A Deer Island-based advocacy group has begun a campaign to expand high-speed Internet access to that island and other rural communities in New Brunswick.
     Brooke DeCosta Young of Leonardville says members of Citizens for Rural "Wire-Line" Hi Speed Internet believe those residents of the province are at a cultural and economic disadvantage because of the growing digital divide and are planning "further action to publicize that our public Internet utility, Bell Canada/Aliant, has the responsibility to include all communities in its rural high-speed Internet expansion plans."
     The Department of Education allegedly helped subsidize the Wire-Line high speed that was brought to some parts of Deer Island, but for the rest of the island, Young asserts, "Satellite-based high speed is just not cutting it. [It is] far less reliable and more expensive than much better services in urban areas."
     Young adds, "Socially and culturally, the impact is being felt by the fact that families are making decisions about where to live based partly on the quality of Internet service."
     Many rural communities in New Brunswick rely on Xplornet, which can experience weather-related or other blackout periods, and the Citizens for Rural "Wire-Line" Hi Speed Internet group believes "where Xplornet is the only option for access to the Internet, members of those communities must split the same amount of data each month that is allocated to just one household in New Brunswick's more urban areas."
     Young says, "Our government must surely adopt the position that wire-line high-speed Internet is -- now more than ever C an absolute essential service for every citizen."
     Bell Canada announced six months ago it was going to invest $250 million to expand high-speed Internet in Atlantic Canada's rural areas, and Citizens for Rural "Wire-Line" Hi Speed Internet want to make sure "communities such as Deer Island should be part of that expansion."
     For the past 20 years, since the days of Frank McKenna, New Brunswick premiers have praised the province's Internet as cutting-edge and world-leading, says Young. "Well, some people in New Brunswick are still waiting for that promise."
     U.S. President Barack Obama's recent announcement that broadband Internet should be regulated like a public utility caught the attention of Young, who asked the Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunication Services to advocate a similar political/government involvement in Canada. The U.S. president said such a regulation would prevent Internet service providers from "restricting the best access or to pick winners and losers in the online marketplace for services and ideas."
     Young asserts, "It will take intentional policy to make Bell Canada/Bell Aliant stretch their wire-line Internet infrastructure to every rural community of New Brunswick. Unless somebody in the system has that in mind -- a long-term picture of where all regions of New Brunswick need to be and has the political power to act on it -- some parts of the province will continue to have service on the level of a third-world country when it comes to communications."

Complaints on Grand Manan
     There were complaints about Grand Manan's "deteriorating Internet service" during the village council's November 3 meeting. Residents were unhappy about Bell Aliant connections that had slowed to unusable speeds, with customers reporting a quarter or less of the advertised "high speed" download rates and some occasionally unable to connect at all. Within two days of posting an inquiry on local media, a Grand Manan resident had heard from over 90 households not happy with the present service speed.
     Following that meeting, Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) Rob MacPherson reports, "The village has been in touch with Bell Aliant, and they're telling us the problem is 'congestion.' When there is a high use of streaming and YouTube use -- that type of thing -- it slows everything down. When school is out, it's really bad."
     "The problem is with local businesses and how important high Internet speed is to our lobster fisheries and others who have to deal with the Internet," he adds.
     "Bell is in the process of identifying an interim measure, but it's going to take some time before they can alleviate the problem," says MacPherson.
     Sums up the Grand Manan CAO, "Bell is aware of the problem and says it's doing all that's possible to fix it."