Harriston residents can expect major upgrades to services provided through EastLink.
Tim Stinson, of Bluewater Cable, a division of EastLink, was at Minto council last week to explained the proposed $1.7-million investment to upgrade communications equipment in the community.
Stinson provided a profile of the corporation owned by John Bragg. He said the company was named one of the 50 best managed companies in Canada this year and in 2008.
Stinson believes the upgrades are needed to properly serve the communities with telephone, high speed internet, data, entertainment, EastLink Television, advertising and business services. The cable systems are spread across the country.
He said EastLink’s position is that it is in business for the long haul.
“John’s group doesn’t buy companies to flip them,” he said. “It is evidenced by the type of investment that goes into them.”
Stinson said one of the first things he noticed in EastLink’s method of business was it includes redundancy, so if one part of the service has problems, the service path would be available in another way.
“Their philosophy is to invest in redundancy … to make sure the services are working,” he said.
Plans for Harriston include a complete replacement of EastLink’s infrastructure.
“It’s an old system right now,” Stinson said, suggesting the prior owners did not spend money.
“When you have a 30 channel lineup and no internet, you can tell there’s a technology gap,” he said.
The intent is to offer a full range of bundled services: phone, internet and TV.
Stinson said the majority of the building will be aerial construction and a little bit of underground construction.
“Basically it’s coming in town with the fibre … and heading out of town,” he explained. “When it’s all said and done, there will be the full range of triple play services. The plan is that when we leave town, it will look just like it did when we came.”
That means restoring all areas affected by the original construction – including seeding or sodding damaged grass areas – to the satisfaction of the municipality.
“EastLink plans to work closely with the Town of Minto and Westario Power to ensure all construction is to the high quality and satisfaction,” Stinson said.
“If there’s any disruption in property, we have to make certain it gets fixed. We certainly don’t want to have upset customers and residents.”
Mayor David Anderson said it is good to hear the intent is to put properties back to their original condition. He noted local company Wightman Telecom just finished installing a fairly extensive fibre optic upgrade in the town, and residents just had their properties ripped and torn up for that work.
“As a municipality, we’re getting the flak back (when there are problems.)”
He asked if the company has official working agreements with other municipalities.
Stinson said all its contractors are insured and bonded, “so if any happens it goes back on them.”
However he said the idea is to work with municipalities to ensure everything is taken care of.
Anderson was also curious when the work will begin.
Stinson said work has already started to bring the new cable from Ayton. He is hoping the majority of the work will be completed this fall.
Deputy-mayor Judy Dirksen asked if the lines heading through the rural areas, would there be a chance of those along that route to hook into those services.
Stinson said that unless there is a pocket of homes to service, it would be cost prohibitive to hook up individual homes along the way.
Councillor David Turton was curious what areas EastLink would serve.
Stinson said EastLink purchased Personna Cable, which has a vast footprint across the region.
The goal, he said, is to get things up and running to a point where EastLink customers in Harriston would be getting essentially the same services as those in Halifax.
