Alberta Connectivity
Understanding The Issue of Internet Access across Rural Alberta
If the global pandemic (on-going as of June 2021) has taught us anything, it is that there is a need to stay connected to the internet — the standard means of communication for education and work.
The Problem
The internet plays such a huge role in everyone's lives. It is estimated that approximately 63.2% of the world's population uses the internet. Breaking that statistic down further, it is estimated that 96% of Canadians have and use internet on a near daily basis, and roughly 94% of Albertans use the internet.
As listed by the CRTC (Canadian Radio-Television & Telecommunications Commission), their goal is for 90% of Canadians to have minimum broadband Internet speeds of at least 50 Mbps for downloads and 10 Mbps for uploads. This is definitely not the case.
With the increasing impact the internet has on our lives, it's important for users to understand how to better optimize their internet, and any limiting factors they may face in order to get the best outcome for their home. The problem is that many internet users do not receive detailed reports regarding internet speeds, consumption, and location factors. If a user would like to understand how their internet upload speeds compare, or how location plays a part, there is no one source that can provide a quick summary.
Causes
In a report published by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) on May 4, 2021, titled Keeping the Internet Up and Running In Times of Crisis, it was found that because large communications operators refused to work domestically with other networks, smaller networks were forced to connect to Internet Exchange Points (IXPs) in the United States, resulting in 64% of Canadian domestic traffic to travel to the US. This not only accounts for slower speeds, but results in higher costs for Canadian consumers.
Digital Inequity - In a report published by ACORN Canada, only one-third of the lowest income Canadians have internet access. Canadians pay two to three times more for internet and mobile phone data than other OECD countries, spending upwards of 10% of their income. A quarter of respondents were found to sacrifice food and other necessities in order to pay for internet.
Working towards a solution
This project sets out to display data collected by M-Lab from July 2020-April 2021 to provide a visual representation of what internet connectivity looks like throughout Alberta, and to propose possible solutions including calling upon the Members of Legislative Assembly (MLA) and ISPs.
By having a comparison chart of similar speeds across the world, we hope to further illustrate the disparity in internet access.
Limitations
Every method was made to ensure accuracy. At times, M-Lab used older names of municipalities (listed as 'cities' in the original data sets) and this had to be modified. It is also important to note that not all municipalities had data collected every month, therefore the data test date has been shown as well.
Attempts were made to list the population of these municipalities citing official census findings whenever possible, however, some municipalities do not have this information easily available.
Further Recommendations
ACORN Canada continues to advocate for low to moderate income families to have access to the internet — leading to the CRTC's historical declaration in 2016 that broadband internet access as a basic service.
As it is, the Connecting Families Program (launched in 2018) only accommodates Canadians who receive the maximum Canada Child Benefit — excluding seniors and persons from vulnerable communities. Even worse, the program relies on the voluntary participation from ISPs, and only provides download speeds of 10 Mbps, which is too slow for usage.
A proposal to the Canadian Government, written by ACORN, can be found here.
Looking at over 351 municipalities over seven months, our team has broken down which of these areas meet the standard set out by the CRTC for internet and which MLA oversee these areas.
Below is a chart showing the bottom 20 countries in the world for download speeds. Many municipalities in Alberta are well within the range of these slow speeds.
We hope that you'll be motivated to contact the political leaders so that they can do something about this ongoing issue. You can find your MLA for your area by searching on the Elections Alberta website.