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2010-02-03 -Cape Breton Post - Meat Cove to get high-speed Internet

BY TOM AYERS
The Cape Breton Post

SYDNEY — Nova Scotia’s most remote community now has speedy access to the Internet.
Seaside High-Speed Internet announced Tuesday that its service has now reached Meat Cove on the northern-most tip of the province. However, about 15 homes and businesses seeking the service won’t be hooked up until Monday.

“We are happy that we are finally going to receive high speed,” said Meat Cove Community Centre co-ordinator Derrick MacLellan. The community centre also houses the Meat Cove Internet Cafe and Tea Room, which is the local Community Access Program site for public Internet access.
MacLellan said tourism is vital to the remote community’s economy and high-speed Internet access will provide a boost.

“When tourists or even the general public come in, the first thing they ask for is Internet,” he said.

“The Internet, that helps to draw people in and use our hiking trail and tea room.”
MacLellan said high-speed Internet was available a couple of years ago through a satellite service provider, but the cost of $150 a month was prohibitive, so it was dropped.

Seaside spokesman Adam Conter said the company’s network consists of fibre optic cables feeding data to wireless transmitters across the province, and it is a feather in the company’s cap to reach Meat Cove, which is in a low-lying area surrounded by cliffs facing north to the Cabot Strait.
Wireless transmission and reception are “affected by geography and topography, so some areas are harder to hit than others,” he said.

With the new service, businesses and homes in Meat Cove will have access to the Internet at 1.5 megabits per second, equal to the speed of service in most areas of the province.

Conter said Seaside will continue to roll out high-speed Internet to other communities throughout northeastern Nova Scotia, as well, under the province’s Broadband for Rural Nova Scotia initiative.
Seaside High-Speed Internet is a division of the Seaside group of companies that has been providing Cape Breton communities with cable television and communications services for over 30 years.