Primus Canada, PTGi's (NYSE: PTGI) Canadian subsidiary, will give more businesses in its serving areas the option to purchase its Ethernet over Copper (EoC)-based BEX (Business Ethernet Xtended) service.
Driven by what it says is greater demand for the service that it initially launched last March targeting SMBs, BEX is now available in Vancouver, Edmonton, Brampton and London, Canada. Serving a total of seven markets, Primus plans bring BEX to four additional Ontario cities, including Brantford, Hamilton, Kingston, and Windsor over the next few months.
Similar to efforts by U.S.-based EoC service providers such as MegaPath, CenturyLink (NYSE: CTL), and Windstream (Nasdaq: WIN), Primus' EoC service is addressing the fiber availability gap that also exists in Canada.
In Canada, an estimated three-quarters of Canadian businesses can't get access to fiber-based Ethernet services. With BEX they'll be able to get an up to 20 Mbps symmetrical Ethernet connection.
AJ Byers, executive vice president of Primus Business Services, said that he has seen demand ramp for the service since it was launched last year.
"We have seen greater than a 250 percent increase in demand for our BEX technology over the last six months, which is phenomenal for a service that launched a little over one year ago," he said. "At the same time, we have had many companies who are outside of our current footprint letting us know that they want access to the service."
Already, the service expansion has provided a benefit to Unison Health and Community Services, a non-profit, community-based organization, which is using Primus BEX to connect two of its locations to each other and the communities it serves.
For more:
- see the release
Special report: Stepping to the EoC plate: Incumbent telcos take a swing
Related articles:
Primus sells Australian unit, explores wider corporate options
iiNet and Primus establish wholesale agreements with NBN Co.
Canada's CRTC to discuss usage based billing, broadband pricing
NBN Co. unveils first retail ISP customers, but Optus and TPG are glaring omissions
Primus bolsters SIP strategy by acquiring Unlimitel