According to Netflix’s latest ISP speed index, the company is able to stream video at an average pace of 2.52 Mbps in Canada, as opposed to in the US, where the average viewer watches digital shows / movies at a speed of 2.33 Mbps.
Netflix gathered this data from its one million-plus Canadian users. The 2.52 Mbps speed is the average gathered from all Netflix streams on the country’s fourteen available ISP networks.
Among the various networks, Bell Canada’s fiber optic network (the country’s largest communication company) supplied the fastest stream at 3.19 Mbps. Bell’s rival, Rogers, finished last with a 1.67 Mbps average speed. Filling up the middle were several smaller networks, most of which lease lines from providers like Rogers.
Some sidenotes worth bringing up about Rogers: the company has been accused in the past of slowing Internet speeds down for gamers. While there are several rumors floating around that Rogers might be looking to establish its own online streaming site, there’s no evidence that it’s doing the same thing now to this particular niche audience. A Rogers spokesperson pointed out that the speeds only referred to Netflix connections, and not overall Internet speeds which, according to a study by PC Mag, placed Rogers as the fasted ISP in Canada.
In terms of the discrepancy between Canada’s ISP Speed and their neighbors to the south, one reason could be the deliberate throttling by service providers in the US who want to curtail Netflix traffic during peak times. During these hours, the video content provider can account for as much as a third of Internet traffic.
To avoid deliberate download delays, Netflix has gone into contract with Verizon and Comcast to ensure faster trafficking speeds for the company’s content (the latter finished third in the US speed test).
Other similar contracts are believed to be in the works.
While the Canadian speed is impressive, worth noting is the fact that when compared to European countries, it’s actually a bit slow — countries like the Netherlands enjoy streamed video at an average clip of 3.49 Mbps.
For comparison—and to put things slightly in perspective—Costa Rica boasts an average ISP speed for its Netflix service of 1.18 Mbps, though a number like that is in all likelihood not the sort of statistic that will temper the average American’s ire when they realize the disparity they’re experiencing in quality of digital content they’re paying for.
Story via: vice.com
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