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EastLink (company)
Encyclopedia
EastLink is a Canadian cable television
and telecommunications company. In 1970, EastLink was established in Amherst, Nova Scotia
, when it was issued one of the first cable licences granted by the CRTC. Through a series of acquisitions, which included the purchase of Amtelecom, Persona, Bluewater, Delta and Coast Cable, EastLink became the fifth-largest cable television provider in Canada in 2010, with approximately 1,500 employees working in offices across the country. As of 2010 it was the largest privately owned cable company in Canada, with 457,075 subscribers in nine provinces (Saskatchewan is the only province without service). It is closely held by the Bragg family of Oxford, Nova Scotia
.
Bragg is otherwise barely visible in the business press http://investing.businessweek.com/businessweek/research/stocks/private/person.asp? except for a few in-depth interviews about family business
principles http://www.kbrs.ca/node/154 and a cheerful refusal to discuss profits and loss.
digital cable
and broadband Internet services with mobile phone
service (through an agreement with Rogers Wireless
). This bundle option is no long offered, customers who are already on the plan can keep the services bundled. EastLink plans on launching its own cellular services in the Maritimes starting in 2012. see below.
Eastlink's lower end offerings are unlimited access. Its faster (40 and 100 megabit) services have usage based billing.
EastLink also produces community channels branded as EastLink TV to serve the company's cable customers.
Eastlink offers video on demand
and high definition television (HDTV) services in many communities across Canada.
will be opening up in Atlantic Canada. Past Wind CEO Ken Campbell recently said that it’s “safe to bet we’ll be there” in 2012." http://mobilesyrup.com/2011/07/23/eastlink-launching-a-world-class-wireless-network-in-2012/
No details were available about towers or services as of November 2011, but as Eastlink deployed many wireless repeater towers for its Motorola Canopy service launched as part of the Broadband for Rural Nova Scotia initiative
, upgrading these to serve as a cell and Wi-Fi mesh network was an obvious potential that would attract third parties with no tower access, such as WIND, to partner with Eastlink.
service in its territory in 1999 over a fibre optic network. In 2005 the area code 902
telephone market was the most competitive telephone exchange in North America
and this was credited to EastLink's presence in the market. EastLink was also the first provider to deliver local telephone competition to its service area in New Brunswick
in 2005.
's Broadband for Rural Nova Scotia initiative
: a Motorola Canopy based rural Internet service capable of 0.5 megabit uploads, 1.5 megabit downloads, which was intended to reach "100% of civic addresses" in Nova Scotia. This level of coverage is unique in North America and is a particular challenge in a province prone to extreme weather, fog and winds. Eastlink claimed at public forums in early 2010 that the service would operate at under 100ms latency and accordingly be useful for VoIP from arbitrary third parties such as Skype
, but this has not been verified. However, latency to the towers themselves was reliably under 2ms at that time.
, by contrast has invested in Wi-Fi, GSM and DSL services, but they remained as of 2011 expensive or unavailable in rural Nova Scotia.
Some jurisdictions that report unsatisfactory results with all of these technologies, including Canopy, such as Washington Island Wisconsin, have reported positive results with powerline networking. However, as power-lines do not reach "100% of civic addresses" they do not address quite the same issues. The deployment of powerline-based meters by Emera
subsidiary Bangor Hydro, which also owns Nova Scotia Power Inc. on the board of which Eastlink CEO Lee Bragg serves, suggests that this technology may ultimately become part of the Eastlink mix in some rural areas.
As of early 2011, Rogers
, Aliant
, and Telus
' mobile Internet offerings are extraordinarily expensive for heavy users and tethering of personal computers is not necessarily included under these plans; the price per gigabyte of the Eastlink service is clearly superior to any of these offerings. However, the maximum speed is much less (1.5mbps download versus up to 21mbps) and more so when these cellular providers upgrade to dual-carrier (42mbps) HSPA+. For those more concerned with speed and less with price, cellular options will be a superior rural networking choice; for those concerned with price, Eastlink's fixed wireless service, the expansion of Wi-Fi hotspots, and the use of 802.11u and 802.21 will continue to form a more reliable mesh especially in attracting tourists or in densely populated areas.
". Broadband is economically or subjectively defined and is perceived very differently by persons with different latency expectations and service usage patterns, therefore perceptions of its quality are also subjective; Persons accustomed to dialup service may be thrilled with Canopy performance, whereas those used to wired cable find it slow or flaky.
Canopy service deployment encountered numerous challenges in practice, including installation of unforeseen wireless relay towers installed on an ad hoc basis that increase latency, reduce service reliability and load other towers - the inherent problems of a mesh network.
More seriously, installers as of November 2011 had no way to test latency before asking for customer signoff and final installation, meaning that any user whose latency needs could not be met would not know that until after they had agreed the service was adequate, based only on raw signal strength.
As of the fourth quarter 2011 the project had still not yet reached its promise of "100% of civic addresses." Eastlink has not commented on the consistency of speeds or latency on this network nor released any public Quality of Service
(QoS) statistics or actual usage information about the services its users actually use. It was widely anticipated that Eastlink would offer access to its new cell network in 2012 on favourable terms to cut-off rural users.
Provinces which currently have some Eastlink service are: Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick (limited to Sackville area) Newfoundland, Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Alberta, British Columbia. It also serves the town of Point Roberts, Washington in the United States
.
Service in Saskatchewan was available in the past but is currently not available to new customers.
Although the company has mostly unified its acquisitions under the EastLink brand, in parts of British Columbia, EastLink operates as Coast Cable (Sunshine Coast
) or Delta Cable (near the Fraser River
Delta).
As of February 2011, Eastlink has acquired service territory on the island of Bermuda
.
Cable television
Cable television is a system of providing television programs to consumers via radio frequency signals transmitted to televisions through coaxial cables or digital light pulses through fixed optical fibers located on the subscriber's property, much like the over-the-air method used in traditional...
and telecommunications company. In 1970, EastLink was established in Amherst, Nova Scotia
Amherst, Nova Scotia
Amherst is a Canadian town in northwestern Cumberland County, Nova Scotia.Located at the northeast end of the Cumberland Basin, an arm of the Bay of Fundy, Amherst is strategically situated on the eastern boundary of the Tantramar Marshes 3 kilometres east of the interprovincial border with New...
, when it was issued one of the first cable licences granted by the CRTC. Through a series of acquisitions, which included the purchase of Amtelecom, Persona, Bluewater, Delta and Coast Cable, EastLink became the fifth-largest cable television provider in Canada in 2010, with approximately 1,500 employees working in offices across the country. As of 2010 it was the largest privately owned cable company in Canada, with 457,075 subscribers in nine provinces (Saskatchewan is the only province without service). It is closely held by the Bragg family of Oxford, Nova Scotia
Oxford, Nova Scotia
Oxford is a town in Cumberland County, Nova Scotia, Canada east of Amherst. The town is directly serviced by Routes 104, 204, 301, and 321.-History:...
.
Reputation
- Named Business of the Year by the Halifax Chamber of Commerce in 2008
- Named one of Canada's 50 Best Companies for 2006
- Given the Excellence in Human Resources Award by the Human Resources Associations of Atlantic Canada in 2006" http://www.gov.ns.ca/econ/broadband/building/service_providers.asp
Bragg is otherwise barely visible in the business press http://investing.businessweek.com/businessweek/research/stocks/private/person.asp? except for a few in-depth interviews about family business
Family business
A family business is a business in which one or more members of one or more families have a significant ownership interest and significant commitments toward the business’ overall well-being....
principles http://www.kbrs.ca/node/154 and a cheerful refusal to discuss profits and loss.
Cable Internet and TV
Eastlink delivers digital video/television and cable-network-based Internet services with speeds up to 100 megabits per second, one of the faster networks of this kind in North America. It was one of the first companies in North America to bundleProduct bundling
Product bundling is a marketing strategy that involves offering several products for sale as one combined product. This strategy is very common in the software business , in the cable television industry Product bundling is a marketing strategy that involves offering several products for sale as...
digital cable
Digital cable
Digital cable is a generic term for any type of cable television distribution using digital video compression or distribution. The technology was originally developed by Motorola.-Background:...
and broadband Internet services with mobile phone
Mobile phone
A mobile phone is a device which can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile network operator...
service (through an agreement with Rogers Wireless
Rogers Wireless
Rogers Wireless is a wireless telecommunications provider offering mobile phone and data services throughout Canada using Global System for Mobile Communications and Universal Mobile Telecommunications System technology. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Rogers Communications...
). This bundle option is no long offered, customers who are already on the plan can keep the services bundled. EastLink plans on launching its own cellular services in the Maritimes starting in 2012. see below.
Eastlink's lower end offerings are unlimited access. Its faster (40 and 100 megabit) services have usage based billing.
EastLink also produces community channels branded as EastLink TV to serve the company's cable customers.
Eastlink offers video on demand
Video on demand
Video on Demand or Audio and Video On Demand are systems which allow users to select and watch/listen to video or audio content on demand...
and high definition television (HDTV) services in many communities across Canada.
cell/3G/4G
"During the 2008 Advanced Wireless Spectrum (AWS) auction Halifax-based Bragg Communications paid $25 million and won 19 licences (located in Atlantic Canada, Northern and Southern Ontario and Grand Prairie)." It announced in 2011 a new cell and "wireless service in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, putting the pressure on Rogers, Bell and TELUS and their sub-brands (Virgin, Koodo and Fido)... It’s also expected that WIND MobileWind Mobile
Wind Mobile is a Canadian wireless telecommunications provider operated by Globalive Communications Corporation. The company initially launched mobile data and voice services in Toronto on December 16, 2009 and two days later in Calgary...
will be opening up in Atlantic Canada. Past Wind CEO Ken Campbell recently said that it’s “safe to bet we’ll be there” in 2012." http://mobilesyrup.com/2011/07/23/eastlink-launching-a-world-class-wireless-network-in-2012/
No details were available about towers or services as of November 2011, but as Eastlink deployed many wireless repeater towers for its Motorola Canopy service launched as part of the Broadband for Rural Nova Scotia initiative
Broadband for Rural Nova Scotia initiative
Broadband for Rural Nova Scotia is a government initiative intended to provide broadband services to 100% of civic addresses in Nova Scotia, Canada. The initiative is a public private partnership co-funded by the governments of Canada and Nova Scotia, and three Internet service providers...
, upgrading these to serve as a cell and Wi-Fi mesh network was an obvious potential that would attract third parties with no tower access, such as WIND, to partner with Eastlink.
CLEC services
EastLink was the first major Canadian cable company to offer competitive local telephoneTelephone
The telephone , colloquially referred to as a phone, is a telecommunications device that transmits and receives sounds, usually the human voice. Telephones are a point-to-point communication system whose most basic function is to allow two people separated by large distances to talk to each other...
service in its territory in 1999 over a fibre optic network. In 2005 the area code 902
Area code 902
Area code 902 is the telephone area code in the Canadian provinces of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, encompassing both provinces. The 902 area code was established in 1947 for all three Maritime provinces, with Newfoundland added shortly after it joined Canada; New Brunswick, along with...
telephone market was the most competitive telephone exchange in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
and this was credited to EastLink's presence in the market. EastLink was also the first provider to deliver local telephone competition to its service area in New Brunswick
New Brunswick
New Brunswick is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the only province in the federation that is constitutionally bilingual . The provincial capital is Fredericton and Saint John is the most populous city. Greater Moncton is the largest Census Metropolitan Area...
in 2005.
Fixed wireless Internet in rural Nova Scotia
In 2010 Eastlink launched another service in cooperation with other providers and the government of Nova ScotiaNova Scotia
Nova Scotia is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. The name of the province is Latin for "New Scotland," but "Nova Scotia" is the recognized, English-language name of the province. The provincial capital is Halifax. Nova Scotia is the...
's Broadband for Rural Nova Scotia initiative
Broadband for Rural Nova Scotia initiative
Broadband for Rural Nova Scotia is a government initiative intended to provide broadband services to 100% of civic addresses in Nova Scotia, Canada. The initiative is a public private partnership co-funded by the governments of Canada and Nova Scotia, and three Internet service providers...
: a Motorola Canopy based rural Internet service capable of 0.5 megabit uploads, 1.5 megabit downloads, which was intended to reach "100% of civic addresses" in Nova Scotia. This level of coverage is unique in North America and is a particular challenge in a province prone to extreme weather, fog and winds. Eastlink claimed at public forums in early 2010 that the service would operate at under 100ms latency and accordingly be useful for VoIP from arbitrary third parties such as Skype
Skype
Skype is a software application that allows users to make voice and video calls and chat over the Internet. Calls to other users within the Skype service are free, while calls to both traditional landline telephones and mobile phones can be made for a fee using a debit-based user account system...
, but this has not been verified. However, latency to the towers themselves was reliably under 2ms at that time.
... versus other alternatives
Critics of the Canopy service, notably Bell, argued that it is expensive (due to shorter range repeater towers). The strategy was poorly coordinated with cable networks (there being for instance no subsidy to extend the cable network where it would be easy to do so or even where it would facilitate the wireless services). Most open-systems-minded users considered Canopy an impractical direction compared to expansion of Wi-Fi hotspot services. Its primary competitor, AliantAliant
Bell Aliant Inc. is a communications company providing services in various areas throughout eastern Canada, as Bell Aliant throughout Atlantic Canada, and under the NorthernTel, and Télébec brands in rural areas of Ontario and Quebec....
, by contrast has invested in Wi-Fi, GSM and DSL services, but they remained as of 2011 expensive or unavailable in rural Nova Scotia.
Some jurisdictions that report unsatisfactory results with all of these technologies, including Canopy, such as Washington Island Wisconsin, have reported positive results with powerline networking. However, as power-lines do not reach "100% of civic addresses" they do not address quite the same issues. The deployment of powerline-based meters by Emera
Emera
Emera Incorporated is a Halifax, Nova Scotia based energy and services company with 570,000 customers.It operates three utility subsidiaries:* Nova Scotia Power* Bangor Hydro Electric Company* Saint Lucia Electricity Services Limited...
subsidiary Bangor Hydro, which also owns Nova Scotia Power Inc. on the board of which Eastlink CEO Lee Bragg serves, suggests that this technology may ultimately become part of the Eastlink mix in some rural areas.
As of early 2011, Rogers
Rogers Wireless
Rogers Wireless is a wireless telecommunications provider offering mobile phone and data services throughout Canada using Global System for Mobile Communications and Universal Mobile Telecommunications System technology. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Rogers Communications...
, Aliant
Aliant
Bell Aliant Inc. is a communications company providing services in various areas throughout eastern Canada, as Bell Aliant throughout Atlantic Canada, and under the NorthernTel, and Télébec brands in rural areas of Ontario and Quebec....
, and Telus
TELUS
Telus is a national telecommunications company in Canada that provides a wide range of telecommunications products and services including internet access, voice, entertainment, video, and satellite television. The company is based in Burnaby, British Columbia, part of Greater Vancouver...
' mobile Internet offerings are extraordinarily expensive for heavy users and tethering of personal computers is not necessarily included under these plans; the price per gigabyte of the Eastlink service is clearly superior to any of these offerings. However, the maximum speed is much less (1.5mbps download versus up to 21mbps) and more so when these cellular providers upgrade to dual-carrier (42mbps) HSPA+. For those more concerned with speed and less with price, cellular options will be a superior rural networking choice; for those concerned with price, Eastlink's fixed wireless service, the expansion of Wi-Fi hotspots, and the use of 802.11u and 802.21 will continue to form a more reliable mesh especially in attracting tourists or in densely populated areas.
... versus extensions of wired network
In terms of speed, where it could reach groups of customers inaccessible by Canopy, Eastlink's wired network would be substantially faster, operating at up to 100mbps download, compared to 1.5mbps download. Fixed-wireless internet is, however is many times faster than dial-up (1.5mbps) and does(unlike satellite) satisfy most expectations of "broadband Internet accessBroadband Internet access
Broadband Internet access, often shortened to just "broadband", is a high data rate, low-latency connection to the Internet— typically contrasted with dial-up access using a 56 kbit/s modem or satellite Internet with inherently high latency....
". Broadband is economically or subjectively defined and is perceived very differently by persons with different latency expectations and service usage patterns, therefore perceptions of its quality are also subjective; Persons accustomed to dialup service may be thrilled with Canopy performance, whereas those used to wired cable find it slow or flaky.
Canopy service deployment encountered numerous challenges in practice, including installation of unforeseen wireless relay towers installed on an ad hoc basis that increase latency, reduce service reliability and load other towers - the inherent problems of a mesh network.
Service and installation concerns
Eastlink was not, as of November 2011, effectively held to its contractual obligation to provide "100% of civic addresses" with service nor its latency promises, even where most such customers could be easily accommodated by extending its wired network to these existing wireless relay towers. In particular, users on islands with water access were denied service as of summer 2011.More seriously, installers as of November 2011 had no way to test latency before asking for customer signoff and final installation, meaning that any user whose latency needs could not be met would not know that until after they had agreed the service was adequate, based only on raw signal strength.
As of the fourth quarter 2011 the project had still not yet reached its promise of "100% of civic addresses." Eastlink has not commented on the consistency of speeds or latency on this network nor released any public Quality of Service
Quality of service
The quality of service refers to several related aspects of telephony and computer networks that allow the transport of traffic with special requirements...
(QoS) statistics or actual usage information about the services its users actually use. It was widely anticipated that Eastlink would offer access to its new cell network in 2012 on favourable terms to cut-off rural users.
Coverage
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
Service in Saskatchewan was available in the past but is currently not available to new customers.
Although the company has mostly unified its acquisitions under the EastLink brand, in parts of British Columbia, EastLink operates as Coast Cable (Sunshine Coast
Sunshine Coast, British Columbia
The Sunshine Coast is a region of the southern mainland coast of British Columbia, on the eastern shore of the Strait of Georgia, and just northwest of Greater Vancouver...
) or Delta Cable (near the Fraser River
Fraser River
The Fraser River is the longest river within British Columbia, Canada, rising at Fraser Pass near Mount Robson in the Rocky Mountains and flowing for , into the Strait of Georgia at the city of Vancouver. It is the tenth longest river in Canada...
Delta).
As of February 2011, Eastlink has acquired service territory on the island of Bermuda
Bermuda
Bermuda is a British overseas territory in the North Atlantic Ocean. Located off the east coast of the United States, its nearest landmass is Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, about to the west-northwest. It is about south of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and northeast of Miami, Florida...
.