It takes an FCC study to show Canada’s falling broadband position

I have felt for some time that Canada has slowly been relinquishing the leading role it held for as long as I can remember. Granted in the medical field my home country still is well known and respected but when it comes to technology we have been heading downhill.

Some might argue the point but it only takes looking at the country’s position as a broadband provider to see that decline. It was this point that both a Canadian ISP commissioned report and a comprehensive study by researchers at Harvard University that was commissioned by the FCC (pdf report).

The FCC study led by Professor Yochai Benkler reviewed international rankings with differing policy approaches and in Canada’s case it was noteworthy because it tries to link Canadian policy with its falling rankings. The specific rankings as noted by Professor Michael Geist on his blog

On the issue of rankings, the study uses several reports to conclude yet again that Canada trails much of the developed world on broadband. The specific rankings are:

• Overall – 22nd
• Access – 16th
• Speed – 20th (using the same Speedtest.net source that Rogers relied upon in its ad campaign that led to a lawsuit by Bell)
• Price – 25th

The FCC report points out that Canada was once a broadband leader

It was a very early broadband adopter, relying primarily on facilities-based competition between cable and incumbent telephone companies. As early as 2000, broadband subscriptions were already 31% of all Internet subscriptions. As of December of 2003, Canada had the second highest level of Internet penetration per 100 inhabitants in the OECD, second only to South Korea, and third highest, after South Korea and Japan, by the per-household measure. At that time, there were 1.29 cable broadband subscribers for every DSL subscriber.

The report suggests its reasoning behind why Canada is suffering on the competitive front this way

Canada has the highest monthly charge for access to an unbundled local loop of any OECD country. Combined with the presence of strong incumbents and the Canadian regulator’s practice of promising to sunset the requirement of opening access to core facilities – originally copper loops, now fiber – it is possible that the investment environment is too expensive and too uncertain for non-incumbent entrants.

The final conclusion by the FCC when it comes to Canada and it’s place in the broadband world:

Canada has the highest monthly charge for access to an unbundled local loop of any OECD country. Combined with the presence of strong incumbents and the Canadian regulator’s practice of promising to sunset the requirement of opening access to core facilities – originally copper loops, now fiber – it is possible that the investment environment is too expensive and too uncertain for non-incumbent entrants.

So much for the idea of a ubiquitous real time web.