SYDNEY, NS – Rogers Communications will acquire Seaside Communications, a local telecommunications company based in Sydney, Nova Scotia, the companies announced today.
Seaside has two divisions, a wireline operation and fixed wireless rural Internet. “They both have about 10,000 customers and both are included in the deal,” said Parker Donham, director of communications at Seaside, in an interview with Cartt.ca.
“I think this is a pretty good deal for our customers because they’ll have all of the strengths that Seaside brought to a community-based telecommunications company, but they will have resources that we didn’t have before particularly in terms of spectrum so rural customers will have access to higher speeds and so forth,” Donham said.
Seaside will continue to operate under the same brand name with the same team of employees, according to a statement on Seaside’s website.
“One of the strong points of our company is our customer service agents and our technical service call centre employees are all local Cape Bretoners, speak with a Nova Scotia accent… a lot of them live in rural areas… many of them are Seaside customers, either wireline or fixed wireless, so they’re empathetic,” Donham said.
Seaside Communications, which was founded in 1975, was owned by Irving Schwartz. Schwartz passed away in 2010 and in 2013 Seaside was sold to Oceanside Communications Holdings Inc. He was a founding member of the Canadian Cable Systems Alliance (CCSA), although the deal with Rogers means Seaside will no longer be a member of the CCSA.
Rogers’ acquisition of Seaside is one of several moves the company has made into rural Canada recently. The company bought rural broadband providers Cable Cable, which operates in Fenelon Falls and Bobcaygeon and Ruralwave, which provides service through Ramara, Scugog, Brock, the City of Kawartha Lakes and the Municipality of Clarington, last year. When Rogers purchased the companies, they were providing service to around 6,000 and 2,400 customers respectively.
Rogers is also currently investing $150 million into a partnership with the federal government, the province of Ontario and the Eastern Ontario Regional Network, to provide wireless connections to 99% of Eastern Ontario homes and businesses.
The deal with Seaside is expected to go through in early September, according to Donham.
“Over the coming months, the companies will share plans to deliver the best possible services and experiences to customers, including bringing faster internet speed options and additional entertainment services such as Rogers Ignite TV,” a Rogers press release reads.
