As part of Eastlink's continued investment in its extensive coast-to-coast fibre optic network, Eastlink announced today that it will begin to deliver Gigabit Internet services, starting in Atlantic Canada (Halifax) next month.
"For years, we have been providing Gigabit speeds and higher to our larger business customers through our advanced business network," says Lee Bragg, Eastlink CEO. "With real-time entertainment like video streaming, music, gaming and emerging connected home technologies driving exponential Internet growth, it's time to bring this kind of Internet service to a wider range of customers, including residential customers."
Working hand in hand with technology partners, Cisco Systems and ARRIS, Eastlink is leveraging its latest Internet investment of $20M in its Fibre Optic network and advanced network technologies to deliver the Internet experience its customers expect today and well into the future.
Eastlink will begin to deploy its new Gig Internet service next month with speeds up to 950 Mbps in Atlantic Canada, and plans to expand across the country in 2016.
"This positions us well to take advantage of the latest in Internet advancements including Gigasphere [otherwise known as DOCSIS 3.1], which we expect to be available in the marketplace early in 2016," explains Mr. Bragg.
Bernadette Wightman, President of Cisco Canada, describes Eastlink as a consistent leader in the industry. "Eastlink is one of our most innovative and aggressive partners, when it comes to ensuring they are ahead of the Internet adoption curve," says Ms. Wightman. "Customers want to be aligned with providers that are always thinking ahead. Eastlink's track record speaks for itself; over the past decade, Eastlink has set the pace for Internet performance in urban, suburban and 100's of rural communities across the country."
According to Cisco Systems, it is estimated that there will be over 50 Billion devices connected to the Internet by 2020 as the mega trend "the Internet of things" takes hold. Everything from hand-held personal devices, thermostats, fridges, door locks, cars, fridges, entertainment systems, our clothing and more is expected to be connected.
Eastlink's investment in Internet technologies goes beyond the pipe into people's homes and businesses. One example is Eastlink's new connected home and business automation solution – Winston – which is already enabling customers to control lights, temperature, door locks, alarm monitoring, employee access, image and video capture and more, all from a mobile device.
"We are consistently impressed with Eastlink's ability to innovate to deliver state of the art services to their customers," says Bruce McClelland, President, Network & Cloud and Global Services, ARRIS Group. "We consider them a leader in the industry."
Eastlink's deployment of Gig Internet will begin in the Halifax area in November 2015.
