It has been called one of the most convoluted networks imaginable. When it comes to the current Internet on Haida Gwaii patience is not only a virtue, it is a requirement. Those of us who have been struggling with slow and intermittent Internet service will be pleased to know the wait for high-speed Internet is almost over. Very soon there will be at least two options of service providers for islanders.

CityWest Haida Communications Corporation

On October 15, 2021, a joint announcement from the Council of the Haida Nation (CHN), Skidegate Band Council, Old Massett Village Council, and CityWest was made public. The partnership agreement will see the communities on Haida Gwaii connected to a worldclass Fibre-To-The-Home (FTTH) network through the newly-formed CityWest Haida Communications Corporation (CWHCC). The FTTH network will be owned by the Haida Nation and powered by CityWest fibre- optic services. The announcement goes on to say that the agreement is the first of its kind in the telecommunication industry, an agreement that will also send a share of the new company’s profits to the Haida Nation, resulting in a direct financial benefit to community members.

CHN President Gaagwiis Jason Alsop said, “Developing last mile connectivity solutions will be transformative for our communities because of the many benefits that modern fibre network solutions will bring, with the capacity to meet our growing needs and provide more reliable service.”

CityWest’s CEO Stefan Woloszyn said, “We are very excited about this agreement because it is more than a partnership - it’s an opportunity for the communities to own their own connectivity destiny for many years into the future.”

Connected Coast

CityWest, along with Strathcona Regional District are the proponents behind the Connected Coast Network, a $45.4 million investment in coastal connectivity funded in part by the expanded Connecting BC Program. The September 2020 expansion entailed the provincial government creating a $90 million grant to encourage investment in broadband and cellular infrastructure to benefit people in rural and Indigenous communities throughout the province. CityWest will receive $10.3 million for six coastal projects, one of which is Haida Gwaii.

When completed the Connected Coast project will deliver high-speed Internet accessibility to 139 rural and remote coastal communities, including 48 Indigenous communities representing 44 First Nations along the coast from north of Prince Rupert with an arm extending to Haida Gwaii, then south to Vancouver and around Vancouver Island. Millions of metres of sub-sea, high-speed fibre-optic cable, approximately 3,400 kilometers, will be laid by the subcontractor Baylink Networks. The entire project is expected to be complete in 2023. However, as construction progresses, points of connectivity will begin to go live in a phased approach. The first group of communities are projected to be connected by the end of 2021 and the last group expected to be connected in 2023.

The project is now completing the network design and permitting phase. This includes geographical layout, transmission equipment, fibre network, and consultations with local governments, First Nations, and stakeholders to determine the needs and opportunities, as well as identifying areas of environmental concerns and sensitivities. At this time there are two different providers (Mascon and CityWest) going after a small population of about 2,000 households and businesses on Haida Gwaii.

How We Got to Now (The Long and Winding Road)

GwaiiTel

GwaiiTel, a non-profit Internet Society, has a volunteer Board of Directors appointed by representatives from each of the communities on island. GwaiiTel is a middle- mile broadband network service provider through a mix of wireless and fixed technology and owns a network of on-island physical infrastructures which are leased to the ISP Mascon. As of 2016, with funding from the Federal government’s Digital Canada 150 Fund and a grant from Gwaii Trust, GwaiiTel now owns 110 kilometers of roadside fibre network, the “backbone,” which was buried underground to save maintenance costs. This renders the network mostly immune to threats such as blow-down trees, collisions with telephone poles, or telephone lines being struck by industrial machines, all incidents that have interrupted service. GwaiiTel installed service boxes every kilometre and at every stream crossing, each of which needed a separate permit, and provides spare fibre- optic cable to temporarily repair any ruptures in the line.

The GwaiiTel network starts on the mainland. The signal is brought to Haida Gwaii via microwave relay from a tower on Mount Hays, near Prince Rupert. As noted by Gwaii- Tel Board Member, Tomas Borsa, “The microwave radio link from Mt. Hays is roughly 125km, making it one of the longest in the world. The sheer distance, combined with weird/rainy/foggy atmospheric conditions mean that it is inherently unstable.”

Severe weather in January 2020 damaged the antenna, feedhorn and shroud on the tower, resulting in a tenday outage. Service was restored at 50% capacity using a redundant feedhorn until a permanent fix was done by GwaiiTel in March 2020. Also in March of 2020, the HlGaagilda Skidegate to K’il Kun Sandspit microwave radio link was decommissioned after a subsea fibre cable was successfully laid between the two communities.

During the stay-at-home pandemic lockdowns, the average bandwidth used on the islands grew by 25%. Network slowdowns are generally due to congestion. The most users are on between 6 pm and 2 am, as well as weekends.

According to Tomas Borsa, GwaiiTel cannot offer unlimit-ed bandwidth because unlimited bandwidth is technical-ly impossible on a wireless radio link system (unlike a fi-bre network). Any revenue collected by GwaiiTel over and above running costs are used for system maintenance, licensing, and upgrades. Over the years Gwaii Trust, as well as other funders, has granted money for radio equip-ment upgrades to the system. GwaiiTel has been forward thinking in maintaining the current system, which will be preserved as a secondary delivery system should the fi-bre-optic system ever go down. GwaiiTel owns the buried cable to where the radio link crosses Hecate Strait. Mas-con connects the house links to the highway.

Of the new CWHCC, GwaiiTel Chair Sam Hall said, “Gwaii-Tel is currently negotiating commercial terms for CityWest access to the GwaiiTel backbone.”

Mascon/TELUS (Mascon)

Remember the Misty Islands TV Society (MITVS)? They didn’t have high-definition cable, and customers used dial-up. They started with a limited programming format such as news and sports and needed to acquire other programming from outside sources. MITVS sold to Lavoie Wireless, as it was then known, who also bought QCIslands.net from Jim Pazarena before incorporating as Gwaii Communications (GwaiiComm), who then sold to the current ISP, Mascon.

Mascon is a “retail” provider, an ISP and a wholly owned subsidiary of Telus, which began offering services on Hai-da Gwaii after acquiring GwaiiComm on Jan. 1st, 2020. They have operated local cable companies throughout BC from Salmon Arm since 1983, and have a division called Airspeed Wireless providing high speed Internet to those residing in remote locations outside of Mascon’s fibre-optic network.

Mascon continues to upgrade their system. Further up-grades would be reliant on a subsea cable. “Mascon is looking forward to continuing to serve the residents of Haida Gwaii and the benefits the Connect Coast project will bring for the island communities,” says Karen Shutko, Manager of Marketing at Mascon.

In 2019 Telus announced a $4.5 billion commitment to extend new communications infrastructure across British Columbia. Subsequently, their subsidiary Mascon could now enhance the reliability of services. Telus has its own line on telephone poles up and down the island, and its own radio link in Masset. Mascon endeavours to deliver the high standards of Telus operations. When the 110km fibre in the ground was dug up and broken, (when the bridges were being replaced on the stretch between Tll.aal Tlell and Gamadiis Port Clements) Mascon repaired this twice.

For more information check out www.mascon.ca, email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , or call toll free 1-866-832-6020.

Arriving on the October 15th, 2021 ferry, Telus was on island with subcontractor white vans displaying Global logos. The crew were splicing the pole fibres placed by a previous crew in Daajing Giids Queen Charlotte. Telus also bid on the Connecting BC program, but the company that won the contract was CityWest.

CityWest is “Dropping-In”

A representative has been knocking on doors to explain the services CityWest plans to provide to residents once the undersea cable comes to Haida Gwaii. According to CityWest’s Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Chris Armstrong, the ship that will lay the cable along the coast of BC and Vancouver Island is the CanPac Valour. She began her voyage in Trinidad, and as of September 24 she made it through the Panama Canal and was on her way to Campbell River to pick up the subsea fibre-optic cable before heading north. The ship has now arrived in Campbell River, and on October 29 a celebration was held there aboard the CanPac Valour to celebrate the official start of construction for the Connected Coast project.

The plan is for the cable to be first laid from the main-land, across Hecate Strait and then land in Tll.aal Tlell, not at the north end as previously thought. The laying of the cable across the strait requires a two-day weather window.

According to Daajing Giids Queen Charlotte’s Mayor Kris Olsen, “This is massive. It will allow us to expand economic development, improve education over the Internet, deliver e-health services, all while staying at home.”

In this first stage, CityWest employees will be going directly to prospective customers to give permission to bury a “drop” on their property in advance of the hookup. A “drop” is the infrastructure that runs from the street or highway to the customers’ premises. And the “Last Mile” is the actual hookup of your home to the new system. CityWest has its own network and connects to the Internet without the need for any third-party involvement.

Chris Armstrong says, “As soon as we know the milestone dates we will definitely share them! In the meantime, we encourage everyone to fill out the ‘Dropping In’ form on our website- that is the key milestone right now.”

Once the “drops” are complete, customers on Haida Gwaii will have access to faster Internet services as the Connected Coast project brings broader bandwidth to the island. According to Scott Simpson, CityWest Marketing Manager, “This means that our network will be real fibre optics all the way to your door. All of our Quantum Internet products come without data caps or overage fees.”

Here’s the most important part of the whole project…

(To see full image: Right click on the image and click Open Image in a new tab)

The government has provided funding to CityWest to do a “drop” FREE of charge if you sign up now. The “drop” is all underground cable from the road to your home. This is not a commitment to use CityWest as your Internet Service Provider. When the new system is available, your connection to the system will be completed by an ISP of your choice. As described above, this final connection to going “live” is known as “The Last Mile.” You will also be able to keep your present phone number. However, if you do not have the “drop” installed on your property now and the window to do so free of charge closes, it will be very expensive to sign up later once the service goes live.

For more information go to CityWest’s website and scroll down to access an information video. You can also sign up on CityWest’s website: citywest.ca/dropping-in or call the office at 1-800-442-8664 and ask to speak with one of CityWest’s wonderful customer service representatives. CityWest will furnish the people of Haida Gwaii with a choice as to their Internet Service Provider. This project is made possible by the federal and provincial governments, Indigenous Services Canada, the Strathcona Regional District, and Northern Development Initiative Trust (NDIT).

Starlink

“Concurrent to the fibre projects discussed above,” states Tomas Borsa, “there is also a third provider in the form of Starlink. Starlink is the first company to launch with the express purpose of providing high-speed, low-latency internet to rural communities. Unlike the projects unveiled by Mascon and CityWest, Starlink uses an entirely different type of technology which relies on a roving constellation of several thousand small satellites.” At the time of writing, the fees sit at $649 plus shipping up front for the hard-ware and $129/month. There would not be a contract for unlimited Internet. The reception dish will require a near perfect line of sight to the satellite. The company is open to pre-orders on a first-come, first-served basis and expect to have global coverage by 2023. Go to starlink.com for more information.

Last Word – Sign Up for Both!

Given the opportunity, it might be a good idea to sign up for both CityWest and Mascon/Telus fibre to the home. Either of these Last Mile connections would then be possible. Then it would be your choice depending on the cost of their services. Also, thinking ahead, this could be an important feature for a future buyer if you decide at some point to sell your home.

The dual choice between Mascon and CityWest is not applicable to Gamadiis Port Clements, Chinkundl Gandlee Miller Creek or K’il Kun Sandspit, all of which are serviced by Mascon fibre. CityWest will be servicing the currently unserved part of Tll.aal Tlell and Taaw Tlldawee Tow Hill.