Canada offers “the fastest and most accessible 4G networks” in rural parts of the country, according to a new Opensignal report.
The report released on September 25th indicated that while users experience different speeds when comparing network coverage in urban and rural areas, rural customers “on average had a faster 4G connection than what our users experienced on average in 76 countries.”
Opensignal indicated that on average, Canadians living in rural parts of the country were able to connect to 4G on average 80.8 percent of the time – and with an average download speed of 32Mbps.
In rural Canada, users are connected to 4G networks 80.8 percent of the time, compared to 93.6 percent in large urban areas.
“4G availability of Rogers’ users was significantly lower than for our Bell and Telus users in Canada,” the report added. “However, the difference in time spent on 4G between our users on Rogers and those on its competitors gets narrower as we look at higher population areas. Telus and Bell offer very similar 4G availability across area types.”
Without a surprise, the report indicated that users in rural areas experience “considerable” lower 4G download speeds than users in large urban areas.
On average, Opensignal said that users in large urban areas experienced download speeds 2.6 times faster compared to the same operator’s user experience in rural areas.
“Even our users on Rogers, the slowest operator of the three, experienced 1.74 times their rural speed in large urban areas,” the report said. “Despite this, Canada’s slower rural speed still outperforms the average speeds of many countries in the world including the [U.S.].”
The report said that in urban areas, Telus users “achieved the highest speed” of about 85 Mbps.
Opensignal indicated that close to 20 percent of Canada’s population is located in rural areas and that after its analysis “showed Canadians do get what they pay for — speeds and availability which exceed or rival the overall figures of developed countries.”
Issues of reducing the cost of cellphone and internet services have been highlighted during Canada’s federal election.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said if elected as prime minister, his party would reduce bills by introducing a price cap and fostering competition by allowing more Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MCNOs) to operate in the country.
Incumbent Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his Liberal party would also do the same, but without giving a concrete plan said he would reduce costs by 25 percent over four years. He too would have more MVNOs operate in the country to foster competition.
The Conservative Party of Canada has not introduced any concrete telecom policies as part of their platform yet.
The Green Party of Canada has suggested how it would reduce costs but has not formally introduced anything yet.
Source: Opensignal
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