Tag Archives: Download/upload speeds

Communications

Cortes Island Residents Waiting for CityWest To Connect Them

CityWest started hooking Cortes Island residents up to the internet in December 2023, but many homes are still waiting. As the evidence is anecdotal, it is difficult to say how many people are currently connected through CityWest and how many are not.

Sherman Barker just informed me that he has never met anyone who is connected. After waiting for two years of waiting, he was using Starlink by the time a CityWest crew showed up to do the final hook-up. 

“I have a pile of CityWest cable, all the way from my driveway to my yard, that they don’t want back.”  

Sean Coyote, a techie who works for Cortes Community Radio, said typically people who have yet to be serviced are told their names are on a list. Some, like Sherman, subsequently moved on to other internet providers. Sean added that there are a couple of CityWest trucks working on the island right now. 

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Communications

Coming this Spring: Cortesians choose their Internet provider

Sometime this spring, possibly as early as March, Cortes Island residents will get to choose their internet provider.

After building Twincomm up to the company islanders recognize today, on June 28, 2021, former General Manager Dino Tsakonas left to join CityWest. 

In an interview at that time, he told Cortes Currents that this came about as a result of the Connected Coast project, which will bring reliable high speed internet to Cortes Island. CityWest partnered with the Strathcona Regional District (SRD) to become the local provider.

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Communications

High Speed Internet could reach Cortes Island as early as December

Cortes Island’s new high speed internet system could be live as early as December, otherwise early in 2023.

Randy, from CityWest, gave Cortes Currents a very graphic illustration of what this will mean. I am currently downloading data from the internet at a rate of 21.35 megabits per second (Mbps) and uploading at 6.50 Mbps.  Randy discussed plans for up to 100 or up to 500 Mbps, download and upload, depending on how much I wanted to pay. That ‘up to’ is important because customers might not experience these speeds at their computer terminals, but we are still talking about much faster service. He also said there are no limits for the number of gigabytes I could use in a month, hence no overage charges.

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Communications

Erroneous internet speed reporting may cost the SRD $12.5 million, study suggests 

A recent study suggests that incorrect reporting may be responsible for Southern Quadra Island, Tahsis, Gold River and Sayward not qualifying for funding under the Connected Coast High Speed internet program. Their service provider reported their internet speed already met the national standard. Consequently, the Strathcona Regional District (SRD) had to arrange for loans of up to $12.5 million.

BC’s Ministry of Citizens’ Services, the Union of BC Municipalities and the Northern Development Initiative Trust hired TANEx Engineering to study reports that the amount of broad service available in rural communities is less than what servers like TELUS, Mascon Cable Services (a TELUS company) and Bell are reporting on the National Broadband Internet Service Availability Map. According to the ‘Summary of Findings,’ released by the Ministry, ‘there was medium to high evidence of possible discrepancies in 106’ of the 940 localities studied.

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Communications

Connectivity gap closing for B.C.’s isolated coastal communities

National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

It’s a landmark moment for an ambitious project to bring rapid internet to a swath of remote communities along the B.C. coast.  

The first 50 kilometres of subsea fibre-optic cable was recently laid at the northern reach of the $45.4-million Connected Coast project that will hook up 139 rural remote communities, including 48 Indigenous communities, to high-speed internet. 

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