Black phone on desk
Communications

CityWest: Cortes Island’s newest phone, television and internet service

CityWest will also be providing phone and TV to Cortes Islanders who choose these services.

Regional Manager Dino Tsakonas told De Clarke, of Cortes Currents, when she was visiting the crew burying fibre optic cable in Squirrel Cove last week. Her report provides a close look at the work, with 20 photographs in the written version.

Cropped image from De Clarke’s article Cortes Island Fibre Project Underway

This was followed by Regional Director Noba Anderson’s announcement on CKTZ’s Folk U Friday:

“If you sign up for internet through, through CityWest, you’ll be able to get internet based phone calling for … something relatively nominal. That means your actual landline, it’s not a computer phone, instead of your landline being connected into the TELUS wire that runs along the telephone poles, it can be connected into the fibre-optic cable that’s buried under the ground everywhere around the island. So it will be less prone to disruptions from power outages.”

Proposed Squirrel Cove area to be supplied according to map for SRD Bylaw 428 – attached to SRD staff report of April 19,2021

On Sunday, Dino Tsakonas told me (Roy) that phone packages are generally in the +$20 range, but there are also bundles that include different services. We discussed more specific numbers but, as Dino explained:

“There’s so many different options, it’s really hard for me to go over everything because everyone’s going to have a different idea of what they want for the TV, to the long distance on phone, to the type of internet they want, whether they want quantum 20 quantum 50 quantum on 25 quantum 250 quantum gigabit.  You can  build your own bundle if you go to https://www.citywest.ca/south,” he explained. “We’re in the first phase where they are just laying the cable along the side of the road. Klahoose is getting it from the road to the home at this moment.”

Proposed Seaford area – SRD staff report of April 19,2021

The work crew will continue burying fibre-optic cable along the route from Squirrel Cove to Seaford. Mansons Landing should come next, then Whaletown. 

Proposed Mansons Landing area – SRD staff report

Local contractors should start coming up to houses in Squirrel Cove during the next few weeks.  

“With any type of project, there’s obviously going to be snafus. The total plan was to be four plus months, but we’ll see what happens.  Given our landscape here, you never know what may happen.  You might get supply demands, you might have  some problems with all the rock in certain areas and what have you. So it could take a few weeks longer,” said Tsakonas. 

Proposed Whaletown area – SRD staff report

In a previous interview, Eric Geall, Operations Manager for West Connect Infrastructure (WCI) said Cortesians should receive high speed internet sometime between next summer and the end of 2023. 

“He’s been pretty vague obviously, but that two years – I’d be extremely surprised if that was the case,” said Tsakonas.

He added a reminder that people should pre-register at CityWest to receive two months free internet. 

Connected Coast: The first 50 kilometres of subsea fibre-optic cable have been laid. Coming ashore at Ridley Island, an industrial area just outside Prince Rupert – courtesy CityWest press release

For further information: 

This story was published on January 31, and the area location maps added on Feb 3, 2021.

To image credit: Black phone Photo by Julian Hochgesang on Unsplash

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