Bell acquires Québec's leading data hosting provider

Hypertec Availability Services hosting division expands Bell's National Data Hosting Services portfolio for government and corporate clients, strengthens cloud computing capabilities

MONTREAL, Oct. 5 /CNW Telbec/ - Bell today announced its purchase of Hypertec Availability Services' hosting division, the leading top-tier data hosting provider in Québec. The acquisition provides Bell with more than 100,000 square feet (9,290 square metres) of hosting space in a state-of-the-art Montréal data centre, enhancing Bell's ability to provide co-location and managed data centre services for corporate and public sector clients.

"Bell's acquisition of our newest data centre builds on our National Data Hosting Services portfolio's ability to deliver secure and reliable mission-critical communications services to government and corporate clients in our data centres and across our high-performance fibre networks - while also enabling the next generation of cloud computing services," said Stéphane Boisvert, President, Bell Business Markets. "It's an acquisition that underscores Bell's commitment to investing in broadband networks and services and to the continued expansion of Québec's information technology infrastructure."

Bell is investing heavily in broadband fibre and wireless infrastructure in Québec and right across Canada, with capital expenditures of approximately $3 billion in 2010 alone. This includes innovative projects such as an extensive Fibre to the Home (FTTH) rollout in Québec that is Canada's largest, bringing super high-speed fibre access to homes and businesses across the capital region.

The newly acquired Montréal facility joins Bell's other data centres across Canada that ensure exceptional availability, security and compliance for customers' critical information technology needs - reducing their cost of operations, mitigating business risks and enabling better strategic focus for in-house IT resources. Bell data centres provide protected and redundant power, cooling and security systems interconnected with Bell's industry-leading broadband fibre network, ensuring high application performance and reliability.

"Our new Montréal data centre will provide Bell corporate and government customers with co-location, managed hosting and next-generation cloud computing services, such as software as a service and hosted unified communications," said Mr. Boisvert. "And as with Bell's entire National Data Hosting Services portfolio, the new centre will be supported by the largest and most capable team of information and communications technology professionals in the country."

Bell's National Data Hosting Services portfolio offers many advantages for government and business customers with mission-critical hosting and network requirements:

    
    High availability and security

    - Fault-tolerant data centres on par with any in the world, built for
      security and uptime with minimum N+1 architecture
    - 24/7 infrastructure monitoring and management by Bell's Data and
      Network Operations Centres
    - Strong service performance, repair intervals and service availability
      service-level agreements
    - Data security and storage solutions that comply with regulatory and
      legal requirements

    Cost effectiveness

    - Maximum operational savings thanks to server and application
      centralization as well as consolidated networking
    - Avoidance of client in-house capacity shortages or costs to build
      excess capacity for future needs - elastic hosting solutions provide
      quick and easy scalability as needed
    - Reduction of capital purchases, ongoing investment and hardware
      maintenance costs
    - Predictable monthly rates including space, power, connectivity and
      technical support on an as-used basis
    - Assurance that power is never oversubscribed because every customer's
      power consumption in every cabinet is constantly monitored

    Improved strategic focus for in-house IT resources

    - Bell's 24/7 staff and Help Desk provide day-to-day infrastructure
      management and administration
    - Bell's engineering group continuously available to support customer IT
      teams
    

About Bell

Headquartered in Montréal, Bell is Canada's largest communications company, providing consumers and business with solutions to all their communications needs, including Bell Mobility wireless, high-speed Bell Internet, Bell TV satellite television and Bell Fibe TV, Bell Home Phone local and long distance, and Bell Business Markets IP-broadband and information and communications technology (ICT) services.

The Bell Mental Health Initiative is a multi-year charitable program that promotes mental health across Canada via the Bell Let's Talk anti-stigma campaign and support for community care, research and workplace best practices. To learn more, please visit bce.ca/mentalhealth. Bell is wholly owned by BCE Inc. (TSX, NYSE: BCE). For information on Bell's products and services, please visit www.bell.ca. For corporate information on BCE, please visit www.bce.ca.

For further information: Media inquiries, Marie-Eve Francœur, Bell Media Relations, 514 391-5263, [email protected]; Investor inquiries: Thane Fotopoulos, Bell Investor Relations, 514 870-4619, [email protected]