Strap yourself in and brace yourself for the jump to hyperspace: Bell Canada plans to boost your internet download speed to a billion bits per second.
“Gigabit internet will be introduced to Laval in 2015, probably by the end of the summer,” Bell Canada spokeswoman Marie-Ève Francœur told The Suburban.
“This is gradually being rolled out where we offer fiber-optic internet service to the home,” she said in an interview.
“If your residence is already served by a Bell fibre-optic residential line, you will be able to have access to the gigabit internet service,” Francœur explained. “You can find out easily whether your home is equipped to do so by visiting the bell.ca web site and entering your address. It will let you know whether it will give you access to the gigabit internet service.”
Some people might have to change their high-speed internet modem to take advantage of the faster speeds, she added.
Modem manufacturers are scrambling to keep pace with the telecom giant. Their current models will only let you download at speeds up to a maximum of 940 million bits per second. That’s fast enough to permit you to download an entire high-definition movie in about seven seconds.
New modems that can take full advantage of the gigabit internet service’s unparalleled speed ought to be available in 2016.
“Once we launch the service in Laval, residents who qualify can contact us and our agents will walk them through all the requirements for gigabyte internet,” Francœur said.
Bell announced last week that its gigabit internet launch in Toronto that the service will create 2,400 jobs there, and estimated that it will lead to the direct and indirect creation of some 8,000 jobs and $2.5 billion in investment in Ontario during the next two years.
There’s no word yet as to whether a similar expansion of Bell’s existing fibre optic network in Laval, will create a proportionate number of new jobs and investment here to support the carrier’s enlarged Quebec network.
