September 27, 2002

Dana Heidemann, GCI, (907) 265-5355 or; dheidemann@gci.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SUN OUTAGES MAY DISRUPT CABLE TV, INTERNET AND SATELLITE-BASED TELEPHONE SERVICE IN MID-OCTOBER

ANCHORAGE, AK -- Customers of all cable television, Internet and long-distance telephone companies utilizing satellites could experience brief disruptions in service in mid-October due to a seasonal solar occurrence known as a "sun outage." The outages could disrupt calls to and from places within Alaska, the Lower 49 states and international locations.

Sun outage interference to satellite-based telephone and Internet service in major parts of the state may occur between 11:35 a.m. and 12:02 p.m. from October 7 to October 20. Each outage could last for up to 15 minutes, although the actual window of time the outages occur will vary depending on specific satellite and earth station locations. Terrestrial-based services such as fiber optics and microwave are not affected by sun outages.

Sun outage interference to cable television service could occur between October 11 and October 16 from 8:32 a.m. to 10:57 a.m. If a cable outage occurs, viewers will notice a slow degradation of picture for up to 10 minutes, followed by several minutes of total disruption, then the picture will slowly clear again.

These semi-annual interruptions, called sun outages or transits, affect all satellite-based communications and occur when the sun is located directly behind the satellite and in-line with the antenna on the ground. At that point, the noise energy from the sun is often greater than the communication signal level and may result in loss of signal. Exact times and duration of the sun outage is dependent upon many factors, including antenna size and location.

While the outages are inconvenient, they affect less than one-one hundredth percent (.01 percent) of phone service availability throughout the year and only affect telephone traffic, cable television and Internet signals that are carried via satellite.

GCI (Nasdaq: GNCMA) is an Alaska-based integrated communications provider delivering voice, video and data services through its fiber optic, satellite, hybrid fiber coaxial and metropolitan area networks. More information about GCI can be found at www.gci.com.