Internet with speedy 10 Gbps offered downtown

A Montreal-based service provider says it’s now offering the fastest residential Internet connection speeds available anywhere in Canada.

ColbaNet customers in certain parts of downtown Montreal will now be able to get download speeds of up to 10 gigabits-per-second (Gbps), the company said on Tuesday.

That’s equal to the fastest residential Internet speeds anywhere in North America, says Joseph Bassili, the company’s president and founder.

Currently, the fastest speed offered in Montreal by Bell is one Gbps. Vidéotron’s fastest connection caps out just below that.

The average Internet connection speed in Montreal is 16.98 megabits-per-second, according to a 2016 survey conducted by the Canadian Internet Registration Authority, that’s almost 600 times slower than the 10 Gbps speed.

But, with monthly costs between $300 and $500, this ultrahigh-speed connection isn’t for everyone. Bassili says it’s like the Internet equivalent of a high performance sports car.

While much of ColbaNet’s business comes from reselling Internet access provided through Vidéotron or Bell’s networks, it has installed 20 kilometres of its own fibre optic cable over the past two years to allow for the higher speeds.

That network covers the area between St-Laurent and Atwater Blvds., and between the St. Lawrence River and Mont-Royal Ave.

While the service will be available anywhere in that area, Bassili says in order to get the 10 Gbps speed, fibre optic connections will have to be run to individual apartments or condos. His company plans to work with building managers and condo associations to make that happen.

“As soon as we sign an agreement with them and we have customers who are committed, then we deploy the fibre,” Bassili says.

The company also plans to offer slower speeds through its fibre optic network at a lower price.

Those speeds will still be faster than what ColbaNet has been able to offer through it’s resale deals with Bell and Vidéotron.

Bassili says offering faster speeds is a way to set his company apart from the competition.

Because Internet service tends to be largely interchangeable, customer churn is high. “Every month two per cent of all ISP customers change,” he says.

“They go somewhere else because somebody else does a cheaper price. It’s competitive.”

Bassili says he expects to see growing customer demand for faster service as streaming TV increases in quality and more and more devices are connected to the Internet.

“The more connected devices you will have, the more speed you will need,” Bassili says.

And that could have more people looking at the 10 Gbps connection speed in the future.