PRINCE RUPERT, B.C. – CityWest Cable and Telephone has finished its 150 km fibre link project along Highway 16 between Terrace and Prince Rupert, the company announced Wednesday.
“The completion of this project marks a significant achievement for CityWest,” said Chad Cunningham, sales and marketing manager for CityWest. The fibre link spans some very rough terrain, but now stands as the only fibre link along the Terrace-Prince Rupert corridor.
“We knew this infrastructure was something that Prince Rupert needed, and something that CityWest needed in order to grow, but when you decide to build something like this you take a leap of faith that others will buy into it as well. Already this fibre link has introduced a new line of business for CityWest, that being leasing space on the fibre to large customers and communications carriers. We are pleased to welcome Navigata Communications Inc as our first major customer on this fibre link. Talks continue with several other customers who may rent space as well,” said Rob Brown, general manager of CityWest.
The new fibre strand is also a tool CityWest plans to use internally to provide new services in Prince Rupert and Terrace and is, in fact, only the first phase in their larger plan to add new services.
The second phase is to upgrade the local cable lines in both Terrace and Prince Rupert. This work is now underway and is expected to take a minimum of three to four months still to complete. Once the local cable upgrade is completed, CityWest will prepare to launch new services in both Terrace and Prince Rupert starting with digital cable TV services, which are scheduled to be available by mid-2007, said the company.
