Broadband Updates
Updates
For the most up-to-date information, please visit: https://internet.buildns.ca/zones/eastern-strait-guysborough/
October 2024
October 3, 2024 – Addresses in the link below are ready to connect to Bell Fibre.
Antigonish Addresses Ready to Connect – October 3, 2024
September 2024
September 3, 2024 – Addresses in the link below are ready to connect to Bell Fibre.
Antigonish Addresses Ready to Connect – September 3, 2024
August 2024
August 19, 2024 – Addresses in the link below are ready to connect to Bell Fibre.
Antigonish Addresses Ready to Connect – August 19, 2024
July 2024
July 28, 2024 – Addresses in the link below are ready to connect to Bell Fibre.
Antigonish Addresses Ready to Connect – July 28, 2024
June 2024
June 17, 2024 – Addresses in the link below are ready to connect to Bell Fibre.
Monastery Addresses Ready to Connect – June 17, 2024
June 11, 2024 – Addresses in the link below are ready to connect to Bell Fibre.
Monastery Addresses Ready to Connect – June 11, 2024
May 2024
May 22, 2024 – Addresses in the link below are ready to connect to Bell Fibre
Monastery Addresses Ready to Connect May 22 2024
December 2023
December 15, 2023 – Addresses in the link below are ready to connect to Bell Fibre
Heatherton Addresses Ready to Connect December 15 2023
Heatherton – Bell expects the entire community to complete in January.
Monastery – Tree trimming is underway and this project is expected to be complete at the end of April 2024.
Antigonish – All remaining projects in Antigonish are grouped under this project and encompasses the following areas:
Big Loch, Big Marsh, Cloverville, Fairmont, Greendale Loch, Heffernans Brook, Heffernans Marsh, Lower North Grant, MacIsaacs Marsh, Plesant Valley, Black Island, Black Point, Ferry Point, Frasers Cove, Pomquet Cove, South River Station, Southside Harbour, Addington Forks, Ashdale, Beaver Meadow, Beaver Mountain, Beaver River, Beech Hill, Boyds Bog, Cameron Lake, Camerons Brook, Camerons Lakes, Cross Roads Ohio, Frasers Brook, Gillis Lake, Glen Road, Hartshorn Brook, Hillcrest, Ireland, James River, MacIsaacs Brook, MacLeans Lake, McGillivray Brook, Meadow Brook, Ohio, Ohio River, Ohio River Nature Reserve, Pinevale, Pitchers Farm, Pushies Brook, South Salt Springs, St. Joseph, St. Josephs Lake, Beauly, Caledonia Mills, Campbells Brook, Croft, Glenroy, Lower Springfield, Marydale, Meadow Green, Springfield, Upper Springfield, Brierly Brook, Brierly Brook Back Road, James River, Monks Head, Kenzieville, Ohio East, Roman Valley, Pleasant Valley
The anticipated completion dates for these areas is end of June 2024.
To view maps and for up to date information, please visit: https://internet.buildns.ca/zones/eastern-strait-guysborough/
October 2023
October 30, 2023 – Addresses in the link below are ready to connect to Bell Fibre
Heatherton Addresses Ready to Connect – October 30
October 24, 2023 – Addresses in the link below are ready to connect to Bell Fibre
Heatherton Addresses Ready to Connect – October 24
October 10, 2023 – Addresses in the link below are ready to connect to Bell Fibre.
Heatherton Addresses Ready to Connect – October 10
October 3, 2023 – Addresses in the link below are ready to connect to Bell Fibre.
Heatherton Addresses Ready to Connect
August 2022
Develop Nova Scotia has announced a new Satellite Internet Service Rebate Program to service the hardest-to-reach with HighSpeed Internet. The Satellite Internet Service Rebate Program will cover the one-time costs for eligible homes and businesses to set-up satellite internet, including hardware, taxes, shipping and installation, up to a maximum of $1,000. The rebate will be available to almost 100 homes in Antigonish County which no other internet solution has been found.
The program, led by Develop Nova Scotia, will open on Tuesday, August 2. Nova Scotians should confirm they are eligible for the rebate before purchasing satellite equipment. They can confirm their eligibility by
visiting https://internet.developns.ca/satellite and entering their home or business address.
Once eligibility has been confirmed and the satellite service and equipment has been purchased, applications can be submitted electronically or by mail by the customer.
Qualified satellite service providers for the program must meet or exceed the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Committee minimum speed targets of 50 Mbps download / 10 Mbps upload. Currently, only Starlink (www.starlink.com) has indicated they can meet or exceed these speeds, but if other satellite providers can meet these speeds, they may also be included in the program.
To view the list of eligible addresses in Antigonish County, click here:
Antigonish County Addresses Eligible for Satellite Internet Service Rebate
June 2021
June 24, 2021 – Goshen 2 Project from Goshen to St. Andrews
More addresses have been completed and are now eligible for Bell Service.
June 24 – Goshen 2 Project Civic Addresses Ready to Receive Service
June 18, 2021 – Goshen 2 Project from Goshen to St. Andrews
More addresses have been completed and are now eligible for Bell Service.
June 18 – Goshen 2 Project Civic Addresses Ready to Receive Service
May 2021
May 27, 2021 – More addresses have been completed and are now eligible for Bell Service.
May 27 – Goshen Project Civic Addresses Ready to Receive Service
May 2021
The necessary work has been done by Nova Scotia Power to remove safety hazards. therefore the remaining civic addresses for Round 1 Goshen should be completed next Friday May 21.
In the mean time, Bell has been busy working on Round 2 Projects. 65 Addresses from Goshen Round 2 are now complete, most are in Guysborough County, but there are a few in Antigonish County. They are hopeful that Goshen Round 2 will be completed in June. This includes Goshen to St. Andrews along Highway 316.
May 14, 2021 – More addresses have been completed and are now eligible for Bell Service.
May 14 – Goshen Project Civic Addresses Ready to Receive Service
May 2021
May 5, 2021 – More addresses have been completed and are now eligible for Bell Service.
May 5 – Malignant Cove Project Civic Addresses Ready to Receive Service
April 2021
April 29 – More addresses have been completed and are now eligible for Bell Service.
April 29 – Goshen Project Civic Addresses Ready to Receive Service
Round 2 Projects
The second round of projects have been designed. Projects in Antigonish County include Goshen through to St. Andrews, Heatherton and Monastery. The maps of coverage areas are below. For more information on the project, please visit:
https://internet.developns.ca/zones/eastern-strait-guysborough/
March 2021
March 22 – More address have been completed and are now eligible for Bell Service
March 22 – Malignant Cove Project Civic Addresses Ready to Receive Service
February 2021
February 17 – More addresses have been completed and are now eligible for Bell Service.
February 17 – Malignant Cove Project Civic Addresses Ready to Receive Service
February 9, 2021 – More addresses have been completed and are now eligible for Bell Service.
February 9 – Malignant Cove Project Civic Addresses Ready to Receive Service
February 1, 2021 – Two incremental areas were turned up recently the addresses are linked below. Two more Fibre Serving Areas (FSAs) should be completed at the end of this week.
Bell has experienced some slow downs due to safety hazards and incremental work in both the Goshen and Antigonish projects after our crews starting placing cable.
To view the civic address that are now eligible for the Bell service click here:
February 1 – Malignant Cove Project Civic Addresses Ready to Receive Service
January 2021
We appear to be in the home stretch on the Phase 1 projects (Malignant Cove and Goshen) as most of the NS Power work is now completed.
For Goshen – Bell completed 2 of the 4 fibre serving areas in December for a total of 281 civic addresses. There are 12 outstanding civics in these two areas to complete in February. The remaining two areas should be completed in January with the exception of 12 civics which will be completed in February.
For the Doctor’s Brook/Malignant cove project – Bell completed 2 FSA and for a total of 214 new civics with access to fibre service. We are planning on completing the remaining areas in January and then picking up any partial areas in February.
To view the civic address that are now eligible for the Bell service click here:
Phase 1 Malignant Cove Project Civic Addresses Ready to Receive Service
Phase 2 Goshen Project Civic Addresses Ready to Receive Service
Round 2 Expansion:
In November 2020, Develop Nova Scotia expanded the scope of the Round 2 projects which will now include many of the areas in Antigonish County including:
Aulds Cove
James River/Brierly Brook
Fairmont
South Side Harbour/Monks Head
Ashdale
Ohio
Keppoch
Addington Forks
Pinevale
Beech Hill
Lower Springfield
Caledonia Mills
Pleasant Valley
These areas will be served by Bell Fibre to the home/business.
Here are the details from Develop Nova Scotia:
https://internet.developns.ca/zones/eastern-strait-guysborough/
Develop Nova Scotia Webinar
On Wednesday, October 14th, 2020 Develop Nova Scotia hosted a Webinar to talk about the Internet for Nova Scotia Initiative.
The presentation can be found here.
Round 2:
On September 1, 2020 Develop Nova Scotia announced the second round of successful projects for their Internet for Nova Scotia Initiative. Areas in Antigonish County that are included in Round 2 are:
Frasers Mills, Loch Katrine, Heatherton, Afton Station, Bayfield, Black Avon, Monastery, Frankville, Mattie Settlement, Tracadie, Upper Big Tracadie, Havre Boucher, Merland and Linwood. More details about these projects should be available in the coming months.
Round1:
On February 7 2020, Develop Nova Scotia announced the first round of successful projects through their Internet for Nova Scotia Initiative. Antigonish County received 2 projects in this round, the first will see Bell Fibre brought from MacKen Road (Highway 337) all the way to Knoydart Farms (the maps only show it going to Cottage Road in Arisaig, the extension to Knoydart farms was just added which will bring an additional 47 homes onto the fibre network). The Fibre line will also turn down Highway 245 from Malignant Cove to the Pleasant Valley Road (see maps below).
Update #5 – November 2020
NSP has been working on the make ready requirements for both the Goshen and Malignant Cove projects over the past week and making good progress. It appears that there are 15 remaining work orders for Malignant cove and 31 for Goshen. They are expecting to complete this work over the next couple weeks.
There are still 3 crossings to complete but they are all issued to the field for construction . One should be scheduled for next week and the other two are waiting on a DLF licence and a customer easement.
Update #4 – October 2020
NS Power have essentially completed their review of the planned Bell fibre additions and there are a substantial number of work orders required for both the Malignant Cove and Goshen projects. A total of 73 work orders plus the 3 outstanding grade 1 crossings. The three crossings have been approved for construction. We are hopeful that NS Power can start some of this work over the next couple weeks but the schedule is not yet confirmed. With any luck we can turn up these areas before the end of the year.
Update #3 – September 2020
Make ready scope has been confirmed and NS Power are expecting to commence activities late this month or early in October. The required grade 1 engineering assessments have yet to be completed. They are scheduled for completion in late September. At this point we are trying our best to turn up some of the civic addresses before the end of the year but it will hinge on how NS Power work progresses. Bell has to wait until they are complete before we can string the new fibre.
Update #2 – August 2020
Milestone 1B of our engineering activities are underway and on track to finish in early August. NS Power make ready activities will start on the Malignant Cove project very soon as well as tree trimming activities. Goshen will follow shortly thereafter.
With respect to the permits/crossings there is only 1 for the Goshen project and 4 associated with Malignant Cove. Three of them are water crossings and 1 is for CN rail. We have two blank licensees from DLF and hoping to get them finalized shortly. Grade 1 structural assessments need to be completed for all the crossings but these have not be completed. We are looking to redesign some of the work to allow for a non joint use crossing to speed up the process.
Update #1 – July 2020
Here is the first of the project updates from John Swantee who is the Program Manager for Bell on this project:
“This will be the first of a series of monthly updates regarding the Bell phase 1 projects under the Develop Nova Scotia program. Bell was awarded 28 different projects to complete across the province. Our current completion date for contractual purposes with DNS is March 2021 for both projects but we are working to accelerate all projects if possible.”
“For reporting purposes we have broken our projects down into milestones and there are five milestones associated with the projects. Milestone 1A is the field detailing or collection of data from the project area that help us design the fibre network. This has been completed for your projects. Milestone 1B is our completed engineering package which includes our detailed design and results in fibre orders being placed with Corning. For all our distribution fibre, every piece of cable is custom made for the section of road it will be placed so that terminal stubs all land at the appropriate pole locations. Milestone 1B for your projects is intended to be completed by the end of August. Milestone 2 relates to permits with the Department of Lands and Forestry and Make Ready by NS Power. Because we are adding cables and additional loading on poles and in some cases placing a new strand to lash the fibre to, NS Power has to make changes to pole infrastructure. This involves replacing some poles, adding anchors, perhaps raising their own attachments, etc. NS Power goes to the field to review this information once bell has provided our engineering package to them. With Department of Lands and Forestry, Bell and/or NS Power needs to get a permit in any case where our cable will be placed at a water crossing or where work needs to be completed in the vicinity of a water crossing. This is a fairly lengthy process to complete with the Department of Lands and Forestry. Overall, this milestone work is proving to be the most challenging because it is essentially out of the control of Bell. . Milestone 3 involves tree trimming and fibre construction. There will inevitably be some overlap between milestones 2 and 3 as Bell does not wait until everything is completed in milestone 2 before commencing construction activities. In many areas tree trimming has already commenced ahead of the NS Power work. Finally, Milestone 4 involves commissioning of the fibre network and opening the area for sales.”
On February 7, Develop Nova Scotia announced the first round of successful projects through their Internet for Nova Scotia Initiative. Antigonish County received 2 projects in this round.
Bell will be providing monthly updates on the status of the projects. These updates can be found here on this website. We want to keep residents informed and up to date on the projects.
If you have questions related to the project, please contact John Swantee at john.swantee@bellaliant.ca.
For project updates click here.
Cape George
The first round will see Bell Fibre brought from MacKen Road (Highway 337) all the way to Knoydart Farms (the maps only show it going to Cottage Road in Arisaig, the extension to Knoydart farms was just added which will bring an additional 47 homes onto the fibre network). The Fibre line will also turn down Highway 245 from Malignant Cove to the Pleasant Valley Road (see maps below).
Goshen
The second project includes the Lochaber and Goshen areas. The fibre line will travel from Glen Alpine along the #7 Highway to Goshen and will also run along the west side of Lochaber Lake.
