News

Telegraph-Journal Article

Today's edition of the Telegraph-Journal features an article about internet service on Grand Manan and the challenges faced by islanders who only have access to internet from traditional telecom companies. It also mentioned our upcoming access to the undersea cables, our goals to provide 1000 MB service, and our plans for full island coverage.

Telegraph-Journal Article

Check out the November 3rd edition of the Telegraph-Journal for an article about our recent access agreement with NB Power. The article "Fundy Isles one step closer to high speed internet" includes more details about the agreement and our vision for modern high-speed internet across all of the Fundy Isles.

NB Power Fibreoptic Cable Agreement

We are very happy to announce the signing of a long-term access agreement between NB Power and Crave Technologies Ltd. This agreement grants us access to the fibre optic portions of the undersea power cables that NB Power installed in 2019 to connect the islands of Grand Manan, Campobello, and Deer Island. It also grants NB Power access to portions of our fiber-optic infrastructure on Grand Manan Island.

For more details, see the full announcement by Crave President/CEO, Howard Small.

CBC News Coverage

We've recently received two sets of coverage by the CBC. See this article which talks about our deployment on Grand Manan and how we hope to expand to other nearby regions. Also tune into this evening's CBC Television newscast to catch an interview with Howard Small on the same subjects.

Quoddy Tides: Island fibre project leaps ahead

Arlene Benham of the Quoddy Tides recently reported in-depth on our recent memorandum of understanding with NB Power, our application to the CRTC Rural Broadband Fund, and our plans to expand our service in the region. See the latest issue of the Quoddy Tides for complete details.

St. Croix Courier Article

We were recently featured in the St. Croix Courier. See the article Crave Technologies working to bring high speed internet to Fundy Isles for more details about our fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) expansion plans in the Fundy Isles how our recent agreement with NB Power will play a role in those plans.

Telegraph-Journal Article

We were very happy recently to receive coverage in the Telegraph-Journal newspaper. The article titled "High-speed ahoy! Deal opens path to fibre-op on the Fundy Isles" discusses our recent agreement with NB Power for access to the fiberoptic components in their undersea cables. Check out the Telegraph-Journal web site for more details.

Fundy Isles Cable Announcement

We are pleased to announce that Crave Technologies Ltd and NB Power have signed a memorandum of understanding regarding the Fundy Isle Cables and the fibre-optics within them. Crave Technologies Ltd provides fixed wireless and fibre-to-the-home services on Grand Manan Island, and this agreement will allow us to bring better products and services to our existing clients, and expand across the Fundy Isles.

This is the first major step towards bringing the Fundy Isles broadband networks into the 21st century. Crave Technologies and NB Power will be finalizing the access agreement in the coming days, and both companies are working hard to that end. This agreement will bring benefits not only to NB Power and Crave Technologies Ltd, but will turbo-charge the connectivity across the Isles. This project takes a giant leap forward today.

COVID-19 Pandemic Policies

We want to take a moment to wish you all the best and hope that you and your loved ones are safe, secure and healthy. Busineses of all sizes and kinds are affected by the current situation and we wanted to update you the policies that we currently have in effect. For more details see our pandemic policy notes.

Troubleshooting Tips

If your internet connection seems to be down, help us and yourself by going through our handy list of troubleshooting tips. Our online guide has a complete list of the most common problems along with tips on how you can both find and fix the problem. If you have followed all of the steps and your internet connection is still not working, make sure to get in touch with us so we can take a closer look.

Happy New Year!

We wish all of our customers and partners all the best for 2020! It's going to be an exciting year for Proximity Fiber. Our crews will continue to connect customers in our expanded area of coverage. At the same time we have a few exciting projects on the go and we'll keep you posted as they progress.

Phase II Construction Complete

Phase II Construction is now complete. This now allows us to extend our fiber-to-the-home service from North Head as far as the intersection of Route 776 and Ingalls Head Road in Grand Harbour. We have a lot of work ahead of us and the waiting list is very, very long but our crews are working as hard as they can to connect new customers.

Phase II Construction

Our crews are now busy with the construction for our Phase II expansion. This expansion will start at Hill Rd and will run down Route 776 to Ingalls Head Road. We expect the work to be complete in two weeks or less. During this period you might see us working to string fiberoptic cable on the utility poles running down highway. It's a hard job that has to be done in all kinds of weather. As always we thank you slowing down and giving them a wide berth so they can work safely and get the job done.

Infrastructure Upgrades

Proximity is busy on multiple fronts. We have been recently connecting more and more clients to our fiber-to-the-home service, focused in the North Head area. Construction of our phase II expansion will begin soon and we are looking forward to offering services to customers in more areas of Grand Manan. We have also been busy with other infrastructure upgrades to ensure continued reliable service for our entire customer base.

Phase One Progress

Our crews have been busy in North Head. Recently we completed end-to-end fiber connections for the backbone that covers our entire phase one deployment area. Customer connections are on track with our projections and we're working hard to connect more people every day. The feedback we're getting is that people love Proximity's fiber-to-the-home service.

Phase 2: Supplies Arriving

Our order for over 12 thousand meters (that's almost 42,000 feet) of fiberoptic cable arrived today. This cable is a critical part of our Phase 2 expansion which will extend our existing service area from North Head all the way to Grand Harbour.

Link Upgrades

Tomorrow morning we will be upgrading our links across the bay, installing a new generation of microwave transmission equipment. During this period your internet traffic will go over a secondary link. The secondary does not have the same capacity as our primary links so you might notice some slowdowns. The window for the upgrade is from 9:00am to 3:00pm tomorrow.

New Vehicle

We've added a new vehicle to our fleet. A new bucket truck will augment our existing fleet and allow our crews to work more rapidly both now in our phase 1 deployment and also in our phase 2 deployment which is now fully funded and in the design phase.

View From Up High

Our crew is busy preparing for more customer connections and splicing together more segments of our fiber. The nicer weather is helping us to move quickly and along the way we're enjoying the views from up high.

First Customer Connection

It's a big day: Our first fiber-to-the-home customer has been connected and is enjoying the benefits of modern high-speed internet on Grand Manan. Software updates that used to take 12 hours now take less than 20 minutes.

Fiberoptic Testing

This is a point to point test across the fiber network. Traffic was generated on a PC and received by a router connected by our fiberoptic cables. Latency was sub-millisecond. This is the lower end of what the system is capable of.

Quoddy Tides Article

We would like to thank the Quoddy Tides and reporter Arlene Benham for their article about Proximity Fiber in this week's edition of the Quoddy Tides. Grab a copy if you can and check out the article which starts on page one. Thanks!

Temporary Fiber Coils

If you've been driving around our area of coverage you might have noticed one or more of these coils. Our construction crews left these intentionally so we can pull the fiber down into our splicing trailer and make local connections. Once the splicing phase is done they will be replaced with much smaller slack loops.

Is This Fiberop?

A common question is "Oh awesome, we are getting FibreOp?" No, Proximity is not FiberOp. Both are fiberoptic internet systems but the commonality stops there. Not engineered the same. Not designed the same. Not built the same. FibreOp is geared toward cities. Proximity Fiber was built 100% for rural Canadians. FibreOp is a Bell service. Proximity Fiber is a Crave Technologies service. This ain't FibreOp (Or Fibe, or Pure Fibre as they call it now). It's better, it's built just for you.

Construction Complete

The construction phase of our fiber-to-the-home deployment is now complete. That means the fiberoptic cables have been run along utility poles in our area of coverage. Our crew members are now working to deploy various types of enclosures that which will act as connection points between various segments of the network and the homes that will be served.

St. Croix Courier Article

We are honoured, and more than a little excited, to be on the front page of today's edition of the Saint Croix Courier. Reporter Andrew Sutton's article talks about our evolution from a provider of wireless internet service to our current new fiber-to-the-home service that is designed specifically for rural communities. Pick up a copy of it today to check out photos of the fiber roll-out crews and get the full story on Proximity Fiber.

Construction Update

Our construction crews have been working hard and making excellent progress. They have already laid "strand", a wire product that supports our fiberoptic cables, across much of our area of planned coverage. Fiberoptic cable is also being run. In this photo you can see a fiber slack loop, and important component that helps when it's time for repairs or expansion.

Construction Has Started

The construction crews that we have contracted for the build phase of our fiber network arrived on the island yesterday and got straight down to work, despite the awful weather situation. Construction should be complete within two weeks. They will be stringing the fiberoptic cables that will serve as the backbone of our Phase 1 deployment.

Fiber Splicing Trailer

Our fiber splicing trailer is almost ready ready to roll. Armed with our own fiber splicing equipment, we can easily establish direct-to-home fiber connections or make network repairs without having to wait for outside contractors. It's going to help us to move more quickly as we deploy our phase 1 service.

Construction Starts Next Week

We are beginning construction on the first phase of our new FTTH service, Proximity Fiber. Construction teams from K-Line Construction will be arriving Monday, and we will be working in North Head for between 1 and 2 weeks. Expect some trucks and crews working in this area, down as far as the Dock Road. We will make every effort to minimize congestion and traffic delays. Thank you for your understanding.

Fiberoptic Components Arriving

Several of our spools of fiberoptic cable were delivered today and they join several other types of equipment, already on site, which will form the core of our new fiber-to-the-home service in North Head. We're currently waiting for build permits to be granted and once they are in place our construction crew partners will start deploying the cable in our phase 1 coverage areas.