Kincardine council is heading back to the negotiating table with Eastlink.
Mayor Anne Eadie told council she had a brief conversation with representatives of Bragg Communications, the parent company of Eastlink, and they confirmed they remain interested in purchasing Bruce Telecom.
Eadie says council will now bring their consultants back to the table to see if issues raised by the Competition Bureau can be satisfied and if a new deal can be worked out.
Eastlink backed out of the original $26-million deal for Bruce Telecom last summer when the Competition Bureau brought forward concerns about a lack of competition for Internet services in the Port Elgin and Paisley areas if the deal were to go through.
Eadie says working through that portion of Bruce Telecom's business will make the negotiations more complicated.
However, she points out council is not committing to selling Bruce Telecom to Eastlink at this point.
"The original deal is dead, and so we're just exploring the alternatives. The new council has decided that they want to explore the options and see what's possible, and then we'll have to revisit our options again," says Eadie.