I called. They were there.

For all the corporate merging and rebranding and offshoring that’s happened to what we now know as Bell Aliant, there are vestiges of Island Tel that show up from time to time, offering the kind of warm, neighbourly service we used to take for granted. Today was one of those days, as Installer Steve was on site here at the St. Paul’s Anglican Parish Hall (Reinventorium 2.0) to move the fiber connection from The Guild (I learned, by eavesdropping, that these are called the “F” and “T” ends, respectively, presumably for “From” and “To”).

Steve was every inch an Island Tel employee, literally and figuratively, and he got me up and running with flexibility, good humour, and technical acumen.

By early afternoon I was in business, with 142 Mbps down and 155 Mbps up when connected by 5 GHz wifi:

And a dizzying 307 Mbps down and 153 Mbps up when wired directly into the Actiontec router:

Twenty-four years ago I created my first website wired to the Internet via a 14.4 kbps bare copper connection to PEINet with a modem on either end; if my calculations are correct, that means my Internet speed is now about 21,000 times faster than it was then.

The move isn’t quite complete yet: there’s still the type drawer to come, and a table, and some shelves. And the bits and bobs I took off the printing press. But I’ve got until the end of the month to do that, so I’m going to take a break from moving-stress, get some work done, and enjoy tomorrow’s snow storm.