Are Canadian ISPs as Fast as They Claim? The Government Is Trying to Find Out

If you've ever read your internet connection's fine print, you've probably seen a disclaimer about speeds.

Take, for example, my ISP, a local Canadian provider called TekSavvy. They're usually pretty fast, and I've never had reason to complain, but nevertheless, they offer this disclaimer: "Speed is a function of many technical factors, some of which are not under our control. As such, we do not guarantee the maximum Service performance (i.e., throughput or speed) levels."

Ideally, this language should merely serve to cover an ISP's ass for when occasional hiccups occur. But what happens when you never get speeds approaching what's promised? What recourse do you have?

In an attempt to figure out what level of service Canadian internet subscribers are really getting across the country, the Canadian Radio-television Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) announced on Wednesday that it is preparing to release the country's first national independent broadband performance report this Spring.

The initiative was first announced in May with a call for volunteers.

Nearly 28,000 Canadians have since signed up to install devices in their homes designed to test the performance of broadband internet connections. The CRTC ultimately selected 4,500 participants from a wide range of ISPs—including major players such as Rogers, Vidéotron, TELUS, and Bell—as well as different tiers of internet service, "covering a variety of their most popular Internet speeds."

The devices are being provided by a UK-based company, SamKnows, and "testing is only being undertaken when users are not actively using their Internet connection," according to the CRTC. "No information concerning online activities is being collected to protect subscriber privacy."

The report is part of a larger initiative launched by the CRTC in April of this year, designed to review the level of basic telecommunications services available to Canadians, and reexamine baseline internet connection speed targets previously established by the CRTC.

By the end of the year, the CRTC expects all Canadians to have access to broadband internet speeds of at least 5 Mbps for downloads and 1 Mbps for uploads—a target that was set in 2011. By comparison, the broadband speed target in the US was increased to 25 Mbps for downloads and 3 Mbps for uploads at the beginning of 2015.

Organizations such as Netflix have performed limited tests of ISPs in Canada in the past—the streaming video service ranks providers based on Netflix performance during prime-time hours—and the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) announced a web-based performance testing service earlier this year. But by installing dedicated testing hardware on-site in users' homes, the CRTC report should hopefully give the most complete and comprehensive report of Canadian internet connection quality and speeds we've had to date.