Tag Archives: fibre optic cable

Communications

A New Internet Provider for Cortes: Raincoast Networks

As of September 30th, 2025, Raincoast Networks serves the 347 remaining customers in what was once the Twincomm service area on Cortes Island. Mascon by Telus acquired Twincomm in 2022. 

“I come from Savary Island. We provide internet to those who have decided to live off grid and in remote communities and cannot be served well by other telecom providers, majors and things from space, explained Oliver Linsley, owner of Raincoast Networks.

“We’ve been doing this for eight years and we service areas from Howe Sound all the way to Cortes. It has been a wonderful adventure, mainly because I get to meet some fantastic people in places I didn’t even know existed. We’ve helped communities up and down the coast, and that’s where we got our pride from. It’s not from a paycheck (laughs), I can tell you that, but it definitely is from the fact that I can go to someone’s house and they have baked cookies for me. They’re just super happy that we came in a boat and we’ve driven across a whole bunch of crazy oceans and we’re at their house and we’re going to fix it.”

Continue reading A New Internet Provider for Cortes: Raincoast Networks →
Communications

Mascon By Telus Cuts Off Some Cortes Customers, CityWest Update

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Mascon by TELUS informed at least 10 Cortes Island residents that their internet service will be terminated on June 2, 2025.

A dozen people were chatting about it on the Cortes Island Is Home Facebook page, where one typed a message to Regional Director Mark Vonesch, “The SRD was part of the whole CityWest to insure all communities were connected? Most of us do not have access to CityWest yet and now we are losing access to our only other option.” 

Nancy Kendel posted a comment on the Tideline, “A LOT OF GOVERNMENT MONEY was given to the Connected Coast Partnership of CityWest and the Strathcona Regional District, but THE JOB IS NOT FINISHED! When will Cortes Island be connected?” 

She also emailed Cortes Currents, which is what led to this story. 

Continue reading Mascon By Telus Cuts Off Some Cortes Customers, CityWest Update →
Communications

CityWest finally delivers: some Cortes Island homes already receiving service 

CityWest finally delivered on its promise to bring high speed fibre-optic internet to Cortes Island. 

It has been five years since Victoria Smith, then the  Strathcona Regional District’s Special Projects and Sustainability Manager, confirmed that Cortes Island was a proposed recipient for the Connected Coast Project.

Continue reading CityWest finally delivers: some Cortes Island homes already receiving service  →
Communications

Motor vehicle crash knocks out internet/cell service to much of Northwest

By Kaitlyn Bailey,  Prince Rupert Northern View, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Some residents in northwest B.C. were without internet and phone service the evening of Oct. 18.

A motor vehicle accident took out several utility poles and caused a break in the Telus fibre optic cable that runs west from Prince George to Prince Rupert.

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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. 

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