Selects Fujitsu as new supplier
VANDERHOOF, B.C. — Prince Rupert’s municipally owned network operator CityWest announced Tuesday it is expanding its services later this year into the rural community of Vanderhoof (population 4,500 and more than 600 kms east of Prince Rupert) as part of a $9-million investment.
CityWest says it will bring high-speed Internet, TV and phone services over fibre-to-the-home technology to the community, with first customers expected to be installed by the end of 2020.
“We as a community have strived for strong access to the information highway for a long time,” said Gerry Thiessen, mayor of Vanderhoof, in the CityWest press release. “It will allow our businesses to operate more effectively and efficiently, and it will also enable our young people to access great educational opportunities similar to more urban areas of the province.
“More than ever, the Covid-19 pandemic has shown us that it’s important to have fast, reliable Internet at your home,” continued Thiessen. “For all those reasons, we’re happy to welcome CityWest to Vanderhoof.”
The initial stages of the roll-out will happen before the end of the year, with $2 million earmarked for the first stages of construction, says the press release. Next year, CityWest intends to continue to build and bring service to the community using a combination of its own money as well as external funding.
“Our team knows how to bring great services to new communities, and they do it very well and very effectively,” said Bart Kuntz, vice-president, outside plant at CityWest. “We’re definitely looking forward to coming into Vanderhoof and giving customers the same great experiences our other customers enjoy across Northern B.C.”
Also this week, Fujitsu Network Communications announced CityWest has selected Fujitsu’s 1FINITY platform and Virtuora Network Control solution to upgrade CityWest’s fibre-optic network to enable higher broadband speeds and capacity across a wide expanse of western British Columbia.
CityWest has chosen to upgrade its legacy Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) network to enable speeds of 100 gigabits per second (Gbps) and beyond, says the Fujitsu press release. CityWest is deploying 1FINITY T300 Transport and L100 Lambda blades in a ring configuration, building in network redundancy to help protect against points of failure and avoid lengthy mean time to repair (MTTR), ensuring optimal customer service across a widespread geographic region, says the release. The new tech enables speeds up to 200 Gbps in a compact footprint, helping to reduce power consumption and space constraints.
“At CityWest we remain true to our vision to deliver a superior customer experience, investing in 100G technology that will allow us to meet subscriber bandwidth needs well into the future,” said Donovan Dias, vice-president of sales and project management at CityWest, in the release.
