Page 35 - Canadian Industry Online

VIANETnetworks became a mainstream option throughout Canada,” the company says. Today, Vianet provides services to business and residential customers, using a variety of broadband technolo- gies. The company’s focus has for sev- eral years been on becoming a strong, facilities-based provider, more recently looking at expanding Vianet-owned fibre optic and wireless.The results of Vianet’s efforts to grow in Ontario have been remarkable: the company currently provides ser- vices to over 38,000 internet subscrib- ers, 10,000 telephone subscribers and 1,000 and growing TV subscribers. The company notably has over 95 per centof its subscribers north of the GTA.CIO had the opportunity to dis- cuss Vianet’s past, present, and future strategy with President Will Gasteiger, Director of Network Engineering Luke Gasteiger, and Business Development Director Brian McCullagh.CIO: How did the company first get into internet services?Will Gasteiger: We were in ex- pansion mode since the beginning, offering more and more unique ser- vices to our customers. Since we were already in the computer and telecom business it was a natural fit for us. In those days, however, when we started35