Impossible to work or do school from home despite purchasing the highest plans
When the pandemic transformed reliable internet from convenience into lifeline, a sweeping analysis of nearly 69,000 Canadian speed tests laid bare a quiet infrastructure failure: in 51 of 53 communities studied, most residents could not meet the basic connectivity standard their own regulator had defined as necessary for modern life. The gap was not merely technical — it was felt in missed school days, lost workdays, and the particular frustration of paying premium prices for a service that arrived, if at all, diminished. Canada's digital divide, long discussed in policy chambers, had finally been measured in the lived experience of a nation forced online all at once.
- A pandemic that demanded universal internet access exposed that even Canada's capital city could only deliver adequate speeds to one in three households running tests.
- The betrayal ran deeper than infrastructure: in nine out of ten cases where contracts were examined, customers were not receiving the speeds they had paid for — sometimes receiving less than two percent of their advertised service.
- Rural and smaller communities bore the sharpest burden, with some towns recording median download speeds so low that basic video calls were effectively impossible, leaving residents with no recourse and no alternatives.
- Only two cities — Surrey and Quebec City — managed to clear the CRTC's 50/10 mbps threshold for even half their tested users, making adequate connectivity the exception rather than the rule across the country.
- Federal and regulatory bodies have pledged over three billion dollars toward broadband expansion, but the data from 2020 showed that for Canadians already struggling to work and learn from home, the promise of future infrastructure offered little immediate relief.
When the pandemic made reliable internet a necessity, tens of thousands of Canadians ran speed tests to see what they were actually getting. Researchers at Ryerson University's Local News Data Hub analyzed nearly 69,000 of those tests across 53 communities in 2020 and found that in 51 of them, most users were falling short of the CRTC's baseline standard of 50 megabits per second download and 10 upload — the speeds considered necessary for video calls, streaming, and everyday online work.
Ottawa was no exception. Of 7,536 tests run by Ottawa residents, only 34 percent met both thresholds. The median download speed of 38.22 mbps looked reasonable, but the median upload of 9.96 mbps fell just short — a gap that mattered enormously for anyone trying to participate in a video call or submit work remotely. Across the river, Gatineau fared modestly better at 43 percent. But the picture darkened considerably beyond the major cities: in Milton, Ontario, only 13 percent of tests hit the target; in Regina, just 23 percent.
What compounded the frustration was the chasm between contracted and delivered speeds. Among tests submitted with service provider details, customers received what they paid for in only nine percent of cases. One Burlington resident paying for 350 mbps download received 27 mbps. A Huntsville customer paying $200 a month for 70 mbps download measured just 5.52 — and 0.07 on upload. "NO OTHER OPTION. Impossible to work or do school from home," they wrote.
In communities under 50,000 residents, performance was particularly grim, with rural internet having "essentially flatlined over the course of the pandemic," according to the chief executive of the Canadian Internet Registration Authority. Only Surrey, British Columbia and Quebec City saw more than half their tests clear the standard. The federal government has committed billions toward rural broadband expansion, but for Canadians navigating a crisis from home in 2020, the infrastructure they needed was already long overdue.
Last year, when the pandemic made reliable internet a necessity rather than a luxury, tens of thousands of Canadians ran speed tests to see what they were actually getting. The results painted a stark picture: in Ottawa, only about one in three tests showed the kind of connection the country's telecom regulator says every household should have.
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission sets a baseline standard of 50 megabits per second for downloads and 10 for uploads—the speeds needed to stream video, attend video calls, and handle everyday online tasks without frustration. When researchers at Ryerson University's Local News Data Hub analyzed nearly 69,000 speed tests conducted across 53 Canadian communities in 2020, they found that in 51 of those places, most users were falling short. Ottawa was no exception. Of the 7,536 tests run by Ottawa residents that year, only 34 percent met both the download and upload minimums. The median download speed was 38.22 megabits per second—respectable on paper, but the median upload speed of 9.96 megabits per second fell just shy of the standard. For anyone trying to upload documents, share video files, or participate in a Zoom call with a shaky connection, that gap mattered.
Across the river in Gatineau, results were slightly better, with 43 percent of tests meeting the standard. But the real story emerged when researchers looked beyond the major cities. In Milton, Ontario, a suburban community of more than 110,000 people just west of Toronto, only 13 percent of tests hit the target. In Regina, Saskatchewan, where the median download speed was 23.55 megabits per second, just 23 percent of users achieved the standard. Even in Toronto, where the median speeds looked healthy at 55.46 megabits per second for downloads, only 42 percent of individual tests actually met the benchmark. The problem wasn't just rural areas—it was woven through communities of all sizes.
What made the situation worse was a gap between what people paid for and what they received. When researchers compared service contracts submitted with 11,385 tests against actual measured speeds, they found that customers were getting the speeds they'd purchased in only nine percent of cases. A resident of Burlington, Ontario, reported paying for 350 megabits per second download and 30 for upload—premium speeds for premium prices. But when they ran the test, they got 27.42 megabits per second down and 6.27 up. In their comments to the testing service, they wrote that they couldn't even connect to a Zoom meeting despite purchasing the highest available plan. Another customer in Huntsville was paying $200 a month for 70 megabits per second download and 10 for upload. Their actual test showed 5.52 megabits per second down and 0.07 up—essentially unusable for any real work. "NO OTHER OPTION. Impossible to work or do school from home," they wrote.
The data revealed a digital divide that had essentially frozen in place during the pandemic. In communities with fewer than 50,000 residents, performance was particularly grim. Even in Bracebridge, Ontario, which had the best results among smaller towns, only 23 percent of tests met the standard, with a median download speed of just 15.56 megabits per second and upload of 1.53. Byron Holland, the chief executive of the Canadian Internet Registration Authority, which conducted the tests, noted that rural and remote internet performance had "essentially flatlined over the course of the pandemic, starting with a very low level of performance and essentially remaining there."
Only two communities stood out: Surrey, British Columbia, where 55 percent of tests exceeded the standard with a median download speed of 82.61 megabits per second, and Quebec City, where half the tests met the benchmark. Everywhere else, the gap between what regulators said Canadians needed and what they actually had remained stubbornly wide. The federal government has committed $2.75 billion to expand broadband access to rural areas, and the CRTC is collecting $750 million from larger telecom providers for the same purpose. But as the data from 2020 showed, the problem was urgent even then—and for millions of Canadians trying to work and learn from home during a global crisis, waiting for infrastructure to catch up was not an option.
Citações Notáveis
Rural and remote internet performance has essentially flatlined over the course of the pandemic, starting with a very low level of performance and essentially remaining there.— Byron Holland, CEO of the Canadian Internet Registration Authority
NO OTHER OPTION. Impossible to work or do school from home.— A Huntsville, Ontario resident commenting on their inadequate speeds despite paying $200 monthly
A Conversa do Hearth Outra perspectiva sobre a história
Why does it matter that only 34 percent of Ottawa tests met the standard? Isn't that still a third of people getting decent speeds?
Because the standard itself is the minimum—the floor, not the ceiling. If only a third of people can meet the baseline for everyday tasks, two-thirds are struggling. And that's in a major city with infrastructure. The real crisis is that even that baseline wasn't being met.
The contract data is striking—only 9 percent of people got what they paid for. How does that even happen?
It's partly technical. Your actual speed depends on your device, what else is running, how many people are on your network. But it's also that "up to" language in the fine print. Providers advertise speeds as maximums, not guarantees. When someone pays $200 a month and gets a tenth of what they contracted for, that's not a technical glitch—that's a failure of the system.
During the pandemic, this became a class issue, didn't it? Some people could work from home, others couldn't.
Exactly. The person in Huntsville paying $200 a month and still unable to work from home—that's not just inconvenient. That's exclusion. And they had no alternative. That's what the comments reveal. It's not complaint; it's desperation.
Why did Surrey and Quebec City do so much better than everywhere else?
The reporting doesn't explain it, but the pattern suggests investment. Those cities have better infrastructure, probably more competition among providers, more density making it economical to build out fiber networks. Everywhere else got left behind.
What happens next? The government has money committed now.
The money is there, but the data is from 2020. We don't know if things improved. And the rural performance had "flatlined"—it wasn't getting worse, but it wasn't getting better either. That suggests the problem is structural, not just a matter of funding.