Eh? RCN Metro Expands to Toronto

RCN Metro, a division of RCN Business (NASDAQ:RCNI, news, filings), is extending its footprint into Canada.  The northeastern metro fiber operator will enter the Toronto market, with a basket of low latency Ethernet services formally scheduled to be available for sale at the end of May.    Looming large of course is the current buyout offer for the parent company RCN by ABRY, and any competing offers – but RCN Metro has continued about its business with both these Canadian plans and the success of the OpenCape stimulus project.

The main rationale for the expansion is Toronto’s position as a major financial market in tandem with those of New York and Chicago.  That makes sense, as does the fact that the low latency financial bandwidth game is probably less populated up north.

Now, I don’t believe RCN Metro is entering Toronto’s metro market and setting up high fiber metro rings.  For now this is just a PoP or two, with connectivity to New York.    But nevertheless this is probably the first time in quite a while that they have looked beyond their traditional territory, and well beyond that of the parent company’s consumer footprint.  More to come?

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Categories: Low Latency · Metro fiber