By David MacDonald
david@peicanada.com

Eastern Kings residents had many questions for Bruce Howatt, PEI vice-president for Bell Aliant, during a public meeting held Tuesday night at the Eastern Kings Community Centre, on the subject of high speed Internet.
The meeting was organized by the Eastern Kings Community Council, who invited executives from Bell Aliant to respond to concerns from those still waiting for high speed Internet despite the company’s promise to have the Island connected by the end of 2009.
Mr Howatt unveiled an offer effective immediately for those unable to be hooked up to DSL and who have to use the Bell Turbostick wireless device. Those customers would have unlimited usage of the device for $49.99, the standard high speed Internet rate on PEI.
And while Mr Howatt insisted the company has fulfilled its obligations, he offered an apology to those at the meeting.
“We offer a huge apology to all of our customers,” he said. “We’re apologizing on the multiple calls you’ve made wondering when am I going to be hooked up. We apologize for the mixed messages, we clearly did not meet your needs and we will address that.”
For nearly 90 minutes, Mr Howatt faced many questions from the nearly 100 people in attendance. Some residents including Valerie Flannery wondered how Aliant would be able to provide the Turbostick service in areas without a cell phone signal, such as in East Point.
Mr Howatt explained that while the Turbostick works off the cell phone tower, it has better coverage than the regular cell phone network and the company can use boosters if need be in order to ensure the service works.
Joe V MacDonald of East Point said he used the Turbostick for a couple of weeks last fall and was unsatisfied with the reception, so returned the device. “It was a little faster than dial up but not by much, and nobody told me that I could get boosters,” he said.
Mr Howatt acknowledged there would be some bad areas, but boosters should solve that issue. He said the Turbostick is a very good high speed Internet service with the added benefit of boosting the cell phone reception in one’s home.
Rob McEachern told Mr Howatt he did not accept the vice-president’s presentation, accusing the company of delivering a second-class service to rural Eastern Kings residents, and of not fulfilling its promise after getting an untendered contract from the provincial government to expand the Internet network.
“You failed to deliver the assurances you made on your contract. What you’re offering is a bunch of excuses,” he said. “We’ve been getting second class service in South Lake forever. We’ve got second class cell phone service already. I should be able to make all of my Charlottetown calls here, but I can’t. I have to call Charlottetown on my land phone because my cell coverage stinks.”
Some residents said they were pleased with what they heard from Mr Howatt. Conor Mullally, who lives near the Souris Line Road, said until he received his high speed Internet this past summer, he had been calling Aliant since 1999 to inquire about when his area would receive DSL.
“I’m really happy with what I heard tonight. It’s great to hear the executives being very apologetic for what we had to go through.”
Ms Flannery said she’s happy to hear about the price cap for the Turbostick, especially as both she and her husband work from their home and need high-speed Internet.
“We downloaded a piece of software recently, which was 680 kilobytes, the equivalent to what we’d get for a $35 package with the Turbostick. That was pretty scary. So I’m really pleased with the $49.99 price, I would have never anticipated unlimited coverage.”