Telehouse Canada's three new carrier-neutral data centres, located in Toronto, will serve internet service providers, application service providers and Canada's telecom networks. Servers are seen inside a new Telehouse Canada data centre, in Toronto in an undated handout photo. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Telehouse Canada,
TORONTO - Data centre provider Telehouse is expanding into Canada, launching three new locations in downtown Toronto to serve as key hubs for internet traffic.
The company bought the sites at 151 Front St. W., 250 Front St. W., and 905 King St. W. last year for $1.35 billion. These data centres will enable hundreds of internet carriers, service providers, cloud providers, and content providers to connect within Telehouse's facilities, the company announced on Monday.
Andy Fenton, director of sales and marketing for Telehouse Canada, explained that the downtown locations were chosen to make it easier and more cost-effective for companies needing high-speed connections to access a provider's network.
"If you're a startup gaming company in the Greater Toronto Area, you have various options for your compute resources. However, if you place them in the northern part of the city, establishing the necessary connectivity to the rest of the world would be challenging," Fenton said during a virtual press conference on Monday. "You'd need to arrange to connect with those carriers from the northern building you chose."
Telehouse Canada highlighted that its data centres are carrier-neutral and offer over 30 megawatts of IT load. More than half of all Canadian carriers, service providers, and content providers are already present in Telehouse Canada's data centres.
"We don't play favorites," said Fenton. "We operate independently of all carriers, setting the framework and rules for interconnections within our building and facilitating those connections."
The expansion into Canada is driven by increasing demand for connectivity services, especially as the country transitions to 5G and the Internet of Things (IoT) technology spreads. The federal government's plan to provide high-speed internet access to 98 percent of Canadians by 2026 and the entire population by 2030 also supports this move.
"As more devices come online and data volumes continue to grow, the connectivity and data centre services we offer will become even more crucial," said Telehouse Canada president and CEO Satoshi Adachi.
Adachi mentioned that Telehouse plans to expand to more locations in downtown Toronto once the current data centres reach full capacity. The company is also considering establishing sites in other major Canadian cities such as Montreal, Vancouver, and Calgary if there is demand from local carriers.
Telehouse operates 45 interconnected data centres across more than 10 countries, serving 3,000 global customers.
