[CharlesK]

"Thursday, January 20, 2011
World-class fibre-to-the-home network expanding to Halifax Regional Municipality"

http://bellaliant.ca/english/news/view_art.asp?id=2046

 

[David1953]

That's certainly good news, and I wonder how long it will take to do all of this work? Also, I wonder if they will offer a similar channel selection to Bell?

 

[defeater00]

Awesome BYE BYE Eastlink

This is very good news for us in HRM I can now get rid of eastlink. If nobody has every seen Fibre OP a friend of mine has it in NB and I will tell you it blows anything out of the water thankyou Bell Aliant.

 

[NB_TVLover]

as for timeline, between the announcement and my installation was about 8 months and I live in one of the most rural areas in the Saint John suburbs.
If it's anything like here expect lots of tree trimming and chipper trucks to descend in the region to clear the lines.

Compared to Bell Satellite TV the channel listings are very comparable the big missing link is the regional network affiliates. Since they are not a national service provider they only have Atlantic, eastern and western feeds. Since their PVR's are dual tuners and you can record 2 programs at once I don't think there's much need for others.

this link lists all the channels available
http://productsandservice.bellaliant.net/PS/en/shop/tv/bellaliant-tv/channels.jsp?prov=nb&tabid=theme_packs

 

[DavidN]

I am not overly impressed with the selection of HD channels offered. It is far less than Bell, and even less than what Eastlink offers. Perhaps that will change as the "start up" date draws near.

 

[philster]

I do hope that the HD selection does improve...Looking back a year ago it was even worse. They appear to be adding as they gain subcribers.

 

[8th Hussar]

When comparing channel lineups with Rogers or EastLink be aware that Bell and BellAliant have both dropped HDNet, even though it's still in BellAliant's channel lineup on their website.

They say they dropped the channel because no one was subscribing to it but I call bullspit. Considering that HDNet was in every single HD theme pack, how can you say no one was subscribing to it? Plus, are you telling me that HDNet had fewer viewers than channels like TCM or DejaView? I think Bell had a disagreement with the provider and dropped them because of some petty squabble over royalties or something.

I miss HDNet because they had some really good programming, including lots MMA programming, documentaries, and some amazing concerts.

 

[doscott]

I miss HDNet as well. I only subscribed to one bundle because of it.

However, I believe that Rogers and Shaw have dropped it as well.

My understanding of the issue is that HDNet insists that it has to be provided to every subscriber, so in the case of Shaw (Star Choice) it was built into the price of basic HD service as it was "free", and for Aliant it was built into the cost of every bundle.

If all of the content suppliers took the same approach we would only have one bundle to choose from and would have to pay for them all.