Scrap internet use cap, Shelburne Muni tells Eastlink and Stephen McNeil

Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil says Eastlink is adding "insult to injury" by charging customers more for poor service in some areas. (CBC)
Usage clawback counterproductive and insulting
After Eastlink’s recent announcement to cap rural Internet Service the Municipality of Shelburne is calling on Eastlink to immediately kill the cap and invest in the service to meet existing standard household Internet requirements, according to a news release Tuesday.

MODS CAO Kirk Cox said the Municipality of Shelburne issued and open letter to Eastlink CEO, Lee Bragg this morning. “If Eastlink has any sense of commitment to rural communities, it must reinvest in the system to bring it to at least the levels of service seen in northern Nova Scotia,” the Municipality said to Eastlink. “And finally, you must kill the cap.”

The Municipality also wrote to Premier Stephen McNeil (who recently said the Eastlink decision "adds insult to injury") to seek a joint solution to address the severe Internet deficiencies in rural southern Nova Scotia. “As we try to grow our communities it is insulting and counterproductive to claw back high speed Internet capacity.” The Municipality is asking the Premier to use his government’s leverage to encourage Eastlink to make the necessary investments or remove the company from the region and introduce a competitor under the condition that the service be upgraded to 5 Mbps.

Eastlink has publicly announced that all households under their rural program will have a monthly usage cap of 15 GB. This prevents residents outside of town centers from using the Internet in many normal standard circumstances, including video and audio streaming, e-commerce, and working from a home office. Comparatively, Seaside, in Northern Nova Scotia, has announced a $6 million upgrade to their rural network to 5 Mbps, and no cap on usage.

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