BCE Inc.’s Bell Aliant division is about to start construction on a $25 million data centre in Saint John to expand its capacity in New Brunswick.
The carrier said this morning the 24,000 sq. ft., 1 megawatt facility will offer capacity to meet current and future needs of New Brunswick’s information and communications sector.
It should open just over a year from now.
The province will contribute $5 million to the cost.
An estimated 50 new jobs will be created through construction and operation of the centre. The centre will provide critical infrastructure that will keep businesses in the province, help them grow and attract new businesses to New Brunswick, the province and the carrier said.
“Businesses need reliable, secure, scalable data services, and we’re making the necessary infrastructure investments to boost Bell Aliant’s Atlantic Canada data centre offering to meet that need,” Aliant CEO Karen Sheriff said in a statement.
“With support from the Government of New Brunswick we will build one of the most advanced and innovative data centre facilities in North America – and as the ICT sector continues to grow, guarantee our capacity to expand and attract future investment.”
Aliant is the incumbent phone company through much of the Maritimes and says it is the leading data centre provider.
In the last five years, Bell Aliant [TSX: BA] has invested more than $40 million to expand and enhance its data centre service offering with facilities in Saint John ,Halifax, and St. John’s, Nfld. This includes $14 million invested in its existing New Brunswick data centre services.