Digital divide: Jill Biden visit touts efforts to connect Alaska Native villages to outside world

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — For years, when the tiny Alaska Native village of Rampart's awful internet service would go down, the only way to reach the outside world was to await the small airplane that touched down daily with supplies and the occasional visitor.

“We had no way of getting ahold of anybody out of Rampart other than going to the airport and telling the pilot,” said tribal administrator Margaret Moses. The pilot would relay messages — including word of medical emergencies — after flying 100 miles (161 kilometers) to Fairbanks.