Data centre service provider Telehouse is expanding to Canada with the launch of three locations in downtown Toronto that will act as central meeting points for internet traffic flow.

The company acquired the three sites, located at 151 Front St. W., 250 Front St. W. and 905 King St. W., last year for $1.35 billion.

The data centres will allow hundreds of internet carriers and service providers, cloud providers and content providers to connect by establishing a handoff location within Telehouse's buildings, the company said Monday.

Andy Fenton, director of sales and marketing for Telehouse Canada, said it chose to operate in downtown buildings to make it more efficient and cost-effective for companies relying on high-speed connections to link up with a provider's network.

"If you're a startup gaming company that resides in the [Greater Toronto Area], you have options of where you want to put your compute resources. If you locate them in the north part of the city, it's unlikely that you'd be able to establish the connectivity required to the rest of the planet," Fenton said during a virtual press conference on Monday.

"You would have to somehow make arrangements to meet those carriers in the building that you chose in the northern part of the city."

Telehouse Canada said its data centres are carrier-neutral and provide more than 30 megawatts of IT load. More than half of all Canadian carriers, service providers and content providers already have a presence at Telehouse Canada's data centres.

"We don't pick favourites," said Fenton.

"We operate completely independent of all the carriers. We establish the framework and the rules around how they interconnect within our building and we facilitate those interconnections."

The company said the expansion to Canada is based on growing demand for connectivity services in the country as it transitions to 5G, along with the spread of [Internet of Things] technology.

It also noted the federal government's plan to extend high-speed internet access to 98 per cent of Canadians by 2026 and the entire population by 2030.

"As more devices come online and data volumes continue to explode, that connectivity data centre services that we are providing will be more essential," said Telehouse Canada president and CEO Satoshi Adachi.

He said the company hopes to expand to more locations in downtown Toronto once its current data centres reach capacity. Adachi added the company would consider establishing locations in other major Canadian cities such as Montreal, Vancouver and Calgary if there is demand from local carriers.

Telehouse operates 45 interconnected data centres in more than 10 countries, with 3,000 global customers.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 10, 2024.