Seaside in the news

back to news

2009-08-26 -Inverness Oran - Seaside Communications provides high-speed Internet updates to Inverness County communities

JOHN GILLIS, Inverness Oran

“When will I be able to get high speed Internet?” If you’re one of those people still asking that question you should know that Seaside Communications is providing Inverness County communities with updates on its progress bringing high speed Internet to the area in a series of community meetings.

Last Thursday evening, Adam Conter, Seaside’s Director of Communications, was in Glencoe Mills for the third in and a series of ten presentations throughout Cape Breton Island.

Conter began by providing a brief history of the Broadband for rural Nova Scotia project. Seaside has one of several contracts throughout Nova Scotia meant to bring high-speed Internet services to remote locations and communities.

Seaside was awarded its contract in 2007 and design began immediately. This initiative is part of Nova Scotia’s policy of putting our communities on the map and launching Nova Scotia businesses into the global market,@ said Conter.

Conter said design and terrain challenges have been significant to date. Yet he remains confident the company will reach its goals prior to its deadline over the remaining four months. The company has been busy in recent months negotiating with landowners, building roads, erecting towers and working with all its necessary partners such as Nova Scotia Power. He said there have been aesthetic, service and time-line challenges as well but was happy to report that many customers are already receiving high speed from Seaside and many more will be in the coming weeks and months.

“We’ve completed the construction of 100 new structures in the past twelve months where there were only thirty-two in the previous year. It’s getting very exciting now as we proceed from the construction to the completion stage,” he added noting that the company is using Motorola technology to meet its objectives.

“We ‘ve sent people to the Texas head office of Motorola and they’re very impressed with what we’re accomplishing here in Nova Scotia. Our first customers in our pilot project in Cumberland, Nova Scotia had very few service problems last winter,” Conter added.

Conter says its a wireless system (radio frequency) to your home but not within the home. “You’ll need an ethernet cable and a modem but most computers made within the past eight to ten years would have that,” he said.

“Anyone who is still without high speed and who wants it can call Seaside at 1-888-965-5511 or by visiting www.seasidehighspeed.com. Our customer service agents will do a signal test at your house. If you have the signal you’ll get hooked up and if not we’ll continue to chart progress in our engineering department until we fill in all the gaps, until everyone is covered,” he said, noting that Seaside is a Cape Breton company employing local people.

For $44.95 per month, customers can choose a contract that best suits their needs. Three years of high-speed service is available with free installation at $44.95 per month. Two years are available at the same price with a $49 installation fee, and one year is available at the same price of $44.95 per month with an installation fee of $99. All packages include up to 5 email addresses and speeds of up to 1.5 mbps.

Conter said many Inverness County communities such as Hillsdale, Judique, Port Hood Island, and Brook Village and others already have high speed availability from Seaside. He promised many more such as Rankinville, Glenora Falls, Hawley’s Hill, Nevada Valley and Skye Glen will have it by September 20th. There was an opportunity for those in attendance to ask questions after the presentation. Customers can also request bi-weekly progress updates from Seaside on high speed availability.

The next scheduled Seaside Communications Inverness County presentation is set for Friday, August 28th at 7:00 p.m. at Glenora Inn & Distillery in Glenville on Highway 19. Everyone is invited to attend and a Distillery tour will follow the presentation. The public is also invited to another Seaside service announcement slated for Thursday, September 10th at the Margaree Forks Library, 7972 Cabot Trail at 7:00 p.m.