iHacked.ca | Critics wary of Rogers's Internet study

Johanne Lemay stands by her company?s study, even though it was commissioned by Rogers Communications Inc.

The co-president of Lemay Yates Associates Inc. says there?s no arguing with her firm?s assessment of global broadband speeds and prices, which puts Canada in the top 10 of developed countries.

The LYA report has ranked Canada seventh least expensive out of 32 member countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development when comparing average monthly broadband subscription costs. Canada ranks 12th in average cost of a megabit per second.

?We?re not the best, but we?re certainly not in the gutter,? Lemay said.

The study used 52 million tests from the website Speedtest.net, a service that people use to test the speed of their Internet connections. It then used price points advertised by telecom companies around the world to establish a price per megabit per second. Lemay said this is a better methodology than the one used by the OECD, in which Canada ranks 25th out of 32, because that study relies on advertised speeds, rather than actual speeds delivered.

?Many service providers will advertise that they?ll deliver speeds of up to 30 megabits per second, but they?ll only deliver four megabits per second, for example,? Lemay said. ?Maybe some people will get those advertised speeds, but they?ll have to be close to the central office for that.?

Iain Grant, managing director of the SeaBoard Group, a Montreal-based telecommunications consultancy said he?s wary of the study, for the mere fact that it was paid for by Rogers.

?It?s far cheaper to pay a consultant group for a study than it is to actually lower prices,? Grant said.

He said the study doesn?t dispel the myth that Canadians pay more for Internet service than other countries ?because it?s not a myth at all. We are paying more.?

Grant said while Canada may not be faring badly in North America, it is far behind countries in Asia Pacific and parts of Europe in terms of speeds and pricing.

This is the second time in less than a year a telecommunications company has funded a study that shed a positive light on Canada?s rates.

In June, Telus Communications Corp., paid for a study to compare wireless pricing around the world, and it also showed Canada was better off than OECD studies suggested.

Grant said wireless prices have diminished slightly in the urban areas as a result of increased competition in the marketplace. However those rates are only available in ares where there is competition. Anyone living outside the major urban centres has not seen a great reduction in price.

He said he?d like to see the government step in and introduce measures to make prices more equitable, and to encourage further competition in broadband Internet services.

jmagder@ montrealgazette.com

Twitter.com/jasonmagder

Article source: http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/todays-paper/Critics+wary+Rogers+Internet+study/6095146/story.html

Tags: broadband internet, Johanne Lemay, price points, Telus Communications Corp., Internet, Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development

Source: http://ihacked.ca/critics-wary-of-rogerss-internet-study/

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