The IT Nerd

If you use Netflix in Canada, then the company’s latest speed rankings will be of interest to you. Some ISP’s made a jump, so I’ll just quote what Netflix said on that:

After breaking out DSL and fiber from MTS and Sasktel, fiber networks of both providers ranked high in performance, with MTS Fiber taking the third spot and Sasktel Fiber coming in fifth.

Also of interest is Rogers, who when this ranking first appeared were on the bottom of the list and then moved up in May, is now 6th overall up from 12th. Clearly whatever work they did to improve their ranking is paying off.

Overall, it seems that a significant number of ISPs are improving their speed when it comes to Netflix. Not only that, the gaps between ISPs is starting to narrow. That shows that the pressure that this list creates is having the desired effect. That’s good for anyone who subscribes to Netflix.

If you use Netflix in Canada, you’ll be interested in how your ISP stacks up. That’s because you’ll get a better viewing experience from an ISP that streams Netflix movies well. So to that end, Netflix has ranked Canadian ISPs with some surprising results. Shockingly, Bell Canada’s Fiber Optic network came out on top. What’s even more shocking is the fact that Rogers was dead last. Rogers finishing dead last was a shock to me because a couple of years ago they hired a third party to make sure that their network was the fastest around. Clearly that went sideways at some point. Thus it didn’t surprise me to see that Rogers responded to this via RedBoard:

Netflix’s test was done just before we virtually doubled Netflix capacity and we’ll continue to add more capacity as it’s needed. These results only apply to customers’ specific Netflix connection and not overall internet speeds.

Independent third party testing continues to show that Rogers offers top internet speeds.

That response sort of implies that they were throttling or somehow not giving Netfilx the bandwidth it needed. Curious.

Netflix will keep an eye on Canadian ISP’s going forward. Thus it will be interesting to see what the results are the the next time a ranking like this is done.

UPDATE: Clearly Rogers is sensitive about this as they sent me this statement:

Netflix’s test was done just before we virtually doubled Netflix capacity and we’ll continue to add more capacity as it’s needed. These results only apply to customers’ specific Netflix connection and not overall internet speeds.

Independent third party testing continues to show that Rogers offers top internet speeds, for example Ookla found that Rogers speeds are the fastest in Canada, Sam Knows, an independent leader in internet testing, found that Rogers customers get faster speeds than advertised even when the network is at its busiest. Also, PCMag.com recognized Rogers as the fastest overall in its Canada’s fastest Internet Service Provider review and YouTube has ranked Rogers as a top-quality network to deliver HD videos.

I’ve included the links to those studies below:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2424462,00.asp
Samknows.com/rogers
http://www.netindex.com/download/2,7/Canada (link to OOKLA study, please scroll past the city results to see ISP)

Hope this helps, let me know if you have any further questions

My wife signed up for Netflix a few months ago hoping to catch up on all the movies and TV shows she missed as a kid. But after 5 months, she cancelled her subscription. Her reason for doing so was simple. There wasn’t enough content. A lot of the shows and movies that she wanted to see were simply not available. So the question is this: Why is that when US Netflix customers can see so much more?

The answer comes down to getting the rights to stream content. It appears that Netflix cannot get the rights to the shows and movies that you want to see in Canada. Meanwhile, GlobalTV, Citytv, CTV, and CBC have this same content that Netflix wants available for free. On top of that, you’ve also got Rogers Anyplace TV who not only does that, but offers movies too. Oh, to add to that there’s the juggernaut known as iTunes with all their content.

So that makes Netflix seem like a poor choice if you want to get the movies and TV shows you want. Will that improve? I don’t think so in the short term. One thing that you will notice in the previous paragraph is that with the exception of iTunes, everyone who does stream the content you want is owned by a telco who has a TV service that they make a pile of money from (be it cable, IPTV, or whatever). They don’t really have an interest in you going to somebody other than them to get content and tempting you to dump their TV services (otherwise known as “cutting the cord”). Thus, Netflix will be on the short end of the stick. Perhaps there needs to be some government intervention to change this so that Canadian consumers have some choice other than the usual group of telcos.

Until that happens, Netflix is not worth $8. It’s a pity that Canada is so backward when it comes to this sort of thing.