Maximum Bandwidth, it’s the mantra of the locals who are weary of their YouTube video’s buffering endlessly, it’s the Holy Grail for those that play on line games and are tired of having their sessions time out or flounder away on the interweb and it's been the unachievable desire for those that are downloading movies and such from the comfort of their own computer hovel.
For the long suffering local users, the limited abilities of CityWest to pump out the required bandwidth for the growing demands of Rupertites are said to be over, in Monday’s Daily News, General Manager Rob Brown said that web surfers should now be noticing a significant difference in their internet speeds, thanks to a re-routing of the traffic onto the new fibre link between Terrace and Prince Rupert.
However, better service apparently comes with a cost, While CityWest can now bargain shop for better deals for speed and bandwidth, Brown cautioned local residents not to expect their prices to go down any time soon, based on the rise of such things as wages and materials to name a few of the costs associated with progress.
However, better service apparently comes with a cost, While CityWest can now bargain shop for better deals for speed and bandwidth, Brown cautioned local residents not to expect their prices to go down any time soon, based on the rise of such things as wages and materials to name a few of the costs associated with progress.
And should local users find that they still need more bandwidth, more speed then there’s always the possibility of new larger packages, with larger bandwidth and we assume a larger price too.
While nobody would refuse a price drop, just having the kind of speeds and reliability that they believe they are due will probably keep the local surfers of the web quite content.
INTERNET USERS SET TO GET TASTE OF FIBRE
CityWest says fibre hook-up to Terrace is great news for on-line gamers
By Christian Webber
The Daily News
Monday, July 23, 2007
Pages one and three
If you’re internet isn’t up to speed don’t worry, starting July 19 surfers should be noticing improved internet speeds as CityWest re-routs onto the fibre-link from Prince Rupert to Terrace.
“They should start to see increased speeds on the existing bandwidth right now, as we take people off it and put them on the new link, people will see increased speeds on the old system too,” said Rob Brown, CityWest’s general manager.
The process of turning over internet service from micro waves to fibre-link started July 19 and will continue for a couple of months until everyone is on the fast track.
“The gamers are the ones that complain a lot, they should be satisfied eventually but as more people get more bandwidth they want more and more,” said Brown.
He said, later on if people want more they will probably look at larger packages with larger bandwidths.
Prince Rupert is not as behind in service as some may say, Brown said. The city is not the last to make such a change, there are more remote areas of the province that are still waiting.
“We’re not last, I would like to think of us as one of the first to have high speed internet, it’s just grown so much, the old facilities weren’t able to give us the bandwidth we required, now we’re opening up the pipe even more,” said Brown.
The link is a connection from Prince Rupert’s central office downtown all the way along Highway 16 to Terrace and 100 percent of it is buried under ground.
Brown said they are bringing this in now because the demand for bandwidth has increased and five years ago Prince Rupert wasn’t looking too good, with the slowdown in the economy and people moving out of town. Since the port announcements and number of fairly significant builds in town the demand for more bandwidth just started to increase.
“Plus the competitiveness of bandwidth as well, the previous provider just has a microwave system here and that is very expensive, so with us here it’s competitive so the prices have come down,” said Brown.
CityWest used to buy from another provider but now that they have the fibre-link they are able to shop around and find better prices.
Your prices won’t be going down anytime soon though because the cost of everything else continues to rise including wages and materials, said Brown.
With the high demand for more bandwidth and more people using it more often it was getting to a crawl because there was no more bandwidth available to people.
“You look at the internet as a pipe, like a water pipe, if you have a garden hose you can only get so much data through it, but if you have a big 18-inch waterline you can pump a ton of water,” said Brown.
He said the internet was really slow, they were starting to really see it, there is more bandwidth required for things like YouTube and MSN.
People sending pictures and downloading movies, the amount of bandwidth required had just doubled and doubled every year.
“It used to be people just used to internet to send e-mails,” said Brown.
The new fibre link will also help them launch HDTV the same way they did in Terrace. Trials will start soon and they are looking to have HD TV up in August or September.
While nobody would refuse a price drop, just having the kind of speeds and reliability that they believe they are due will probably keep the local surfers of the web quite content.
INTERNET USERS SET TO GET TASTE OF FIBRE
CityWest says fibre hook-up to Terrace is great news for on-line gamers
By Christian Webber
The Daily News
Monday, July 23, 2007
Pages one and three
If you’re internet isn’t up to speed don’t worry, starting July 19 surfers should be noticing improved internet speeds as CityWest re-routs onto the fibre-link from Prince Rupert to Terrace.
“They should start to see increased speeds on the existing bandwidth right now, as we take people off it and put them on the new link, people will see increased speeds on the old system too,” said Rob Brown, CityWest’s general manager.
The process of turning over internet service from micro waves to fibre-link started July 19 and will continue for a couple of months until everyone is on the fast track.
“The gamers are the ones that complain a lot, they should be satisfied eventually but as more people get more bandwidth they want more and more,” said Brown.
He said, later on if people want more they will probably look at larger packages with larger bandwidths.
Prince Rupert is not as behind in service as some may say, Brown said. The city is not the last to make such a change, there are more remote areas of the province that are still waiting.
“We’re not last, I would like to think of us as one of the first to have high speed internet, it’s just grown so much, the old facilities weren’t able to give us the bandwidth we required, now we’re opening up the pipe even more,” said Brown.
The link is a connection from Prince Rupert’s central office downtown all the way along Highway 16 to Terrace and 100 percent of it is buried under ground.
Brown said they are bringing this in now because the demand for bandwidth has increased and five years ago Prince Rupert wasn’t looking too good, with the slowdown in the economy and people moving out of town. Since the port announcements and number of fairly significant builds in town the demand for more bandwidth just started to increase.
“Plus the competitiveness of bandwidth as well, the previous provider just has a microwave system here and that is very expensive, so with us here it’s competitive so the prices have come down,” said Brown.
CityWest used to buy from another provider but now that they have the fibre-link they are able to shop around and find better prices.
Your prices won’t be going down anytime soon though because the cost of everything else continues to rise including wages and materials, said Brown.
With the high demand for more bandwidth and more people using it more often it was getting to a crawl because there was no more bandwidth available to people.
“You look at the internet as a pipe, like a water pipe, if you have a garden hose you can only get so much data through it, but if you have a big 18-inch waterline you can pump a ton of water,” said Brown.
He said the internet was really slow, they were starting to really see it, there is more bandwidth required for things like YouTube and MSN.
People sending pictures and downloading movies, the amount of bandwidth required had just doubled and doubled every year.
“It used to be people just used to internet to send e-mails,” said Brown.
The new fibre link will also help them launch HDTV the same way they did in Terrace. Trials will start soon and they are looking to have HD TV up in August or September.
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