From a small-town cable company to a technology/communications company focused on serving small towns across Canada, Eastlink has never forgotten where it comes from.

June 22, 2021

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

HALIFAX, NS, June 22, 2021 - This year marks 50 years of big dreams and small town values for Eastlink, founded by John Bragg and headquartered in Bragg’s home province of Nova Scotia.

“We are proud to come from humble beginnings,” said Deborah Shaffner, CEO Eastlink. “We’ve grown from a hometown cable company that got its start in Amherst, Nova Scotia with just a handful of people to a team of over 1,300 people serving hundreds of small towns across seven provinces and Bermuda.”

The entrepreneurial spirit and passion for innovation that spurred the Bragg family to start the company has been key to its success, enabling Eastlink to move quickly and decisively throughout the years.  Over the course of its five decades there have been lots of firsts made possible by continuous investments in people and technology – the first cable company in Canada to introduce telephone and bring competition to the market, the first to innovate with bundle services and first to introduce a 100% LTE mobile network, when launching its mobile service in 2013.
Eastlink Executive Vice Chair, Lee Bragg, expressed his thoughts on his family’s entrepreneurialism and the company’s guiding philosophy: “We didn’t know what we couldn’t do but we said we’re just gonna’ try and figure it out,” he explained. “I don’t think we ever anticipated that it would grow the way it did. Back then, we had cable capacity of maybe 6 channels and we were having conversations about the possibility of upgrading capacity to 12 channels. Dad was asked why we would ever build a system for more than that, and that was a reasonable argument at the time.  But we’ve always had a sky’s the limit philosophy and here we are.”

As a family that grew up in rural Canada, the Braggs have always been committed to providing for rural Canada. While Eastlink has grown, it has stayed small, nimble, and true to its humble beginnings with community at the heart of everything it does. Eastlink not only connects customers in small towns and communities across the country with communication services but it also shares local stories, events and experiences that reflect the people and communities it serves on Eastlink CommunityTV . 

It has been said that building a talented team is perhaps John Bragg’s greatest accomplishment.

“There is no doubt that we have just such a team here at Eastlink,” explains Ms. Shaffner, who herself has been with the company for almost 25 years. “I am impressed every day by our team’s critical thinking, innovative ideas, and passionate commitment to get things done.”

Eastlink is still, all these years later, a family business built on the values of hard work, listening to the people and communities it serves, and championing programs and services that help its communities thrive.

To hear more about Eastlink’s journey featuring founder John Bragg and his son Lee Bragg, please click here Eastlink 50th Anniversary Video and to learn more about Eastlink’s presence and investment across Canada, see below.

OUR HISTORY:

• 50 years in business – established in 1971, began offering cable TV services in rural NS.
• In the late 90s, launched internet and were the first cable company in Canada to launch local phone service, bringing competition and choice to consumers making NS a market leader.
• In 2000, became the first cable company in Canada to introduce a "triple-play" bundle combining TV, internet, and phone making it the first in North America to bundle all services on one bill for one price.
• Growth strategy built on investing our capital back into the business – enabled us to expand our serving area beyond NS into PEI, NB, NL, ON, AB and BC, powered by our national fibre network that stretches coast to coast and is interconnected into Bermuda, the US, Europe and Greenland.
• In 2013, launched mobile (cellular) service in NS, once again positioning the home province as a leader in bringing much-needed competition to the marketplace. Ongoing expansion, now serving NS, PEI, and parts of NB, NL, Northern ON and Grande Prairie, AB.
• Recognized as one of Canada’s Best Managed Companies for 15 consecutive years.

OUR TEAM

• Employ over 1300 people.
• Engage local contractors who provide support for installation services.
• Over 26 retail locations across Canada.
• National Operations Centre based in Halifax, NS monitors operations across Canada & Bermuda.

OUR INVESTMENT

• We have invested over $880 million across our Canadian footprint over the last 5 years. 
• At less than 5% the size of the country’s largest telecommunications companies (whose largest markets include Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal) our largest serving areas are located in Halifax, Sudbury and Grande Prairie making investing in small towns and communities a fundamental part of who Eastlink is as a company. 
• These investments have enabled us to provide access to our core, fibre-based services, equivalent to those found in larger cities (including high speed internet with speeds up to 1 Gig), to over 95% of our national footprint, representing thousands of rural Canadian communities from Happy Valley Goose Bay in NL to the Sunshine Coast in BC.
• Through our investments/approach to bringing regional mobile competition (on our own mobile network), we have introduced alternative pricing models, competitive rates and expanded advanced technologies to the markets we serve. Since we launched our mobile service in 2013, Eastlink’s regional entry into the mobile market has had a strong and consistently positive impact on pricing.  
• Eastlink’s historical investments in rural Canadian communities have enabled the strong performance and stability of our network and critical services during this time of pandemic.
• We continue to invest in innovative solutions including 5G deployment, which we have plans to begin in summer 2021, starting in our largest market of Halifax.