Every three months Ron Fitch drives five miles down a state highway so he can use a friend's telephone to monitor his pacemaker.

Fitch, who lives on Price of Wales Island, has a phone at home, but he gets his service via fixed wireless, which is similar to a cell phone signal but is routed through a box mounted in the house. Since you can't recalibrate a pacemaker over a wireless signal, Fitch makes the drive four times a year.

Alaska Communications Systems provides telephone service to about 1,000 people on Prince of Wales, which is one of the largest islands in the U.S. and home to a handful of communities including Klawock and Craig. Besides Fitch, about 100 other ACS customers on the Southeast island aren't connected to landlines and instead get their phone service via fixed wireless, which has no fax or Internet capabilities.

"Times have changed, and it doesn't seem right that we can't get Internet or a fax or anything over our phones," said Eric Packer, a builder who lives outside Klawock. "It's like living in the dark ages."

ACS customers on the island have been complaining about their phone service for years, and for some the frustration is sharpened by the view of lines -- owned by ACS competitor Alaska Power and Telephone -- running near their homes. Two years ago the Regulatory Commission of Alaska opened an investigation into ACS service on the island, citing numerous customer complaints and a request from Sen. Lisa Murkowski.

Next week, in a presentation to Prince of Wales Island customers, ACS will offer to connect all of its fixed wireless customers to landlines, although the company will only pay for the first 1,000 feet of line installation costs. If the RCA accepts the offer, ACS customers who are currently served by fixed wireless will have the choice of being hooked up to ACS' landline network (if they live within 1,000 feet of a connection) or of paying for the line installation from the network to their house (minus that 1,000 feet ACS will pay for).

However, there is no guarantee that the RCA will accept ACS' offer. The State Telecommunications Modernization Plan, an RCA regulation, requires a telecom company to provide Internet in any area it services. Since the fixed wireless system doesn't allow for Internet, it's possible the RCA could reject the ACS offer or require the company to amend it.

Providing service to South Thorne Bay and the subdivisions outside Klawock is expensive. If ACS ends up building more lines, they'll have to ship in the cable and then pay for housing for the crews that will lay it out.

"We use fixed wireless when cost sharing for customers would be high," said Lisa Phillips, ACS' manager of regulatory affairs. "Fixed wireless is a way of providing not an identical service, but a comparable one."

ACS also receives federal money in the form of universal service funds, which are given to telecom providers so service in rural areas can be closer to what is enjoyed in urban areas. Starting in 2002 ACS began receiving about $4 million a year, and an ACS spokeswoman said that without those funds service bills in Klawock would be significantly higher. Currently, ACS fixed wireless customers on the island pay about $26 a month.

ACS service has improved recently, some customers say, a result of a better configuration of wireless towers and improved utilization of network space so that calls going off the island can get better service. Still, some of the same complaints that have followed the service for years still remain. Inability to send or receive faxes or access the Internet, poor call quality, and no compensation for service gaps were mentioned repeatedly.

Several of the complaints filed with the RCA argue that the lack of Internet access is bad for the island's economic development, and some customers have simply switched to cell phones as their primary phone lines. A few customers have also begun using satellite Internet, but installation is expensive and connection speeds can be slow.

Some ACS fixed wireless customers, reached on their phones (with some difficulty), questioned why they had to remain ACS customers when APT lines swung so close.

"I think just about anyone you call around here is frustrated with their service," Packer said. "I don't think anything's going to change."