Senate learning about the internets

Canadian law professor Michael Geist recently gave testimony to the Standing Senate Committee on Transport and Communications on the state of Canadian broadband and wireless. It's an interesting read and an insight into the current state of Canada's internet on every level. Hopefully, his testimony makes a difference. Michael Geist holds the Canada Research Chair of Internet and E-commerce Law. Excerpt:

"Last week, the OECD, released its latest report on global broadband, and the results should be mandatory reading for anyone concerned with these issues. Canada ranked 9th out of the 30 OECD countries on broadband penetration. That is not great, but the situation becomes even worse once you delve into the details on pricing and speed.

First, Canada is relatively expensive, ranking 14th for monthly subscription costs at $45.65. By comparison, Japan costs $30.46 cents and the U.K. is $30.63. Second, the Canadian Internet is slow, ranking 24th out of the 30 OECD countries. It is truly a different Internet experience for people in Japan, Korea and France, where the speed allows for applications and opportunities that we do not have. Moreover, Canada lags behind in fibre connections direct to home fibre with 0% penetration, according to the OECD. By comparison, Japan sits at 48%, Korea at 43%, Sweden at 20% and the United States, which has been slow in this area, is at 4%. Third, when you combine speed and pricing, Canada drops to 28th out of the 30 OECD countries for price per megabyte. In other words, as consumers, we pay more for less — higher prices, slower speeds. Fourth, in addition, Canada is one of only four OECD countries where consumers have no alternative but to take a service with bit caps. That means the service provider caps the amount of bandwidth that the consumer can use each month. In almost every other OECD country, consumers at least have a choice between providers that use bit caps and those that do not."