Over the next decade, Alberta’s Globally, the demand for bandwidth is expected to increase dramatically. This demand will likely be met by a wide variety of networking technologies, many of which are still being tested (including new satellite, drone and balloon delivery methods). But until these are commercially deployed, residents and businesses in many rural or remote regions of Alberta are still reliant on outdated or expensive internet connections. These groups continue to lag behind the urban centres when it comes to bandwidth availability, speed and cost.

By the numbers:

• Expected annual growth rate of Canadian internet traffic between 2015-2020: 22% (2.7x today’s traffic)^source
• Percentage of low income households in Canada with internet access at home (as of 2013): 59.7%^source
• Current number of Albertans without access to internet at speeds of at least 5 Mbps download and 1 Mbps upload: 80,000
• Average Canadian download / upload speeds in 2015: 18.6 Mbps down / 7.3 Mbps up^source
• Average rural Canadian speeds in 2015: 14.8 Mbps down / 6 Mbps up
• Average Alberta speeds in 2015: 13.5 Mbps down / 5 Mbps up
• Percentage of Albertans over the age of 18 who own a mobile device: 80%
• Expected annual growth rate of Canadian mobile data traffic between 2015-2020: 42% (6x today’s traffic)
• Expected annual growth rate of Canadian IP video traffic between 2015-2020: 20% (3x today’s traffic)

is increasing exponentially. Alberta is also seeing an increased demand for bandwidth, as more education and work activities are carried out online, and as high-bandwidth mobile platforms become more ubiquitous. 

Currently, Alberta has two high-speed public fibre networks: the research and education network, CyberaNet, and the province-wide fibre optic network, the Alberta SuperNet. Both are available to a select portion of the population. Commercially, services are provided by the big three telecommunications providers — TELUS, Bell and Rogers — in addition to a number of regional competitors, most notably the Calgary-based Shaw Communications (although on March 15, 2021, Rogers announced a plan to acquire Shaw in a $26B merger, a deal which would eliminate Shaw as a regional competitor. As of the publication of this report, the deal is pending regulatory approval). 

The reach, bandwidth, and prices these providers offer can vary, and rural areas continue to struggle to obtain internet connections at a cost and speed comparable to the province’s urban areas. 

By the Numbers...

• Percentage of Canadians in the lowest income quintile with a home internet subscription (as of 2019): 65%¹
• Percentage of Canadian households without access to at least 50 Mbps download and 1 Mbps upload (as of 2019): 16% 
• Median download speed in Canadian cities in 2021: 51.09 Mbps  
• Median rural download speeds in 2019: 9.74 Mbps² 
• Availability of internet service of 50 Mbps download and 10 Mbps upload with unlimited data in rural Alberta: 33.2%

References

¹Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) . Communications Monitoring Report 2020, pg. 28

²Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA). Canada’s Internet Equity Gap: Rural residents suffer with inferior service during pandemic. Accessed 08 July 2021.

Recommendations for Improving Networking

Short-term (1-3 years)

• Develop a provincial broadband strategy?
• Set a provincial target of 25 Mbps symmetric internet bandwidth?
• Establish a community to aggregate and facilitate rural broadband solutions?
• Ensure the new Alberta SuperNet agreements (due in 2018) allow Alberta to play a leadership role in broadband

Long-term (3-10 years)