Cogeco Data Services pushes network and customer focus as competitive advantage

Cogeco Cable Inc. recently unveiled the new look and feel for its enterprise division, but the newly branded Cogeco Data Services will stick to its knitting by leveraging its network and customer focus as key tools to secure more customers in the enterprise space. Created last year following the $200-million acquisition of Toronto Hydro Telecom, Cogeco Data Services will maintain the same strategy as its predecessor, targeting municipalities, universities, schools and hospitals, or the MUSH sector. President Ian Collins says the company plans to demonstrate that it has all the necessary elements to provide a comprehensive and robust portfolio of services. He points to Cogeco Data Services’ all-optical network that is standards-based and completely separate from the incumbent telco’s network. “What we’re going to continue to do is leverage , but also focus on our service level agreements that we provide versus our competitors, the overall customer focus, customer service attitude that we bring to the table, and leverage our knowledge and experience providing custom solutions,” he tells Network Letter. The ability to provide custom solutions, according to Collins, is a key differentiator for the company and one that enabled it to win the Toronto District School Board contract last December. “We do provide very good custom solutions whereas a lot of our competitors try to shoehorn you into what they’ve got,” he says. “We’re willing to rollup our sleeves with our customers and build them something that really fits what they’re wanting to do.” Future target customers will remain in the MUSH market, but Collins does see the company balancing the mix of customers to some degree with more public sector-type organizations such as the Toronto school board. Cogeco Data Services also has customers in the financial, media and communications markets. While the company has a thriving retail business, Cogeco Data Services is also becoming a more significant provider of wholesale services to competing telcos. Collins describes this business as “vibrant” and lists some of the major enterprise telco providers as customers. Not only are traditional telcos turning to Cogeco Data Services for leasing arrangements, “what we’re seeing is demand for higher quality bandwidth as well,” says Collins, noting the company offers a service level agreement for wholesale customers and has an MPLS infrastructure. “Those kinds of things are becoming attractive to a lot of the carriers who need to provide those types of last mile services to their clients,” he says. Cogeco Data Services is also laying more fibre. Collins says the 10-year, $39-million contract with the Toronto District School Board will enable the company to “essentially double our footprint in the City of Toronto.” Additional network builds are taking place in Mississauga and in the Markham/York regions. The company also owns a high-capacity network in Windsor after it purchased the broadband assets from EnWin Utilities Ltd.

Cogeco Data Services pushes network and customer focus as competitive advantage

News | 04/08/2009 7:21 pm EDT

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