Novus Shakes Up Canada’s MDU Broadband Market with Multi-Technology Approach

Novus Entertainment Inc. (“Novus”), seeks to hold its top position in the competitive Canadian broadband market by adopting a multi-technology approach. Unlike some of its competitors, Novus owns the fiber it brings to buildings, enabling it to control quality of service and consistency.

Novus, which provides internet, phone and TV services, saw the value of fiber-based services early, and was the first provider to widely deploy gigabit service in Metro Vancouver. Today, Novus serves 800 MDU buildings across Metro Vancouver, delivering fiber broadband connections with symmetrical bandwidth. That’s unique for the MDU market. Chris Marett, co-president and CFO of Novus, says that since its inception, the company has focused on figuring out a way to provide a different experience. “When we started to serve the MDU market, Novus’s owner thought there were better ways to serve customers with faster speeds than competitors,” he says.

But like every MDU provider, Novus must accommodate a wide range of buildings. Because the buildings in its territory vary widely, particularly by age, the MDU provider uses several technologies: fiber, direct Ethernet and G.hn. It chose equipment from Calix for the fiber portion and G.hn equipment from Positron.

Novus categorizes its buildings into three groups:

• Fiber to the suite: Employing Calix gear, Novus extends fiber into each living unit and connects to home gateways.
• Cat 5 or Cat 6 wiring: In some buildings, Novus opts for Cat 5 or Cat 6 wiring and delivers services via Ethernet connections.
• Cat 3 wiring and coax: In this category of older buildings, Novus uses existing Cat 3 or coax cable because they are the only options.

“We have different ages of apartment buildings in Vancouver,” says Chris Burnes, vice president of technical operations at Novus Entertainment. “The age of a building dictates its inside wiring.”

Novus is experienced in rolling out fiber in its territory. The next step in its evolution is to migrate to XGS-PON; for fiber-based builds, it has settled on an XGS-PON approach. The service provider chose Calix’s XGS-PON equipment to deliver 2.5 Gbps service in western Canada. XGS-PON allows service providers to offer consumers and businesses up to 10 Gbps symmetrical service. It also can accommodate mobile backhaul and other applications.

Wiring quality varies across buildings. “Every building is unique,” Burnes explains. “In some buildings, we have issues with the quality of the wiring, even getting down to sub-Cat 3 wiring.” But wiring infrastructure is only one challenge Novus must overcome to bring service to an existing building. “Sometimes the riser space in an MDU is full, which inhibits our ability to pull wiring to different floors,” Burnes says. “Sometimes conduit structure that feeds a neighborhood is an issue for us to get our fiber into the older buildings.”

Gaining access to a building is another task Novus needs to complete to deliver service – a process that’s never easy. “Most apartment buildings here have a strata that’s formed with the owners of the building,” Burnes says. “We have to approach them and get an access agreement to bring our wiring into the building. It’s always a bit of a challenge to get ahold of the right people and to convince them we’re the right fit for the building.”

Although Canada’s telecom regulator, the Canadian Radio- television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), issued a ruling in July that says access to in-building wiring is not an essential service and will not be mandated, Novus has not had any issues striking deals to get into MDUs. The CRTC decision means companies using Bell Canada’s fiber in- building wire will need to negotiate an agreement with the company for access. “CRTC has made decisions related to access to the inside wiring and ownership of those wires – the riser and drop cables,” Burnes says. “Up to this point, we’ve been able to play nice with other providers, and it has not become an issue for us specifically.”

Novus may be a small provider in Vancouver, but it is going head-to-head with incumbent providers TELUS and Shaw, which Rogers is purchasing. TELUS has continued to extend fiber into more MDUs. For example, the telco’s PureFibre network offers comprehensive solutions for multifamily, multitenant and mixed-use properties.

In the buildings Novus serves, it commands about 30 percent penetration. However, the incumbents aren’t the only MDU broadband players in town. Novus noted that it is starting to see competition from other emerging MDU providers offering internet only.

“There are newer, smaller providers like us that are popping up,” Burnes says. “For a long time, we were only the third player in town that was facilities- based, but over the past five to 10 years, it has been a bit different.” He adds that the emergence of new competitors is a good thing. “It is great to see the competition out there,” he says.