High-speed connectivity cable arrives in Haida Gwaii marking major milestone in $45.4M project

| July 4, 2022 in Provincial

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A major milestone in the $45.4-million Connected Coast project has been reached as  87 kilometres of fibre-optic cable stretching across the seabed of Hecate Strait has arrived.

On June 29, 2022, the cable-laying ship arrived in Tlell and began laying cable across Hecate Strait toward Bonilla Island, building backbone infrastructure for high-speed connectivity in Haida Gwaii. 

The subsea fibre-optic cable will run more than 3,400 kilometres along the coast of BC, and it will be one of the longest coastal subsea networks in the world.

Announced in 2018, the project will bring high-speed internet to about 139 rural and remote communities, including 48 First Nations communities, from north of Prince Rupert to Haida Gwaii, south to Vancouver and to Vancouver Island. 

Network commissioning and activation activities are expected to occur over the coming months and will begin once this section of cable laying is complete. 

The Connected Coast project is expected to be complete by March 2023.

The plan to connect every household in BC to high-speed internet by 2027 will “level the playing field for British Columbians and ensure every community has better access to jobs, education, training and health care.”

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