Internet in Canada

Canada ranks as the 20th country in the world for Internet usage with 28.47 million users as of June 2012.^[1]

Web use

According to the CIRA 2013 Factbook, Canadians spend more time online than anyone else in the world—an average of 45 hours a month. They also watch more online video, with an average of 300 views per month in 2011.^[2]

The most popular websites in Canada are major international sites such as Google, Facebook, and YouTube.^[3]

The most popular native Canadian websites are the major Canadian news media companies, which maintain an extensive web presence. According to a February 2008 report by comScore, the most popular Canadian sites are Quebecor Media, principally Canoe.ca, followed closely by CTVglobemedia which includes globeandmail.com and CTV.ca.^[4]

According to Harvard researchers, Canada has some of the lowest internet standards among OECD countries, as a result of high costs and slow internet speeds.^[5]

File sharing

Main: File sharing in Canada

Canada has the largest number of file sharers per capita in the world .^[6]

Canada's copyright laws are unclear on the legality of some file trading. In general, the unauthorized copying or distribution of copyrighted material, whether for profit or for personal use, is illegal under Canada's Copyright Act.^[7] However, certain exemptions are made for fair dealing copying of small portions of copyrighted works, for activities such as private study, criticism, and news reporting. Furthermore, the Act allows that the copying of sound recordings of musical works for the personal use is not copyright infringement. This is supported by a levy on blank recording media, which is distributed to record labels and musicians, although not evenly. While the unauthorized downloading or uploading of complete copyrighted works such as books, movies, or software is illegal under the Act, the situation regarding music files is more complex.

Fibre optic networks

Fibre cabling was already deployed by Bell Canada in Ontario and Quebec using FTTN deployment. On 4 February 2010, Bell Canada announced the launch of Fibe 25 services and Bells plan to create FTTH or Fibre to the home services, offering speeds up to 100 Mbit/s.^[8]

Shaw Cable currently offers residential internet speeds of up to 1 Gbit/s fibre to the premises FTTP in select locations across Alberta [AB] and British Columbia [BC]. Shaw Cable was also the first Canadian company to offer residential fibre optic speeds of up to 1 Gbits/s ^[9] Shaw Cable owns and operates a 625,000 fiber route kilometre network covering Canada and the US coast to coast with a capability that exceeds close to two Terabits per second.^[10]

Rogers Business Solutions (RBS),a division of Rogers Communications, provides premium Internet,connectivity,voice,data center and cloud services to a wide range of enterprise, government and wholesale customers. RBS has 9,000 customers,serving hundreds of Fortune 500 businesses and numerous government agencies across Canada.Rogers invested over a billion dollars to acquire the next generation networks and infrastructure of Atria, Blink, Mountain Cable and BLACKIRON DATA. The Blink, Atria and Mountain Cable acquisitions expanded RBS’ network reach by adding thousands of on-net buildings and fibre routes kilometers. Rogers owns and operates a nationwide fibre network with over 25,000 km of fibre routes including connectivity to key network access points in the US and overseas.^[11]

Bell Aliant,starting in 2009, announced that it would be deploying Fibre-To-The-Home (FTTH) service in New Brunswick, starting in Fredericton and St. John, under the trade name FibreOP. It has since been deployed in several other cities and towns throughout Atlantic Canada,^[12] offering speeds ranging from 50mbps down & 30mbps up, to 250mbps down & 30mbps up.

Comparison

The following table summarizes residential broadband offerings in Canada. No provider is nationwide and the chart does not include abilities of customer equipment or the speeds after Peer-to-peer traffic shaping. In particular, some products are 'up to' the speed quoted and may not deliver that speed in all areas. Since plans may change at any time, this list is not comprehensive.

Consumer Internet Plans Available in Canada

		Lowest Tier			Highest Tier
Internet Service Provider	Type	Download (MBit/s)	Upload (MBit/s)	Cap (GB)	Download (MBit/s)	Upload (MBit/s)	Cap (GB)	Region
Acanac	Cable/DSL	11	1	∞	30	10	∞	Ontario and Quebec
Brama Telecom	DSL	6	0.78	300	50	25	300	Ontario and Quebec
Comwave	Cable/DSL	6	0.78	∞	50	4	∞	Ontario and Quebec
Internet Lightspeed	DSL	3	1	125	6	1	125	Western Canada
Shaw Communications	Cable/Fibre	10	0.5	125	250	15	1000	Western Canada
Rogers Hi-Speed Internet	Cable	6	0.25	20	250	20	1000	Eastern Canada
Rogers Ultimate Fibre	Fibre	N/A	N/A	N/A	350	350	2000	Fibre markets
Vidéotron	Cable	5	1	15	200	30	250	Quebec
Cogeco	Cable	4	0.6	15	120	10	425	Ontario and Quebec
EastLink[13][14][15][16]	Cable	20	1	∞	200	10	250	Atlantic Canada
Bell Internet[17]	VDSL2	5	1	15	50	10	175	Ontario and Quebec
Bell Internet[17]	Fibre	15	15	75	175	175	300	Ontario and Quebec
Bell Aliant	DSL	1.5	0.625	N/A	15	2	N/A	Atlantic Canada
Bell Aliant FibreOP	Fibre	50	30	N/A	250	30	N/A	Atlantic Canada
National Capital Freenet	VDSL2	6	0.8	300	50	10	300	National Capital Region
Nexicom	VDSL2	6	0.8	N/A	25	7	N/A	Ontario
Telus	Fibre/VDSL2	6	1	150	50	10	400	Alberta, British Columbia and Quebec
SaskTel[18]	DSL	0.25	0.125	N/A	25	2	N/A	Saskatchewan
SaskTel infiNET[18]	Fibre	2	1	N/A	260	60	N/A	Saskatchewan
Start Communications	Cable	6	0.25	100/∞	150	10	400	Ontario (Rogers Areas)
Start Communications	Cable	6	1.2	100/∞	60	2	300	Ontario (Cogeco Areas)
Start Communications	DSL	6	0.8	100/∞	50	10	300	Ontario
Manitoba Telecom Services[19]	DSL	0.25	0.25	N/A	20	2	N/A	Manitoba
TekSavvy	Cable	3	0.8	25	200	10	∞	Various
TekSavvy	DSL	6	0.8	75	50	10	∞	Various
VMedia	Cable	25	2	∞	45	4	∞	Ontario
VMedia	DSL	6	0.78	∞	50	10	∞	Ontario and Quebec
Telehop	Cable	3	0.25	300	15	1	300	Ontario
ElectronicBox	DSL	6	0.8	100	25	10	500	Ontario and Quebec
ElectronicBox	Cable	5	1	50	60	10	500	Ontario and Quebec
Novus Entertainment	Fibre	25	10	250	300	300	N/A	Vancouver
Velcom	VDSL2	6	0.8	100	25	10	N/A	Ontario and Quebec

Regional Canadian ISPs peer through a few major Internet Exchange Points, the most notable of which is the Toronto Internet Exchange. However, these regional networks usually share the same backbones for longer distance connectivity.

The largest DSL provider in Canada is Bell Internet (formerly Bell Sympatico). Bell owns and maintains physical layer connectivity through a combination of optical fibre networks, DSLAM and Customer Premise Equipment. In British Columbia (BC), Alberta (AB), and parts of Quebec (QC), the incumbent telco is Telus, owning the DSLAMs and fibre, providing many of the same services Bell does.

The other major players offering DSL and IPTV services are SaskTel in Saskatchewan and Manitoba Telecom Services (MTS) in Manitoba. Download speeds are up to 25 Mbit/s for average users, though recent upgrades now make HDTV and much higher rates possible.^{[citation needed]}

For Cable offerings, standard North American DOCSIS based equipment are used. The largest Cable internet providers in Canada are Shaw Communications (Western) and Rogers Cable (Eastern) offering internet speeds of up to 250 Mbit/s.

Usage-based billing (UBB)

Internet bandwidth limits and caps are considered by many to be too restrictive, due to the increasing popularity of online streaming media services such as Netflix, which require large amounts of bandwidth.^[20]

The decision to impose bandwidth caps on smaller independent ISPs^[21] caused controversy in 2011 when the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), Canada's telecommunications regulator, approved a request by Bell Internet to begin, on 1 March 2011, to apply a bandwidth cap on the users of smaller independent ISPs who use Bell's last mile infrastructure. This new billing structure is called "usage-based billing" or UBB.

Bell pushed for a cap as small as 25 gigabytes of transfer per month, plus a $1–2 CAD surcharge for every GB over the limit. The stated intent was to prevent the customers of independent ISPs from congesting Bell's network,^[22] because many independent ISPs offer service with unlimited bandwidth, while most major Canadian ISPs do not. The CRTC was criticized for allowing Bell to use anti-competitive practices to favour its own Internet and television offerings.^[23] Bell is also under fire for forcing its own pricing structure and business on its wholesalers. Bell admits that more than 10 percent of its subscribers (at the time of said download cap) exceed their limit, resulting in additional billing.^[24]

Many savvy Internet users also accuse Bell of falsifying information to the public regarding network congestion. Network congestion is primarily caused by many users accessing the Internet at the same time (after school/work, 5pm-10pm) and not by heavy users alone.

On 2 February 2011, industry minister Tony Clement and Prime Minister Stephen Harper called on the CRTC to reverse the decision. The next day, the CRTC announced that it would delay its decision by 60 days.^[25]

There are some supporters for usage-based-billing (UBB) at lower rates instead of the current $2/GB. One example is TekSavvy, providing "Lite" cable Internet services (6 Mbit/s down, ¼ Mbit/s up) at $30.95/month with 300 GB, equivalent to around 10¢/GB.^[26] Rogers Hi-Speed Internet offers Internet access at the same speed for $41.49/month but with only 20 GB, equivalent to around $2.07/GB.^[27] The difference of $1.97/GB between the two providers is one key reason why consumer advocates oppose UBB. Some also claim that it costs the incumbents as low as 3¢/GB.^[28] Supporters also suggest that instead of a penalty-based system (heavy users pay more), a credit-based system (light users be credited back monthly) would be much more consumer friendly and fair.

See also

• Science and technology in Canada
• Social networking in Canada
• Demographics of the Canadian political blogosphere
• Broadband for Rural Nova Scotia initiative
• CANARIE, ORION — research and education networks in Canada
• Canadian Internet Registration Authority — Canada's top-level domain registrar in charge of .ca

References

External links

• DSL Reports – Extensive site on broadband with user reports from around the USA and Canada
• Canadian Broadband Forum – Site on broadband in Canada with user reviews from Canada