Hornby Island, BC, Canada

Hornby Island, BC, Canada: Submarine Cable Landing Point

Hornby Island is located in British Columbia, Canada, as one of the northernmost Gulf Islands, situated near Vancouver Island's Comox Valley. As a relatively small island community, its connection to submarine cable infrastructure reflects the broader effort to extend coastal and inter-island connectivity throughout British Columbia's coastal regions. One submarine cable lands at Hornby Island, linking it to the broader Canadian domestic network.

That cable is the Connected Coast system, which connects multiple communities across Canada and operates entirely within Canadian waters. The corridor enabled by this landing point is domestic in nature, providing inter-community and inter-island connectivity rather than intercontinental reach.

Cables Landing at Hornby Island, BC, Canada

The Connected Coast cable is the sole submarine cable landing at Hornby Island. It reached ready-for-service (RFS) status in 2024, with its current status noted as draft. The cable connects Canadian communities exclusively, with all endpoints located within Canada. Connected Coast is designed to serve coastal and island communities throughout British Columbia, and Hornby Island represents one of the stops along this domestic network.

Regional Context

Within Canada's submarine cable landscape, Hornby Island hosts a single cable, placing it among landing points with more limited cable counts. It shares this single-cable profile with nearby Addenbroke Island, BC, while other British Columbia landing points such as Prince Rupert and Vancouver each host two cables. Larger Canadian hubs such as Halifax, NS, Kangiqsujuaq, QC, and Puvirnituq, QC similarly host two cables each, reflecting a range of connectivity levels across the country's 155 landing points.

Network Role

Hornby Island functions as a single-cable terminus on the Connected Coast system, a domestically oriented submarine cable serving coastal British Columbia communities. Its role is specifically one of island and coastal community connectivity, extending network reach to Gulf Islands communities that would otherwise depend on terrestrial or alternative means of connectivity. The landing point does not serve an intercontinental or inter-regional purpose but instead contributes to the fabric of intra-Canadian submarine connectivity across a geographically dispersed island environment.

Within the broader Canadian submarine cable graph — which spans 21 cables across 155 landing points — Hornby Island represents the type of single-cable community landing point that collectively accounts for a significant share of Canada's coastal infrastructure, ensuring that smaller island communities participate in the national submarine cable network alongside larger hubs.