Every year the CRTC issues an “us vs. them” report on the telecom industry. They averaged what Canadians are charged for their Internet compared to the rest of the world. How did we come out?

Well, some good, some bad, but what blew us away was, holy cow! Are a lot of Canadians paying too much for their Internet or what!

Here’s a quick summary: The CRTC Broadband report breaks the data down to four broadband Internet categories based on download speed.

• Level 1 –  3 Mbps or less
• Level 2 – 4 to 15 Mbps
• Level 3 – 16 to 40 Mbps
• Level 4 – over 40 Mbps.

On average Canadians in 2013 a saw in increase of broadband Internet prices of 29%, 8%, 5% and 4%, respectively. Why Level 1 prices increased so much is because so few providers even offer services at or below 3 Mbps. Worldline doesn’t. If someone qualifies below 6 Mbps we don’t sign them up simply because they will think their Internet sucks, and they’d be correct.

Internationally how did we do? The CRTC reports that Canadian broadband Internet service prices generally compare favourably with the other surveyed countries  – but it depends what service you have.

Lower-speed Level 1 and 2 broadband service were pretty good. However, in the case of the average higher-speed Level 3 and Level 4 baskets, Canadian prices are higher than those in the surveyed countries included in the study, with the exception of the U.S. – who are getting robbed even worse than we are:

How does Worldline compare?

We don’t offer Level 1, but our level 2 service isn’t $55.10 with a 20GB/month data cap. Our Level 2 DSL service is $29.95, and it’s unlimited. Our level 3 isn’t $68.60 with a 50Gb/month cap. It’s $39.95, and it’s also unlimited. Level 4 averages $86.46 with a 75Gb/month cap across Canada. Worldline’s 50 Mbps DSL is unlimited and is $59.95/month. That’s a $360/year savings not even including what these folks are getting dinged for their data.

And remember, those inflated prices are just the averages that have been brought down by providers like Worldline. Canadians are paying too much for their Internet, and they simply don’t have to.

That’s what Worldline is all about. Wish the CRTC would do a report on that!