[NorthernThunder]

It seems we are missing out on a lot of services offered to larger communities, by Eastlink. I live in Kirkland Lake, Ontario.

 

[smallmj]

Not all smaller communities are badly serviced. Here in Oxford/Collingwood NS, we've mostly kept up with the bigger centres. Once the only digital changeover is finished (probably this month), I imagine the remaining gaps (mostly HD) will be filled in. Of course it probably helps that Eastlink's owner lives down the road in Collingwood.

Mark

 

[Phil]

Ahh.....KL where the Main Street is paved with Gold. How are things up North?

I am originally from Haileybury.

 

[denben73]

I don't know what Eastlink has planned for KL. New Liskeard and the tri-towns just got digital for the first time with HD and home phone. That is one very big step up. I can understand where you are coming from, I blame it all on Persona....they did NOTHING outside of Sudbury.

As for Timmins, the upgrades here continue but not much being announced for when things should be up and running totally. Home phone is running in some areas but they are staying tight-lipped. As jimbo42 would say (and I agree somewhat in his definition), it's like a matter of national security or something. We are now connected to Sudbury since we see EastLink ads on A&E and such. Oh yeah....AMC is still not available even though I can watch it on my Hauppauge in clear QAM. How hard is it to add the guide info and to map the channel number to it?

I would be calling EastLink to find out what, if anything, is planned for KL. It could be the next system to get everything.

 

[Doppelganger399]

My system serves about 10 small communities we have the nhl, nba, nfl package, HD, internet & phone is coming later this year the only things missing are a community channel & Discovery HD.This is on a 20, 00 sub system.

 

[denben73]

Just wanting to add that the Kirkland Lake rebuild is expected to be done by end of August 2011.

It's near the end of the story.

http://www.timminspress.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3092766

 

[David1953]

Some larger centres are suffering too. Since it has been a long time since the Halifax system has been upgraded, the city is missing 19 HD channels that most of the rest of the province has(and I suspect this will rise as more HD channels are added to other areas and not Halifax), and I have no idea as to when, or if, this situation will be addressed. Halifax is at capacity now, with no room for new channels. Ironically, Halifax is the "head office" for Eastlink, but I guess that doesn't mean anything.

I switched to Bell a bit over a year ago, and any return to Eastlink is contingent upon them addressing the Halifax situation. My thought is that Eastlink simply doesn't want to put the money into upgrading Halifax, since it would be expensive. Some folks have mentioned the possibility of Halifax going "all digital" as a solution, but I remain skeptical.

 

[denben73]

The OP was talking about Kirkland Lake, Ontario.

While I understand and can feel for the Halifax subs (believe me, look at some of my posts over the years), all you can do is wait and see what happens at the end of August as was said in another thread. If the CSRs are giving an actual date. it looks pretty good, IMO.

 

[Classof83]

Why don't you guys go with satellite... you'd get everything then, no?

 

[Doppelganger399]

I can remember Marystown in the 80's I got 8 cable channens & 2 were french not a big french population here, my community is 5000 people but over the years the system here was linked with larger systems in neighbouring towns we only got the super sports pac & HD 3 years ago.

I would contact Eastlink & ask them what their plans are for the region if you don't like it get shaw direct has great HD & the hockey package.

 

[vahnx]

EastLink came to Kirkland Lake a few months back and it's blazing fast internet. I went with just the EastLink Internet 20 package, comes to like $65 a month and I get 2.1-2.3mb down and 90kb up, almost 3x faster than Northern Telephones top tier for cheaper. You can get even higher but then they cap you.

 

[denben73]

EastLink came to Kirkland Lake a few months back and it's blazing fast internet. I went with just the EastLink Internet 20 package, comes to like $65 a month and I get 2.1-2.3mb down and 90kb up, almost 3x faster than Northern Telephones top tier for cheaper. You can get even higher but then they cap you.

You must mean you get 2.1 MB or 2.3 MB when downloading. I have the Internet 40 and am in the 4.3 MB area. If you are only getting 2 megabits (small m, small b), I'd be calling them.

http://www.speedtest.net will show you if you are close to what you are paying for. The numbers given should be close to what they advertise.

 

[vahnx]

Sorry for the late reply. You're correct, I mixed my small and big b's. I do get 21Mb-23Mb'ish down.

I'm not a fan of how ISPs and even speed test reports in bits and not bytes since most software (such as web browsers or P2P apps) report with the big b. At least it's not as misleading as hard drive manufacturers always reporting in SI but that's a different topic all together.

 

[ta guy]

South western end of ns is way behind in hd too. Can't get an answer out of eastlink of when we'll be caught up. I am almost fed up too, might have to go with sat.

 

[JamesK]

I'm not a fan of how ISPs and even speed test reports in bits and not bytes

Digital bandwidth has always been measured in bits/sec. Data was not always in 8 bit bytes. For example, years ago, teletypes used 5 data bits per character or 7 or 8... Even computers had different size words or bytes. Some models of mag tape drives stored data in 6 bit bytes etc. Many services, such as VoIP also use bits/sec.

 

[vahnx]

About 2 months ago I gave them a call to see their status regarding caps. The guy offered to upgrade me to 40 megs uncapped if I got it in a bundle. So I decided to give in and now I'm paying $91.88/mo for the 40 megs uncapped w/ a phone line I will never use. Apparently they started doing this a few months ago. They also changed their webpage recently, it seems they got rid of using the terms 20/40/80/100 and started calling it High Speed Edge, Evolution, Eclipse. It's almost imposible to find anything on their site now and you have to use Google to find all the different plans.

 

[Doppelganger399]

When my brother lived with me 40 uncapped would be something he sold his soul for me on the other hand well I don't use the internet for anything big I toil on a sports forum and watch a youtube video about aliens now and then 20 is good for me.

 

[Edmund]

I live in Chaput Hughes less than one km away from Kirkland Lake, as far as high speed Internet goes Bell has ignored us all the way as far as improving their system. But they have no problem hiking the phone bill in order to fund improving the infrastructure elsewhere. Eastlink however cared enough about us to provide it to us. I get at least 17 megabits per second on average. Compare that to those who pay more for DSL at 3 megabits per second with Bell.

 

[capersx2]

Here in NS, Eastlink bypassed entire communities to bring high speed cable internet to the Premier of NS and the scattered few who live nearby him. Suck up much?

 

[ExDilbert]

It just makes business sense. ISPs make sure politicians get the best service so they they don't raise service and other issues with regulators like the CRTC. I'll bet they get techs out on service calls 10 times faster than anyone else as well. If the Premier of NS didn't get high speed internet and special service, you can bet rural internet would become a political issue. By providing special exceptions for the rich and connected, companies like Eastlink make it a low political priority and ordinary citizens get shortchanged.