Entegrus Services Inc., operating as Entegrus Fibre located in St. Thomas Ontario, announced today that it has entered into an agreement to sell Entegrus Fibre to Start.ca, headquartered in London, ON. Start.ca will take over Fibre operations effective July 1, 2022.
“We are confident the team at Start.ca will be able to continue to provide the exceptional service that our customers expect,” stated Jim Hogan, President & CEO of Entegrus. “Start.ca focuses on the customer experience, and has values closely tied to ours. It has been a pleasure serving our Fibre customers in St. Thomas and look forward to seeing this business continue to flourish with the capability and experience of its new owners.”
Founded over 25 years ago in London, Start.ca has grown to play a key role in not only providing the region with internet, phone, business, and TV services, but has become a corporate partner supporting numerous groups including the London Knights, Children’s Hospital, Budweiser Gardens, London Humane Society, and the Upper Thames River Conservation Authority.
“We are grateful to be entrusted with the responsibility of continuing the great work started by Entegrus,” notes Start.ca co-founder Peter Rocca. “While most of our products are already available in St. Thomas, we are eager to bring the benefits of fast, reliable fibre internet to the entire city, and the opportunity to become even more involved in such a great community.”
Current Entegrus business customers in the city will be served by the Start.ca team with no disruption to service. As part of the acquisition, Start.ca has committed to a three-year buildout of fibre services spanning the entire city and service businesses and residents alike. This will give St. Thomas unparalleled fibre internet coverage providing high speeds and quality access.
"The City of St. Thomas is excited that Start.ca will be taking over the Entegrus Fibre business," stated Mayor Joe Preston. "With the support of Entegrus, this will ensure an easy transition. We look forward to working with Start.ca as they expand fibre service to all areas of St. Thomas."
Entegrus took ownership of the St. Thomas Fibre business in 2018 and experienced several years of success while growing its services and community offerings throughout the Downtown Core and industrial areas of St. Thomas.
“Our customer base grew by more than 5 times in the past few years, and with St. Thomas’ rapid growth, further expanding the fibre business to the residential areas of St. Thomas became the logical next step,” continued Hogan. “In order to achieve this growth in a reasonable timeframe it became apparent that we would require a partnership or sale to assist.”
Entegrus will continue to own and operate its Data Cente located in Chatham, ON, and focus resources on its core business of electricity distribution and industry related administrative services, while supporting the electrification of the communities it serves.