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Canada's Internet Among Best, Report Says
silentbrad writes "Canadians enjoy among the fastest, most widely available and least expensive broadband Internet in the developed world, says a report released Thursday. The report, based on the results of 52 million speed tests of broadband users across the G7 countries and Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) membership, was produced by Montreal-based consulting firm Lemay Yates Associates Inc. on behalf of Rogers Communications Inc., the country's largest broadband service provider. It disputes the OECD's own report, published in July, that ranked Canada's high-speed Internet offerings significantly below those of other countries. The report comes days after the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission revealed a sharp jump in the number of complaints it has received regarding Internet traffic-management practices, or 'throttling' in recent months."
And it's about to get a little better — reader ForgedArtificer points out that Rogers has promised to end all throttling over their network by the end of the year.
200GB IS almost nothing these days.
Not that I can talk, Comcast caps me at 250GB.
The report, based on the results of 52 million speed tests of broadband users across the G7 countries and Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) membership, was produced by Montreal-based consulting firm Lemay Yates Associates Inc. on behalf of Rogers Communications Inc.
I think that alone says how big a grain of salt to take this report with.
I live in Canada and we have unusually slow and expensive Internet connections compared to other developed countries, especially places in Europe and the more liberal parts of east Asia. A lot of that is due to the remoteness of much of Canada. In the cities it's not so bad, but step outside the city limits and the speed drops off in a hurry. Many places in rural Canada don't have high-speed yet, at least not without a a very expensive satellite connection.
The highest speed connection I can find in my corner of the country is about 1/200th the speed of my friend's standard connection in Korea. And close to the same price.
Or Teksavvy 30M & unlimited for $49
Best Internet?? Ohh that must be why my parents are forced to pay $59 a month for 512kbps as their only non-dialup option! $99 for 1mbit. Also a download usage cap of 24MB/hr... Don't believe me? netkaster.ca/packages.htm
Would have had 1st post, but Rogers is throttling me...
The big two (Bell and Rogers) just successfully lobbied to FORCE OUR OTHER COMPANIES to stop offering unlimited home internet.
:(
Prices just went up from $24.95 a month for reasonable service (had problems with the Acanac $19.95 sorry) to $29 and that's only available paid in advance for a year (Still WAY WAY better the 3 year contracts they were handing out 5 years ago, but still...)
So our internet is now more expensive by 1/6 not sure how much that factors in but you can get a T1 anywhere so it must play a role.
Also they're rolling out wireless net, 802.11i/s equivalent... which increases penetration but hurts reliability and latency... which means no gaming + slow page refreshes + fewer home servers.
So depending on when the study was conducted they could be way off... Canadians generally are reasonably well off, educated and meticulous (fallout from the "Friendly Polite" thing) so we took to computing pretty well... doesn't mean the companies providing it are worth a damn.
I still remember receiving a file from a girlfriend living in Korea. Holy tube inferiority batman! She saturated my downlink then wrote me asking if something was broken
Um, if we severed all external links we'd still have an "Internet" ya hoser
...the Nordic countries have no such thing as traffic allowances on broadband connections (in fact, they never did, not even 12 years ago when ADSL popped up), and their speeds as well as monthly fees are notably better than what Canadian ISPs offer.
Hey, kids, create whichever study results you want simply by changing your methodologies!
As a Canadian living in California.
Cable here:
Comcast: I pull a lot of data at like 2MB/s consistently fast
Rogers: I pull like 1-1.2 MB/s & within like 10 days, I get a warning that I'm almost done with my cap.
Comcast: 49.95/mo
Rogers: 39.95 + overage charges which cap out at $20 extra (the overage charges are insane - basically guaranteed to get to $20).
Bell is an even bigger joke. I think I'm going to trust the OECD results than the results of a firm hired by Rogers.
I beg to differ.
Typical entry-level plan in Canda:
http://www.videotron.com/service/internet-services/internet-access/basic-internet
Cost: 29.95 CAD/month (29.97 USD/month)
Speed: 3 Mbps down, 800 Kbps up.
Cap: 5 gigabytes per month combined download+upload cap.
Best available plan in Estonia:
http://www.eq.ee/page.asp?p=45
Cost: 17,19 euros/month (22.60 USD/month)
Speed: From 16 to 64 Mbps down, 8 Mbps up.
Cap: None.
It's been said but, we're not exactly at the forefront of interweb techmonomolology unless you narrow the scope to equally um monopoly-based infrastructure.
crazy dynamite monkey
I can tell you with absolute conviction that WE DO NOT have even close to the best access or speed.
Huge swaths of the country are not able to access anything other then cell phone internet and most of the country is only able to get online using either Rogers or Bell (as they simply do not allow the little guys to use there lines outside of the big cities) and the price is huge (I pay $50 for 5GB max per month with over the limit prices that cost ~ $800 if you use 30Gigs).
Also absolutely everything is heavily throttled.
And Rogers only promised because they where threatened by the government.
Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
Rogers pays for a study that says Rogers is one of the best providers in the world.
In other news, my wife declared that I was one the best lovers she ever had.
Does anyone have a link to this report? It would be interesting to see the rankings for the UK and also their methodology.
I'd like to know how they define broadband. Is it >2Mbit/s or >10Mbit/s? What data limits are they comparing? When they compare pricing does that include phone lines if they are a mandatory pre-requisite to broadband access?
I don't know about "almost nothing". I have 50/2 Mbps cable for ~$100 a month. 250 cap I think it is. 50c per GB after up to an extra $50. So in practice me and the two other guys I live with download as much as we want and it costs $150 a month. Not bad compared to actually having to pay for all that porn but still not cheap. I write off the 2/3rds of the internet though because the other guys are tenants and it is operating expense :-)
I m st congr tula e R gers on t eir contin ed dedica ion to excelle t s rvice. I H pe to see mor advance ents in th futur as weR@#%^[NO CARRIER]
Good people go to bed earlier.
This study was bought and paid for by Rogers. It is complete and utter bullshit!
I have good, fast, uncapped and relatively affordable cable internet access. I get it from TekSavvy, a smaller "indie" ISP that leases the last mile from the incumbents but uses their own network after that point. On cable, this gets me around Rogers' throttling and filtering. DSL users aren't so lucky as Bell's throttling happens right at the client node.
When I was still with Rogers, my monthly bill for the mid-range service tier was $130. This consisted of $64.99 for the service itself, $50 in overage charges every month, and taxes. With Tek, I'm paying $62 for faster service and no caps.
Our internet is far from the best. Bell, Rogers and Telus are classic telco robber barons. They oversell like mad, throttle and cap in such a way as to protect their old phone and TV services, and spend fortunes on advertising to fool us into believing we're not actually getting fucked. If they took half the advertising budget, and spent it on infrastructure upgrades, we'd be the envy of every other crooked G7 nation. With the low-cost, no-nonsense indies it's a lot better, but the grand majority of users are still with the big three due to misplaced loyalty and laziness.
-Billco, Fnarg.com
How long does it take to DL 200GB on basic DSL? All month?
HAHAHAHA
in aus i pay $80 for home line + 50 Gb ADSL2+ /month
i get about 8 mbps consistent download on speedtest.net which is good enough for my needs, but it will be interesting to see how this all changes when (if) the NBN (fibre to the premises) gets implemented in my area. no doubt performance will increase (probably not incredibly though) but cost will also increase.
let me guess... you are borg?
Is 15 of 32 "among world's fastest"? RT @gregobr: Canadian Internet speeds among world’s fastest: report http://natpo.st/yARz0G
I get greater than 5MBps on my 50Mbps Rogers connection (so pretty close to theoretical max and the rest is probably overhead anyways). But that is only for a dedicated download server that is fast. Trying to pull something from a torrent best I've done is about 1.5MBps on something really popular (like a House episode), more typical is about 500KBps. But that said 500KBps is fast enough that I can download 720p faster than I can watch it so it doesn't really matter much to me.
Rogers and Bell are parasites of the worst order. I can't even bother to look at the report or links. I know what I get for speed, reliability and I know what my bill is. This report can only be complete bullshit in every way!
As a Canadian, let me respond as soon as I finish being angry at the editor...
Seriously, why post the results of an oligarchical industry funded story as if fact? Seriously, what the hell, editors?
Let me put how offensive and misleading this is in perspective by changing the quote a tad:
"Americans enjoy among the fastest, most widely available and least expensive broadband Internet in the developed world, says a report released Thursday. The report, based on the results of 52 million speed tests of broadband users across the G7 countries and Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) membership, was produced by NY-based consulting firm SomeGuy Associates Inc. on behalf of AT&T Communications Inc., the country's largest broadband service provider. It disputes the OECD's own report, published in July, that ranked Canada's high-speed Internet offerings significantly below those of other countries. The report comes days after the FCC revealed a sharp jump in the number of complaints it has received regarding Internet traffic-management practices, or 'throttling' in recent months."
By helping spread this FUD you are literally doing harm to us. Due diligence, do you speak it?
I've been visiting this site for a long time. I've not liked some of the things and mistakes I've seen posted here, but this is actually making me angry. Congratulations.
I imagine this could be news of a local Canadian newspaper but Slashdot... Why?? I am from the Netherlands and live in Switzerland, both of which are "among" the best in terms of internet by some arguable measure, like Canada. The only newsworthy fact would perhaps be some nice ranked list but the article refers only to some Excel sheets, which place Canada far from number one. Better info can be found on Wikipedia.
The beauty is though in Canada most of the population is in big cities. About half of our population lives in the top 10 cities. Heck nearly a third of the country lives in the bottom half of Ontario.
The bottom half of Ontario, to clarify, is not a city--there are just a few cities there. It is mostly rural--small towns, family farms, or commuter rural. (By commuter rural, I mean not really suburban, but nevertheless commuter). But quite a few of them have DSL.
-- IANAL, this isn't legal advice, and definitely isn't legal advice for you. Also, Squee!
Average is not the same as median.
-1 overrated isn't the same thing as "I disagree".
Common slashdot.... this news is complete nonsense.... check real prices here :
http://www.videotron.com/service/internet-services/internet-access/high-speed-internet
56$ per month for a very standard 8mpbs (without bundle) and 50gb cap. Add taxes and you're at 65$ per month
You can get way better than that in the US
Better government ... yea I could handle the winters
Better healthcare
and now better internet
Roger's has the worst customer relations of any firm ever. Take Monopoly power, add some arrogance, take away any hint of customer service and you've got Rogers Cable.
In Tokyo you can get fiber pulled right into your house.
I pay Rogers $100 CAD a month for their highest tier with a 250 gig data cap per month and "up to" 50 Mbps download speed (which I never get anywhere near...I'm lucky if I approach 8 Mbps).
We do, actually, have *exactly* fios. Just not in Ontario/Quebec (yet). And actually, even that's not entirely true, as Bell has been unrolling their FTTH networks in Quebec and Ontario for a while now... Quebec City, for example, doesn't have any copper at all any more, and most new subdivisions being built near major centres in Ontario and Quebec are FTTH, with no copper at all being sold. Bell is selling up to 150mbit connections with IPTV (not counting against that 150mbit) in some areas, and as I understand it, they're actually installing OC-48 lines. Just not everywhere. The footprint isn't very big at the moment, but it's happening.
Of course, Bell is still years behind Aliant... they've got their FibreOP service available through large parts of the maritimes.
I wonder if this Rogers study was looking at the best possible available from all providers, and saying "see? you can get 150mbit Internet from Bell, we're better than other countries!" without looking at the little asterisk that says it's only available to a few thousand people out of the country's 35 million.
I live in Calgary Alberta and I have a 100/5 connection which I think is pretty good at least compared to some values I've heard from friends that live in the US.
To be sure... I also pay $85 a month for the privilege.
If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
I don't know about "almost nothing". I have 50/2 Mbps cable for ~$100 a month. 250 cap I think it is. 50c per GB after up to an extra $50. So in practice me and the two other guys I live with download as much as we want and it costs $150 a month. Not bad compared to actually having to pay for all that porn but still not cheap. I write off the 2/3rds of the internet though because the other guys are tenants and it is operating expense :-)
Imagine that. If you lived in Northern Europe, I could sell you 100/100 FTTH with no caps and no blocking of any kind, for less than what you're paying now.
It's the old joke, like our navy. The strong, the proud, the battle canoe. Fear it. Along with the trusty beaver. After all, you've never seen a man shake in fear, until you've seen a Newfie in a kilt, riding at you on a moose, shaking an angry beaver.
It gives me chills.
Om, nomnomnom...
We're talking about a type of traffic that isn't usually throttled, doesn't require sustained performance for more than 10 seconds, and can be artificially inflated by ISPs to deceive their customers.
To Lemay Yates, who I strongly suspect is a shill that doesn't mind quoting the most favourable statistics to give an overall misleading impression (if not outright manufacturing them with flawed experiments), I ask how Rogers specifically fares in terms of:
-Average cost per monthly quota ($ per GB)?
-Average cost per upload speed ($ per Mbps)?
-Variation in ping and u/l, d/l speed during peak hours?
-How often multi-player video games are throttled?
-Performance beyond the local servers but still within Canada?
I have no caps on my internet, 10/2 Mbps, fiber and including TV (HD+DVR+top package without extra sports/premium channels) for $80/mon down here in the States. My provider is actually not a national provider, just a regional one and is much more known for telephone service (including cell phones), but I also get a discount (all of $10/mon) for being in my apartment complex.
...I have 40/2 cable access at home with a 250GB cap and no throttling that I've ever noticed for $46 a month (bundled with home phone and TV). If I dropped my plan down to 20/1 I would have uncapped access. There's also a 100/5 option with the same 250GB cap as the 40/2 option, but that plan is $156 per month. My location? Rural Newfoundland, in a town of about 450 people, an hour drive from the largest city in my province (which itself only has 100,000 people). High speed internet access like this is common in my province, available to most communities far more remote and even less populous than mine.
I'm not saying that it doesn't suck for Canadians, I'm just saying it doesn't suck for all of us.
Agreed and what people buy versus what is available is two different things too. Me having a 50Mbps connection makes the averages of 5 other people with 256kb connections average out to a decent 5Mbps but you still have 5 frustrated people and one happy person. Add to that most people buy relatively cheap plans so even if 50Mbps is available a lot of people still have 4-16Mbps because that is what is in the $50 range.
It's Ottawa:
TekSavvy Extreme Cable 24 24Mb/1Mb 300GB $46.95
Guy I know is on it and did a speedtest and got about 60M at one point. The unlimited is now $64
In the UK I haven't looked into fixed connections but with 3store (mobile broadband) you get 7.5/1.5 (speedtest.net) for 25 GBP/month and that's with no data or speed caps. They're open about tethering - it's explicitly allowed (for 15 you get the same thing, but no official tethering support).
Pfft, we don't shake angry beavers, we shake angry pine martens. Slightly smaller but 1000x more vicious.
If you really get us mad we'll start throwing cod chunks and unleash the sea gulls.
Put Xplornet on the list of overused and under capacity services.
We get 50M for about $30usd a month, and 100M residential lines aren't uncommon. Get over yourself, Canada. Taiwan is just one entry in a very long list of people with better internet access.
Actually, the median is one kind of average (3rd paragraph). Or did you think "average" was the same as "arithmetic mean". </even more pedantic>
Excuse me, wtf r u doin?
Um, if we severed all external links we'd still have an "Internet" ya hoser
No, you would have an intranet.
Is that a joke?
Developed countries have unlimited bandwidth for 15 bucks.
Imagine that. If you lived in Northern Europe, I could sell you 100/100 FTTH with no caps and no blocking of any kind, for less than what you're paying now.
This is true.
No, you would have an intranet.
Only if there were only a single network, to which every computer and server were connected.
As I understand it, Canada has more than one company operating a network, which generally interoperate using common standards. Such a setup is usually termed an internet.
what a fucking joke.
Even in a major Canadian city the speed is terrible.
I went from 3/1 in the downtown sector of a top 5 Canadian city because some wire didn't run the right way on that block to 100/80 everywhere in south Korea.
I pay less than I do there, if I want service, a guy comes out when I want him to, he calls before he comes and if for some reason I can't make the time, he'll ask me when he wants me to drop by.
There is no cap
no throttling (other than the underseas cable)
Rogers only hope is that Canadians never take the time to genuinely educate themselves.
can we tag this as bullshit?
We can tag this as bullshit. I added the tag to the story, a couple more and it will show up there.
Switched from expensive DSL reseller who had good service and I liked it,
Could not afford it, or the penalties for late fees... I will keep my eye on
DSL resale in the future.
Switched to Rogers, here's the breakdown:
Csolve (dsl reseller)
-5Mbit No cap
-65 / mo (serious late penalties)
-Lower throughput during peak hours, would drop to 3mbps
(net neutral, all sources suffered lower speeds during peak)
-Superb ping at all times even during peak.
-Payment terms / Penalties: Far to onerous for someone who might fail to make
payments on time.
Rogers
-24Mbit 100Gb Cap (UL + DL = total cap, not just DL)
-Contract: ~45 / Mo Avg over a year (1/2 of 60 * 6) + (60 * 6)
-During peak hours does not connect to some sites, but others still connect fast
(because they are not net neutral... U pay for respect U get respect)
-Ping is regularly good, mediocre during peak.
-Connectivity is TERRIBLE. Service cuts out regularly at all times of the day,
especially during peak. Can not play ranked games during peak, my ranks
are suffering due to disconnections. Radio / Video streams stop when buffers
are set too small. Timeouts are regularly as long as 25 - 90 seconds. Sometimes
its not ping, its flat out network errors and timeouts.
-Payment terms / Options / Penalties / Late fees: AWESOME. Superb payment terms.
I work for one of the bigger ISPs in Canada which isn't Rogers (should make it easy to figure out which) and we're suppose to be the fastest -broadband- (note that we're leaving fiber out of this) providers in North America. Our company has recently seen a 5 fold increase in our Internet speeds (out goal is to offer 250 Mbps) in some area, with that to be expected to be the norm in all areas within a year (so I figure a year an a half). If other companies are doing the same, and if a competitive market is doing its job then I hope they are, I can see this study becoming a reality. That being said though I'd love to see a study -not- done by one of the main Canadian ISPs and only then will I believe the propaganda.
"produced by Montreal-based consulting firm Lemay Yates Associates Inc. on behalf of Rogers Communications Inc."
So this study was done by a Canadian Firm paid for by one of the two telcos that have a state sponsored duopoly. This in response to the CRTC, a body that is supposed to be regulating the industry, but which really is just in the pocket of the two companies, gets a record amount of complaints about how shitty internet is in Canada and how expensive it is and an international report that puts Canada on the dummy list of have not "developed" but expensive slow internet.
This is PURE FUD and propaganda on the part of Rogers Communications trying to convince the sheeple that everything is fine, nothing to see here, move alone, and keep paying us for status quo.
For those of you that quote the ULTIMATE plans from Rogers, or the FIBER plans from Bell, or even those quoting plans from independents like Teksavvy, know that ALL of those are only availbale in limited areas. By limited areas I mean, Toronto, Montreal (where study was from), Vancouver, etc... The largest cities in Canada. If you don't live in a megacity, you get squat for squat.
I live in a city called Peterborough, Ontario pop 70-80k people, so not a "rural" area. Best plan is Rogers (Cogeco Cable) 14MB/s 80GB cap. This up from 6 months ago where it was 12MB/s 60GB cap (so admittedly some improvement, sort of). For this service I pay 60$ a month, and it did have a 30$ (1.5$/GB) cap on excess bandwidth, which they moved to 50$ after the speed increase (of course). So if I use 115GB of bandwidth, my monthly bill will be 110$ a month. JUST for internet.
This BS just shows how out of touch Rogers and Canadian Telecommunications are with reality. They really need a wake up call!