Arctic Slope Telephone Association Cooperative free phone plans

There are some restrictions on this service as if you need to add long distance to the service you need to make a $200 deposit and there are only 500 minutes added to the main number. If you have overages, you get charged $0.25 each minute. You don't get roaming calls to the lower 48 states and for 411 calls, you are charged $1.50 each.

ASTAC refers to Arctic Slope Telephone Association Cooperative. This company serves villages and small towns that are along the North Slope of Alaska and down the west coastal area as far as Noorvik, Kotzebue, and Selawik.

The area it serves is very limited but unlike many of the other Alaska Lifeline providers, you will get your free government cell phone for free. Here is more about the service from the company website:

We believe that everyone within our communities should have access to affordable and reliable telecommunications. This is why ASTAC offers assistance programs to applicants that are qualified. We offer both LinkUp and Lifeline programs. Within the North Slope area, we have unlimited texting and unlimited local minutes. We allow up to six additional liens to share the service.

This company was founded in 1977 when the residents of the Arctic Slope realized that their future was dependent upon having basic telephone service available in the area.

The Arctic Slope Telephone Association Cooperative is not privately-owned or publicly owned it's referred to as a member-owned telephone utility cooperative. There is a wide range of telecommunications services which are offered to the North Slope residents in Alaska. The service area covers 90,000 square kilometers and most of these are empty. There are nine service offices and eight of these are in traditional villages found in the area. The ninth location is in the oil facility at Deadhorse-Prudhoe Bay.