Curling’s high-speed Internet fixed says Bell Aliant

CORNER BROOK  Bell Aliant customers in Curling no longer have to wait for Internet service.

Issues with the number of Internet connections available has been resolved, said a company spokesperson.

Customer Stephen Boland is glad the problem is fixed because he was wait-listed for two months before receiving Internet access last week.

Boland said few of the company’s customer service representatives, either locally or over the phone, could explain why he could not get Internet service advertised in a flyer.

“Not one person I spoke to on the phone could give me an answer to when I could get it,” he said.

Boland was only told there were not enough “ports” available to offer him Internet access.

Ports are physical connections inside Bell Aliant facilities each customer must be plugged into to receive Internet service, explained Mark Duggan, a senior corporate affairs advisor with the company.

Facilities that hold these ports are generally within five kilometres of where the service is being provided.

When ports are available and connections are plugged in, Internet access is sent along the wires into customers’ homes, he said.

“In Curling we basically ran out of connections so we had to install more equipment that provided us more connections in the facility,” Duggan said. “Such a problem is not unusual.”

Duggan would not give an approximate number of how many ports are in Bell Aliant’s Curling connection facility or how many were added recently, saying such detail would release “competitive information.”

He said during routine practices it was noticed there were not enough ports available for all customers in Curling and more were then added.

Duggan would not release when it was first known there were not enough ports or how long is takes to add new ports to a facility. He said the process is technical and requires engineers.

Boland had been waiting since the end of November for Internet service he signed up for as part of a three-piece package with home phone, satellite TV and high-speed Internet. At that time he already had a home phone account with Bell Aliant and added the TV portion without incident.

“I didn’t have to pay for (Internet), but they didn’t have (Internet service) to offer me with the package,” he said.