Canada leads U.S. and the world by wide margin when it comes to
broadband adoption – Ipsos-Reid Internet trends report
Internet access hits new high as 75% of all Canadians now online
Toronto, April 30, 2002 – A new study from marketing
research firm Ipsos-Reid shows that nearly one-half (48%) of Canadian adults with a home
Internet connection have a broadband connection, further proof that Canadians continue to
be at or near the top in the world when it comes to Internet adoption and usage.
The findings from the company’s Canadian Inter@ctive
Reid report — a quarterly review of Canadian Internet trends — also show that 75% of all
Canadians have access to the Internet, one of the highest adoption rates in the world.
Additionally, 63% of Canadian adults access the Internet from home.
Broadband Internet access has doubled in the past two years
in Canada. In March 2000, Ipsos-Reid found that only 24% of Canadians with a home Internet
connection had a broadband connection (DSL or cable modem) versus 48% in March of this
year. Put another way, 30% of all Canadians access the Internet from home with a
high-speed Internet connection, which can be 25 times as fast as dial-up services.
“Broadband has gone mainstream in Canada, and its
growth has been nothing short of phenomenal,” said Chris Ferneyhough, Vice President
of Technology Research at Ipsos-Reid in Toronto. “Aggressive promotions from the
cable and telephone companies have obviously succeeded in attracting thousands of new
broadband users, young and old. But there’s also no denying that once you’ve
tried broadband, you’re hooked.”
Broadband Access in Canada

The incidence of broadband in Canada dwarfs that of the
U.S., where only an estimated 21%1 with a home Internet connection are using broadband.
Meanwhile, the percentage of European households with broadband connections has been estimated at about 5%.
“The acceptance of broadband in Canada and the U.S.
couldn’t be more different,” said Ferneyhough. “The difference is due to a
myriad of factors, including lower access prices in Canada, a less fragmented industry
relative to the USA, our regulatory framework, better and more reliable access, and
extremely positive response from consumers to marketing campaigns.”
BROADBAND USERS STAY ONLINE LONGER – A LOT LONGER
“Growth of high speed access is key for increased
Internet application usage as we find that high speed users are driving Internet behavior
in this country. They are online for 14.3 hours a week whereas dial-up users are online
for only 8.6 hours per week. As such they are more inclined to be trying different online
activities such as online banking and online shopping. Accordingly, increased penetration
of broadband is going to keep Canada ahead of the curve when it comes to most things
Internet,” said Ferneyhough.
DSL providers in Canada have steadily increased their broadband market share
from 29% of broadband users in March 2000 to 42% currently, the study found.
Not only has broadband penetration reached a new high, but
Ipsos-Reid also found that the incidence of overall Internet access has reached 75% in
Canada, compared with 68% at the same time last year. This incidence is also higher than
that found in the U.S., where approximately 69% of all adults have Internet access.
Canadians are at or near the top in the world in overall Internet adoption, online banking
and music downloading, earlier studies have confirmed.
The same pattern is replicated with home Internet access,
where 63% of Canadian adults access the Internet from home. While the incidence of
household Internet access is lower in the U.S. (55%), their larger population means that
114 million American adults access the Internet from home2, compared to only 15.1 million
Canadian adults who are accessing the Internet from home.
“Ultimately that is why Americans are generally going
to have a lot more choice, selection, and opportunity to purchase goods and services
online,” said Ferneyhough. “We may be ahead of the game in access and broadband
on a per capita basis, but overall there are 137 million3 American adults online compared
to only 18 million Canadian adults.”
The Canadian Inter@ctive Reid Report is the largest, most
comprehensive and authoritative source of its kind about quarterly Internet trends in
Canada. The results in this release are based on 1,000 telephone interviews with Canadian
adults, which were conducted between March 5th and 14th, 2002. With a national sample of
1,000, one can say with 95% certainty that the overall results are within a maximum of
�3.1 percentage points of what they would have been had the entire population of Canadian
adults been surveyed. The margin of error will be larger for sub-groupings of the survey population.
Established in 1979, Ipsos-Reid is Canada’s leading
marketing research and public opinion company. It is best known for the Ipsos-Reid Express
Poll, the most widely quoted source of public opinion in the country. Ipsos-Reid has
conducted extensive market and social research in 80 countries and in 40 languages, and
serves clients around the world through more than 300-professionals and 1,000 data
collection staff in eleven offices. The company is a member of the Paris-based Ipsos
Group, ranked among the top ten research companies in the world.