CityWest Building New Highway 37 Fibre Route to Protect Northern B.C. Connectivity
September 8, 2026
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.
CityWest is building a new route designed to change that.
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.
Building against the risks facing northern infrastructure
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.
Incidents such as the outage on Aug.11, due to a third party transport line, underscore the importance of greater route diversity and resiliency for
telecommunications infrastructure serving northern British Columbia.
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.
CityWest is developing the project in partnership with Tahltan Nation Development Corporation (TNDC). CityWest will own and operate the fibre infrastructure, with funding support from the CRTC Broadband Fund.
The benefits of the project will extend beyond CityWest’s network. The Highway 37 route will be available to other telecommunications carriers seeking additional resiliency and route diversity for networks serving British Columbia and the Yukon.
The additional route is expected to strengthen telecommunications resiliency for communities throughout the Highway 16 and Highway 37 corridors and is anticipated to be operational by the end of 2027.
CityWest is a BC-founded telecommunications company with over 110 years of experience serving communities across British Columbia. Headquartered in Prince Rupert, CityWest provides residential and business internet, wireless, television, and phone services across the region.
