Bell Aliant (Toronto: BA-UN.TO) is continuing its ongoing expansion of its FibreOP Fiber to the Home (FTTH) service by dedicating CAD $13 million (US $13.49 million) to bring the service to an additional 27,000 residential customers in the New Glasgow and Annapolis Valley areas.
This latest investment brings Bell Aliant’s total FibreOP investment in Nova Scotia to over CAD $83 million (US $83.6 million).
Beginning later this month, customers in New Glasgow, including the Trenton, Westville, Stellarton and Pictou areas, will be able to access the FibreOP service. Annapolis Valley residents that reside in Windsor, Wolfville, Kentville and New Minas areas will get the service beginning in the fall.
Bell Aliant’s latest deployment drive will complement the deployment it conducted in Halifax Regional Municipality in the Spryfield, Beechville, Timberlea and Lakeside communities. The service provider added that the remaining areas including Halifax, Dartmouth, Eastern Passage, Cole Harbour, Sackville, Hammonds Plains, Waverley, Timberlea, Bedford, St. Margaret’s Bay and Lake Echo will be completed by the end of the year.
In addition to expanding the reach of the FibreOP service, Bell Aliant has been providing its existing data and video customers a new incentive by automatically updating them to FibreOP 2.0 with no additional fees.
Given the large financial bet Bell Aliant is making in expanding its IPTV and FTTH network reach, the introduction of FibreOP 2.0 is a way the service provider can add incremental value and keep its customers happy as the novelty of FTTH eventually wears off.