Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Cortes Island’s new high speed internet system could be live as early as December, otherwise early in 2023.

Randy, from CityWest, gave Cortes Currents a very graphic illustration of what this will mean.

I am currently downloading data from the internet at a rate of 21.35 megabits per second (Mbps) and uploading at 6.50 Mbps. Randy discussed plans for 100 or 500 Mbps, download and upload, depending on how much I wanted to pay. He also said there are no limits for the number of gigabytes I could use in a month, hence no overage charges.

Dino Tsakonas, the Regional Manager for our area, said he does not anticipate any changes to CityWest’s rollout now that TELUS has taken over our local provider, Twincomm.

On their website, Twincomm states, “For the foreseeable future, all products, services, prices, and billing will remain the same. Any updates on service changes will be well advertised.

CityWest crews have been very active around Cortes in the last few weeks, so Cortes Currents asked Tsakonas about the crews working in Smelt Bay and Squirrel Cove. He described those as landing sites.

“The cables are already running around the island. A bunch of the landings are ready, the fiber optics to the island is pretty much done. We just have some finalization of getting power to those sites and connecting all those fiber optics in between the landing sites,” he explained.

“Right now as we're doing the cold installs, that's bringing the service from the outside to the inside of your home. We're trying to be live by the end of this year or by win winter. That's going to happen in Manson's Landing, Seaford and for the Klahoose First Nation. Whaletown will come later becuase we don’t habe the main line set up yet.”

People who have signed up for this service will be notified by phone or email when it is time for them to receive updates prior to going live. This should occur in December.

Meanwhile crews are working on Denman Island right now, but have not arrived on Hornby Island, Quadra Island or Sayward.

“ I'd like to add for people of the surrounding areas in islands is just to be patient a little bit, but not so much because we are coming,” said Tsakonas.