Kaslo: Bringing internet via fiber connectivity through the lake to remote Canadian households

As a local not-for-profit internet service provider in British Columbia, Kaslo infoNet Society is bringing affordable high-speed fiber internet to the remote mountain communities of the West Kootenay Region, Canada. And Genexis is a vital vendor partner.

“Our approach is unique as we serve the community’s internet needs rather than a commercial interest. For decades, remote areas like ours have been neglected, and we fulfill a daily need to have reliable and steady network access,” says Isaac Maxfield, Executive Director of Kaslo infoNet Society (KiN).

Because there was a lack of response from major telecom companies in 2014, Kaslo was offered to provide service using the fiber backbone installed by the Columbia Basin Broadband Corporation. This is when KiN reformed itself to become a fiber-based organization and internet service provider (ISP). Due to its isolated location, Kaslo is very remote technically, with a village of approximately 1,000 people. Kaslo also serves as a hub for several even smaller, more remote communities connected primarily using the Kootenay Lake.

When KiN searched for ways to deploy fiber broadband, they looked to Sweden and its robust fiber approach. “Sweden has a similar geography to our local mountainous region. The lake-in-mountain problem turned into a bit of a solution for us with running fiber directly in the lake allowing us to connect these sorts of more far-flung remote communities,” explains Isaac.

“We weren’t looking for a standard ISP approach; we wanted to make a network that would be resilient and long-lasting. Fiber directly to the home means that once the construction’s done, it’s done. Our approach is to do direct fiber trenching, comparable to what several operators have done in Sweden. By doing direct fiber, it’s easy to effect repairs as well. And in our area, one of the early boons was that we were among the first buried infrastructure,” continues Isaac.

KiN sought telecom industry vendors willing to deal with a small volume, leading them to Genexis. “Genexis was willing to not only sell directly to us but has worked closely with us on launching their product lines and ensuring their new devices are compatible with our service and control network. Having a direct line to the engineers has been incredibly valuable. KiN is just a fraction of a percentage of Genexis’ total global volume but having that direct access has made us feel special and helped us keep our costs low,” says Isaac.

KiN’s customer premise equipment is supplied by Genexis, and they started with Genexis Titanium residential gateway. KiN worked closely with the Genexis engineering team on developing the Active Ethernet optical network terminal (ONT) for point-to-point called FiberTwist P3410B, which is currently in use among KiN customers.

“They gave us a couple of pre-release versions, and by the time we were ready to start rolling those out, the hardware and software were exactly what we needed. So, it was a very smooth transition, and P3410B gives us many more options to provide the customer the right sized wireless solution,” describes Isaac.

“We are handling all the fiber in the lake process ourselves, from permitting to the actual construction and submarine fiber laying, with local hires or volunteers. Because we’re a community organization, people are quite happy to work with us; we’ve been able to go directly across people’s properties and take shortcuts as we are seen as part of the local community. We can do all our construction with locally hired employees and are part of the community economy,” says Isaac.

KiN’s fiber approach is also a model of neighboring remote communities. Their current project is to create a physical loop within the lake to expand the backbone network. “We’ll have a full loop in the lake so that if there are any issues with our network, whether it’s a power failure or an anchor drag somehow hit the line, we’ll have that redundancy for all of the local communities,” concludes Isaac.

Challenge

• To deploy fiber broadband to isolated communities in Kaslo and around Kootenay Lake with no previous broadband infrastructure
• Small volumes with significant connectivity needs

Solution

• Partner with Genexis to find the right customer premise equipment
• Collaborate directly with Genexis engineers in product development

Result

• ONT FiberTwist P3410B to KiN customers
• A strong vendor and community partnership for continued collaboration and growth requirements

About Kaslo infoNet Society

The Kaslo infoNet Society (KiN) is a non-profit society formed in 1996 to build a community access network for Kaslo and its neighboring communities. KiN is dedicated to achieving local access to global information and creating a presence for the North Kootenay Lake communities on the World Wide Web.