Canada still battling rural/urban digital divide on Internet usage

A new survey released by Statistics Canada says that fewer Canadians living in rural and remote areas of the country were accessing the Internet with a high-speed connection in 2005 compared to those living in urban areas. According to the Canadian Internet Use Survey, approximately 2.7 million Canadians who accessed the Internet from home reported not using a high-speed connection. Among this group, slightly more than one-third of them (922,250) reported that broadband service, either cable modem or DSL, was not available in their area. On a national basis, only 58% of residents living in small towns or rural parts of Canada accessed the Internet, a figure well below the national average of 68% (see table on page 1 for urban usage rates). Incumbents busy putting together broadband plansThe lower level of high-speed usage in rural and remote parts of the country shouldn’t come as a surprise as the country’s telecommunications service providers are still struggling to deploy broadband networks in these regions. The incumbent telephone companies are hoping to do their part to bridge this gap between urban and rural by using significant portions of their deferral accounts to fund network rollouts in these regions as set out in Telecom Decision 2006-9 (NL, April 27/06). Two appeals of the ruling seek, however, to block the ILECs’ access to the funds (NL, May 25/06; NL, June 8/06). Just as there exists a gap between the rates of urban and rural Internet usage, income, education and age are other factors determining Internet use. According to the Statscan figures, nearly 90% of adults with household incomes of $86,000 or more used the Internet within the last 12 months compared to 61% of adults living in households with incomes less than $86,000. Internet becoming mainstay for banking, health info searchesThe Statscan survey also reveals that the Internet is playing a much greater role in the everyday lives of typical Canadians as more are using the Internet to pay bills, make other financial transactions, read the news and sports, and search for medical and health information (see table below). Canadian home Internet users continue to express concern about security and privacy over the Internet. This shouldn’t come as a surprise, given some high-profile cases of personal information leaks. While Statscan doesn’t set out the number of high-speed lines, recent figures from the CRTC peg the number of households with a high-speed Internet subscription at 6.4 million. This equals 51% of all Canadian households.

Canada still battling rural/urban digital divide on Internet usage

News | August 17, 2006

Unlock all the Canadian telecom, broadcasting and digital media news you need.

FREE TRIAL

SUBSCRIBE

Inside The Wire Report

Information

Hill Times Publishing

Get in Touch With Us