God bless Canada

I recently mentioned the, possibly suspect broadband statistics which Prof. Christopher Yoo derived to demonstrate the superiority of US regulatory policies over those of Europe.  Well, the Professor has been at it again, using the same US/EU data to make some even more sweeping claims. For instance: 

“…the U.S. focus on private investment and competition has placed it far ahead of Europe in terms of Internet speed and access…. 

U.S. broadband was cheaper for all speed tiers below 12 megabits and is comparably priced at speeds between 12 and 30 megabits, which makes it easier for low-income families to become broadband users….

if the FCC were to impose European-style regulation, these studies indicate that the investments that have enabled such a healthy and vibrant U.S. broadband infrastructure may wane”.

As the above extract shows, Yoo’s argument rests heavily on his assessment of the (mostly) lower pricing of US broadband.  His own metrics concede that U.S. broadband costs are higher for services above 30 megabits but he argues that ‘that cost differential is justified by the fact that average U.S. households consume more than 50 percent more bandwidth than their European counterparts’.   

Does higher usage really justify a higher unit cost?  Anyway, I was interested to see that an entirely independent cost study came to a rather different conclusion on the pricing issue. The Canadian telecoms regulator, CRTC, recently published its own retail cost study, including a comparison againsth other G7 countries.  With apologies to CRTC, the extract below excludes Canada but includes the US, the UK and our nearest European neighbours.  All reported prices are expressed in purchasing power parity (PPP) adjusted Canadian dollars.  

Average monthly prices in PPP adjusted $CDN (2014)

Broadband – fixed access	US	UK	France	Germany
Level 1 (≤ 3 Mbps, 7.5 GB/month)	$62.5	n/a	n/a	n/a
Level 2 (4 – 15 Mbps, 30 GB/month)	$72.9	$30.2	n/a	$26.1
Level 3 (16 – 40 Mbps, 75 GB/month)	$79.8	$46.9	$51.2	$38.3
Level 4 (≥ 40 Mbps, 120 GB/month)	$103.2	$47.8	$56.0	$58.5
Broadband – mobile access t (≥ 3G)
Level 1 (2 GB/month)	$63.7	$21.9	$18.5	$34.4
Level 2 (5 GB/month)	$69.1	$45.9	$43.0	$49.7

 

While the UK prices might not be the best in Europe in every case, the comparison with the US looks pretty decisive in favour of Europe.  Slam-dunk…?