Compared to everywhere else I’ve been in Canada, the Internet service in Jasper simply sucks.

I swear I can get online way faster at my parents’ remote cabin in northwestern Ontario, which doesn’t even have electricity, than I can here. Sure, you have to fire up a generator to turn the modem on, but once it’s on it’s far better than what I’ve experienced in Jasper so far.

Where I live, we’ve switched between Telus and Shaw. Both providers have been abysmal. At certain times of the day I can get online faster and more reliably with my phone via cellular service than with my computer via WiFi.

I know, I know. First-world problems, right?

Well, it might not be the most terrible injustice to suffer through but it does come as a pretty major inconvenience, given how much I rely on the Internet personally and professionally. It’s also a bit of a canary in the coal mine, as Canadians across the country are likely to experience similar frustrations in the near future, if they haven’t already.

The problem is that the infrastructure which supports the Internet – all those cables buried beneath our feet and suspended above our heads – isn’t keeping up with the growth of online communication. With more and more people using more and more Internet-capable devices to transmit larger and larger volumes of information, we are rapidly reaching the limits of what the connections between our devices can handle.

This has been well known for some time. In 2007, Nemertes Research published a study which predicted the North American Internet infrastructure would cease to be adequate within five years without a substantial capital investment, which they estimated to be in the range of $42 billion to $55 billion. Some upgrades have been made in the meantime but nothing nearly as significant as that.

Rather than putting more wires in the ground, Canadian Internet providers have taken other steps to deal with the rapidly growing flow of information. The most controversial of these is no doubt a process known as “throttling.” This is when a service provider deliberately slows down your Internet connection when you attempt to transmit a large volume of data.

This practice is disturbingly intrusive. Through a method known as “deep packet inspection,” service providers determine what kind of data you are sending and, if they deem that data is less important than other traffic on the network, they throttle your transmission speed. Privacy concerns aside, throttling also undermines the principle of net neutrality – the idea that all data is to be treated equally online.

In response to widespread criticism, Bell has announced it will cease throttling by this March. Other companies, however, continue. Rogers, according to most analyses, is by far the biggest throttler of Internet traffic in Canada.

This week, in fact, the CRTC cited Rogers for breaking federal rules when it comes to throttling, and has given the company two weeks to explain its actions or face potential penalties. Unfortunately those penalties are unlikely to amount to more than a slap on the wrist.

Even with stronger regulation, though, the problem with the Internet’s infrastructure remains. Without some major investment – and soon – throttling will pale in comparison to the slow-downs Canadians experience due to congested communication lines.

When experienced en masse, this will amount to more than mere frustration for spoiled consumers who have become accustomed to perpetual advances in technology. Many experts are concerned about the effect a wide-scale degradation in online communication will have on the economy and on future innovation.

I’m told upgrades are in the works for Jasper and the Internet service here should improve soon. I hope so, but these will have to be just the first of many across the country – and beyond – if we are going to maintain the level of connectivity that our society has come to rely on. 

DISCLAIMER: The Last Word is an opinion column, it is meant to provoke thought and debate. As such, any opinions written here are the writer’s own and do not reflect the viewpoint of any other Fitzhugh staff member or the directors of the Jasper Media Group Inc.