Following an earlier agreement it reached with the New Brunswick to invest $60 million in a 70,000-subscriber Fiber to the Home network, Bell Aliant has officially launched its FibreOp residential service in Fredericton, New Brunswick. Bell Aliant says the new service will enable users to get 35 Mbps Internet download speeds and 10 Mbps upload speeds. FibreOp is not just about data, however. Its new FTTH service also will offer subscribers a suite of digital TV service that includes HDTV and PVR functions with more than 200 channels, including more than 90 music channels and 45 HD channels.
Currently offered in parts of Fredericton, Bell Aliant plans to deploy the service throughout the rest of the Fredericton and Saint John area by the middle of next year. Customers can buy any of the fiber-based services on either a standalone basis or in a triple play bundle set with voice, Internet and TV.
Deep fiber last mile networks are nothing new to Bell Aliant. Already, Bell Aliant offers Fiber to the Node (FTTN) services in its existing markets to 240,000 customers. Bell Aliant claims that making the financial case for Fiber to the Home in new markets is similar to what it pays for FTTN in its existing brownfield markets because its wiring infrastructure is primarily aerial and the population density is relatively low.
