Northern cable internet giant Northwestel says it is introducing new, faster download speeds while lowering the price of some other plans.
Northwestel, whose services are primarily delivered through fibre-optic lines, has been losing market share to Starlink as residents, business and governments in isolated northern communities search for the cheapest, most reliable way to stay connected.
On Wednesday, Northwestel said it would increase its fastest available download speeds to 700 Mbps – up from 500 – and reduce the price of its 300 Mbps and 500 Mbps packages by $10 per month. The company’s TV Plus app basic package will also become $5 a month cheaper.
Customers with those packages should automatically see the price drop reflected in their bills, Northwestel said.
A list of communities where the new 700 Mbps package is offered is available on Northwestel’s website.
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Earlier this year, a consortium of Indigenous companies from the Yukon, NWT and Nunavut named Sixty North Unity announced plans to buy Northwestel from Bell Canada.
That transaction was valued at up to $1 billion when it was announced in June. No timeline for the deal was provided, however, and its current status is not clear.
Starlink tells customers they can generally expect download speeds of “over 100 Mbps.”
On Wednesday, a test of the two providers at Cabin Radio’s Yellowknife office recorded an average download speed of 87 Mbps through Northwestel’s Business 250 Unlimited package, which has a list price of $399.95 monthly, and 125 Mbps through a standard residential Starlink package priced at $140 monthly.
(After this article was first published, a Northwestel representative called promising to troubleshoot the low 87 Mbps speed, and later demonstrated Cabin Radio’s connection was capable of 250 Mbps. Northwestel has maintained that its ability to offer boots-on-the-ground service in the North is partly what separates it from the likes of Starlink, which offers no physical northern presence.)
