OTTAWA – The success of broadband Internet is often gauged by the proportion of the population that is connected. According to a report from Giganomics, the rate of adoption of high speed Internet in Canada has seen a dramatic increase when tracked by economic regions.
According to 2009 data, 80% of Canadians reported going on-line, with 77% using a connection at home. In terms of rural communities, broadband is available to 84% of households, compared to 100% in urban areas. However, the gap between availability and adoption is not that different between the two regions. Data on urban versus rural adoption is for high-speed connections rather than broadband but still suggests a gap of more than 30 percentage points in either case.
Provincial breakdowns between broadband availability and adoption indicate a similar pattern, with the gap ranging from a low of 17 percentage points in the North (which also has the lowest level of availability), to a high of 42 percentage points in New Brunswick, where broadband is reported to be available to all households.
Click here for more on the report.
