Q&A with Ivan Mihaljevic, head of Bell Wholesale and president, BCE Nexxia, a Bell Canada company
Big Interview

Q&A with Ivan Mihaljevic, head of Bell Wholesale and president, BCE Nexxia, a Bell Canada company

Ivan Mihaljevic.jpg

BCE Nexxia President, Ivan Mihaljevic, speaks to Capacity about how BCE Nexxia is bringing leading edge services and transforming business for customers around the world.

What’s new on the horizon for BCE Nexxia?
As a Bell Canada company, BCE Nexxia’s Canadian and global network and services are growing so our customers can too. With our Halifax to London route we deliver seamless connection to our network and services, like our up to 100Gbps Wavelength service, between North America and Europe.

These investments ensure we can meet the growing demands of industry verticals like gaming, media and OTT players to meet their massive, low-latency bandwidth requirements.

We also continue to focus on helping businesses transform their overall communications capabilities. Our success depends on the strength of our customer relationships, knowing their business and helping them grow.

What do some of the key trends in the industry, like data security, mean for to your company?
One of the biggest trends that we’re seeing is an increase in data security requirements.  Governments across the world are increasingly focusing on the use and protection of data, and with this influx, telcos are required to have network security policies and practices in place.

With data security, we have seen an increase in requests to isolate data within an approved country or data sovereignty – particularly from customers serving industries with stringent security and data protection requirements.  We are the only carrier in Canada with two diverse routes that can stay 100% inside the country, so BCE Nexxia is the obvious choice to meet those requirements.  

The demand for increased speed continues and looking at the media and entertainment industries and the endless production of content, it makes sense. The exponential growth of these industries and their need for ultra-low latency and highly reliable connectivity is a perfect example of the need to deliver high-quality networks. 

What is the company’s strategy to achieve these aims?
We continue to expand our fibre footprint in Canada, enabling us to meet ever-growing needs to deliver more data at higher speeds. We also offer triversity – three distinct routes allowing carriers to transmit data with increased reliability and redundancy options. And with our transatlantic routes, we offer a low latency route between Europe and Canada.

Bell Canada owns and operates 28 data centers in addition to partnerships with over 100 data centres across the country.  For cross-border traffic, we have 16 Points of Presence (PoPs) globally. This allows our customers to house mission-critical hardware and applications from coast-to-coast-to-coast.

We also continue to invest in providing the best customer service. Our enhanced Wholesale Self Serve portal allows customers to request service pre-sale and firm orders through one convenient tool, including the capability to map to our customers’ own tools through our newly available Application Programing Interface (API).

We are proud to provide seamless access to Canada’s largest network, enabling our customers to extend their reach into and across Canada while delivering the best customer experience. 

Can you speak to the significant investments in Bell Canada’s fibre network?
Investing in broadband network and services is one of Bell’s 6 Strategic Imperatives. We are leading Canada’s investment and innovation in next-generation networks. Last year, we invested approximately $4 billion in network, service and media innovation – more than any other Canadian communications company.

Bell was the first Canadian wireless provider to achieve Gigabit LTE speeds and 1.5Gbps consumer Internet speeds, the fastest in Canada. We’ve invested significantly to connect cell towers to high-speed fibre backhaul, which, together with mobile small cell technology, has enhanced our networks and advanced preparations for 5G.

As of the first quarter 2019, our combined fibre to the premises (FTTP) and Wireless to the Home (WTTH) Internet service reached approximately 4.8 million homes and businesses across Canada, and is expected to reach more than 5.3 million locations by the end of 2019.

What do some of the key trends in the industry, like data security, mean for to your company? One of the biggest trends that we’re seeing is an increase in data security requirements.  Governments across the world are increasingly focusing on the use and protection of data, and with this influx, telcos are required to have network security policies and practices in place.

With data security, we have seen an increase in requests to isolate data within an approved country or data sovereignty – particularly from customers serving industries with stringent security and data protection requirements.  We are the only carrier in Canada with two diverse routes that can stay 100% inside the country, so BCE Nexxia is the obvious choice to meet those requirements.  

The demand for increased speed continues and looking at the media and entertainment industries and the endless production of content, it makes sense. The exponential growth of these industries and their need for ultra-low latency and highly reliable connectivity is a perfect example of the need to deliver high-quality networks. 

What is the company’s strategy to achieve these aims?
We continue to expand our fibre footprint in Canada, enabling us to meet ever-growing needs to deliver more data at higher speeds. We also offer triversity – three distinct routes allowing carriers to transmit data with increased reliability and redundancy options. And with our transatlantic routes, we offer a low latency route between Europe and Canada.

Bell Canada owns and operates 28 data centers in addition to partnerships with over 100 data centres across the country.  For cross-border traffic, we have 16 Points of Presence (PoPs) globally. This allows our customers to house mission-critical hardware and applications from coast-to-coast-to-coast.

We also continue to invest in providing the best customer service. Our enhanced Wholesale Self Serve portal allows customers to request service pre-sale and firm orders through one convenient tool, including the capability to map to our customers’ own tools through our newly available Application Programing Interface (API).

We are proud to provide seamless access to Canada’s largest network, enabling our customers to extend their reach into and across Canada while delivering the best customer experience. 

Can you speak to the significant investments in Bell Canada’s fibre network?
Investing in broadband network and services is one of Bell’s 6 Strategic Imperatives. We are leading Canada’s investment and innovation in next-generation networks. Last year, we invested approximately $4 billion in network, service and media innovation – more than any other Canadian communications company.

Bell was the first Canadian wireless provider to achieve Gigabit LTE speeds and 1.5Gbps consumer Internet speeds, the fastest in Canada. We’ve invested significantly to connect cell towers to high-speed fibre backhaul, which, together with mobile small cell technology, has enhanced our networks and advanced preparations for 5G.

As of the first quarter 2019, our combined fibre to the premises (FTTP) and Wireless to the Home (WTTH) Internet service reached approximately 4.8 million homes and businesses across Canada, and is expected to reach more than 5.3 million locations by the end of 2019.

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