT&T Mobility, we will pay for usage in excess of the block of no charge minutes on a per minute basis.  The block of wireless network usage at no charge has substantially reduced our wireless product Cost of Goods Sold beginning June 4, 2008 through December 31, 2009.  We expect such reductions to continue through June 30, 2012.

Consumer Segment Adjusted EBITDA
The increase in adjusted EBITDA is primarily due to increased revenue as described above in "Consumer Segment Revenues," which was partially offset by increased Cost of Goods Sold as described above in "Consumer Segment Cost of Goods Sold" and an increase in the selling, general and administrative expense that was allocated to our Consumer segment primarily due to an increase in the 2008 segment margin upon which the allocation is based.

See note 9 in the "Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements" included in Part II of this annual report on Form 10-K for a reconciliation of consolidated adjusted EBITDA, a non-GAAP financial measure, to consolidated income (loss) before income taxes.

Network Access Segment Overview
Network access segment revenue represented 21% of 2009 consolidated revenues. The components of Network Access segment revenue are as follows (amounts in thousands):

         
Percentage
 
   
2009
   
2008
   
Change
 
Voice
  $ 49,837       79,744       (38 %)
Data
    63,862       71,414       (11 %)
Wireless
    8,373       2,663       214 %
Total Network Access segment revenue
  $ 122,072       153,821       (21 %)
                         

Network Access segment Cost of Goods Sold represented 14% of 2009 consolidated Cost of Goods Sold. The components of Network Access segment Cost of Goods Sold are as follows (amounts in thousands):

         
Percentage
 
   
2009
   
2008
   
Change
 
Voice
  $ 16,522       27,149       (39 %)
Data
    9,444       11,539       (18 %)
Wireless
    1,287       1,638       (21 %)
Total Network Access segment Cost of Goods Sold
  $ 27,253       40,326       (32 %)
                         

 
 
38

 
 
Network Access segment adjusted EBITDA, representing 30% of 2009 consolidated adjusted EBITDA, is as follows (amounts in thousands):

         
Percentage
 
   
2009
   
2008
   
Change
 
Network Access segment adjusted EBITDA
  $ 57,563       73,647       (22 %)

Selected key performance indicators for our Network Access segment follow:

   
December 31,
   
Percentage
 
   
2009
   
2008
   
Change
 
Voice:
                 
Long-distance minutes carried (in millions)
    840       1,094       (23 %)
                         
Data:
                       
Total Internet service provider access lines in service1
    1,700       1,800       (6 %)
   
An Internet service provider access line in service is defined as a revenue generating circuit or channel connecting a customer to the public switched telephone network.
 
   

Network Access Segment Revenues
The decrease in voice revenue is due in part to the June 4, 2008 implementation of the new distribution agreement with AT&T Mobility as described in "Part II – Item VII – Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations – Consumer Segment Cost of Goods Sold."  The voice revenue decrease also resulted from a decrease in our average rate per minute on billable minutes carried for our common carrier customers and the transition of voice traffic to dedicated networks.  The average rate per minute decrease is primarily due to a change in the composition of traffic and a 3.0% interstate rate decrease mandated by federal law.  Voice revenue continues to decline as expected due to increased competition in the Network Access business.  The increased competition will continue to compress the rates we may charge our customers and, therefore, we expect a continued decline in Network Access segment voice revenue.

The decrease in data revenue is primarily due to a change in the composition of traffic resulting in IRU operating leases and service agreements replacing data network service agreements.

The increase in wireless revenue is primarily due to increased roaming revenue in 2009 primarily due to the construction of our state-wide GSM network starting in 2008 and the 2008 expansion of our CDMA network.

Network Access Segment Cost of Goods Sold
The decrease in voice Cost of Goods Sold is primarily due to decreased long-distance minutes carried and the movement of more traffic onto our network in lieu of carrying traffic on third party networks.

The decrease in data Cost of Goods Sold is primarily due to a change in the composition of traffic resulting in IRU operating leases and service agreements replacing data network service agreements and a $585,000 favorable adjustment resulting from a refund of fiber repair costs.  The fiber repair costs were originally recognized in the first quarter of 2008.  Due to the uncertainty surrounding the recovery of the fiber repair costs, we deferred recognition until collection of the refund was reasonably assured.

Network Access Segment Adjusted EBITDA
The adjusted EBITDA decrease is primarily due to decreased revenue as described above in "Network Access Segment Revenues," which is partially off-set by decreased Cost of Goods Sold as described above in
 
 
39

 
 
“Network Access Segment Cost of Goods Sold” and a decrease in the selling, general and administrative expense that was allocated to our Network Access segment primarily due to a decrease in the 2008 segment margin upon which the allocation is based.

See note 9 in the "Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements" included in Part II of this annual report on Form 10-K for a reconciliation of consolidated adjusted EBITDA, a non-GAAP financial measure, to consolidated income (loss) before income taxes.

Commercial Segment Overview
Commercial segment revenue represented 18% of 2009 consolidated revenues. The components of Commercial segment revenue are as follows (amounts in thousands):

         
Percentage
 
   
2009
   
2008
   
Change
 
Voice
  $ 30,830       29,398       5 %
Video
    9,175       9,604       (4 %)
Data
    63,383       70,068       (10 %)
Wireless
    6,747       5,590       21 %
Total Commercial segment revenue
  $ 110,135       114,660       (4 %)

Commercial segment Cost of Goods Sold represented 27% of 2009 consolidated Cost of Goods Sold. The components of Commercial segment Cost of Goods Sold are as follows (amounts in thousands):

             
   
2009
   
2008
   
Percentage
Change
 
Voice
  $ 18,563       19,581       (5 %)
Video
    1,956       1,551       26 %
Data
    28,661       34,391       (17 %)
Wireless
    3,065       3,957       (23 %)
Total Commercial segment Cost of Goods Sold
  $ 52,245       59,480       (12 %)

Commercial segment adjusted EBITDA, representing 12% of 2009 consolidated adjusted EBITDA, is as follows (amounts in thousands):

         
Percentage
 
   
2009
   
2008
   
Change
 
Commercial segment adjusted EBITDA
  $ 23,174       20,710       12 %

 
Selected key performance indicators for our Commercial segment follow:

   
December 31,
 
Percentage
   
2009
 
2008
 
Change
Voice:
           
Long-distance subscribers1
 
9,500
 
9,700
 
(2%)
Total local access lines in service2
 
47,700
 
46,200
 
3%
Local access lines in service on GCI facilities 2
 
19,600
 
18,700
 
5%
Long-distance minutes carried (in millions)
 
123.2
 
129.5
 
(5%)
             
Data:
           
Cable modem subscribers3
 
10,500
 
8,900
 
18%
             
Wireless:
           
Wireless lines in service4
 
10,300
 
7,600
 
36%
             
1  A long-distance customer is defined as a customer account that is invoiced a monthly long-distance plan fee or has made a long-distance call during the month.
2  A local access line in service is defined as a revenue generating circuit or channel connecting a customer to the public switched telephone network.
3  A cable modem subscriber is defined by the purchase of cable modem service regardless of the level of service purchased. If one entity purchases multiple cable modem service access points, each access point is counted as a subscriber.
 4  A wireless line in service is defined as a revenue generating wireless device.
   

 
40

 
 
Commercial Segment Revenues
The increase in voice revenue is primarily due to increased local access lines in service and a $1.3 million or 109% increase in recognized support from the USAC primarily due to increased local subscribers and the FCC order issued in March 2009, the result of which provides uncapped support for all lines served by competitive ETCs for tribal lands or Alaska Native regions retroactive to August 2008.  The issuance of this order allowed us to recognize $386,000 in additional USAC support from August 2008 to December 2008 in 2009 that is included in the revenue increase discussed above.  The increase in voice revenue was partially off-set by decreased long-distance subscribers and decreased voice minutes carried.

Commercial segment data revenue is comprised of monthly recurring charges for data services and charges billed on a time and materials basis largely for personnel providing on-site customer support. This latter category can vary significantly based on project activity. The decrease in data revenue is primarily due to a $7.2 million or 19% decrease in managed services project revenue partially off-set by a $1.0 million or 6% increase in Internet revenue primarily due to an increase in cable modem subscribers.

The increase in wireless revenue is primarily due to an increase in the number of wireless subscribers.

Commercial Segment Cost of Goods Sold
The decrease in voice Cost of Goods Sold is primarily due to cost savings resulting from an increase in local access lines in service on our own facilities during 2009 and decreased long-distance billable minutes carried.

The decrease in data Cost of Goods Sold is primarily due to a $5.7 million or 22% decrease in managed services project Cost of Goods Sold.

Commercial Segment Adjusted EBITDA
The adjusted EBITDA increase was primarily due to decreased Cost of Goods Sold as described above in “Commercial Segment Cost of Goods Sold” that was partially offset by a decrease in revenue as described above in "Commercial Segment Revenues."

See note 9 in the "Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements" included in Part II of this annual report on Form 10-K for a reconciliation of consolidated adjusted EBITDA, a non-GAAP financial measure, to consolidated income (loss) before income taxes.

Managed Broadband Segment Overview
Managed Broadband segment revenue, Cost of Goods Sold and adjusted EBITDA represented 8%, 6% and 10% of 2009 consolidated revenues, Cost of Goods Sold and adjusted EBITDA, respectively.

Managed Broadband Segment Revenues
Managed Broadband segment revenue, which includes data products only, increased 21% to $44.9 million in 2009 as compared to 2008. The increase is primarily due to increased circuits purchased by our Rural Health customers and a $5.3 million increase from our acquisition of Unicom effective June 1, 2008.  The increase is partially off-set by a  decrease in revenue associated with product sales.

Managed Broadband Segment Cost of Goods Sold
Managed Broadband segment Cost of Goods Sold increased from $10.3 million in 2008 to $11.1 million in 2009 primarily due to an increase in costs associated with the increased revenue partially off-set by a decrease in costs associated with product sales.

Managed Broadband Segment Adjusted EBITDA
Managed Broadband segment adjusted EBITDA increased 37% to $19.6 million in 2009 primarily due to an increase in revenue as described above in "Managed Broadband Segment Revenues."

 
41

 
 
See note 9 in the "Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements" included in Part II of this annual report on Form 10-K for a reconciliation of consolidated adjusted EBITDA, a non-GAAP financial measure, to consolidated income (loss) before income taxes.

Regulated Operations Segment Overview
Regulated Operations segment revenue, Cost of Goods Sold and adjusted EBITDA represented 4%, 3% and 3% of 2009 consolidated revenues, Cost of Goods Sold and adjusted EBITDA, respectively.

Selected key performance indicators for our Regulated Operations segment follow:

   
December 31,
 
Percentage
   
2009
 
2008
 
Change
Voice:
           
Long-distance subscribers1
 
600
 
900
 
(33%)
Long-distance minutes carried (in thousands)
 
1,107
 
844
 
31%
Total local access lines in service2
 
11,100
 
12,100
 
(8%)
               
1  A long-distance subscriber is defined as a customer account that is invoiced a monthly long-distance plan fee or has made a long-distance call during the month.
2  A local access line in service is defined as a revenue generating circuit or channel connecting a customer to the public switched telephone network.

Regulated Operations Segment Revenues
Regulated Operations segment revenues increased from $14.3 million in 2008 to $23.8 million in 2009 primarily due to our acquisition of UUI effective June 1, 2008.

Regulated Operations Segment Cost of Goods Sold
Regulated Operations segment Cost of Goods Sold increased from $3.1 million in 2008 to $6.1 million in 2009 primarily due to our acquisition of UUI effective June 1, 2008.

Regulated Operations Segment Adjusted EBITDA
Regulated Operations segment adjusted EBITDA was $6.0 million in 2009 and $3.6 million in 2008 primarily due to our acquisition of UUI effective June 1, 2008.

See note 9 in the "Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements" included in Part II of this annual report on Form 10-K for a reconciliation of consolidated adjusted EBITDA, a non-GAAP financial measure, to consolidated income (loss) before income taxes.

Selling, General and Administrative Expenses
Selling, general and administrative expenses increased from $210.3 million in 2008 to $212.7 million in 2009 primarily due to the following:
·  
A $4.5 million increase in labor costs,
·  
$4.1 million in additional expense resulting from our June 1, 2008, acquisition of UUI and Unicom,
·  
A $1.4 million increase in our company-wide success sharing bonus accrual in 2009,
·  
$1.1 million in additional expense incurred in 2009 for the conversion of our customers' wireless phones to our facilities, and
·  
A $1.1 million increase in lease related expense.

The increases were partially off-set by the following:
·  
A $4.9 million decrease in contract labor costs,
·  
A $4.5 million decrease in share-based compensation expense primarily due to the reversal of expense properly recognized in previous periods for certain performance-based stock options and restricted stock awards that are not expected to vest, and
·  
The absence of $1.8 million to terminate a management agreement that was paid in 2008 upon the acquisition of our non-controlling interest in Alaska DigiTel.
 
 
 
42

 
 
As a percentage of total revenues, selling, general and administrative expenses decreased to 36% in 2009 from 37% in 2008, primarily due to increases in revenue without a proportional increase in selling, general and administrative expenses.

Depreciation and Amortization Expense
Depreciation and amortization expense increased 8% to $123.4 million in 2009. The increase is primarily due to our $322.3 million investment in equipment and facilities placed into service during 2008 for which a full year of depreciation was recorded in 2009, and the $182.4 million investment in equipment and facilities placed into service during the year ended December 31, 2009 for which a partial year of depreciation was recorded in 2009.  The increase is partially off-set by a $12.0 million depreciation charge in 2008 to change the estimated useful life of certain assets that were decommissioned at the end of 2008.

Other Expense, Net
Other expense, net of other income, increased 17% to $58.7 million in 2009 primarily due to the following:

·  
A $3.7 million decrease in capitalized interest in 2009 compared to 2008,
·  
$2.7 million in additional interest expense resulting from the Galaxy 18 capital lease commencing in May 2008, and
·  
A $1.9 million increase in interest expense resulting from the write-off of the original issue discount on our Senior Credit Facility.

The interest expense increase is partially off-set by the absence of a $921,000 loss that was recorded in 2008 relating to the fair value change on a derivative instrument.

Income Tax Expense
GCI, Inc., as a wholly-owned subsidiary and member of the GCI controlled group of corporations, files its income tax returns as part of the consolidated group of corporations under GCI. Accordingly, all discussions regarding income taxes reflect the consolidated group’s activity.  Our income tax expense and deferred income tax assets are presented herein using the separate-entity method.

Income tax expense totaled $3.9 million and $1.1 million in 2009 and 2008, respectively. Our effective income tax rate increased from 47% in 2008 to 53% in 2009 primarily due to the increase in the amount of permanent differences in 2009 as compared to our pretax net income before income tax expense.

At December 31, 2009, we have tax net operating loss carryforwards of $211.3 million that will begin expiring in 2011 if not utilized, and alternative minimum tax credit carryforwards of $1.9 million available to offset regular income taxes payable in future years.

We have recorded deferred tax assets of $82.7 million associated with income tax net operating losses that were generated from 1996 to 2009 and that expire from 2011 to 2029, and with charitable contributions that were converted to net operating losses in 2004 through 2009, and that expire in 2024 through 2029, respectively.

Tax benefits associated with recorded deferred tax assets are considered to be more likely than not realizable through future reversals of existing taxable temporary differences and future taxable income exclusive of reversing temporary differences and carryforwards. The amount of deferred tax asset considered realizable, however, could be reduced if estimates of future taxable income during the carryforward period are reduced which would result in additional income tax expense. We estimate that our effective annual income tax rate for financial statement purposes will be 69% to 72% in the year ended December 31, 2010, primarily due to the large amount of permanent differences in 2010 as compared to our net income before income tax expense.

Year Ended December 31, 2008 (“2008”) Compared to Year Ended December 31, 2007 (“2007”)

Overview of Revenues and Cost of Goods Sold
Total revenues increased 11% from $520.3 million in 2007 to $575.4 million in 2008.  Revenue increases in our Consumer, Commercial, Managed Broadband and Regulated Operations segments were partially off-set by decreases in our Network Access segment.  See the discussion below for more information by segment.

Total Cost of Goods Sold increased 4% from $195.8 million in 2007 to $203.1 million in 2008. Cost of Goods Sold increases in our Consumer, Commercial, Managed Broadband and Regulated Operations segments
 
 
43

 
 
were partially off-set by decreases in our Network Access segment.  See the discussion below for more information by segment.

Consumer Segment Overview
Consumer segment revenue represented 45% of 2008 consolidated revenues. The components of Consumer segment revenue are as follow (amounts in thousands):

         
Percentage
 
   
2008
   
2007
   
Change
 
Voice
  $ 47,042       46,212       2 %
Video
    105,238       96,327       9 %
Data
    42,692       34,230       25 %
Wireless
    60,660       46,733       30 %
Total Consumer segment revenue
  $ 255,632       223,502       14 %

Consumer segment Cost of Goods Sold represented 44% of 2008 consolidated Cost of Goods Sold. The components of Consumer segment Cost of Goods Sold are as follows (amounts in thousands):

   
2008
   
2007
   
Percentage
Change
 
Voice
  $ 18,121       20,364       (11 %)
Video
    40,279       34,301       17 %
Data
    6,554       5,313       23 %
Wireless
    24,899       28,721       (13 %)
Total Consumer segment Cost of Goods Sold
  $ 89,853       88,699       1 %

Consumer segment adjusted EBITDA, which represented 35% of 2008 consolidated adjusted EBITDA, is as follows (amounts in thousands):

         
Percentage
 
   
2008
   
2007
   
Change
 
Consumer segment adjusted EBITDA
  $ 58,949       46,808       26 %

Selected key performance indicators for our Consumer segment follow:

   
December 31,
   
Percentage
 
   
2008
   
2007
   
Change
 
Voice:
                 
Long-distance subscribers1
    88,600       89,900       (2 %)
Long-distance minutes carried (in millions)
    128.6       135.8       (5 %)
Total local access lines in service2
    80,700       74,400       9 %
Local access lines in service on GCI facilities2
    68,700       50,700       36 %
                         
Video:
                       
Basic subscribers3
    132,500       128,000       4 %
Digital programming tier subscribers4
    71,900       65,800       9 %
HD/DVR converter boxes5
    67,800       50,200       35 %
Homes passed
    229,300       224,700       2 %
Average monthly gross revenue per subscriber6
  $ 67.40     $ 64.01       5 %
                         
Data:
                       
Cable modem subscribers7
    94,400       88,000       7 %
                         
Wireless:
                       
Wireless lines in service8
    88,700       70,000       27 %
Average monthly gross revenue per subscriber9
  $ 55.23     $ 58.29       (5 %)
   
A long-distance customer is defined as a customer account that is invoiced a monthly long-distance plan fee or has made a long-distance call during the month.
A local access line in service is defined as a revenue generating circuit or channel connecting a customer to the public switched telephone network.
A basic cable subscriber is defined as one basic tier of service delivered to an address or separate subunits thereof regardless of the number of outlets purchased.
A digital programming tier subscriber is defined as one digital programming tier of service delivered to an address or separate subunits thereof regardless of the number of outlets or digital programming tiers purchased. Digital programming tier subscribers are a subset of basic subscribers.
An HD/DVR converter box is defined as one box rented by a digital programming or basic tier subscriber. A digital programming or basic tier subscriber is not required to rent an HD/DVR converter box to receive service.
Year-to-date average monthly consumer video revenues divided by the average of consumer video basic subscribers at the beginning and ending of the period.
A cable modem subscriber is defined by the purchase of cable modem service regardless of the level of service purchased. If one entity purchases multiple cable modem service access points, each access point is counted as a subscriber. Cable modem subscribers may also be video basic subscribers though basic cable service is not required to receive cable modem service.
A wireless line in service is defined as a revenue generating wireless device.
Year-to-date average monthly consumer wireless revenues divided by the average of consumer wireless subscribers at the beginning and ending of the period.
 
   
 
 
44

 
 
Consumer Segment Revenues
The increase in voice revenue is primarily due to a $2.8 million or 15% increase in the monthly local service network access fee and subscriber line charges as a result of increased local access lines partially offset by a $854,000 or 16% decrease in recognized support from the USAC primarily due to a change in our revenue accrual estimation to more precisely consider changes in FCC reimbursement and to consider uncertainties we believe may impact the amount of reimbursement we will receive.

The increase in video revenue is primarily due to the following:

 
·
A 7% increase in programming services revenue to $84.5 million in 2008 primarily resulting from an increase in basic and digital programming tier subscribers in 2008, and
 
·
A 19% increase in equipment rental revenue to $19.4 million in 2008 primarily resulting from our customers’ increased use of our HD/DVR converter boxes.

The increase in data revenue is primarily due to a 26% increase in cable modem revenue to $36.4 million due to increased subscribers and their selection of more value-added features.

The increase in wireless revenue is primarily due to an increase in the number of wireless subscribers and receipt of interstate common line support for prior periods.  Due to the uncertainty in our ability to retroactively claim reimbursement under the program, we accounted for this payment as a gain contingency and, accordingly, recognized revenue only upon receipt of payment when realization was certain.

Consumer Segment Cost of Goods Sold
The decrease in voice Cost of Goods Sold is primarily due to cost savings resulting from the increased deployment of local access services DLPS lines on our own facilities during 2008 and decreased voice minutes carried.

The video Cost of Goods Sold increase is primarily due to increased channels offered to our subscribers, increased rates paid to programmers, increased costs associated with delivery of digital services offered over our HD/DVR converter boxes due to the increased number of boxes in service, and increased subscribers.

The data Cost of Goods Sold increase is primarily due to increased Internet circuit costs due to increased usage by customers and an increased number of cable modem subscribers.

The decrease in wireless Cost of Goods Sold is primarily due to decreased costs due to the June 4, 2008 implementation of the new distribution agreement with AT&T Mobility as described in "Part II – Item VII – Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations – Year Ended December 31, 2009 Compared to Year Ended December 31, 2008Consumer Segment Cost of Goods Sold."  The decrease was partially off-set by costs associated with the increased number of wireless subscribers.

 
45

 
 
Consumer Segment Adjusted EBITDA
The increase in adjusted EBITDA was primarily due to increased revenue in 2008 as described in "Consumer Segment Revenue" and reduced wireless Cost of Goods Sold as described in “Consumer Segment Cost of Goods Sold,” which was partially offset by an increase in the selling, general and administrative expense that was allocated to our Consumer segment primarily due to an increase in the 2007 segment margin upon which the allocation is based.

See note 9 in the "Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements" included in Part II of this annual report on Form 10-K for a reconciliation of consolidated adjusted EBITDA, a non-GAAP financial measure, to consolidated income (loss) before income taxes.

Network Access Segment Overview
Network access segment revenue represented 27% of 2008 consolidated Revenues. The components of Network Access segment revenue are as follows (amounts in thousands):

         
Percentage
 
   
2008
   
2007
   
Change
 
Voice
  $ 79,744       96,896       (18 %)
Data
    71,414       61,199       17 %
Wireless
    2,663       5,282       (50 %)
Total Network Access segment revenue
  $ 153,821       163,377       (6 %)
                         

Network Access segment Cost of Goods Sold represented 20% of 2008 consolidated Cost of Goods Sold. The components of Network Access segment Cost of Goods Sold are as follows (amounts in thousands):

         
Percentage
 
   
2008
   
2007
   
Change
 
Voice
  $ 27,149       31,042       (13 %)
Data
    11,539       12,081       (5 %)
Wireless
    1,638       745       120 %
Total Network Access segment Cost of Goods Sold
  $ 40,326       43,868       (8 %)
                         

Network Access segment adjusted EBITDA, which represented 43% of 2008 consolidated adjusted EBITDA, is as follows (amounts in thousands):

         
Percentage
 
   
2008
   
2007
   
Change
 
Network Access segment adjusted EBITDA
  $ 73,647       82,441       (11 %)

Selected key performance indicators for our Network Access segment follow:

   
December 31,
 
Percentage
   
2008
 
2007
 
Change
Voice:
           
Long-distance minutes carried (in millions)
 
1,094
 
1,251
 
(13%)
             
Data:
           
Total Internet service provider access lines in service1
 
1,800
 
2,600
 
(31%)
   
1  An Internet service provider access line in service is defined as a revenue generating circuit or channel connecting a customer to the public switched telephone network.
   

 
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Network Access Segment Revenues
 
The decrease in voice revenue is primarily due to the June 4, 2008 implementation of the new distribution agreement with AT&T Mobility as described in "Part II – Item VII – Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations – Year Ended December 31, 2009 Compared to Year Ended December 31, 2008Consumer Segment Cost of Goods Sold."  The voice revenue decrease also resulted from an 8% decrease in our average rate per minute on billable minutes carried for our common carrier customers and the transition of voice traffic to dedicated networks.  The average rate per minute decrease is primarily due to a change in the composition of traffic and a 3.0% rate decrease mandated by federal law.

The increase in data revenue is primarily due to an increase in circuits sold and from other common carriers moving switched voice services to data networks.

The decrease in wireless revenue results primarily from a decrease in our rate per minute on billable minutes carried for customers roaming on our network

Network Access Segment Cost of Goods Sold
The decrease in voice Cost of Goods Sold is primarily due to decreased long-distance minutes carried.  Partially offsetting this decrease is the absence of an $879,000 favorable adjustment based upon a refund for which negotiations were completed in 2007.  In the course of business, we estimate unbilled long-distance services Cost of Goods Sold based upon minutes of use processed through our network and established rates.  Such estimates are revised when subsequent billings are received, payments are made, billing matters are researched and resolved, tariffed billing periods lapse, or when disputed charges are resolved.

Network Access Segment Adjusted EBITDA
The adjusted EBITDA decrease was primarily due to decreased revenue as described in "Network Access Segment Revenues."

See note 9 in the "Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements" included in Part II of this annual report on Form 10-K for a reconciliation of consolidated adjusted EBITDA, a non-GAAP financial measure, to consolidated income (loss) before income taxes.

Commercial Segment Overview
Commercial segment revenue represented 20% of 2008 consolidated revenues. The components of Commercial segment revenue are as follows (amounts in thousands):

         
Percentage
 
   
2008
   
2007
   
Change
 
Voice
  $ 29,398       30,761       (4 %)
Video
    9,604       8,018       20 %
Data
    70,068       61,052       15 %
Wireless
    5,590       4,809       16 %
Total Commercial segment revenue
  $ 114,660       104,640       10 %

Commercial segment Cost of Goods Sold represented 29% of 2008 consolidated Cost of Goods Sold. The components of Commercial segment Cost of Goods Sold are as follows (amounts in thousands):

             
   
2008
   
2007
   
Percentage
 Change
 
Voice
  $ 19,581       20,225       (3 %)
Video
    1,551       1,616       (4 %)
Data
    34,391       27,469       25 %
Wireless
    3,957       4,182       (5 %)
Total Commercial segment Cost of Goods Sold
  $ 59,480       53,492       11 %

 
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Commercial segment adjusted EBITDA, which represented 12% of 2008 consolidated adjusted EBITDA, is as follows (amounts in thousands):

         
Percentage
 
   
2008
   
2007
   
Change
 
Commercial segment adjusted EBITDA
  $ 20,710       16,164       28 %

 
Selected key performance indicators for our Commercial segment follow:

   
December 31,
 
Percentage
   
2008
 
2007
 
Change
Voice:
           
Long-distance subscribers1
 
9,700
 
10,500
 
(8%)
Total local access lines in service2
 
46,200
 
43,100
 
7%
Local access lines in service on GCI facilities 2
 
18,700
 
12,500
 
50%
Long-distance minutes carried (in millions)
 
129.5
 
131.3
 
(1%)
             
Data:
           
Cable modem subscribers3
 
8,900
 
8,500
 
5%
             
Wireless:
           
Wireless lines in service4
 
7,600
 
7,300
 
4%
             
1  A long-distance customer is defined as a customer account that is invoiced a monthly long-distance plan fee or has made a long-distance call during the month.
2  A local access line in service is defined as a revenue generating circuit or channel connecting a customer to the public switched telephone network.
3  A cable modem subscriber is defined by the purchase of cable modem service regardless of the level of service purchased. If one entity purchases multiple cable modem service access points, each access point is counted as a subscriber.
 4  A wireless line in service is defined as a revenue generating wireless device.
   

Commercial Segment Revenues
The decrease in voice revenue is primarily due to decreased long-distance subscribers and decreased voice minutes carried partially off-set by increased local access lines in service.

The increase in video revenue is primarily due to an increase in sales of cable advertising services due to the summer Olympics programming and state and federal political advertising.

Commercial segment data revenue is comprised of monthly recurring charges for data services and charges billed on a time and materials basis largely for personnel providing on-site customer support. This latter category can vary significantly based on project activity.  The increase in data revenue is primarily due to a $6.8 million or 23% increase in managed services project revenue, and a $2.7 million or 19% increase in Internet revenue primarily due to increased dedicated access service and enterprise data network service sales, and a non-recurring $500,000 credit issued to a customer in June 2007.

Commercial Segment Cost of Goods Sold
The decrease in voice Cost of Goods Sold resulted primarily from an increase in local access lines in service on GCI facilities.

The increase in data Cost of Goods Sold resulted primarily from an increase in contract labor and internal labor classified as Cost of Goods Sold due to the increase in managed services project revenue discussed above under "Commercial Segment Revenues."

Commercial Segment Adjusted EBITDA
The adjusted EBITDA increase was primarily due to increased revenue as described in "Commercial Segment Revenues."

 
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See note 9 in the "Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements" included in Part II of this annual report on Form 10-K for a reconciliation of consolidated adjusted EBITDA, a non-GAAP financial measure, to consolidated income (loss) before income taxes.

Managed Broadband Segment Overview
Managed Broadband segment revenue, Cost of Goods sold and adjusted EBITDA represented 6%, 5% and 8% of 2008 consolidated revenues, Cost of Goods Sold and adjusted EBITDA, respectively.

Managed Broadband Segment Revenues
Managed Broadband segment revenue, which includes data products only, increased 29% to $37.0 million in 2008 as compared to 2007. The increase is primarily due to increased circuits purchased by our Rural Health and SchoolAccess® customers and revenue totaling $4.8 million from our acquisition of Unicom effective June 1, 2008.  The Rural Health customer increase from 2007 to 2008 is primarily due to the addition of numerous customers with low recurring revenues. The increase is partially off-set by a $753,000 decrease in School Access revenue primarily due to the decision to temporarily stop revenue recognition for services provided to a customer whose funding from the USAC was denied.  Our customer is appealing the USAC's decision; however, we have placed a reserve against the revenue as we are unable to predict the outcome of the USAC's decision.

Managed Broadband Segment Cost of Goods Sold
Managed Broadband segment Cost of Goods Sold increased 5% to $10.3 million in 2008 primarily due to costs associated with the increased revenue.

Managed Broadband Segment Adjusted EBITDA
Managed Broadband segment adjusted EBITDA increased 71% to $14.2 million in 2008 primarily due to an increase in the margin resulting from increased circuits sold to our rural health and SchoolAccess® customers.

See note 9 in the "Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements" included in Part II of this annual report on Form 10-K for a reconciliation of consolidated adjusted EBITDA, a non-GAAP financial measure, to consolidated income (loss) before income taxes.

Regulated Operations Segment Overview
Regulated Operations segment revenue, Cost of Goods sold and adjusted EBITDA represented 2%, 2% and 2% of 2008 consolidated revenues, Cost of Goods Sold and adjusted EBITDA, respectively.

Selected key performance indicators for our Regulated Operations segment follow:

   
December 31,
 
Percentage
   
2008
 
2007
 
Change
Voice:
           
Long-distance subscribers1
 
900
 
NA
 
                               NA
Long-distance minutes carried (in thousands)
 
844
 
NA
 
                               NA
Total local access lines in service2
 
12,100
 
NA
 
                              NA
               
1  A long-distance subscriber is defined as a customer account that is invoiced a monthly long-distance plan fee or has made a long-distance call during the month.
2  A local access line in service is defined as a revenue generating circuit or channel connecting a customer to the public switched telephone network.
NA – Not Applicable

Regulated Operations Segment Revenues
We completed our acquisition of UUI and Unicom effective June 1, 2008.  In connection with this acquisition, we recognized revenues of $21.1 million from the acquired operations during 2008 with $14.3 million recorded in the Regulated Operations segment and the remaining revenues recorded in the Network Access and Managed Broadband segments.

 
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Regulated Operations Segment Cost of Goods Sold
In connection with our acquisition of UUI and Unicom we recognized Cost of Goods Sold of $4.2 million during 2008 with $3.1 million recorded in the Regulated Operations segment and the remaining Cost of Goods Sold recorded in the Network Access and Managed Broadband segments.

Regulated Operations Segment Adjusted EBITDA
Regulated Operations segment adjusted EBITDA was $3.6 million in 2008.

See note 9 in the "Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements" included in Part II of this annual report on Form 10-K for a reconciliation of consolidated adjusted EBITDA, a non-GAAP financial measure, to consolidated income (loss) before income taxes.

Selling, General and Administrative Expenses
Selling, general and administrative expenses increased 20% to $210.3 million in 2008 primarily due to the following:
·  
A $15.8 million increase in labor costs,
·  
$7.5 million in additional expense resulting from our June 1, 2008, acquisition of UUI and Unicom,
·  
A $2.3 million increase in our share-based compensation expense,
·  
$1.8 million paid to terminate a management agreement upon the acquisition of our non-controlling interest in Alaska DigiTel,
·  
A $1.8 million increase in our company-wide success sharing bonus accrual in 2008,
·  
A $1.4 million increase in our facilities lease expense, and
·  
$1.2 million in additional expense incurred in 2008 for the conversion of our customers’ wireless phones to our facilities.

The selling, general and administrative expenses increase is partially off-set by a $1.4 million decrease in bad debt expense primarily due to improvements in our collections of consumer accounts receivable.

As a percentage of total revenues, selling, general and administrative expenses increased to 37% in 2008 from 34% in 2007, primarily due to the net increases described above without a proportional increase in revenues.

Depreciation and Amortization Expense
Depreciation and amortization expense increased 31% to $114.4 million in 2008. The increase is primarily due to our $112.7 million investment in equipment and facilities placed into service during 2007 for which a full year of depreciation was recorded in 2008, the $322.3 million investment in equipment and facilities placed into service during the year ended December 31, 2008 for which a partial year of depreciation was recorded in 2008, and a $12.0 million depreciation charge in 2008 to reflect a decrease in the estimated useful life of certain assets decommissioned in 2008.
 
 
Effective January 1, 2008, we prospectively changed our accounting policy for recording depreciation on our property and equipment placed in service. For assets placed in service on or after January 1, 2008, we are using a mid-month convention to recognize depreciation expense. Previous to this change, we used the half-year convention to recognize depreciation expense in the year an asset was placed in service, regardless of the month the property and equipment was placed in service. We believe the mid-month convention is preferable because it results in more precise recognition of depreciation expense over the estimated useful life of the asset. No retroactive adjustment has been made. As a result of this accounting change, our reported amount of depreciation expense has decreased $521,000, our reported operating income has increased $521,000, and our reported net loss attributable to GCI, Inc. has decreased $214,000.

Other Expense, Net
Other expense, net of other income, increased 42% to $50.0 million in 2008 primarily due to the following:
·  
A $13.9 million increase in interest expense to $48.3 million in 2008 due to a $6.4 million increase in interest expense on our Senior Credit Facility to $17.7 million resulting from additional debt from the Additional Incremental Term Loan agreement beginning in May 2008 and the increased interest rate on our Senior Credit Facility beginning May 2008,
·  
$3.9 million in additional interest expense resulting from the Galaxy 18 capital lease commencing in May 2008,
·  
A loss of $921,000 relating to the fair value change on derivative instruments, and
·  
$906,000 of additional interest expense as a result of our acquisition of UUI in June 2008.

The increases described above are partially offset by an increase in capitalized interest from $3.3 million in 2007 to $4.2 million in 2008.

 
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Income Tax Expense
Income tax expense totaled $1.1 million and $12.2 million in 2008 and 2007, respectively. Our effective income tax rate was 47% in 2008 and 2007.

Multiple System Operator (“MSO”) Operating Statistics
Our operating statistics include capital expenditures and customer information from our Consumer and Commercial segments which offer services utilizing our cable services’ facilities.

The standardized definition of a customer relationship is the number of customers that receive at least one level of service utilizing our cable service facilities, encompassing voice, video, and data services, without regard to which services customers purchase. At December 31, 2009, 2008 and 2007 we had 133,900, 133,400 and 129,000 customer relationships, respectively.

The standardized definition of a revenue generating unit is the sum of all primary analog video, digital video, high-speed data, and telephony customers, not counting additional outlets. At December 31, 2009, 2008 and 2007 we had 343,200, 327,200 and 295,200 revenue generating units, respectively.

Liquidity and Capital Resources
Our principal sources of current liquidity are cash and cash equivalents. We believe, but can provide no assurances, that we will be able to meet our current and long-term liquidity and capital requirements and fixed charges through our cash flows from operating activities, existing cash, cash equivalents, credit facilities, and other external financing and equity sources. Our TERRA-SW facilities expansion will be funded by a combination of loans and grants through RUS.  Should operating cash flows be insufficient to support additional borrowings and principal payments scheduled under our existing credit facilities, capital expenditures will likely be reduced.

While our short-term and long-term financing abilities are believed to be adequate as a supplement to internally generated cash flows to fund capital expenditures and acquisitions as opportunities arise, the continued turmoil in the global financial markets may negatively impact our ability to further access the capital markets in a timely manner and on attractive terms, which may have a negative impact on our ability to grow our business.

We monitor the third-party depository institutions that hold our cash and cash equivalents on a daily basis. Our emphasis is primarily on safety of principal and secondarily on maximizing yield on those funds.

Our net cash flows provided by and (used for) operating, investing and financing activities, as reflected in the Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows for 2009 and 2008, are summarized as follows:

   
2009
   
2008
 
Operating activities
  $ 100,919       175,335  
Investing activities
    (125,877 )     (290,967 )
Financing activities
    43,407       132,251  
Net increase in cash and cash equivalents
  $ 18,449       16,619  

Operating Activities
The decrease in cash flows provided by operating activities is due primarily to the absence of $49.2 million of cash received from IRU capacity agreements that was recorded as long-term deferred revenue in 2008 and a $33.6 million increase in accounts receivable that is due to the timing of receipt of payments.

Investing Activities
Net cash used in investing activities consists primarily of cash paid for capital expenditures and acquisitions.  Our most significant recurring investing activity has been capital expenditures and we expect that this will continue in the future.  A significant portion of our capital expenditures is based on the level of customer growth and the technology being deployed.  The decrease in cash flows used for investing activities is due primarily to a decrease in spending for property and equipment, including construction in progress in 2009, and the absence of any business acquisitions in 2009 compared to 2008.

 
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Capital Expenditures
Our cash expenditures for property and equipment, including construction in progress, totaled $121.0 million and $221.5 million during the years ended December 31, 2009 and 2008, respectively.  Our capital expenditures decreased in 2009 primarily due to decreased investment in our wireless network.  We expect our 2010 expenditures for property and equipment for our core operations, including construction in progress, to total $95.0 million to $105.0 million, depending on available opportunities and the amount of cash flow we generate during 2010, and excluding our TERRA-SW project.

We have an agreement with a customer to build-out our CDMA network to provide expanded roaming area coverage.  If we fail to meet the schedule, the customer has the right to terminate the agreement and we may be required to pay up to $16.0 million as liquidated damages.  We expect to meet the deadlines imposed by the build-out schedule and therefore expect our expenditures to result in an expansion of our wireless facilities rather than payment of the liquidated damages.

Acquisitions
We had no acquisitions in 2009.  In 2008, our acquisitions consisted of the purchase of UUI and Unicom for $40.6 million, net of cash received, the purchase of the remaining minority interest in Alaska DigiTel for $10.4 million, and the purchase of Alaska Wireless for $14.5 million.  In February 2010, we made the final contingent payment of $5.2 million for the Alaska Wireless acquisition, which was accrued in goodwill as of December 31, 2009.

Financing Activities
Net cash provided by financing activities consists primarily of our proceeds from borrowings offset by our debt repayments and any repurchases of GCI’s common stock.  Proceeds from borrowings fluctuate from year to year based on the amounts paid for capital expenditures and to fund acquisitions.  We may use excess cash to make optional repayments on our debt or repurchase GCI’s common stock depending on various factors, such as market conditions.  The decrease in cash flows provided by financing activities is due primarily to reduced borrowing in 2009.

Available Borrowings Under Senior Credit Facility
As of December 31, 2009, we had a $75.0 million revolving credit facility under our Senior Credit Facility with a $25.0 million sublimit for letters of credit.  We have letters of credit outstanding totaling $2.8 million, which leaves $72.2 million available for borrowing under the revolving credit facility as of December 31, 2009, if needed.

On January 29, 2010, we replaced our existing Senior Credit Facility with a new Senior Credit Facility that provides a $75.0 million revolving credit facility and that extends the maturity through January 29, 2015.

Debt Covenants
We are subject to covenants and restrictions set forth in the indentures governing our Senior Notes, Senior Credit Facility, RUS loans, and CoBank loans.  We are in compliance with the covenants, and we believe that neither the covenants nor the restrictions in our indentures or loan documents will limit our ability to operate our business.

Share Repurchases
GCI's Board of Directors has authorized a common stock buyback program for the repurchase of its common stock in order to reduce its outstanding shares of common stock.  Under the buyback program we had made repurchases of $68.9 million through December 31, 2007.  GCI's Board of Directors authorized us to repurchase on GCI's behalf, outstanding shares of our Class A and Class B common stock in 2010.  We did not repurchase any shares of GCI's common stock pursuant to the buyback program during the years ended December 31, 2009 and 2008.

Schedule of Certain Known Contractual Obligations
The following table details future projected payments associated with certain known contractual obligations as of December 31, 2009:

   
Payments Due by Period
 
   
Total
   
Less than 1 Year
   
1 to 3
Years
   
4 to 5
Years
   
More Than 5 Years
 
   
(Amounts in thousands)
 
Long-term debt
  $ 781,998       5,133       9,966       330,126       436,773  
Interest on long-term debt
    487,273       63,144       124,383       112,159       187,587  
Capital lease obligations, including interest
    148,786       11,656       23,405       23,494       90,231  
Operating lease commitments
    145,889       19,785       31,874       25,485       68,745  
Purchase obligations
    49,325       25,995       22,554       776       ---  
Total contractual obligations
  $ 1,613,271       125,713       212,182       492,040       783,336  

 
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For long-term debt included in the above table, we have included principal payments on our Senior Credit Facility, Senior Notes, Rural Utilities Services debt and CoBank Mortgage note payable. We had no amounts outstanding under our Senior Credit Facility at December 31, 2009, therefore, we estimated no future interest payments. Our 2014 Senior Notes require semi-annual interest payments of $11.6 million through February 2014 and our 2019 Senior Notes require semi-annual interest payments of $18.3 million through November 2019. Our Rural Utilities Services debt and CoBank Mortgage note payable have fixed interest rates ranging from 2.0% to 6.8%.  For a discussion of our Senior Notes, Senior Credit Facility, Rural Utilities Services debt and CoBank Mortgage note payable see note 6 in the accompanying “Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements.”

Capital lease obligations include our obligation to lease transponder capacity on Galaxy 18.  For a discussion of our capital and operating leases, see note 12 in the accompanying “Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements.”

Purchase obligations include the following:
·  
A non-cancelable commitment to purchase hardware and software capable of providing wireless service to small markets in rural Alaska of $18.9 million,
·  
Cancelable open purchase orders for goods and services for capital projects and normal operations totaling $11.7 million which are not included in our Consolidated Balance Sheets at December 31, 2009, because the goods had not been received or the services had not been performed at December 31, 2009, and
·  
A $5.2 million contingent payment for Alaska Wireless made in February 2010.

Off-Balance Sheet Arrangements
We have not created, and are not party to, any special-purpose or off-balance sheet entities for the purpose of raising capital, incurring debt or operating parts of our business that are not consolidated into our financial statements. We do not have any arrangements or relationships with entities that are not consolidated into our financial statements that are reasonably likely to materially affect our liquidity or the availability of our capital resources.

New Accounting Standards
FASB Accounting Standards Update (“ASU”) 2009-13 addresses the accounting for multiple-deliverable arrangements to enable vendors to account for products or services (“deliverables”) separately rather than as a combined unit. Specifically, this guidance amends the criteria in Subtopic 605-25, “Revenue Recognition - Multiple-Element Arrangements”, for separating consideration in multiple-deliverable arrangements. This guidance establishes a selling price hierarchy for determining the selling price of a deliverable, which is based on: (a) vendor-specific objective evidence; (b) third-party evidence; or (c) estimates. This guidance also eliminates the residual method of allocation and requires that arrangement consideration be allocated at the inception of the arrangement to all deliverables using the relative selling price method. In addition, this guidance significantly expands required disclosures related to a vendor's multiple-deliverable revenue arrangements.  ASU 2009-13 is effective prospectively for revenue arrangements entered into or materially modified in fiscal years beginning on or after June 15, 2010.  The adoption of ASU 2009-13 is not expected to have a material impact on our income statement, financial position or cash flows.

ASU 2009-17 addresses a revision to former SFAS No. 167, “Amendments to FASB Interpretation No. 46(R)” ("SFAS 167").  ASU 2009-17 amends previous accounting related to the consolidation of variable interest entities ("VIE") to require an enterprise to qualitatively assess the determination of the primary beneficiary of a variable interest entity based on whether the entity (1) has the power to direct the activities of a VIE that most significantly impact the entity’s economic performance and (2) has the obligation to absorb losses of the entity or the right to receive benefits from the entity that could potentially be significant to the VIE. Also, SFAS No. 167 requires an ongoing reconsideration of the primary beneficiary, and amends the events that trigger a reassessment of whether an entity is a VIE. Enhanced disclosures are also required to provide information about an enterprise’s involvement in a VIE. This statement will be effective as of the beginning of each reporting entity’s first annual reporting period that begins after November 15, 2009, for interim
 
 
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periods within that first annual reporting period, and for interim and annual reporting periods thereafter. Earlier application is prohibited. The adoption of ASU 2009-17 is not expected to have a material impact on our income statement, financial position or cash flows.

ASU No. 2010-06, “Fair Value Measurements and Disclosures (Topic 820): Improving Disclosures about Fair Value Measurements” requires new disclosures and clarifies existing disclosure requirements about fair value measurement as set forth in Subtopic 820-10. The FASB’s objective is to improve these disclosures and, thus, increase the transparency in financial reporting. Specifically, ASU 2010-06 amends Subtopic 820-10 to now require that (a) a reporting entity should disclose separately the amounts of significant transfers in and out of Level 1 and Level 2 fair value measurements and describe the reasons for the transfers; and (b) in the reconciliation for fair value measurements using significant unobservable inputs, a reporting entity should present separately information about purchases, sales, issuances, and settlements.

In addition, ASU 2010-06 clarifies the requirements of the following existing disclosures:
 
·         For purposes of reporting fair value measurement for each class of assets and liabilities, a reporting entity needs to use judgment in determining the appropriate classes of assets and liabilities; and
 
·