Access to fibre break still limited for CityWest, as safety concerns keep crews from site of concern

CityWest
notes From Nov 23 on
fibre outage

There will be no quick fix to the infrastructure troubles for CityWest in southern British Columbia.  

That after word that work crews are still unable to gain access to the site of the fibre break  which was damaged in November at the start of what has been an extreme weather situation for many areas from the Fraser Valley through to the interior regions of the province.

In an email response, Chris Armstrong noted for the North Coast Review that at the moment work crews are unable to a access the area of the break owing to safety concerns in that area of the province.

Customers of the Northwest Communication provider can check their maintenance page for other updates on the situation as things progress, as well as through the CityWest Social Media feed.

The update to the maintenance page as of yesterday notes:

Restoration efforts are still underway. Due to risk of rock and mudslides the field teams have been called back temporarily.

The Vice President of Sales and marketing also provided an update on a incident from mid November that saw residents of Ketchikan, Alaska suffer a loss of their connectivity to the CityWest lines. 

That situation evolved after what Ketchikan officials noted for KRBD radio in the Gateway city of a an incident involving a 'rogue dump truck' on Digby Island, which according to the Public radio report damaged the fibre link to the north.

Mr. Armstrong noted that CityWest addressed the situation as soon as it was discovered, with technicians on site as soon as possible to fix the issue, adding that CityWest regretted the inconvenience that was caused to customers who use that infrastructure.

Ketchikan residents, like those of us in Prince Rupert and across the Northwest still however have some technical issues to deal with as we await progress on the rebuild of infrastructure from points south.

That's a situation which be solved once the Connected Coast project currently under way is completed and an extra level of redundancy in fibre optic delivery is put in place.

You can find more notes on the City of Prince Rupert owned Communication company and its services across Northern BC and beyond from our archive page here.