SubscribeThe evidence just keeps on coming that broadband in North America is not what it should be, remaining behind several Asian and European countries and not prepared for the broadband future.
Researchers at Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford and the University of Oviedo’s Department of Applied Economics, supported by Cisco (who does have an agenda to sell the equipment to improve service) analyzed almost 24 million speed tests measured by Speedtest.net for broadband customers between May and July of this year.
Both the United States and Canada, which consider themselves world leaders in broadband, might be surprised to learn they are behind more than a dozen nations, including one former Soviet republic.
The good news for the United States is that improvements have been made, primarily by cable and fiber optic broadband earning a bigger market share from slower speed telephone company DSL service. The bad news for Canada is that Internet service there isn’t seeing the same degree of improvements, as vast parts of the country are stuck with DSL service for wired broadband indefinitely.
The CBC reported the results as negative:
Canada has some of the poorest-quality broadband among advanced countries, according to a study of global internet infrastructure.
Canada placed 25th out of 34 countries in the University of Oxford’s ranking of innovation economies, far behind top-rated South Korea and just ahead of Australia and the United States.
Some key findings from the study appear below….
