PRINCE RUPERT — Municipally owned telecom company CityWest announced yesterday it will be collaborating with the Central Coast Communications Society (CCCS), an Internet services provider based in Bella Coola, to connect several communities in the B.C. coastal region to a fibre-to-the-home network.
Communities to be covered by the fibre network project include Bella Coola, Four Mile, Hagensborg and the territories of the Nuxalk First Nation, all located in Bella Coola Valley.
“This official collaboration will empower us to extend service through the rest of the valley, to execute on the society’s greater vision for connectivity, and to create some amazing opportunities within our business for the staff with CCCS,” said Stefan Woloszyn, CEO of CityWest, in a press release.
“Backhaul bandwidth will be available to the area through the Connected Coast project, which is expected to land in Bella Coola by the beginning of 2022. The fibre-to-the-home network will be constructed shortly afterwards, which will bring last-mile services to the residents and business of the Bella Coola valley,” reads the press release. (Cartt.ca has reported previously on the Connected Coast project here and here.)
“We’re very happy to strike this deal with CityWest, a company that values local customer service as much as we do, and because of the benefits it brings to our communities,” said James Hindley, network administrator and executive director of CCCS. “With this collaboration, we’ll not only build a great fibre-to-the-home network, but we’ll also see local employment of our existing technicians, and local governance will be maintained.”
