Internet Service in Ontario.
Ontario contains Canada’s capital, Ottawa, as well as Canada’s most populous and economically prosperous city, Toronto. You would therefore expect to see the greatest percentage of Internet access here, but that is not the case actually. In a 2012 survey funded by the Canadian government, 84% of the population of Ontario had some kind of access to the Internet (home, work, school, library or other source). This trailed by a few percentage points behind the provinces of Alberta (surprisingly!) and British Columbia. Here is a look at how Internet access in Ontario has grown over the last ten years.
Overall individual Internet usage in Ontario (including both residential and commercial access) increased from 71.8% in 2005 to 81.0% in 2009. Home Internet access jumped the most in Ontario from 66.5% in 2005 to 77.9% in 2009. Internet access from places of employment went up from 27.7% in 2005 in Ontario up to 34.9% in 2009. School Internet access in the province only went up five percentage points during the same period, from 12.4% in 2005 to 17.4% in 2009.
Source: “Statistics Canada” from Government of Canada (http://www.statcan.gc.ca/tables-tableaux/sum-som/l01/cst01/comm36g-eng.htm)
In July of 2016 it was announced, in London, Ontario, that a large swath of southwestern Ontario (including the regionally leading cities of London, Chatham-Kent, Windsor, Stratford and Sarnia) would be getting a $180 million injection to provide high speed Internet access to these under-served communities. This is part of the SWIFT plan (Southwestern Ontario Integrated Fiber Technology) and will be bringing high-speed fiber to many cities in the targeted area.
Source: (http://www.mitchelladvocate.com/2016/07/29/high-speed-internet-access-coming-to-rural-ontario)
The largest Internet Service Providers in Ontario are as follows: Shaw, Montreal-DSL, TekSavvy, Rogers, Cogeco, Primus, Yak, Comwave, Acanac, Distributel, ElectronicBox, Atalk (Atalk.ca). These are all in the Toronto area primarily. Beanfield, Telus and Bell are found more prominently in the Ottawa region.
Top Cities in Ontario.
City | Providers |
---|---|
Toronto, ON | 71 |
Ottawa, ON | 56 |
Mississauga, ON | 35 |
Brampton, ON | 55 |
Hamilton, ON | 61 |
London, ON | 57 |
Markham, ON | 40 |
Vaughan, ON | 38 |
Kitchener, ON | 58 |
Windsor, ON | 41 |