Life on the Broadband Internet
The role of technology and policy in transforming online culture – chronicled by David Ellis
Another twist to broadband: add low costs to high prices (1)
499 days
by David Ellis
in Internet
I'm pasting in below my October Comment for Telemanagement, which will be published shortly (now online). I'm splitting it into two parts since it runs over 1,800 words, though I tend to have doubts about the assumption that visitors don't like to read more than a few hundred words in a single post. My Google Analytics says average time on the site is creeping up, so maybe readers are getting used to my verbose style.
The OECD ranks Canada as the 6th most expensive broadband jurisdiction among its 30 member countries, based on average monthly price per advertised Mbit/s (adjusted for purchasing power).
The discrepancies get worse – i.e. Canada gets more expensive – as we go from lower to higher speed tiers. This trend is confirmed in the Berkman Center’s Final Report to the FCC (Next Generation Connectivity), which combined datasets from the OECD, TeleGeography and PointTopic for its custom pricing analysis. For next-generation speeds (over 35 Mbps), Canadian retail prices are the second highest out of the 19 countries with NGN offerings – only the United States is worse (Berkman, pp. 73-77). (more…)
Don’t assume the only broadband problem is geography
500 days
by David Ellis
in Internet
"I give credit to The Wire Report. In a short time, it has become the daily “go to” of telecom geeks and executives. However, The Wire Report still prints the views of academics who feel that until Canada gives the 12 residents of Anthracite, Alta., blazing broadband speeds of 4 Mbps, we have not given them anything of value. [...] While we appreciate the need for professors to posit an academic point of view, we believe that the consequence of arbitrarily defining rural broadband at Internet speeds higher than that which many urban Canadians can access is a self-defeating exercise."
Last week, John Maduri, CEO of rural broadband provider Barrett Xplore, published a very interesting opinion piece in The Wire Report on satellite broadband (“Opinion: Satellite broadband is life-changing for those accustomed to dial-up,” Sept. 21). I have a few comments.
After congratulating The Wire Report on its success, Mr. Maduri frames his stand on the benefits of satellite broadband with the help of a straw man: “The Wire Report still prints the views of academics who feel that until Canada gives the 12 residents of Anthracite, Alta., blazing broadband speeds of 4 Mbps, we have not given them anything of value.”
I will take as entirely coincidental my own association with York University, along with my recent suggestion, in these very pages, that 4 Mbps should be Canada’s new broadband definition threshold. (more…)
StatsCan follows up: a high-speed world, without the broadband
506 days
by David Ellis
in Internet
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How intense is your Internet usage?
How intense is your Internet usage?
This week I got a detailed response from Statistics Canada staff to my inquiry about their Canadian Internet Use Survey (CIUS): “Why does your report make no mention of how you define broadband?.”
(Slap forehead.) I learned a decade ago why you can’t define terms like “broadband” in a gen pop survey. At the time, I co-designed a series of national onliner surveys and discovered that if you ask respondents even slightly technical questions, they will be unable to answer. This constraint applies to goods such as personal computers and anything about their specs (clock speed, RAM, model, age, etc), as well as to service providers like ISPs (apparently quite a few Canadians used Loblaws as their ISP back in 2000).
Dumb question, interesting answer
***
Here’s how the Stats Can response begins:
The term ‘broadband’ is not defined in the Daily report you list since the survey does not use the term. Instead, the survey asks respondents about their connection type (telephone, cable, satellite, television, wireless or other). If the respondent indicates they use a type of connection at home other than cable or satellite, they are then asked a follow-up question: ‘Do you access the Internet at home using a high speed connection?’. (Cable and satellite connections are assumed to be high-speed). As such, the data on high-speed are self-reported.”
More on broadband access vs usage: Do the math, Ottawa
512 days
I’ve said usage trumps access, policy-wise – i.e. sheer access does nothing for the public interest or consumer welfare (though it does a lot for the self-serving proclamations of politicians, policymakers and ISPs: We’re the best!)
How does my principle look in numerical terms? I did some analysis of the Stats Can data mentioned by Karen Fournier (see previous post), and I have a modest suggestion.
Let’s go back to that reference on the Stats Can provincial data:
Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick may boast 100 penetration, but according to Statistics Canada, 77, 76 and 73 per cent of residents, respectively, use the Internet.
Before we get to dialing these numbers down, let’s define our terms. The phrase “use the Internet” raises four terminological questions:
- One, respondents use the Internet on what kind of connection?
- Two, use it from where?
- Three, use it how often?
- And four, what’s the age cutoff? (more…)
More broadband baloney: the phony “access” metric vs actual users
513 days
I was approached recently to talk with the Wire Report and CBC Radio about broadband access. One good thing about talking to 
journalists like Karen Fournier is they tend to be on top of breaking news. You learn some things. In this case, I learned what provincial officials have been going around saying to their lucky citizens about their alleged “access” to broadband.
Turns out many of these officials have the same bizarre ideas about broadband as their federal counterparts, as you would glean from the article’s title: Provinces criticized for reporting 100 per cent broadband access (sub. req’d). It may be ignorance, it may be manipulation, probably a little from each column:
The provinces of Saskatchewan, P.E.I., Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, as well as the Yukon, say they have broadband penetration rates—or access rates—of 100 per cent. (more…)
Cellphone etiquette: absence makes the heart grow much fonder
521 days
I spend a lot of time here in my Starbucks office, a busy location near the centre of the universe (Yorkville). 
I’ve been coming here since the day this location opened, over a decade ago, when there was still a Chapters.
The clientele includes people from the neighboring boutiques, like Gucci, so it’s handy for shopping… along with undergrads from U of T, street people, academics, seniors, tradesmen ripping up the street, not quite a cross-section but getting there.
I’m mesmerized by the cellphone culture. I wish Roland Barthes were still here to tell us why 80% of women under 30 carry their phone in their hand, at all times, thrust out at the world, some in a feisty overhand grip, some in a reveal-all come-on, even as they balance hot drinks and purses the size of duffle bags. Are they saying, I’m here, I’m equipped? Or, I’m cyberlinked to somewhere much cooler?
But for now, what I really want to know is why almost everyone – demographically speaking – finds it acceptable to sit with a colleague or loved one or BFF while their smartphone sits conspicuously on the table between them, just begging to be called or texted. Apparently nothing is sacred any more and whatever you might have to say to close the sale, or console the GF about the BF, will never be as important as the hoped-for message that could arrive at any moment. (more…)
Now US Republicans want to scrap their “invasive” census
529 days
What is it about right-wing politicians?
Ted Poe explains why the census is bad to a group of beauty queens
Well, I have a theory. Canadian Conservatives like Tony Clement and US Republicans like Ted Poe (from, you guessed it, Texas), are scared silly of statisticians and scientists and would prefer to see them take a hike… because they deal in facts, not opinions or headlines or the party line. That makes these guys and their facts much harder to manipulate – and when it comes to major issues like global warming, a threat to established business interests.
A story ran in The New York Times recently entitled “Census Survey Asks Too Much, G.O.P. Says.” Hard on the heels of Minister Clement’s mighty gaffe over Canada’s Chief Statistician, we learn his US counterparts are demanding their Census Bureau put a stop to this data outrage – an unconstitutional outrage no less. As The Times reported (Aug. 19):
The Republican National Committee is demanding that the Census Bureau stop being so nosy, or at least stop requiring that Americans comply.
The Republican Party isn’t taking on the census itself, the count of the United States population made every 10 years, but the more comprehensive American Community Survey. (more…)
