OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The CRTC will issue its first report on the performance of Internet services provided by the country's major Internet service providers (ISPs) next spring.
Data is currently being gathered from ‘Whiteboxes’ installed in the homes of the 4,500 participants who signed up to measure the performance of their broadband Internet services when the Commission unveiled the Measuring Broadband Canada program last May.
The Commission said Wednesday that the data will provide useful insight into network performance, including actual connection speeds, and provide a better understanding of whether certain Internet services from participating ISPs are delivering speeds as advertised. These results will also enable the CRTC to improve its broadband policy making.
The independent broadband performance report will be a collaboration between the CRTC, broadband testing firm SamKnows, and ISPs Rogers, Vidéotron, Shaw, Telus, Cogeco, Bell Canada, Eastlink, MTS Allstream, Northwestel and Bell Aliant. A range of products from each ISP are being tested to cover a variety of their most popular Internet speeds.
The 4,500 participants were selected to ensure statistically valid representation for each of the ISP packages being tested, as well as fair geographical representation, the CRTC added. Testing is only being undertaken when users are not actively using their Internet connection, and will not collect any information on online activities in order to protect subscriber privacy.
"The response from Canadians has been extremely positive and we thank everyone who expressed an interest”, said CRTC chair Jean-Pierre Blais, in a statement. “Through this project, that we launched with SamKnows and major Internet service providers across the country, we will be able to take into account the actual performance of their Internet services during the development of our policies. This initiative illustrates concretely the CRTC's approach to evidence-based decision making."
