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City of Campbell River receives international recognition for CRAdvantage

Broadband network ‘positioning Campbell River to be a key tech community on Vancouver Island

The City of Campbell River is in the global spotlight with a Smart 50 Networks Award for the CRadvantage municipal broadband network.

Each year, Smart 50 Awards honour the most innovative and influential technology projects around the world.

“This international award recognizes Campbell River’s CRadvantage initiative, highlighting our progressive and innovative approach to improving connectivity and spurring economic development,” says Campbell River mayor Andy Adams. “As the first municipality on Vancouver Island to offer this broadband service, we are proud to also be the first municipality on Vancouver Island to win this award, and grateful for the opportunity to have this service showcased to a worldwide audience.”

“Smaller communities such as Campbell River offer a highly attractive lifestyle that catches the attention of business investors, and affordable access to high speed broadband internet is a priority prerequisite for most businesses considering investment outside large urban centres,” explains economic development officer Rose Klukas. “Campbell River’s CRadvantage bridges the digital divide by providing the enterprise level internet access these investors expect.”

With service available to buildings in the downtown core, CRadvantage will be a key economic driver that strengthens existing businesses and draws new investment to Campbell River, the city says. The municipal broadband service offers an open model for third party service providers to lease network access.

“CRadvantage is attractive to businesses because it enables them to access a fibre optic network with simultaneous upload and download speeds of one gigabit per second at a fraction of the previous cost in Campbell River,” says Warren Kalyn, the City’s information technology manager.

“Since 2009, Campbell River has been working to attract digital industries in an effort to diversify the local economy,” Adams says.

“With CRadvantage, we are positioning Campbell River to be a key tech community on Vancouver Island, in British Columbia and in Canada, and now we’re getting worldwide attention for enabling high-speed, high-bandwidth internet connectivity for businesses and residential developments in the downtown core.”

The City’s Smart 50 Award will be presented at the Smart Cities Connect Awards Gala in Kansas City, Missouri on March 26.