Utilities Kingston is a highly specialized and innovative provider of broadband networking services to organizations and businesses in Kingston. Our broadband networking operations initially were founded on a fibre optic network created to link information technology users in Kingston and to interconnect with users around the world. Today, our network spans over 1,000 route kilometres of fibre optic cable and additional coverage provided through our licensed fixed wireless system with services in Napanee and Brockville, and dedicated fibre link to Telecom Ottawa. Together our network provides blanket coverage connecting hundreds of institutional and commercial buildings throughout Frontenac County, Lennox & Addington County, and the Islands. In Kingston we have interconnections to third-party broadband providers across Ontario and every national service provider in Canada.
Utilities Kingston is community owned and community minded. So naturally, we built a Community Broadband Network (CBN) that benefits all constituents. Our vision for the Kingston region is to become a "smart community". A smart community is a community with a vision of the future that involves the use of information and communication technologies in new and innovative ways to empower its residents, institutions and region as a whole. A smart community is connected to the outside world and Utilities Kingston is interconnected with telecom networks which have connectivity to over 90% of Ontario's population.
Our customers represent government, education, health care, industry, and commercial business. Our mandate is to foster the development of network connectivity and increased bandwidth to meet user needs and deliver user applications in the region.
With a team of experienced broadband networking industry professionals on staff, provider partners with specialized expertise, and state-of-the-art facilities, we have the resources in place to offer a full suite of data and Internet services customers need.
What we do
Through Utilities Kingston, companies can interconnect sites to share business critical applications in real time. Our data services are Ethernet and Internet based, carried over our wholly owned, fully redundant, fibre optic backbone network. In addition, Utilities Kingston offers a range of standard services and specialized custom network design and implementation.
Recognized for superior service and reliability, our network availability for data services averages 99.999% with a mean time to repair in less than 4 hours. Our Broadband Networking Group can turn around custom designs in a matter of days and our implementation team's time to provision an order is less than half that of our competitors.
Why our customers choose Utilities Kingston
Stability
A community owned utility corporation, we have been in business in one form or another for over 100-years. So, unlike many of the telecom company start-ups that have come and gone, we are in business for the long term. We have made significant investments in our next-generation network infrastructure and support facilities, such as our data centre and our reliable protected network. Utilities Kingston's growth strategy is conservative in nature and firmly grounded in sound business planning, ensuring profitable long-term growth and the staying power that long-term contracts require.
Reliability
At Utilities Kingston, we offer industry-leading standards for network reliability at 99.999% network availability and 4-hours mean time to repair. We provide a multi-honed Internet backbone, enhancing reliability further through carrier diversity.
Service level options
You'll find the terms of our Service Level Agreements (SLA) to be both reasonable and realistic, clearly spelling out conditions for service in plain language. The level of service quality can be tailored to each customer's service and budgetary requirements. There is no fine print.
Quality of service
Increasingly customers need to set quality of service priorities for each of their Local Area Network (LAN) applications and user groups. Utilities Kingston's fibre optic and wireless network enable customer's to extend this LAN functionality over the Wide Area Network (WAN) using Virtual LAN (VLAN) Ethernet and Virtual Private Network (VPN) standards and security that assure reliable and predictable results. For example, one VLAN could be established for administrative traffic, while another set up for financial traffic, to ensure these mission critical applications aren't contending for network availability with email and Web browsing data packets
Flexibility
Our focused team of entrepreneurial broadband networking professionals looks beyond the obvious to come up with a range of possible solutions to meet your needs. We won't force your requirements into an "off-the-shelf" or "bundled" solution you don't want.
Scalability
Utilities Kingston fibre optic or wireless solutions scale with your business’ growing needs thereby eliminating repeated capital costs and installation delays common with copper-based systems.
Responsiveness
We're not just open to doing custom design; our dynamic organization is built for it. We specialize in customized solutions. As a tightly-knit group of seasoned professional we deliver the fastest provisioning times in the business - reliable quotes typically in under two business days. We pride ourselves on our rapid response to network service issues. We proactively notify customers of any problems and keep in constant communication until the service issue is resolved. Senior management is directly involved in service issues extending beyond two hours, which is your assurance of the high priority we place on maintaining network service.
Network reach
Spanning 800 kilometres, with extensive coverage in the downtown core, the Utilities Kingston Community Broadband Network connects to virtually all-commercial buildings in Kingston. We also have interconnection agreements with utility-affiliated broadband networking companies and carriers in major centres, allowing for seamless service throughout southern Ontario and beyond.
Network diversity
Our fibre-optic cable is physically separate from other broadband networking carriers, reducing risk to network service through physical diversity. And we don't resell other service providers' fibre as our own. We have installed multiple sets of electronics on each of our fibre optic ring backbones to ensure path diversity and electronics redundancy providing only fully "live redundant" system throughout the City.
In-house local expertise
Our broadband networking team lives and works in the greater Kingston area, which means we can respond to your needs immediately. And because we're community-owned, we're also community-minded - meaning Utilities Kingston has community-based responsibilities and commitments giving Kingston a competitive advantage.
Best of breed partners
Utilities Kingston partners with infrastructure and service providers to bring our customers the very best choices available in the market for fibre optic and wireless services. Our Prysmian fibre optic cable is made with the very best in Corning Glass and our core electronics come from the company that runs the Internet, Cisco Systems. If you need hosting, storage area network, voice-over-IP, or disaster recovery services Utilities Kingston partners with national and local providers to deliver the optimal mix of quality and price users demand today.
Competitive pricing
Rather than pricing based on the individual components, we apply a solutions-based approach to project pricing, passing on any economies and all cost-efficiencies to you. Our practice of providing you with a range of solutions at different price points let's you weigh your options and make the best decision for your company. When you compare our combination of quality network solutions and service excellence to others, you’ll find Utilities Kingston's pricing to be highly competitive. In our Service Level Agreement (SLA) we spell out our “best price” policy and we stand behind it.
In summary, here are some of the benefits our Community Broadband Networks offers you
Utilities Kingston offers a full range of networking solutions including:
- Next generation converged IP Network - fully MPLS-enabled network (Multiprotocol Label Switching) to support IP VPN (Virtual Private Networks over IP for secure connections back to the corporate VPN).
- Internet with speeds from 1 Mbps to Optical Carrier Speeds at 10 Gbps.
- Private Line Service - customized solutions built to suit.
- Transparent Ethernet LAN to LAN links for native Ethernet speed and security
- Ethernet VLAN subnets to provide Quality of Service for each application and user group.
- 3DES (Data Encryption Standard) security encryption support.
- Licensed wireless connectivity scalable to 200 Mbps.
- Unlicensed wireless scalable to 100 Mbps.
- Easy to scale connections.
- High availability system.
- Open access to every customer and carrier on the network.
- One-stop local shopping convenience.
- Every dollar we earn is returned to the community.