Eastlink introduced their internet 200 package last Friday. It allows users up to 200mbps download speeds, and 10mbps upload speeds. This is great for gamers and internet pirates, but what does 200mps download speed have to do with the average Haligonian?

Darcy MacDonald

Eastlink president and COO Deborah Shaffner says the company has understood how their customers were using the internet for a long time, “As multiple devices are becoming more and more prevalent in the average home, download speed requirements have grown exponentially.” She has a point, there are six devices (Two desktops, Ipod touch, Nintendo Wii, Galaxy Nexus, and a laptop) in my apartment between two users that require the internet. I currently have 20mbps download speeds, when a device is downloading , that speed can drop to 1mbps. With 200mbps bottle necking would be considerably less.

The Internet 200 Bundle isn’t practical for every customer though with a cost of $249.99 a month, and a very unattractive monthly download cap of 250GB. That’s just doesn’t make sense to me, if someone wants internet that fast, chances are they’ll be downloading a lot! This package is starting to look more like a response to Bell’s FiberOp than a triumph for the customer. So if you’re a large family with a ton of wireless devices, Internet 200 just might be for you. Personally, I’ll be sticking to 20mbps without a monthly download cap, and I’ll play my video games on it thank you very much.