FlexNetworks Delivers High-Performance Fibre for Canadian Commercial Growth

FLEXNETWORKS HAS BUILT an extensive commercial fibre-optic network in the National Capital Region over the past 11 years, including a significant footprint in the Kanata North technology corridor.

Ottawa is very competitive in terms of the number of carriers it has in this space and FlexNetworks offers businesses a quality, affordable option, says Chief Executive Officer Gianni Creta.

“A lot of businesses today are looking for alternatives to ensure continuous uptime in their operations. They don’t want to put all their eggs into one basket. They want to have some alternative players. And I think that’s where we provide a tremendous value add being either a primary or secondary connection,” he elaborates.

Three years after establishing the business in Ottawa, FlexNetworks extended services into Saskatchewan by providing fibre-optic network services to the province’s two largest cities, Regina and Saskatoon, and to outlying rural areas.

“Since then, we’ve continued to grow our investment within Saskatchewan. We’ve built over 2,000 kilometres of fibre network within the province, invested probably over $100 million, and our presence has been growing. We have also been fortunate to partner with the federal government on some grants on the way to help us build the fibre network. Given the vastness and demographics of Canada, it becomes costly to extend fibre to a lot of the remote rural areas,” he adds.

Over the past five years, FlexNetworks has also built an extensive commercial network in Winnipeg, largely assisted by two major acquisitions that have provided it with new synergies.

Acquiring Fastnet Communications in 2020 gave FlexNetworks access to existing clients and some underlying assets that helped the company extend its local service offering. The subsequent addition of Fiber.CA in 2021, a fibre provider, provided a further boost in building up the Winnipeg market.

In 2021, FlexNetworks acquired Redbird Communications, based in Saskatoon. “Redbird was primarily a wireless Internet service provider delivering Internet connectivity to rural remote communities using wireless technology. We saw the opportunity to leverage their relationships with their customers and what they had done within the market, as well as the trust they built up to further invest from a fibre perspective,” says Creta.

“We utilized that acquisition, and rolled them into our organization as a whole, and also used them to extend our fibre assets and fibre network to the residential community,” he adds, noting that Redbird’s understanding of the market, and their relationship with the communities was able to continue and build off of FlexNetworks’ core fibre network.

“Our residential offering is a full fibre connection straight into your home. We’re building a high availability, high bandwidth, next generation full fibre network that allows every one of our customers a stronger, more dependable connection. It’s ready for how people live and work today, and built for what’s next,” says Creta.

FlexNetworks is not using any legacy infrastructure. Nor are there any copper services, or other services like telephony or content, and that is by choice, given where the company sees the market going, he elaborates.

“A lot of consumers want to choose how they consume content, how they access the Internet, and how they want to utilize that underlying network. Our goal is to provide them with the freedom to choose the best option and the capability to be able to access that,” Creta adds.

FlexNetworks has also been noted for the speed and the quality of its data. The company, which can provide residential speeds of up to 10 gigabits per second and service to businesses well above that, was recognized in PC Magazine as the fastest gaming Internet service provider in Canada for 2025. But, Creta emphasizes, what is most important is the quality of the data being transmitted across the network, which can be measured through metric testing such as latency and packet loss and jitter. “We scored at the top end of those in independent tests,” he notes.

FlexNetworks’ value proposition, as it bridges the digital divide within Canada, is the company’s ability to deliver within both the residential and commercial markets as an alternative to established incumbent service providers in Ottawa, Winnipeg, and Saskatchewan, says Creta.

Furthermore, some of FlexNetworks’ commercial customers require interconnectivity between multiple locations, and so the company’s Ethernet network allows their offices to communicate in a reliable and quick fashion.

On the residential side, among multi- dwelling unit clients, “We service condominium apartment type complexes, bringing connectivity into those buildings, and we’re extending it to every unit within,” Creta says.

FlexNetworks prides itself on helping to connect Canadians, including clients in rural areas where vast distances need to be bridged, with its fibre-optics technology and services.

“Our goal is to be able to create a country where fibre access is ubiquitous across the board, because it’s the best way forward in terms of next generation technology,” says Creta.

“That’s how we see ourselves bridging the digital divide. It’s not just about the speed, it’s about ubiquitous access across the board,” he stresses.