- The new Gigabit Fibe service from Bell will deliver the fastest
Internet speeds available
- Gigabit Fibe to be rolled out to 1.1 million Toronto homes and businesses; 50,000 premises
will have access this summer
- Bell investing $1.14 billion in
Canada's biggest gigabit infrastructure project
- Close cooperation with Toronto Hydro increases project speed
and efficiency
- Bell contributing Gigabit Fibe service to United Way Toronto's
Community Hubs initiative
- Other cities getting Gigabit Fibe service as soon as this
summer; fibre infrastructure expansion ongoing in Ontario, Québec and Atlantic Canada
TORONTO, June 25, 2015 /CNW Telbec/ - Bell Canada today announced it will deliver
gigabit-per-second 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 Chief Executive Officer of Bell
Canada and BCE Inc. "Network leadership has been the bedrock
of Bell's rapid transformation in recent years. Our existing
high-speed fibre 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."
"As we plan for the future, we need to invest in our city and
put in place the infrastructure required to keep Toronto competitive," said Mayor John Tory. "The rollout of Gigabit Fibe is a
testament to Bell's commitment to investing in Toronto. This is Canada's largest gigabit
Internet infrastructure project, creating 2,400 jobs for our city.
I'd like to thank Bell Canada for
investing in Toronto and
delivering services that meet the needs of today and the
future."
Part of Bell's plan to invest $20
billion in its broadband fibre 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 Megabits per second and rise to a full 1000 Megabits
per second or faster in 2016 as modem equipment suppliers catch up
to gigabit speeds. To learn more about Gigabit Fibe, please visit
Bell.ca/Fibe.
"Bell's existing fibre 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 3 seconds, an entire HD movie
in 7 seconds, or the whole 14 GB of Orphan Black in HD – shot right
here in Toronto – in less than 2
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 centres, including 3
state-of-the-art facilities in the City
of 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 fibre, both underground via
more than 10,000 manholes and on approximately 80,000 Bell and
Toronto Hydro poles around the city. Approximately 70% of the
network will be aerial and 30% 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 is building Gigabit Fibe on a
neighbourhood-by-neighbourhood basis and will advise residents in
advance if Bell crews may need to access their property.
Torontonians can visit Bell.ca/Toronto for updates and Gigabit Fibe
availability. Bell will have a dedicated customer service process
for Gigabit Fibe and work with Toronto's 3-1-1 information service to answer
any questions about the infrastructure project.
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 2 years.
Gigabit support for the United Way
As part of its
ongoing support for the United Way Toronto Community Hub
initiative, Bell will contribute Gigabit Fibe service to each the
charity's city-wide Community Hubs initiative, including Access
Point on the Danforth, Bathurst-Finch, Dorset
Park, Jane Street,
Mid-Scarborough, Rexdale Community Hub, Victoria Park Hub, and the
planned Bridletowne Neighbourhood Centre serving the Steeles
L'Amoreaux community.
United Way Community Hubs are focused on building healthy
neighbourhoods, and currently host more than 50 community
organizations. The Hubs bring together targeted health and social
services with essential mixed-use community space under one
roof.
"There's no question that in 2015, the most powerful access to
online resources and services is a major factor in supporting
opportunity and healthier, more vibrant communities," said
Susan McIsaac, President and CEO of
United Way Toronto. "Bell and United Way Centraide are close
partners here in Toronto and
across Canada. Welcoming our Community Hubs into the infrastructure
that will make Toronto one of the
world's smartest cities again demonstrates Bell's genuine community
spirit and desire to make a positive difference in the lives of
Canadians."
Bell matches employee donations to United Way Centraide across
Canada. In 2014, the Bell team and Bell Let's Talk gave more than
$1.1 million to United Way Toronto
alone, supporting projects such as the United Way mental health
crisis response agencies that answer almost 360,000 calls each
year. In 2012, George Cope served as
Chair of the United Way Toronto Campaign Cabinet, which led that
year's charity campaign to record donations of $117 million.
Bell remains Canada's broadband leader
Canada's
largest Internet service provider, Bell serves approximately 3.3
million total high-speed Internet customers. Bell will make Gigabit
Fibe available in other cities across Ontario, Québec and the Atlantic provinces
over the next year, some also as early as this summer. Cities
primed for Gigabit Fibe include Québec City, locations in Montréal,
Laval, Blainville, Gatineau, Joliette, Saint-Jérôme, Chicoutimi, Sherbrooke, Vaudreuil/Valleyfield, St.
John's, Charlottetown,
Halifax, Saint John, Fredericton, Moncton, Sudbury, North
Bay, Peterborough and
Kingston. Gigabit Fibe
infrastructure rollouts are under way in even more cities and
service availability will be announced over the next year.
In April, Bell unveiled plans to invest $20 billion across the country from 2015 to the
end of 2020 to continue expanding its broadband fibre and 4G LTE
mobile networks, one of the largest capital projects in any
industry in Canada.
Investing more than anyone in Canada's modern communications
infrastructure and R&D, in urban, rural and remote locations
including the North, Bell is dedicated to ensuring Canada remains
competitive at the global level in next-generation broadband
communications.
About Bell
Bell is Canada's largest communications
company, providing consumers and business customers with wireless,
TV, Internet, home phone and business communications services. Bell
Media is Canada's premier multimedia company with leading assets in
television, radio, out of home, and digital media. Bell is wholly
owned by Montréal's BCE Inc. (TSX, NYSE: BCE). For more
information, please visit Bell.ca.
The Bell Let's Talk initiative promotes Canadian mental health
with national awareness and anti-stigma campaigns, like Clara's Big
Ride for Bell Let's Talk and Bell Let's Talk Day, and significant
Bell funding of community care and access, research, and workplace
initiatives. To learn more, please visit Bell.ca/LetsTalk.
CAUTION CONCERNING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
Certain
statements made in this news release are forward-looking
statements. These statements include, without limitation,
statements relating to the proposed deployment in the City of Toronto and other cities of the Bell
Gigabit Fibe service, the value of the planned investment, the
expected timeframe of the network deployment, the number of jobs
and economic benefits expected to result from the network
deployment, the value of capital investments expected to be made by
Bell Canada from 2015 to the end of
2020, and other statements that are not historical facts.
Forward-looking statements are typically identified by the words
assumption, goal, guidance, objective, outlook, project,
strategy, target and other similar expressions or future or
conditional verbs such as aim, anticipate, believe, could,
expect, intend, may, plan, seek, should, strive and
will. All such forward-looking statements are made pursuant
to the 'safe harbour' provisions of applicable Canadian securities
laws and of the United States
Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.
Forward-looking statements, by their very nature, are subject to
inherent risks and uncertainties and are based on several
assumptions, both general and specific, which give rise to the
possibility that actual results or events could differ materially
from our expectations expressed in or implied by such
forward-looking statements. As a result, we cannot guarantee that
any forward-looking statement will materialize and we caution you
against relying on any of these forward-looking statements. The
forward-looking statements contained in this news release describe
our expectations as of June 25, 2015
and, accordingly, are subject to change after such date. Except as
may be required by Canadian securities laws, we do not undertake
any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements
contained in this news release, whether as a result of new
information, future events or otherwise. The proposed Bell Gigabit
Fibe network deployment, and the expected timeframe, are subject to
risks including, without limitation, the timely supply of parts and
equipment, and the costs thereof, by suppliers and contractors.
Accordingly, there can be no assurance that the proposed network
deployment will be completed or that it will be completed within
the expected timeframe. There can also be no assurance that the
employment and economic benefits expected to result from the
proposed network deployment will be realized. The value of capital
investments expected to be made by Bell
Canada from 2015 to the end of 2020 assumes that capital
investments will continue at current levels. However, there can be
no assurance that such investment levels will be maintained with
the result that the value of actual capital investments made by
Bell Canada during such period could
materially differ from current expectations.
The proposed Bell Gigabit Fibe deployment could also be impacted
by our operational risks. Please refer to BCE's 2014 Annual
MD&A dated March 5, 2015
(included in the BCE 2014 Annual Report) and BCE's 2015 First
Quarter MD&A dated April 29,
2015, for a detailed description of such risks, filed by BCE
with the Canadian provincial securities regulatory authorities
(available at Sedar.com) and with the U.S. Securities and Exchange
Commission (available at SEC.gov). These documents are also
available at BCE.ca.
SOURCE Bell Canada