The North Wire Center at 1309 E Street is a 1964 telephone exchange built by the municipal Anchorage Telephone Utility, and it has two lives. Alaska Communications still runs a central office inside it; the building itself passed to the Municipality of Anchorage under Assembly Resolution AR 98-227 in July 1998, which set it up as the city's Emergency Operations Center. For the wider internet the address matters for one reason: AlaskaIX is here, and nowhere else. The exchange carries 30G of connected capacity across three ports, and Alaska Communications AS7782 is the only network recorded on site. Anchorage Telephone Utility had asked for $500,000 in its 1964 capital budget to put up a 65 by 142 foot single-storey building with a basement, to hold central-office switching gear. Richard Beyer's cast-aluminium sculpture A Call from America has stood on the lawn since 1986.
Quote request for: ACS North Wire Center view facility
Location
Interactive map
Frequently asked questions
Which exchange can I reach at 1309 E Street?
AlaskaIX, and this is its only listed facility. It carries 30G of total connected capacity across three connections, on prefixes 149.112.108.0/24 and 2001:504:13e::/64.
Who controls the building?
The Municipality of Anchorage has held managing authority since Assembly Resolution AR 98-227 in July 1998 and runs it as the Emergency Operations Center. Alaska Communications operates the central-office plant inside.
Is the central office still in service?
Yes. Alaska Communications filed an FCC network-change notice for the North Wire Center CO in 2013, and the facility record was refreshed in September 2025.
What is the building's origin?
Anchorage Telephone Utility built it on a 1964 capital request as a 65 by 142 foot single-storey structure with a basement, to house central-office switching equipment on Lot 1A, Block 39A of the Anchorage Townsite South Addition.