City and Borough of Juneau

Juneau, Alaska – September 05, 2026 -- A public Wi-Fi network built for Alaska's capital has offloaded more than 20 to 30 terabytes of cellular traffic and served over 103,000 unique users during a single 30-day peak-season stretch, more than three times Juneau's year-round population, without adding a single employee to run it.

Cruise crowds overwhelmed carrier networks and city payment systems

Up to 16,000 extra visitors a day during cruise season jammed downtown Juneau's cellular capacity, knocking out point-of-sale terminals, parking kiosks and basic phone calls. Crowds gathered outside the downtown library, the only reliable signal source, just to get online. With carriers offering no fix, the City and Borough of Juneau opted to build its own network and hired Northriver IT to design, deploy and manage it.