Cogeco Acquires the Niagara Regional Broadband Network

Montreal-based Cogeco has announced it has acquired the municipally-owned Niagara Regional Broadband Network (NRBN), which offers telecom services in the Niagara region.

According to Cogeco, the City of Niagara Falls and the Town of Niagara-on-the-Lake, will both stay on as minority shareholders in the company.

“We are delighted to welcome NRBN to the Cogeco family,” said Philippe Jetté, President and Chief Executive Officer of Cogeco Inc. and Cogeco Communications Inc., in a statement on Monday. “Bolstered by the core values that we share, we look forward to enhancing and expanding the services we offer to businesses and residents of the Niagara Region and to assisting NRBN take their business to the next level and contribute even more to the local economy.”

“Having the best fast, reliable Internet service in Niagara is critical to our Region’s success. We wanted to ensure that this move will maximize the network NRBN created to benefit the residents of Niagara. This is a long-term move that will position Niagara at the leading edge of high quality Internet services with Cogeco in a technologically advancing market,” said Jim Diodati, Mayor of Niagara Falls and Board Chair of NRBN, in a statement.

The NRBN offers fibre internet, TV and home phone services and is now under the control of Cogeco. The NRBN has been operating since 2004 and twenty years later it has sold off the majority of its operations. This puts less pressure on taxpayers to maintain services, but also puts its telecom services into the hands of a bigger player that could increase prices whenever it wants.