The story
The company began in 1900 when the U.S. Congress authorized the U.S. Army Signal Corps to create the Washington-Alaska Military Cable and Telegraph System, or WAMCATS.
During the 1940s and World War II, the U.S. Army completed the system and it became known as the Alaska Communications System (ACS) and the White Alice Communications System.
In 1970, RCA Corporation purchased ACS and renamed it RCA Alascom. Alascom greatly built up the telecommunications infrastructure in the state during this time, due to RCA's major involvement in communications satellites.
In 1979, Pacific Power & Light Company (later known as PacifiCorp), thru its subsidiary Pacific Telecom, Inc., purchased RCA Alascom and it became known as Alascom, Inc.
The company launched three communications satellites into orbit: Aurora I on October 27, 1982, Aurora II on May 29, 1991, and Aurora III (later renamed AMC-8) in 2000. All three satellites are dedicated solely to providing telecommunications services to Alaska.
On October 18, 1994, AT&T Corporation announced its intention to acquire Alascom. On August 7, 1995, Pacific Telecom sold Alascom to AT&T for $260 million. Alaska regulatory approval of both that purchase and SBC's later purchase of AT&T required that AT&T Alascom continue to exist as a separate entity.
From Wikipedia’s article on AT&T Alascom, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3