BURSTCityWest is building new fibre route along Highway 37.
The telecommunications company said recent telecommunications outages caused by damage to critical infrastructure have highlighted a longstanding challenge for Northern B.C. When a major telecommunications route is disrupted, communities hundreds of kilometres away can feel the impact.
Three major telecommunication failures hit the region this summer due to copper cable thefts and wildfire complications.
The Northern Resiliency project will establish a new, physically separate telecommunications path through Northern B.C., giving network traffic another way to move when infrastructure elsewhere is damaged or disrupted.
Once operational, the new route will allow traffic to be redirected north along Highway 37 when another major fibre path is unavailable.
“Reliability is at the centre of every decision we make. From network design to ongoing maintenance, our goal is to deliver service customers can depend on every day,” said Wes Eisses, Chief Operating Officer of CityWest.
Like telecommunications providers across the industry, CityWest operates as part of an interconnected network. CityWest owns and operates significant portions of its fibre network and also leases transport connectivity from multiple providers to connect its network across the province and to the broader internet.
For security reasons, CityWest will not publicly disclose further details about specific network routes, architecture or infrastructure configurations.
CityWest’s Highway 37 resiliency project is designed to provide an additional, geographically diverse fibre route into the region. The new infrastructure will be installed underground, making it less visible and less exposed to risks such as theft, wildfire, vehicle collisions and wildlife damage. Equipment sites along the route will also include redundant power systems designed to maintain operations during extended power outages.
Currently, there is no fibre-optic telecommunications route extending north toward the Yukon along Highway 37. The project will establish a new corridor separate from existing telecommunications infrastructure along Highway 16, reducing the region’s reliance on a limited number of geographic pathways, the company says.
CityWest is developing the project in partnership with Tahltan Nation Development Corporation. CityWest will own and operate the fibre infrastructure.
CityWest was awarded up to $14.8 million from the CRTC Broadband Fund for the project.
Construction is expected to finish by the end of 2027.