CRTC sets target of 5Mbps broadband for all Canadians by 2015
The FCC may be sticking with its target of 4Mbps broadband for everyone in the United States, but it looks like the CRTC thinks Canada can do one (megabit) better. The regulatory agency has just set its own target of 5Mbps download speeds and 1 Mbps upload speeds for all Canadians -- a goal that it says must be met by 2015. Those speeds, the agency notes, must be actual speeds not advertised ones, although it's not yet going as far as to declare internet access a basic service to ensure that happens. The CRTC says instead that it prefers to rely on "market forces" for the time being, rather than subsidies that would come with such a declaration. Of course, while 5Mbps is faster than the FCC's target, it's still well short of some of the more ambitious broadband goals of other countries around the world -- Finland, for instance, has already declared that 1Mbps broadband a legal right and is promising to bring 100Mbps speeds to everyone by 2015.
