Eastlink cap on rural internet usage concerns business owners

Rural business owners in Nova Scotia who rely on high speed internet are concerned Eastlink is planning to cap bandwidth and charge customers up to $20 a month more if they use above the set amount.

Andy Kerr runs a website development business from his home in Hampton, and counts the Royal Nova Scotia International Tattoo as one of his customers.

The businessman says he can't open large computer files unless he takes his laptop to Bridgetown, which is about seven kilometres away.

Despite $60 million spent by Eastlink and governments to provide rural areas with high speed access similar to that available in urban areas, tests show speeds are far less than promised.

"It's the same price but we certainly didn't get the same service," Kerr said. "Now to slap a cap on top of everything else, I shake my head."

Eastlink says it is implementing the cap to weed out so-called bandwidth hogs.

"I don't know many bandwidth hogs," Kerr said. "We're just normal users."

Capped at 15 gigabytes

Eastlink's rural residents will have their usage capped at 15 gigabytes a month. That is about 15 hours of Netflix viewing, something Kerr can't do because the internet in his area isn't fast enough.

Kerr, a former president of the Bridgetown Chamber of Commerce fears the new surcharge will make it even tougher for rural communities to attract new business.

"I know businesses that poked around and went back to Bridgetown or another high speed region." he said.

"I think they must do more work on boosting internet strength before implementing the cap," he said. "This is a smokescreen to put them off the pressure they are getting on speed problems." 

Kerr says he is stuck with Eastlink because the weather interferes with satellite reception and Bell does not provide service in his area.