Rogers acquires Internetworking Atlantic, enhancing its cloud, fiber network capabilities

Rogers Communications has acquired Internetworking Atlantic (IAI), giving the cable operator a suite of business service capabilities to more effectively challenge incumbent telco BCE in the Atlantic Canada region.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The service provider said that the acquisition enables it to offer greater local expertise in the areas of cloud computing, data center services, fiber networking and professional services. 

A key part of this acquisition is the assets it will gain to make it competitive in the business segment. As part of the acquisition, Rogers will gain a data center in Halifax, its sixteenth across the country, and an extensive fiber footprint in Atlantic Canada.

In addition to the network assets, the professional service capabilities it gains from the transaction will enable it to respond to larger and even smaller customers that want to offload their IT functions like network and service management and monitoring.

Ken Marshall, vice president EBU sales, Atlantic Region for Rogers, said in a release that the acquisition is "key to supporting our growing client base, particularly in the large and medium business sectors."

Like other cable MSOs, Rogers has been expanding its business services division. Today, business services make up about 3 percent of its total revenue base, so the service provider has plenty of room to grow that segment.

Rogers continues to expand its business capabilities. Earlier this year, the cable MSO named Cisco executive Nitin Kawale to be president of its Enterprise Business Unit.

Kawale, who just began in the role this week, has been charged with delivering the company's enterprise business strategy and commercial plan covering small to medium businesses (SMBs), enterprises and government customers.

For more:
- see the release

Related articles:
Rogers challenges Bell Canada with plans to roll out 1 Gig to 4M Toronto homes
Bell Canada invests $922M to build out 1 Gbps services in Toronto
Canada's CRTC to measure consumer broadband speeds