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Most internet packages sold in Canada are as fast or faster than advertised, a new CRTC-commissioned study has found.
A preliminary report issued today found that services using Cable/Hybrid-Fibre Co-Axial (HFC) and Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) technologies delivered download speeds in excess of the rates advertised by ISPs. FTTH services delivered 119% of advertised download speed on average, while Cable/HFC services delivered 103%. Most Digital Subscriber Line-based (DSL) services met or exceeded the advertised rates too. However, DSL services in the 5-9 Megabits per second category only attained 88% of the advertised speed rate.
Performance was largely consistent across all regions, with the vast majority achieving between 109% and 122% of advertised download speed.
The data will enable the CRTC to improve its future broadband policy-making, and will ultimately form part of its annual data collection and monitoring activities. The report will enable Canadians to gain additional insight into network performance, including connection speeds, as well as provide a greater understanding of whether certain Internet services from participating ISPs are delivered at the advertised speeds. A second report will be published later in 2016, which will detail the performance of individual ISPs and their specific service offerings.
The CRTC launched a project in 2015, to measure broadband Internet performance in Canadian homes and is collaborating in this project with major ISPs across the country and SamKnows, a UK-based company contracted to undertake the study. Volunteers were selected to ensure a Canada-wide distribution among the various participating ISPs: Rogers, Vidéotron, Shaw, TELUS, Cogeco, Bell Canada, Eastlink, MTS, Northwestel and Bell Aliant. SaskTel declined participation in the project.
A device called a “Whitebox”, was sent to nearly 4500 Canadian volunteers’ homes across a range of Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and products. The devices measured the performance of the Internet connection at different times during times when it was not in use. DSL, Cable/HFC and FTTH services were the technologies measured for the purpose of this study.
Agencies/Canadajournal
What about rural broadband here in nova scotia? Its horribly slow. Way slower than advertised. A blatant ripoff with no competition to switch to……
Now there’s an April Fools joke if I ever saw one.
The problem is not with speed the trouble is staying connected. The fastest speeds are useless if the connection itself is unreliable.