TORONTO – Crosslake Fibre is partnering with Metro Optic and Utilities Kingston to build a new fibre-optic cable system from Montreal to Toronto.
The project will be developed by Maple Leaf Fibre Ltd., a joint venture of two unnamed independent Canadian providers of fibre optic network capacity, Crosslake Fibre ULC based in Toronto and Metro Optic based in Montreal. Maple Leaf Fibre has also partnered with Utilities Kingston as strategic investor and development partner to optimize route design and accelerate time to market. Utilities Kingston added that it plans to use the cable system to further enhance its fibre optic services.
According to the news release, the Maple Leaf Fibre cable system will have a terrestrial segment between Montreal, Ottawa, and Kingston, and a submarine segment through Lake Ontario between Kingston and downtown Toronto. It will provide a physically diverse route from other cable systems, have a high fibre count, and offer commercially-available dark fibre between Toronto and Montreal.
Maple Leaf Fibre will own and operate the system as an independent operator and a carrier-neutral provider, offering dark fibre strands to carriers, datacenter operators, ISPs, OTTs, cable MSOs and government-sponsored advanced network projects, among others.
The project has been in development for several months, has material customer backing, and is estimated to be completed during the second half of 2019.
