My home is very close to Highway 407, the toll road that runs north of the greater Toronto area.
When it was first opened in 1997, the road was available toll free for people to try out. It was a delight to drive on a state-of-the-art multi-lane highway with no traffic.
Imagine two cars starting off in Mississauga in the west-end. They decide to race to Canada’s Wonderland in the middle of the work week. One car would use Highway 401 to 400 and the other would use the (as yet) unopened Highway 407. Both agree to keep their speed to the maximum allowed by law. Which car would win?
How is this tale relevant to Canadian telecom?
I have been reading some of the ads for the new HSPA+ networks. One of the carriers claims to have the fastest network in Canada. Apparently, they ran tests of their own data speed performance versus their primary competitor back in September 2009. But there is a problem with this boast. The new network didn’t open for business until two weeks ago.
Let’s face it, under those conditions, if they didn’t win the race on an empty network, well, that would have been an indicator of a serious problem. It will be interesting to see what those same tests look like next September, after close to a year of real operating experience.
As we see in car races, it takes an excellent driver and a disciplined pit crew to win consistently when all the teams are racing with the same machines.