Bell Canada buys Quebec data center

TORONTO, CANADA: Bell Canada, the country's largest communications company, said on Tuesday it has bought a data center in Montreal that more than doubles its capacity to handle corporate and government information.

Bell, the main operating division of BCE Inc, said the center also allows it to further increase its hosting capacity, ahead of what it expects will be growing demand for cloud computing.

Cloud computing refers to the provision of shared resources, software and information to computers and other devices on demand via the Internet.

Bell said it bought the center through its acquisition of Hypertec Availability Services' hosting division, a top-tier data hosting provider in the province of Quebec. It did not disclose financial details of the deal but said it is spending around C$3 billion ($2.5 billion) on broadband fiber and wireless infrastructure in 2010.

The center houses 36,500 square feet of space that can host customers' computer server needs and can expand to 105,000 square feet, according to Bell's president for business markets, Stephane Boisvert.

"Depending on the volume and the demand out there we'll build accordingly," Boisvert said in an interview. "We think this is a double-digit business no doubt."

Data centers house servers and allow organizations to cut costs by managing their IT needs remotely.

Bell has 72,000 square feet of hosting space including Hypertec and four other data centers in Calgary and Ontario and can ramp that up to 182,000 square feet pending demand, Boisvert said. Hypertec has 45 existing customers across a range of industries.

He said the hosting centers they will be supported by Bell's high-speed broadband networks.