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2009-03-11 -The Strait Reporter - Seaside Expands Broadband Access

by Adam Cooke
The Strait Reporter

ARICHAT- Hundreds of Richmond County residents are now receiving high-speed Internet service, as the Strait area’s chief broadband provider continues to move towards its goal of bringing 85 per cent of the county’s computer users off the dial-up system by the end of 2009.

 

Sydney-based Seaside High-Speed brought its Kempt Road tower online Monday evening, providing faster Internet delivery for consumers in Lower River Inhabitants, Evanston, Hureauville, Grantville, Cleveland and Kempt Road. The move came as Seaside High-Speed Director of Communications Adam Conter delivered an update on his company’s progress to Richmond municipal council’s regular monthly public meeting in Arichat.

 

 

“I have to say, this is probably some of the best news I’ve heard in a long time,” District 5 councillor Shirley McNamara told Conter following his presentation. “I just finished a [municipal] election in the fall, and that was the most commonly-asked question: ‘When are we going to get high-speed?’ People were so anxious - it was like you were bringing them a birthday cake every day of the week, if you were to tell them they would have high-speed coming up.”

 

 

 

 

As the northeast region provider for the provincially-mandated Broadband for Rural Nova Scotia (BRNS) initiative, Seaside High-Speed is currently serving customers in eastern Richmond County through its St. Peter’s Cablevision headquarters and is now in the process of land acquisition to expand its broadband operations into the rest of Richmond County. Conter confirmed that the communities of Loch Lomond, Framboise, Chapel Island, Grand River, Point Michaud, Cap La Ronde, and Petit de Grat are currently targeted.

 

 

“The average [period] from land acquisition to service position is about four months, so if every lease gets signed tomorrow, we can very surely have everyone in Richmond up and running in the next four months,” Conter explained. 

 

 

“We do have nine to 10 months remaining according to the deadline, and we will be working unbelievably diligently through spring, summer, fall and winter of this year to make sure we get it done as close to on-time and as close to on-budget as we can.”

 

 

The Kempt Road high-speed Internet tower is the second such structure in Richmond County, with a similar tower already established in Johnstown. Conter told Monday’s council meeting that the combination of these two towers should combine with soon-to-be-launched structures in the Guysborough County communities of Sand Point and Hadleyville, to provide high-speed internet services to all but 15 per cent of Richmond County computer users.
However, Conter was quick to add that Seaside High-Speed has the option of establishing more towers in Richmond County, and he suggested that Richmond County residents and municipal officials will be rewarded for their patience in this regard.

 

 

“With a lot of interest comes a lot of very high expectations, both from residents that are unhappy and from ourselves,” Conter admitted.

 

 

 

 

Richmond Warden John Boudreau, who suggested that Seaside High-Speed could hold launch events at the Community Access Program (CAP) sites serving the Kempt Road and Janvrin’s Island areas, commended Conter.

 

 

“We realize that when the Province of Nova Scotia said we were going to connect everybody by 2009, they weren’t the ones that were going to have to provide the technology and the manpower and the legwork to do it, and certainly it’s a daunting task, being forced to have to carry it all out,” Boudreau added.