Why internet upload speed in Canada lags world average

March 06, 2014

The federal government released its Report on Plans and Priorities for 2014-15 today with departments and agencies identifying spending estimates and work priorities. The CRTC's report offers some interesting insights into its main activities and targets, particularly with respect to broadband access.

The latest CRTC broadband target is for 100% of Canadian households to have access to broadband speeds of 5 Mbps download and 1 Mbps upload by December 31, 2014. That target is a year ahead of schedule as last year's report set the 100% target for the end of 2015. The new target is also difficult to reconcile with the government's announcement that it plans to spend $305 million over the next five years to extend broadband to rural and remote areas. In fact, last week reports suggested that Industry Minister James Moore and the government had established a target of 2019 for universal access to broadband. If the CRTC target is achieved, the government's broadband plans and targets would appear already outdated. Interestingly, Industry Canada's report includes a target of 77% of the population with broadband subscriptions (not access) by March 2015, but broadband is defined is only 1.5 Mbps or higher.

The CRTC has also become more aggressive about its targets for broadband competition. Last year, it set a target of 50% of households having access to three or more broadband providers with a 5% annual increase thereafter. This year, it has set a target of 95% of households by March 2015 (oddly, it has scaled back its target for competitive access to broadcast distribution undertakings having targeted four or more last year, but only three or more this year).

In addition to broadband targets, the report features targets for everything from spam reduction to viewership of Canadian content. With the new anti-spam law set to take effect in July, the CRTC hopes to reduce spam by 10% over the next 12 months. The Canadian content targets have changed completely with the CRTC now focused on the viewership or listeners to Canadian content. By March 2015, the Commission target is 48% of total television viewing is to Canadian programming, while it wants 50% of radio listening to Canadian content. The CRTC targets differ slightly from those of Canadian Heritage, which set a target of 50% Canadian programming viewing by August 2015.

"stratos" said
Are you saying the Canada lags behind the rest of the world?