(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — Canadian telecommunications provider Telus (www.telus.com) announced on Tuesday it plans to build a new 200,000 square foot data center in British Columbia, Canada.
The announcement follows news in October, when the company confirmed it would invest more than $33 million in building the first Uptime Institute Tier III certified data center in Quebec.
The project is part of a $500 million investment in telecommunications upgrades Telus is implementing across the province.
Telus says it has not decided on the exact location of where it will build the data center.
“This will be the largest of our data centers in B.C. once it’s fully built out and will employ upwards of 200 people,” says company spokesman Shawn Hall. “In these challenging times, many companies are pulling back. We’re expanding.”
Telus currently has two other data centers in the province, including one in Burnaby and another in Victoria.
The company is considering communities across the province for the data center build out, which is projected to open in 2011.
The new data center is projected to be more than twice as energy efficient as the company’s existing data centers and built to an advanced LEED design standard.
The investment capital will also include upgrades to wireless and broadband networks, which is support faster Internet and wireless data transmission speeds, the rollout of digital Telus TV service, and extension of the company’s broadband Internet service to smaller communities that do not currently receive service.
Telus will add antennas to existing wireless towers, as well as build more towers.
These changes are all part of the transition to the new emerging worldwide standard for fourth-generation wireless networks, says Hall.
