Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - As of September 30th, 2025, Raincoast Networks serves the 347 remaining customers in what was once the Twincomm service area on Cortes Island. Mascon by Telus acquired Twincomm in 2022.
“I come from Savary Island. We provide internet to those who have decided to live off grid and in remote communities and cannot be served well by other telecom providers, majors and things from space, explained Oliver Linsley, owner of Raincoast Networks
“We've been doing this for eight years and we service areas from Howe Sound all the way to Cortes. It has been a wonderful adventure, mainly because I get to meet some fantastic people in places I didn't even know existed. We've helped communities up and down the coast, and that's where we got our pride from. It's not from a paycheck (laughs), I can tell you that, but it definitely is from the fact that I can go to someone's house and they have baked cookies for me. They're just super happy that we came in a boat and we've driven across a whole bunch of crazy oceans and we're at their house and we're going to fix it.”
Cortes Currents: How did you get into Cortes Island?
Oliver Linsley: “Into Cortes was a interesting situation. I have been dealing with major telecom companies since we started. In the beginning, it was a very positive situation where they were very interested in working with people like me as last mile providers, so they did not have to extend their networks out at a cost they did not like. Telecom likes density because it maximizes their investment. So they partnered up with me and we began working at these remote places. As COVID hit, the demand skyrocketed and the government came around and gave them monies, and we began competing with Major Telecom (Mascon by Telus).”
“Major Telecom decided that they had gotten too far. They had purchased Twincommm from Mark Torrance on Twin Islands. After two years of owning that, it had served its purpose to them, and they no longer wanted the asset and the customers here on Cortes. They approached me and asked me if I wanted to take over the network. Over the course of about a year and, for various me reasons me saying 'no I don't think so,’ in the end, I decided that Cortes was a wonderfully remote community with demand that I wanted to be a part of. So after a long, long period of negotiations, we ended up picking up Cortes, about 350 customers on the island and we just acquiring it as of today, I believe.”
Cortes Currents: What are you offering?
Oliver Linsley: “We basically offer the same service that Twincommm did. We are very community based. We are looking to pick up a tech here on island. We like to keep customer service, which is something very rare in rural places, as fast as possible. So if your system goes awry one day, perhaps we can actually get to you in one day or the next day as opposed to some of the situations where you get with other providers where they just don't have a presence in the community. We really pride ourselves. in being there to keep people online, because most of the time it's quite an easy fix.”
“So we are offering fixed to wireless services that most people are already hooked up to are already operating. They're operating the same way as TwinComm built them the same way as Mascon was running them. We are going to optimize the network. Essentially it's very similar to what Twincomm was, but we'll be upgrading. Pricing should be the same. The speed should be faster.”
