Withits broadband networks currently lagging in terms of speed andreliability, Canada will be hard pressed to meet future Internettraffic demands, according to a new report.
Thesurvey, commissioned by the Oxford Said Business School in London andthe Universidad de Oviedo in Spain, ranked Canada 27th out of 42nations for future readiness of broadband standards. Researchersindicated that Canada’s current networks are barely good enough to dealwith today’s online traffic, due to a lack of investment by providers.
Inorder to meet the demands of online traffic today, the report indicatedthat broadband networks need to be able to deliver download speeds at3.75 megabits per second and uploads at one mbps with latency nogreater than 95 milliseconds. Twenty countries, including Canada, didnot meet the requirement.
Theresearchers also indicated that as video usage becomes more popularover the next few years, download and upload speeds will need to be11.25 mbps and five mbps respectively with latency required at about 60milliseconds or less.
The study was sponsored by networking giant Cisco Systems Inc.