Bell Gigabit Fibe Bringing Gig Internet to Toronto Residents

TORONTO — Bell Canada announced it will deliver gigabit Internet speeds to homes and businesses across the city of Toronto with the new Gigabit Fibe service. Coupled with Bell's single largest infrastructure expansion project, creating approximately 2,400 direct jobs and significant economic and innovation benefits, Gigabit Fibe will bring North America's fastest Internet speeds to more than a million Toronto premises starting with approximately 50,000 homes and businesses that will have first access this summer.

"Bell Canada has served Toronto since 1880, and we're proud to continue our legacy of communications leadership by bringing the fastest Internet speeds to consumers and businesses across Canada's largest city. Gigabit Fibe is a revolutionary broadband communications service that puts Toronto out front as a world-class Smart City," said George Cope, president and CEO of Bell Canada. "Network leadership has been the bedrock of Bell's rapid transformation in recent years. Our existing high-speed fiber network is already driving fast Fibe TV and broadband Internet growth, and Canada's largest 4G LTE wireless network is supporting tremendous increases in smartphones and mobile data usage. Gigabit Fibe is key to accelerating Bell's leadership in home and business Internet services, and to supporting widespread access, innovation and economic benefits for Canadians into the future."

Gigabit Fibe to Launch in Ontario, Québec and the Atlantic Provinces
Part of Bell's plan to invest $20 billion in its broadband fiber and wireless networks across Canada by the end of 2020, Gigabit Fibe will ultimately be available to 1.1 million homes and businesses across the city. Bell will launch Gigabit Fibe in other cities in Ontario, Québec and the Atlantic provinces as soon as this summer in some locations. As with all other gigabit services, like the Google Fiber project in some US cities, service will initially be available at a maximum 940 Mbps and rise to a full 1000 Mbps or faster in 2016 as modem equipment suppliers catch up to gigabit speeds.

"Bell's existing fiber network already delivers both the best television experience anywhere with Fibe TV and fast broadband Internet. With Gigabit Fibe, we're boosting Internet speeds to blazing fast levels that open up incredible new online opportunities for consumers and business users alike," said Rizwan Jamal, president of Bell Residential Services. "Consumers can share and access the great content they want faster than ever before — with Gigabit Fibe, you can download 100 photos or songs in three seconds, an entire HD movie in seven seconds, or the whole 14 GB of Orphan Black in HD – shot right here in Toronto – in less than two minutes. Small businesses and major enterprises, technology innovators, manufacturers, resource companies, governments, healthcare providers, educators and utilities, all will have incredible new opportunities to share ideas and opportunities, and take full advantage of next-generation cloud data solutions such as Bell's national network of data hosting centers, including three state-of-the-art facilities in Toronto."

A Public Partnership without Public Funding
Fully funded by Bell, Gigabit Fibe in Toronto is supported by the company's single largest infrastructure buildout. Bell's long-term agreements with Toronto Hydro to share utility poles across the city are accelerating the Gigabit Fibe project's efficiency and speeding up deployment. When the project is complete, Bell teams will have upgraded 27 Bell Central Office facilities across the city and installed over 9,000 kilometres of new fiber, both underground via more than 10,000 manholes and on approximately 80,000 Bell and Toronto Hydro poles around the city. Approximately 70 percent of the network will be aerial and 30 percent underground.

"Bell stays ahead of the game in communications by investing the capital and planning required, building the best technology teams and working with great partners, like the city of Toronto and Toronto Hydro in the Gigabit Fibe project," said Stephen Howe, Bell's chief technology officer. "Our engineers, technicians and field crews are energized about this incredible undertaking and we're working cooperatively with our partners, suppliers and contractors, residents and businesses to make Toronto North America's gigabit leader as quickly and efficiently as possible."

Bell suppliers and contractors working on the Gigabit Fibe buildout in Toronto include Aecon, AGIR, Alcatel-Lucent, Asplundh, Corning, Davey Tree, Distinct Tech, Effigis, Expertech, Huawei, Infrastructel, MMM, Somerville, Sentrex, Telecon Group, Teranet and TRJ Telecom.

Bell's industry-leading capital investments in Canada's newest broadband networks have a significant positive economic effect, enabling businesses to better innovate, compete and create high value jobs with the fastest Internet access. Including 2,400 direct jobs created in Toronto, Bell estimates Gigabit Fibe Toronto will create more than 8,000 direct and indirect jobs in Ontario and $2.5 billion in economic activity over the next two years.