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Canada Has ‘Almost Third World Access to Internet’: Netflix Executive |
| Source: |
o.canada.com |
| Source Date: |
Monday, September 17, 2012 |
| Focus: |
ICT for MDGs
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| Country: |
Canada |
| Created: |
Sep 25, 2012 |
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Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos spoke in Los Angeles last week and slammed the big Internet service providers in Canada for capping services at ridiculously low rates and charging users absurd amounts of money if they dare go over them.
“It’s almost a human rights violation what they’re charging for Internet access in Canada,” he said to the group, according to Internet news site GigaOm.
Netflix sales in Canada have been limited largely because streaming video can eat a lot of bandwidth, causing users to hit their monthly data caps faster and then have to pay extra fees to companies like Bell, Rogers, Shaw and Telus. Netflix has tried adjusting the data rates that are streamed to Canadian users, but it hasn’t really helped the overall problem.
“The problem in Canada is… they have almost Third World access to the Internet,” Sarandos said.
The problem is hotly debated in Canada, especially as Internet service providers here are looking for alternative ways to monetize their networks. But smaller independent players in Canada’s Internet space argue Canadians are getting a raw deal from a country with too few providers.
“The cost associated with transmission and switching on a modern network is a non-issue — less than five cents per gigabyte and dropping fast,” David Buffett, chief executive of Radiant Communications Inc., an independent ISP, wrote in the Vancouver Sun.
“If the CRTC ruling survives federal government scrutiny, however, consumers will be paying in excess of $2 per gigabyte, [a 3,900% mark up.]“
In the wake of that debate, smaller companies like Standard Broadband are filling gaps in the market place where rural addresses aren’t served by the major players and enormous overage charges from companies like Bell and Rogers are hurting smaller clients using cellular-based Internet connections.
Jon Connor, senior vice-president with Standard Broadband, says it’s not uncommon for rural clients to scan their bills from larger Internet service providers to show him $700 in monthly charges, most of which is from going over their monthly caps.
“I had a customer we signed up yesterday and his average bill was $780 per month. He now has a $45 per month bill,” Connor said.
Standard Broadband relies on a line-of-sight connection between an antenna the company operates — either on a tower or hanging from a tall building — and the residential antenna, which is about the size of a coffee mug. It’s just one solution, and one limited to relatively small area around Toronto, but it offers unlimited uploading and downloading at broadband speeds.
Connor hopes that kind of service will catch on, and force the larger players to even out their bill systems.
“People psych themselves up to cancel their services,” he said. “They can’t wait.”
But even when unlimited broadband, some services just aren’t the same north of the border.
Because of content sharing agreements with American studios, Canadians also get less choice for their $8/month Netflix package than their U.S. counterparts. Luckily, though, there are solutions to that for the technically minded and creatively inclined.
But while competition in the Canadian Internet space remains low, and costs of building networks across an enormous country remain high, those data caps are likely to remain for the foreseeable future. Organizations like OpenMedia.ca are among the only organized voices of opposition to push back.
What do you think? Is Canadian Internet service as bad as Ted Sarandos would have everyone believe? Or is it even worse? What kind of rates do you get for your Internet service and how do you feel about it?
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Canada Has ‘Almost Third World Access to Internet’: Netflix Executive Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos spoke in Los Angeles last week and slammed the big Internet service providers in Canada for capping services at ridiculously low rates and charging users absurd amounts of money if they dare go over them
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