TORONTO – Is Canada’s broadband infrastructure lagging or leading that of other countries?
According to a recent report by Canadian telecom consultant Mark Goldberg and Giganomics’ Suzanne Blackwell, that question can be difficult to answer. International comparative statistics have been conflicted on Canada’s broadband performance, in large part due to methodological errors in some of the research that in turn biased the resulting rankings.
The authors are particularly critical of the OECD rankings which they describes as “highly dependent on per country sampling data used”, while its penetration metrics are biased in favour of countries with smaller household sizes. Also, the OECD reports do not take in to account the vast differences in geography and urbanicity that have a significant impact on the cost of building, operating and enhancing broadband networks.
In the report, which was commissioned by Bell Canada, Bell Aliant, Cogeco, Rogers, SaskTel, Shaw and Telus, Goldberg and Blackwell seek to set the record straight. It found that compared to other industrialized countries, Canada is consistently in the top ten or higher on numerous metrics, and performs equally well in multi-faceted indices that gauge connectivity.
For example, broadband services are available to virtually all Canadian households, and almost 70% of Canadian households currently subscribe. Canada is also particularly strong on the degree of competition among different platforms and service providers, with those living in urban areas often having a choice of at least four facilities-based alternatives – twisted pair, coaxial, wireless and satellite.
With its broad geography and dispersed population, Canada does not enjoy the benefits that other countries do in terms of population density and lower deployment costs. Yet, it still manages to achieve better broadband rankings than many countries that have these advantages, the report continues. When measured as a percentage of households, Canada’s adoption of broadband Internet is surpassed only by South Korea, Iceland, Netherlands and Denmark, countries which, with the exception of Iceland, have much higher population densities.
“The challenge is to arrive at an appropriate basis for making the comparison – not only in terms of applying the relevant metrics but also what, if any, adjustments should be made to account for socio-economic, geographic or other differences”, the report reads. “The results of different rankings and comparisons can vary significantly because of differences in definitions, the data sources, how the measures are weighted, the countries included and so forth. In undertaking any international comparison, one must be cautious not to fix on any one measure regardless of whether it provides good or bad news.”
Canada’s greatest broadband challenge has moved beyond availability and coverage to a need to focus on improving service adoption rates, the report continues.
– Lesley Hunter
