Without addressing the astronomical cost of wireless, Canada fares poorly for the high monthly cost of its high-speed Internet for the home. When compared to other OECD countries, Canadian home Internet is the second most expensive, for a quality of service that ranks only twelfth. And it’s not going to get better in the short term…
At the beginning of March, the British price comparison service Uswitch compared the average monthly cost paid by consumers residing in the 38 member countries of the OECD. He then highlighted the most recent data that this international organization has on the median income per capita for each of these 38 markets.
Result: to access high-speed Internet by cable in Canada, you have to pay on average each month about $95. On an average per capita income of almost $4,000 per month, this means that each month, the average Canadian consumer allocates 2.4% of their budget to their Internet connection.
From this angle, it’s not so bad. But when we compare… we find that consumers residing in 32 other OECD countries spend proportionally less on their own Internet. The five consumers who need to allocate more of their budget to the Internet live in Greece, Chile, Mexico, Costa Rica and Colombia.
Uswitch therefore concludes that Canada ranks sixth among OECD countries where the Internet is the most expensive each month. But looking at the numbers from another angle, one can draw a completely different conclusion: because across the OECD, it is only in Norway where the price consumers pay each month for Internet access ($100 ) is higher than in Canada.
We can therefore argue that the Canadian Internet was in early March the second most expensive among the 38 markets compared by Uswitch.
Not so fast! Because at the same time, the English comparator compared the average time required in each of these same 38 countries to download a 1.5 gigabyte video file as established by the specialized online service Speedtest.
And there too Canada does not shine by the quality of its results. He arrives at 12and rank of the fastest Internet. On average in the country, it takes 2 minutes to download this famous video file which, in a 4K format typical of films that can be rented these days on subscription platforms, is equivalent to a sequence of 4 minutes. Norway, the only country where home internet costs more than Canada, comes in at 8and rank.
Paying more than 37 countries out of 38 for an Internet service whose quality ranks only twelfth is not exactly very encouraging news for the Canadian consumer. In fact, we do not run the risk of advancing on too thin ice by asserting, based on Uswitch data, that Canada is without question the global dunce of the residential Internet.
Pay twice?
That’s not all. Because the cost of home Internet for the average Canadian consumer is actually much higher than what appears at the bottom of their monthly bill.
Between 2016 and 2021, the federal government has invested $2.3 billion in various programs aimed at accelerating the expansion of high-speed Internet networks by private providers to encourage them to connect rural communities and areas further away from major centres. In Quebec, the Legault government promised last November, with a total investment of $1.3 billion, to ensure access for all Quebec households to high speed before the end of fall 2022.
To explain the high cost of access to their networks, the providers explain that the deployment of the infrastructure is itself very expensive, given the extent of the Canadian territory. The assistance that has been granted to them in recent months by the two levels of government should normally allow them to reduce these costs and, therefore, offer their customers a more affordable service. Or at the same price, it should ensure that their networks achieve world-class quality of service.
But right now Canadian consumers are getting neither. Data shared by Uswitch indicates that Canadian internet is, at best, of very average quality, albeit at top dollar. Enough to further widen this digital abyss that governments are nevertheless trying to close with their billions of dollars, deplores the spokesperson for the Canadian organization OpenMedia, Matt Hatfield.
“Thousands of households cannot afford internet at home. Many young people in Montreal and Toronto have to go to the local library to do their school work or to attend their distance learning courses. The Canadian economy is suffering. This is a very serious problem at all levels. »
OpenMedia has been criticizing for years now the lack of competition in the Canadian telecom market and is a little short of suggestions for correcting the problem, other than asking outright that we get rid of the CRTC, the federal agency which is nevertheless supposed to regulate this industry. “We no longer have any confidence in the CRTC. “Because it will not improve in the short term, warns Matt Hatfield. “The takeover of Ebox by Bell and then the government’s approval of the takeover of Shaw in the West by Rogers will not do anything to improve the situation, on the contrary. There was already too little competition, and there will be even less. »