Eastlink announced Thursday the expansion of its internet services to communities in New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador using the wholesale fibre regime.
The communities in New Brunswick include Moncton, Fredericton, Saint John, Miramichi, Tracadie and Bathurst and the capital city St. John’s in Newfoundland.
Eastlink already has its own mobile network in these communities, which it plans to bundle with these new internet services.
“The current wholesale regulatory framework has caused us to consider different ways of expanding our service footprint where investing in building new networks is no longer viable,” CEO Jeff Gillham said in a press release. “This includes accessing the networks of Canada’s major carriers in areas where we do not have our own, so that we can connect more Canadians to the excellent products and industry-leading customer experience we deliver in thousands of other communities.”
Eastlink said the expansion is part of a broader growth strategy that includes getting to areas where it doesn’t have its own network infrastructure. It’s a strategy that the CRTC is encouraging through a policy of access to broadband networks where companies do not have existing facilities to boost competition.
