Aphabeatic: Germany’s broadband plan shames Canada (again)

Germany will have affordable internet connections of at least 50 Mbps by 2018. The Harper government promised 5 Mbps by 2019. Enough said... Which party do you think will do a better job at ensuring Canadians get faster, cheaper Internet? Let us know in the comments below! Article by Peter Nowak for Alphabeatic

That damn German government just keeps making Canada look bad. If it’s not its generous support of Syrian refugees, it’s the considerably more progressive plan for connecting citizens that was just announced.

All of Germany will have internet connections of at least 50 megabits per second by 2018, the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure said last week.

Federal authorities will provide half the funding at a cost of 2.7 billion euros, with individual states chipping in 40 per cent and communities the remaining 10 per cent.

The goal shouldn’t be too hard to reach, the government said, since 70 per cent of the country already qualifies.

Canada’s official goal of 5 Mbps connections to 98 per cent of the population by 2019, unveiled last year by the Harper government, is positively woeful in comparison.

It’s 10 times slower – barely enough to stream high-definition Netflix – and one year later.

Canada does have much more land to cover with a lower population density, but that doesn’t make the government’s plans any less ambitious.

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