Legislation currently before Canada’s federal industry committee could require internet providers to disclose average internet speeds at peak use periods instead of only maximum speeds, bringing Canada’s internet reporting requirements closer to the standards of the European Union and Britain.
Bill C-288, proposed as a private members’ bill by Conservative MP Dan Mazier, is aimed at increasing the transparency of telecommunications marketing, and is currently being discussed before the House of Commons committee on industry and technology.
When proposing the bill in October, Mr. Mazier said that it would ensure that Canadians fully understand the product they are buying, as advertised internet speeds are sometimes unattainable during peak hours when many people are online.
Codes set by Canada’s telecom regulator currently do not contain any obligations for speeds or performance, and there is no requirement for service providers to include any speed metrics in customer contracts. However, telecommunications companies are beholden to the Competition Act’s provisions guarding consumers against deceptive advertising.
According to Howard Maker, head of the Commission for Complaints for Telecom-television Services, Canada’s telecom complaint resolution agency, Canadian consumers often don’t understand that what they bought was the maximum speeds available under their plan.
Reza Rajabiun, a policy researcher at Concordia University’s Algorithmic Media Observatory, told MPs that the legislation is particularly important in ensuring that rural Canadians are obtaining the speeds advertised to them.
“Some providers may in fact be delivering speeds that they promised, as suggested by CRTC broadband test data. However, on the edges of wireline cable and fibre networks outside of urban centres where network investment incentives are relatively weak, the problem tends to be more pervasive,” Mr. Rajabiun said.
Bell Canada, Rogers Telecommunications Inc. and Telus Communications Inc. all include language on their websites about the maximum speeds provided.
Bell Canada’s website notes that internet speeds depend on the distance between a customer’s router and the company’s switching equipment, and that some maximum speeds can only be obtained on a wired connection.
Telus says that internet speed results “may vary depending on the construction materials of your home, location and configuration of your Wi-Fi modem, location and capabilities of Wi-Fi devices, number of nearby Wi-Fi networks, number of active Wi-Fi devices or other factors.”
Rogers notes on its website that internet speeds will vary based on “various factors, including network system availability and capacity, traffic management practices, customer’s equipment, signal strength, topography and environmental conditions.”
In 2020, Canada’s telecom regulator published a review of broadband speeds across Canada and found that the majority of ISPs delivered upload speeds that, on average, met or exceeded their maximum advertised upload rates, and that these rates were not particularly affected by increased network congestion during peak hours.
However, the Public Interest Advocacy Centre, a consumer interest group, has since raised some concerns about the report, calling the sample pool and data collection methods “flawed.”
Similar bills have been passed elsewhere. In 2017, the Australian government published guidance on how to advertise and clearly identify typical peak speeds. In November, three Australian telecom companies were fined a collective 33.5 million Australian dollars ($30.7-million) for advertising speeds that they did not deliver.
In 2018, Britain established a new standard, requiring that any claims on internet speed be based on the download speed available to at least 50 per cent of customers at peak time – 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. – and be referred to as “average” speeds. Previously, British carriers could advertise the maximum speed if it reached at least 10 per cent of customers.
The European Union’s internet regulation also requires that carriers provide information about the minimum and maximum speeds normally available.
Irene Galea