- $1.5 billion Bell investment
connects homes and businesses throughout Canada's biggest city with
the world's best Internet technology
- North America's largest urban
fibre deployment enables Toronto's
global Smart City strategy
- #BellBlueSky lights up Toronto; join the #LightUpthe6ix celebration
with Arkells and City and Colour tonight at
Yonge-Dundas Square
TORONTO, April 5, 2018 /CNW Telbec/ - Bell today announced
that its all-fibre optic network is now on in Toronto, connecting most homes and business
locations throughout Canada's most populous city with the world's
fastest Internet technology, advanced television and media
services, and unparalleled business connectivity on a network built
for the broadband future.
The $1.5 billion Toronto fibre project is part of Bell's
historic reinvention of its network footprint with next-generation
broadband fibre connections. Bell fibre to the premises (FTTP)
service now delivers Internet access speeds of up to 1 gigabit per
second (Gbps) with symmetrical upload and downloads. Speeds will
increase to at least 5 Gbps next year and ultimately to 40 Gbps and
beyond in future.
"The Bell team is proud to light up North America's largest fibre network right
here in Toronto. Bell's all-fibre
network will deliver the best Internet, TV and business
connectivity services to Torontonians while enabling Canada's
largest city to innovate and compete at a global level with
next-generation connectivity," said George
Cope, President and CEO of BCE Inc. and Bell Canada. "We're grateful to the City, its
citizens and all our local partners for their support of this
incredible infrastructure transformation – and we look forward to
celebrating this Canadian milestone in the heart of the city
tonight."
"Toronto is a city always
planning for the future and this is the kind of major technology
infrastructure investment we need to ensure our status as a
world-class Smart City," said Toronto Mayor John
Tory, who attended the 2015 announcement kicking off the
Toronto fibre project. "This
investment in rolling out the latest network connections to both
homes and businesses throughout Toronto is a great example of business
leadership supporting a diverse and innovative economic future for
our city."
Bell began the Toronto project
in 2015, working closely with the City and Toronto Hydro and
employing innovative installation techniques and new heavy
equipment to roll out the network as efficiently and quickly as
possible with minimal disruption to residents and businesses. The
build consists of more than 10,000 kilometres of new fibre
installed to date on approximately 90,000 Bell and Toronto Hydro
poles and underground via more than 10,000 manhole access points,
as well as technology enhancements to 27 Bell central offices
throughout the city.
#BellBlueSky and #LightUpthe6ix at Yonge-Dundas
Square
To celebrate the lighting of Toronto's fibre network, Bell is presenting a
dazzling blue light spectacle and the #LightUpthe6ix event at
Yonge-Dundas Square. #LightUpthe6ix starts at 9 pm with CTV Your Morning co-hosts Ben Mulroney and Anne-Marie Mediwake and performances by
Arkells and City and Colour. For more information
about tonight's event, please follow #BellBlueSky and
#LightUpthe6ix on Twitter and Instagram and visit Bell on
Facebook.
The world's fastest Internet technology – now with
symmetrical speeds
With the Gigabit Fibe Internet service
enabled by Bell fibre to the premises, customers can download a 10
MB photo in a tenth of a second or an entire 3 GB High Definition
movie in just 24 seconds, upload a 500 MB business plan to the
cloud in only 4 seconds or access the latest detailed stock quotes
in the blink of an eye. With low latency, fibre also enhances the
streaming and gaming experience, and with the new fibre-enabled
Whole Home Wi-Fi service, Bell brings the smartest and fastest
Internet access to every room of the home.
With FTTP capability, Bell is also the only major Canadian
Internet provider to offer symmetrical Internet speeds that are
equally as fast whether you are downloading from the web or
uploading to social media. Fully symmetrical speeds are available
at all FTTP Internet speed tiers – 25, 50, 150 and 500 Mbps – up to
a Gigabit, where top upload speed is currently 940 Mbps. Uploads
will increase to a full Gig next year when commercial modem
technology catches up to fibre network capabilities in 2019.
Bell fibre also delivers the innovative Fibe TV service that has
transformed the way Canadians watch television and made Bell the
largest TV provider in the country. With superior picture quality,
Fibe TV offers several exclusive features including the wireless
Whole Home 4K PVR; the Fibe TV app,
which enables full mobile control of the TV experience on the
screen of your choice; Restart, which lets you restart shows in
progress or from the past 30 hours; and Trending, which highlights
the top TV shows in the country at any given time. Also enabled by
Bell fibre, Alt TV is an innovative new way to watch television on
multiple screens with no need for a TV set-top box or
installation.
Bell has hired thousands of new field technicians to connect
Fibe and business fibre services in Toronto and other Bell fibre cities. With
enhanced technician training and new tools such as the Manage Your
Appointment app, which provides customers real-time install
information including details on dispatched technicians and their
estimated arrival time, customer satisfaction with Bell fibre
services installation has reached an all-time high of 95%.
Canada's largest fibre network
At more than 240,000
total kilometres, Bell's fibre optic network is Canada's largest by
far. Across the 4 Atlantic provinces, Québec, Ontario and Manitoba, Bell now serves more than 9.2
million homes and business locations with fibre to the
neighbourhood, and over 3.7 million locations with FTTP connections
– a total expected to grow to 4.5 million by the end of this
year.
Bell all-fibre cities now include St.
John's, Gander,
Summerside, Charlottetown, Halifax, Sydney, Moncton and Fredericton in Atlantic Canada, Québec City, Trois-Rivières,
Saint-Jérôme and Gatineau in
Québec, Cornwall, Kingston, Toronto, North
Bay and Sudbury in
Ontario, and Steinbach and The
Pas in Manitoba, with major
new locations to be announced in 2018. Bell unveiled its Montréal
fibre project in 2017 and last month announced plans to expand
direct fibre connections throughout the GTA/905 region surrounding
Toronto and extending to the US
border.
To learn more about the Toronto
all-fibre network, please visit Bell.ca/Toronto.
Canada's broadband leader
Founded in 1880, Bell is the
country's oldest and largest telecommunications provider and
continues to lead the way in Canadian communications with a
strategy of unparalleled investment in broadband network and
service innovation.
Bell invests more than $4 billion
each year in Canada's next-generation network infrastructure,
delivering world-class fibre connections to the home and business,
Canada's Best National Mobile Network, and the country's largest
network of 28 state-of-the-art data hosting and cloud computing
centres. Bell Media is Canada's premier multimedia company with
leading assets in television, radio, out of home and digital
media.
To learn more, please visit Bell.ca or BCE.ca.
The Bell Let's Talk initiative promotes Canadian mental health
with national awareness and anti-stigma campaigns like Bell Let's
Talk Day and provides significant funding for community care and
access, research and workplace initiatives in every region.
To learn more, please visit Bell.ca/LetsTalk.
Media inquiries:
Nathan Gibson
905-614-9596
nathan.gibson@bell.ca
@Bell_News
Investor inquiries:
Thane Fotopoulos
514-870-4619
thane.fotopoulos@bell.ca
SOURCE Bell Canada