Canadian cableco Shaw Communications yesterday agreed to purchase US-based data centre provider ViaWest for USD830 million plus USD370 million debt from private equity firm Oak Hill Capital Partners, the Wall Street Journal reports. Shaw’s CEO Brad Shaw, explaining the motivation for the cross-border purchase, said: ‘Demand [for data centres] continues to outstrip supply,’ and he added that Shaw sees opportunities to connect its existing data centres in Alberta with ViaWest sites to cross-sell s...

US-based private equity firm Providence is said to be considering acquiring a stake in Canadian cellco Globalive Wireless (Wind Mobile), Bloomberg reports, quoting sources with knowledge of the matter, who requested anonymity due to the information being private. Wind – which is Canada’s fourth largest mobile operator by customers yet has less than a 3% share of the market – is looking to attract a new owner or merger partner, as its main backer, Russian-controlled Vimpelcom, has drastically sca...

Bell Aliant has reported that it is investing around CAD70 million (USD65 million) to expand its ‘FibreOP’ fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) network to 125,000 additional premises in seven Quebec communities, offering very high speed internet and high definition IPTV alongside home phone service initially in Alma, Saguenay (including Chicoutimi, Jonquiere and La Baie), Saint-Felicien, Thetford Mines and Victoriaville, with additional communities including Riviere-du-Loup and Roberval to be added by year-...