Novus 200 Mbps broadband targeted at ‘younger, high-tech savvy’ customers

Novus Entertainment Inc., a Vancouver-based high-speed Internet provider, will be providing Vancouver residents with Canada’s fastest residential Internet service at 200 Mbps. The fast Internet service will be available in select buildings configured for 200 Mbps technology starting Feb. 12, 2010, and will cost $279.95 per month. According to a press release from the company, the price works out to “one of the lowest costs per megabit per second in Canada.” The 200 Mbps service has a monthly download cap of 500 Gb. Novus also offers a 200 Mbps service for small businesses that has a 700 Gb monthly cap. “It’s targeted at younger, high-tech savvy people who are downloading a lot of movies and high definition content,” Chris Burnes, Novus’ manager of ISP operations, told The Wire Report. But competitor Telus Communications Company, one of Novus’ main competitors in Vancouver, said the Internet will only be as fast as the hardware provides. “There are bottlenecks, and customers only need so much speed. You can only go as fast as their computers and other equipment in their homes,” Shawn Hall, a Vancouver-based spokesman for Telus, told The Wire Report. “The speed that you offer is only as good as the application running over it.” Telus offers a 100 Mbps high-speed Internet service. Shaw Communications Inc. also offers a 100 Mbps “Nitro” Internet at $149 per month. “There’s fundamentally no reason why service providers wouldn’t charge a premium price for premium services,” Mark Goldberg, an analyst with Mark H. Goldberg and Associates, said in an interview. “Generally, for these types of technologies and services the price can only come down.” Goldberg said most consumers in Canada seem to be comfortable with the $30 to $50 range for high speed Internet in their homes. Novus’ 200 Mbps connections will be valuable for connecting professional applications in industries as varied as medical imaging and videogame design. From a residential perspective, Goldberg said the service could be used with shared connections in the high-density living spaces Novus is targetting. Novus provides its services, which also include cable television and VOIP phone service, to high-density dwelling units in Vancouver and the surrounding area. “We currently provide service to about 225 apartment towers predominantly in downtown Vancouver and in Burnaby,” Doug Holman, co-president and CFO of Novus, said in an interview. The large apartment buildings make it cost effective for Novus to provide fibre directly instead of connecting fibre to a node that connects to people’s homes. Goldberg said that urban, high-density residential areas have been getting connected directly to fibre in Canada for the past decade. On Feb. 12, Novus customers who subscribe to the company’s Net 60 package, at 60 Mbps, will be upgraded to their Net 100 package at no extra cost.

Novus 200 Mbps broadband targeted at ‘younger, high-tech savvy’ customers

News | February 5, 2010

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