How Does Your Internet Service Measure Up?

That's a question many Canadians ask. Now they can answer it, thanks to an Internet performance measurement project that you can take part in free of charge with your privacy guaranteed.

Join the project now

About the project

As part of our ongoing efforts to ensure that Canadians have access to a world-class communication system, we are running the second phase of the project measuring the performance of broadband Internet services to Canadian homes. The first phase wrapped up in 2016 with the publication of SamKnows’ Analysis of Broadband Performance in Canada - March & April 2016.

Our partners in the project include many Internet service providers (ISPs), broadband measurement specialist SamKnows and Canadians like you.

The project will benefit:

You. By helping you better understand the performance of your broadband Internet access service

By helping you better understand the performance of your broadband Internet access service The CRTC. By enabling us to gather and report more accurate and reliable data, and to develop better broadband policies

By enabling us to gather and report more accurate and reliable data, and to develop better broadband policies Service providers. By enabling them to improve their networks to better serve existing customers and promote products to potential customers

By enabling them to improve their networks to better serve existing customers and promote products to potential customers All Canadian Internet users. By generating a clearer picture of different ISP service offerings across the country

While some providers do offer advertised speeds of 1Gbps or faster, services above 940Mbps cannot be measured with a conventional speed test. As such, speed tiers of 1Gbps or faster are excluded from the 2019 Measuring Broadband Canada project. Consumers should visit each of the participating ISP’s websites for details about the availability of higher or lower speed tiers.

How it works

If you choose to participate in the project, here's what to do and what will happen.

Complete the online form

Use the online form at SamKnows to tell us who you are, who your Internet service provider is, and what Internet service package you subscribe to. (The minimum service packages we will be measuring will have 5 Mbps advertised download speeds.) Receive a Whitebox

This device connects to your modem or router. It performs tests to and collects data about the speed and other technical aspects of your Internet service, and only on these metrics. It doesn't collect personal data about your Web habits, the sites you visit, or the time you spend on the Web. In fact, the whitebox will only carry out tests when no one in your house is actively using the Internet service, so it doesn't affect your Internet performance. The Whitebox collects performance data

Performance data will be gathered over time, and is collected from the location of your ISP to your doorstep. The data will be available to you via a Web portal, and will also be available (anonymously) to SamKnows, your ISP, and to the CRTC for analysis. The CRTC will publish performance results

After each data measurement period, we will publish a report that will provide valuable information about Internet performance in Canada. Find out more about these reports and how ISPs ranked.

Your privacy guaranteed

The data gathered by a Whitebox relates only to Internet performance. No data is collected about the sites you visit, the time you spend on the Internet, what you upload or download, or anything else you do on the web.

What's more, your data will be combined with the approximately 5,000 Whiteboxes that are already collecting performance information, to provide the information used in the performance report, so data from your own Whitebox won't appear anywhere other than in your Web portal.

Join today

To participate in the project and learn about your Internet performance, fill out the form at SamKnows.

For more information…