CityWest Addresses Outage

Oct 19, 2022

On behalf of CityWest, and our partners, we apologize for the service disruption that took place in the evening of October 18th. The outage was caused by a motor vehicle accident, which took out several utility poles, causing a fibre break. This third-party fibre line provides Internet and data services to several telecommunications companies, including CityWest. We hope the repair crews and all parties involved are safe and well. 

In northwest British Columbia, most Internet service providers (ISP) rely on the same shared service poles to deliver telecommunications services (Internet, phone, cell, tv). When this infrastructure is affected by an unforeseen event, several service providers in the region are at risk of losing services all at the same time.  That is what happened last evening. We worked with the ISP that manages those poles on our behalf (and other ISPs) to try to restore service as quickly as possible. But the accident was extensive, and it took time for the repair to occur.  

That is why CityWest is investing in building our own independent Fibre network. Where possible, we are working to lay fibre-optic cable under the surfaces of land and water to ensure that our services can continue without disruptions, on our own independent network.  

We have already begun investing in our network to remove these unforeseen outages in the future, through the Connected Coast project. The project will also provide redundancy for Northern BC. Currently, most of Northern BC relies on one fibre path for all Internet traffic. If that path is damaged, several communities can lose all connectivity. The Connected Coast will provide the North with another path for online traffic, so it can be rerouted if a link is damaged. After completion, many communities in the North and along the coast will have a redundant connection, providing more reliable services. 

We are excited about the future for communities and businesses across BC to have the opportunity to have connectivity without disruptions. We recognize that in the meantime, there are these unfortunate unforeseen accidents that will occur that will impact us from time to time. We hope that you will read more about the Connected Coast project and why it’s so important here: www.connectedcoast.ca

Again, we do apologize for the disruption to your services. We are happy to report that our network is now fully operational as of early this morning. We appreciate your patience and understanding. 

 

Regards,

Tanya Jenkins 

VP, People & Markets