In 2013, the Government of Alberta announced that 98% of Albertans had access to download speeds of at least 1.5 megabits per second (Mbps). This was partly due to the $5.1 million of provincial funding for the Central Alberta Satellite Solution and Final Mile Rural Connectivity Initiative.source source In 2015, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) reported that this accessible speed had grown, with 98% of Alberta households having access to download speeds in excess of 5.0 Mbpssource (see Table 1) and a penetration rate of 81%source. On average, the national speeds were reported to be 18.6 Mbps download and 7.3 Mbps upload in 2015.source Alberta was reported to have lower speeds than the national average, with speeds of 13.5 Mbps download and 5.0 Mbps upload.
Table 1. Broadband Availability in Alberta by Download Speed, 2014 per CRTC Communications Monitoring Report 2015
Download Speed | Availability |
1.5 - 4.9 | 99 |
5.0 - 9.9 | 98 |
5.0-9.9 with LTE | 99 |
10.0-15.9 | 86 |
16.0-24.9 | 85 |
25 + | 81 |
Source: Prepared by Cybera using data from 2015 CRTC Communications Monitoring Report. These figures exclude satellite technologies.
In April 2014, the Government of Canada released the Digital Canada 150 national digital economy strategy. As part of this strategy, $305 million of the Connecting Canadians program was earmarked to address gaps in the delivery of high-speed internet (at speeds of at least 5 Mbps) to rural and remote communities across the country.source Of this funding, $50 million was designated for Nunavuk and Nunavik,source leaving $255 million for the remainder of Canada. To date, Alberta has received $3.6 million of the Connecting Canadians funding (split between IWantWireless.ca and Arrow Technology Group Ltd) to expand services to a target subscriber base of 6,000 households.source
The Connecting Canadians initiative also created a national broadband coverage mapsource (see Figures 3 & 4), with input from ISPs, to identify the areas of Canada that have underserved (< 5 Mbps download speed) or unserved broadband needs. The CRTC released a similar map (see Figures 5 and 6) in April 2016. It depicts the availability of broadband internet access service at or above the CRTC’s target speeds of 5 Mbps download and 1 Mbps upload within hexagonal service areas of 25 square kilometres.