High speed service close to restarting

Over the next two weeks, EastLink will begin contacting former customers of TDC Broadband in order to give them an update on what has been happening, and to let them know that the company will be back in touch with them at a point when they can begin receiving permanent service.

Already, high speed service is being received by a number of former TDC customers, who have equipment installed by TDC in their homes. Paula Sibley, who speaks for EastLink, said those customers might think that their service is fully restored but that, in fact, it is not. "Because we are in the trial phase of setting things up, getting power supplies situated and doing a number of tests of email servers, the service could be in an intermittent phase."

EastLink trucks have been in the vicinity, moving from tower to tower, making technical adjustments. The system is essentially a wireless system, where a signal is beamed from near Bridgewater to towers in the North Queens area, from which the signal is sent to receivers in individual homes and businesses. It is a highly sophisticated system, a prototype for serving rural customers across the province.

A tower on Broham Road has already been activated, bringing high speed service to a number of people whose home modules were pointed at that tower. That includes the blueberry processing plant on the West Caledonia road run by Case Van Dyk, who has worked hard on getting service restored to the community since TDC Broadband went bankrupt last May.

Technicians have also been working on a tower near Harmony, where the difficulty has been to get a permanent power supply in to the tower. Quite a number of former TDC customers were on that tower, which should be up and running shortly.

While the service is gradually being turned on in homes, EastLink wants to make certain that the area's expectations are met before any grand announcements are made. Paula Sibley said she knew EastLink's trucks were in the area and were creating excitement, which was great, but there were a lot of little nuts and bolts that had to be in place before the company could say service could be reactivated.

She said that at this point the company does not have an exact date as to when permanent service will be restored, but that it would be in the fall. "We are working very diligently to make certain that when the service does go live it will be a service that is at EastLink standards, so we have to do a number of tests."

It's not just the equipment but the technical backup that has to meet the company's standards – in other words, technicians have to be able to maintain the system once it is operational. She said she didn't like to say that permanent service would be started in the next couple of weeks because things could change and a number of factors could have an impact on the actual permanent start-up date.

Paula Sibley said one of the key things they would like residents to know is that when EastLink gets to the point where the equipment is all working properly, technicians will have to visit homes "to configure their system to our network so that it will function properly.”

As for the cost to customers of the service, that has not yet been worked out. She said that once EastLink is at the point where service can be reliably restored, the company will communicate with customers on what the process is, and "at that time we will have more information on pricing because we're still working through those details."

When I asked Paula whether or not the company would expand beyond the territory covered by TDC Broadband, she said the company's priority at the moment is to restore service to former TDC customers.

"Once we get service to that point we are going to look at how we may expand, but right now our priority is to restore the customers who were on the former service."

- Tom Sheppard can be reached at twsheppard@gmail.com