Media.Knet.Ca

from Financial Post 

Canadian Internet speeds among world’s fastest: report

Jameson Berkow  Feb 1, 2012

At 74%, Canada has the highest broadband penetration rate in the G7, the report said, significantly ahead of the United Kingdom (69.2%) and France (69%).

Canadians enjoy among the fastest, most widely available and least expensive broadband Internet in the developed world, says a report to be released Thursday.

The report, based on the results of 52 million speed tests of broadband users across the G7 countries and Organization for Economic Cooperation 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.

At 74%, Canada has the highest broadband penetration rate in the G7, the report said, significantly ahead of the United Kingdom (69.2%) and France (69%). Canadians also have the second-least expensive average monthly broadband subscription rates in the G7, with a typical monthly fee of US$30.79 in Canada being only slightly more than the US$29.80 per month Internet service providers (ISPs) charge in Italy.

Among all 32 OECD countries, Canada has the 7th lowest average broadband subscription fees, with Greece, at US$24.23 per month, the lowest.

That conclusion differs vastly from the OECD report, which ranks Canada as 26th, or 7th most-expensive among its membership. The disparity comes from different methodologies employed by the two reports.

Canadians also experienced an average decline in broadband speeds during peak usage hours of only 5.8%, the Lemay Yates report said, well below the 6.6% average of all OECD members.

The OECD takes an average of advertised speeds and rates, the Lemay Yates report said; Lemay Yates said it uses real data from real users and takes other factors such as ISP market share into account.

“Canada’s performance, based on LYA’s analyses, is always better — along every dimension analyzed — than what is reported by the most recent OECD Communications Outlook report,” the Lemay Yates report says.

The report comes days after the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) revealed a sharp jump in the number of complaints it has received regarding Internet traffic management practices or “throttling” in recent months.

Rogers in particular has been facing criticism over the controversial practice, with the CRTC ruling last month the Toronto-based company was deliberately slowing down certain online traffic.