Poor Cell Phone Service on Digby Neck and Area

Yarmouth Municipal Council is at work getting better cellular service for the people in their area (Argyle, etc.). They are going beyond Bell/Aliant and going to the CRTC. (Canadian Radio and Television Network). Our area will not see a benefit from their hard work, however, as it would be too south of here.
Everybody knows there are reception problems on Digby Neck and perhaps the Islands as well, but has anybody done anything about it? Trying to talk to Bell/Aliant is like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. It doesn't work. The CRTC will. But there needs to be voices. Either register your comment with the CRTC, or write to or call your municipal councillor. They need to know that there are a number of people who have the same issue, so they can go to bat for us. Jim Thurber may be your rep, or it may be Linda Gregory linda.gregory@ns.sympatico.ca
Even if you don't live in the area you could be travelling through it and be affected by the many "blank" zones. More than that, it could affect whether you live or die or whether someone else lives or dies. If there's an accident and you can't reach anybody, or nobody who is trying to help you can reach emergency services, then...
Cell phones (and reception) are really safety devices, in 2010. We need the service to cover *all* of Digby Neck and Islands. Please add your voice. I'm writing Linda right now. linda.gregory@ns.sympatico.ca
And please, be someone who has the caring to *want* to save someone's life...by just making that call.

Eastlink Broadband

EastLink Newsletter This newsletter is intended to provide you with information regarding the progress of EastLink High Speed Wireless Internet. January 2010 Message from Lee Bragg, CEO EastLink As we enter a new month, we do so with optimism. We continue to make good progress with EastLink’s High Speed Wireless Internet in Zones 5 and 6. Over the past few months we have had conversations with Nova Scotians who are pleased with their new High Speed Wireless service and with those who are looking forward to having service installed. And we’ve spoken with Nova Scotians who have expressed their concern with timelines and a feeling that the information they are receiving is not accurate. I want to express personally that we appreciate your concerns and ask for your patience. On behalf of EastLink, I can assure you that we are working very hard to roll this project out to meet our commitment of full coverage in our territory. As we launch more towers and increase availability, we also become aware of some geographically challenging areas experiencing low signal strength. While these areas can impact original timelines, we have a process in place to deal with them involving the installation of repeater poles to strengthen the signal. We are still on track to meet our May 31 delivery completion timeline. We are also working very hard to improve the way we communicate with you and the timeliness with which we communicate. That means that we are continuing to make improvements to the Check Availability updates on our website. Our next newsletter, due out later this month, will have even more detailed information on Tower Updates to keep you better informed on the status of availability in your community. And we are communicating more regularly with our Customer Service staff to ensure they have the most up-to-date information to answer your questions and address your concerns. Below are some of the more common questions that we’ve received these past few weeks. I hope you find the answers helpful. FAQs Q. Why is service available in part of my community but not at my civic address? A. The majority of communities in EastLink’s territory are served by more than one site, which means that more than one tower services these communities. Because more than one tower is involved, many communities are partially served at present as we work to bring all of the tower sites in these areas on-air. EastLink is committed to providing 100% service in its territory by May 31, 2010. Q. Why did your last newsletter have some communities listed more than once? A. Our December newsletter noted several cases where a community was listed as being both currently on air and due to be launched the end of January. In these cases, communities are served by more than one tower site (as described above), of which one tower may be on air and another may be close to completion.
We apologize for any confusion this created. Q. How often is your website updated with Tower launch information? A. We update the Check Availability tool on the broadband pages of our website on a weekly basconceivable that if you check the website on a Thursday and then again on that Friday, the information could be different as a result of the update. Our goal with uploading weekly updates is to ensure that you have the most accurate information as quickly as possible. In some cases, you could notice a change in the original launch date. In-service dates may change due to things like weather (i.e. tower climbing required by an installer can’t be done in extreme cold or windy weather); and commercial power installation. We continue to work with the May 2010 delivery completion timeline. Q. You've mentioned that you will be providing more detailed information on Tower Updates - what does that mean? A. In future, ournewsletter Tower Updates will list all communities within EastLink's territory, by county, with an indication of which communities are fully served, partially served and those for which EastLink High Speed Wireless is coming soon. NEXT ISSUE: Mid-February (including more detail in Tower Updates) For information on availability in your area, or to subscribe to EastLink High Speed Wireless Internet, please visit eastlink.ca or call EastLink Customer Care Centre at 1 888-345-1111 (residential), 1 877-813-1727 (business).