KAGAWONG—Internet provider Vianet is looking to upgrade its equipment and services in the Billings township area.
“In Kagawong we have a good customer base and at the current time have some issues with equipment and services that we are going to upgrade and improve,” stated Will Gasteiger, president of Internet service provider Vianet. “The useful life of the equipment in place in Kagawong has ended and we need to do some upgrades. We will be putting more updated equipment in place to upgrade our services to customers in the Kagawong area.”
“I think the biggest thing is getting higher-speed services in place and handling more customers at the same time with the Internet services we are providing,” explained Mr. Gasteiger. “The current towers are limited to 1.5 meg speeds and we want to have this doubled.”
Mr. Gasteiger explained, “as you know, we took over the network several years ago when the people who had been funding this service through Omniglobe could no longer provide this. We took over to get the Internet service back on line in areas around Manitoulin.”
“There were problems with service in certain areas and we had to upgrade equipment or services or understandably, we would lose customers,” said Mr. Gasteiger. “So, since we took over the services, there have been constant improvements made in different areas. For instance, we replaced the old equipment that had been in place in Sheshegwaning and replaced and upgraded it (equipment). “In other areas, like Gore Bay, we upgraded the equipment some time ago,” continued Mr. Gasteiger. “On the West End of the Island, along with the upgrades and a fibre line to Gore Bay, Kagawong, etcetera there is a new fibre link to the mainland. The two fibre lines off the west of the Island have improved service redundancy and capacity.”
“We’ve probably covered everything on the north part of Manitoulin to Meldrum Bay,” said Mr. Gasteiger. “We also have services in place in the Wikwemikong and Sheguiandah areas, although we do not currently have much in place on the southern part of the Island. However, we have an application in to a funding agency to cover all of the Island, through Blue Sky out of North Bay, which has been delayed with the change in government.” he added.
