Internet services: Too much?
In December 2016, the CRTC (Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission) announced that broadband Internet was a basic telecommunications service and ordered Internet service providers to boost service and speed in rural and isolated areas.
The CRTC’s move shifted the emphasis away from voice communications, notably landlines, to the Internet. Almost everything is accessed online nowadays and must be a real challenge for people that are not computer literate.
The CRTC has been criticized for not instructing Internet service providers to offer a basic service rather than a high speed one, which may have brought the price down. Prices usually only go one way and recent announcements from the major service providers seems to back that up although I’ve heard that some of the smaller providers have been able to cut rates.
It’s not unusual that the larger the corporation the worse the customer service is. My own experience reflects this as I’ve waited weeks for installs and repairs.
I am surprised, shocked even, at the price of high speed Internet in Canada. In the UK I was paying around $120 a month for the top bundle of satellite TV, extra sports channels, home phone and high speed unmetered Internet. Right now, I’m paying over $200 a month for cripplingly unsatisfactory metered Internet and home phone and extra again for TV. Basically, I’m paying three times what I paid across the pond, for less service and usability.
Some may argue that of course the UK has more people therefore more infrastructure, so it is no surprise that I was paying less. That’s incorrect, I was living on a remote island with more sheep than people and still service providers provided a very competitive offering. I could have switched around and got a still cheaper deal. Right now, Sky has a TV and broadband deal for around $70 a month, BT is offering similar packages that look to be less than that and there a lot of other providers too. It is easy to switch although I have to say that the larger the corporation, the worse the customer service. I waited an age to get hooked up and fibre optic only goes to the street, it’s copper to the property. Sound familiar?
In Canada, I think we are paying way too much for Internet and that the only way to address this is for the CRTC to facilitate even more competition. It has made a start but I’m ticking a could do better on the report card right now.