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Canada's Internet Among Best, Report Says

Posted by Soulskill on from the not-just-good-at-having-moose dept.

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.

13 of 186 comments (clear)

  1. And the report was paid for by... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

    1. Re:And the report was paid for by... by Erioll · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Exactly. The international report, we're doing not so hot. The one funded by one of the largest communications companies in the country who has an interest in the status quo: we're awesome!

      Gee, you think there might be some bias?

  2. Not even close by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.

    1. Re:Not even close by BitterOak · · Score: 5, Interesting

      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.

      I can second that. I have a friend who lives on a small farm just outside of the city (and I mean just outside), and he uses dialup. I'm not kidding. No cable. No DSL. His only "high speed" option would be satellite, which he can't really afford, and isn't that great anyway. The sad part is, his job is in IT. He also has three school age children. I'm not talking about remote here, either, I'm talking about a farm just outside city limits.

      --
      If I can be modded down for being a troll, can I be modded up for being an orc, or a balrog?
    2. Re:Not even close by Mashiki · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I can confirm both of these posters. There are parts inside of my city where you can't get DSL or Cable still, because there isn't the infrastructure. This is a city of 70k people. What's annoying as hell? The "northern broadband initiative" which originally was the rural broadband initiative. Where they were supposed to be getting broadband to places just outside of cities, and all that. Of course now it's all dry, and rogers, bell, and other companies just took the money and ran like hell.

      Canada is damned terrible for broadband.

      --
      Om, nomnomnom...
  3. Best Internet? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    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

  4. 1st... by fire113 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Would have had 1st post, but Rogers is throttling me...

  5. Our internet sucks by Deliveranc3 · · Score: 5, Informative

    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 :(

  6. I call BS... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

  7. Bandwidth caps by spacenet · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

  8. s eaking a a c nad an by nimbius · · Score: 5, Funny

    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.
  9. Shill study by billcopc · · Score: 5, Informative

    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
  10. CORRECT THIS ARTICLE by sabernet · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.