GCI SchoolAccess® Distance Learning Service Celebrates First-Year Success Educational Opportunities in Alaska Expanded for 89 Schools

Anchorage, AK (June 30, 2003) - General Communication Inc. (GCI) has declared the inaugural year of its SchoolAccess® Distance Learning Service a success citing the high percentage of schools using the service, the improvements in education, and the formation of a new distance learning partnership. The service was the preferred choice for 97 percent of Alaskan schools that implemented distance learning technology in the 2002-2003 school year. Distance learning now offers students in these schools new opportunities in the areas of math, science, reading and culture.

The distance learning service is an extension of GCI's long-running SchoolAccess® program that provides broadband Internet access and managed services to remote schools. GCI expanded on the program and added videoconferencing allowing the delivery of live, two-way audio and video distance learning courses. To help schools identify educational uses for the technology, GCI also initiated the GCI Alaska Distance Learning Partnership. The partnership unites six school districts - Bering Strait, Chugach, Lower Kuskokwim, Lower Yukon, Northwest Arctic, and Southwest Region - plus the Alaska Vocational Technical Center (AVTEC), the Alaska SeaLife Center, and the Challenger Learning Center of Alaska. Together the entities deliver educational content via GCI's Distance Learning Network to rural schools that would otherwise lack the opportunity.

"As a longtime communications provider in Alaska, we have seen firsthand the unique challenges rural schools face in the education system," said Martin Cary, vice president of GCI Broadband Services. "The results from our first year of providing distance learning service to rural schools show this technology has tremendous power to help schools meet and beat the challenges of isolation and limited community-based educational resources. We look forward to continuing work with these schools and the partnership to apply the lessons learned from our first year of Distance Learning Service to further educational opportunities throughout Alaska."

Some highlights include the connection of 145 students in 18 villages for long-distance Algebra lessons, participation in earth science "e-missions" with the Challenger Learning Center, and a live video conference with a musher from the Kuskokwim 300 dog sled race. In addition, students from an entire remote district participated in NASA's "Teaching From Space Program" which included a live link-up to astronauts aboard the International Space Station. Through this twenty minute, real-time uplink, students in Manokotak, Alaska, were able to see, hear, and speak to the astronauts aboard the station.

In Savoogna, Alaska, dubbed the "Walrus Capital of the World," distance learning helped to raise Algebra test scores for almost 90 percent of the students. This success is helping give educators a new perspective on the way students are learning.

"This is changing the way we `do' school," said Chick Beckley, technology coordinator for the Bering Straits school district. "We are preparing them for the future. I envision a day where students at a school like Savoonga may take a math class from a teacher in Seward, a Spanish class from a teacher in Spain, and a comparative government class from a teacher in London."

SchoolAccess is a premium Internet service that utilizes the E-rate program to enable rural schools to afford broadband access and high-quality services such as filtering, e-mail, web hosting, and network administration. SchoolAccess works closely with schools to meet their individual technological needs. More information about SchoolAccess can be found at www.schoolaccess.net

GCI (Nasdaq:GNCMA) provides local, wireless, and long distance telephone, cable television, Internet and data communication services in Alaska. More information about the company can be found at www.gci.com.