After reading http://www.dslreports.com/archive?c=ca I noted just how badly Rogers, my current ISP, is rated for speed. Further people really complain about Rogers so I assume they’ve pushed it further and done more extensive comparisons than me.
To pick a replacement, here’s that DSL report for Canada showing service provider speeds. I then checked the providers to see if there were any faster than Rogers I could not use. Those are crossed out:
Key: deeper red = faster
Rogers’ numbers (3691/464) are actually higher than their advertised numbers (3000/384 regular high speed) shown at http://www.dslreports.com/faq/5073 ; these are way lower than the top rankers though. From a stats validity point of view, I can’t tell whether these numbers are comparing similarly costed packages, further, some companies appear twice without explanation.
What stunned me was that most of these services are unavailable to me in Toronto.
In the UK, broadband is deregulated yet shares common infrastructure. Every household is connected via British Telecom connectivity back to the local exchange, and this cost cable companies recompense back to BT to pay for the common infrastructure. The impact of this is that there are literally hundreds of service providers available to the point that many providers are bundling broadband internet free with cellular plans.
As many things in Canada appear on the surface so similar to my way of life back in the UK, it really stops me in my tracks when I realise something is fundementally different. In matters of broadband providers it’s distances: its impractical to put down a ubiquitous infrastructure so there has to be incentive for companies to provide to a local area. Maybe that incentive is a monopoly? I don’t know.
What I don’t understand is why there aren’t more broadband cable/dsl companies for the metropolitan areas.
Anyhow, I would appreciate if any of you have comments on Cogeco. I am not even sure that they are available here: I did just email them but the feedback form just returned a blank page and didn’t send me a copy of my request so who knows whether I’ll hear from them.
In the meantime, I’ll look for a means to determine what speed I’m actually getting. It seems much slower than 300kps upload.
I’m fairly sure that cable is still an either/or… you either have Rogers or you have Cogeco in your area but never both.
That said Cogeco is screaming fast. The numbers you posted must have been grabbed on a bad day. I usually get 7-8.5.
Thanks Ryan. Wow. I hadn’t considered that there might be no competition at all for cable services!
I’ll call Cogeco. They’ve not replied to my email.
As Ryan says, cable is a local monopoly – including Internet service. You are stuck with Rogers on your cable, unless of course you want to move your residence! The CRTC did rule back in January 1996 that the cable companies had to give ISPs access to the cable, but they've managed to drag their feet for eleven years despite additional rulings by the CRTC.
Speed varies a lot within any one cable system. Once you've checked your actual speed, you may well find that it's much higher than the number shown at DSLReports.com, which is merely an average of a certain sample of users taken at various times. You might try, for instance: http://www.dslreports.com/stest
On your phone line, in contrast to your cable, you have a choice of ISPs (whether dialup or DSL), and also of voice providers. Of course the speed is limited by your distance to the telco central office and so depending on your location you may not be able to reach cable speeds. Bell Sympatico High Speed is officially a 5 Mb/s service but where I live I don't get anywhere near that.
If you really want high speed and are willing to pay more for it, you can get fibre-to-the-neighbourhood from Bell: Sympatico Optimax is $70/month for 10 Mb/s or $100/month for 16 Mb/s.
Pingback: Martin Cleaver, masterfully. » Blog Archive » Net Neutrality Canada site: taken down! (Your Internet Service Provider wants to double charge for the internet)