Fixed Wireless and Satellite broadband are closing the digital divide in Canada

The internet has become an indispensable resource, with reliable high-speed networks crucial for enabling participation in the digital economy and accessing essential services. Bridging the digital divide between urban and rural populations is vital to ensure that rural and remote communities can unlock their full potential, fostering economic growth, educational opportunities, and improved quality of life.

Over six million people live in Canada’s vast rural areas, presenting a significant challenge to connectivity. For last-mile infrastructure, wireline expansions are often economically unfeasible and Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) or satellite strategies may be the only choice to fill service gaps — although trade disputes between the U.S. and Canada have complicated the relationship lately, with Ontario’s nearly CAD$100 million (USD$70 million) contract with Starlink hanging in limbo. In this report, we examine the performance of FWA and Starlink’s satellite network across Canada to assess their viability to bridge gaps in connectivity— looking at national, provincial and urban and rural geographic splits.

Key Findings:

• Nationally, Starlink outperforms FWA for speed and streaming on-demand video. Starlink’s average download and upload speeds exceed the requirements of Canada’s connectivity strategy — 50Mbps download/ 10Mbps upload.
• FWA provides a more consistent experience than Starlink across Canada and in urban locations. However, Starlink’s Consistent Quality outpaces FWA in rural areas.
• Comparing 90-day periods starting February 2024 and August 2024, Starlink’s Download Speed has decreased by more than 15Mbps, while FWA’s has remained steady. Additionally, FWA’s Consistent Quality score has seen a large boost, of five percentage points.
• Starlink is more than twice as fast as FWA in rural locations. This disparity is fueled by FWA’s speeds dropping outside of urban areas and Starlink’s increasing; the pair have comparable scores in urban areas.

Connectivity in Canada

‘High-Speed Access for All’ is the ambitious headline of Canada’s connectivity strategy. Canada set up the CAD$3.225 billion Universal Broadband Fund, alongside additional programs and funding, with the goal of providing all Canadians with high-speed internet access, defined as providing speeds of at least 50Mbps download and 10Mbps upload.

According to the figures published by the government, as of March 2024 93.5% of Canadians had access to high-speed internet. However, the target of 98% by 2026 and 100% access by 2030 will require connecting hard-to-reach users in the country's most remote and rural locations. FWA and satellite broadband are cost-effective methods to achieve these goals. Satellite costs remain consistent regardless of geography, while cell towers can cover clusters of housing units, without building out individual infrastructure required by fiber and cable.

Across Canada, Starlink delivers a faster internet experience when compared to FWA, with average download speeds reaching more than 50Mbps and average upload speeds exceeding 10Mbps — meeting the internet speed targets set by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). Additionally, our Canadian Starlink users enjoy a superior experience streaming on-demand video. The provider’s score of 70.9 points, on a 100-point scale, places it in the Very Good (68-78) category, with users experiencing little to no stalling and satisfactory loading times when streaming content at 1080p or better. FWA users enjoyed comparable streaming quality only when viewing content at 720p.

Speed isn’t the only consideration when choosing a service provider, and in most cases a stable and dependable connection is most important to consumers. FWA scores higher than Starlink for Consistent Quality, Opensignal's metric that assesses a network’s ability, from the perspective of a single device once connectivity is established, to reliably support common application needs at a "good enough" level. It represents the percentage of users’ tests meeting these performance thresholds to support activities like watching HD video, completing group video calls, and gaming across all hours of the day.

FWA’s four percentage point lead for Consistent Quality can partly be explained due to latency being a component of the metric — satellite suffers from increased latency compared to FWA, with Starlink’s latency ranging from 25-60ms in most locations. Additionally, obstructions in the line of sight to the satellite, such as buildings and trees, can degrade satellite signal, along with inclement weather conditions. Both FWA’s and Starlink’s scores are lower than the overall scores seen on the national providers — Bell, Rogers and Telus — in the most recent Canadian fixed broadband experience report.

Comparing the experience of our users using 90-day periods starting February 2024 and August 2024, we see that average download speeds on Starlink have dropped by 16Mbps, while FWA’s have remained the same — however, Starlink is still faster than FWA. Additionally, FWA has seen a boost in Consistent Quality, resulting in it outperforming Starlink nationally. Starlink has grown rapidly since its commercial launch in early 2021, reaching more than 400,000 subscribers in Canada in the middle of 2024. However, there is a limit to the capacity that Starlink can provide, dictated by the satellite bandwidth and number of satellites in the constellation. Congestion caused by increasing subscriber count in relatively small areas, will cause noticeable reduction in speeds. FWA is also affected by congestion, however, it is easier and more cost-effective to add terrestrial capacity via the deployment of cell sites and use of higher frequency spectrum.

Neither FWA or satellite connections are currently expected to compete with fiber on performance; instead, they serve as solutions for affordability and addressing last-mile connectivity challenges. Both technologies offer cost-effective deployment methods that are particularly beneficial for underserved communities — Starlink, for example, requires little more than a dish and an unobstructed view of the sky. Additionally, FWA's low-cost subscription plans make it an appealing option for many urban users.

Starlink excels in rural areas, outperforming both its urban performance and FWA in these locations. In rural areas, Starlink’s Video Experience score is three points higher than in urban settings, and its Consistent Quality improves by more than 10 percentage points. This disparity is likely due to urban challenges such as building obstructions and congestion from higher density of users. FWA performs better in urban areas, where greater cell density provides stronger signals and lower latencies — additionally, relatively low loading of FWA on mobile operators’ networks results in lower congestion and improved performance. Conversely, FWA is less consistent outside of urban centers, its score dropping by nine percentage points — placing it behind Starlink in performance. 

Starlink’s suitability is also demonstrated by its speeds. In rural areas it is twice as fast as FWA, with average download speeds reaching 57.1Mbps and average upload speeds clocking in at 13.4Mbps — exceeding the high-speed internet requirements of Canada’s connectivity strategy. While these speeds are not comparable to cable and fiber speeds, the high rural Consistent Quality score shows that they are “good enough” for most user applications. Moreover, Starlink’s download speeds are also faster than FWA’s in urban areas. While FWA’s cell tower based infrastructure may be more cost-effective than traditional wireline expansion, it still suffers from the challenging nature of remote connection. Increased distance from cell towers due to lower population density or poor line-of-sight to towers will slow down speeds. Starlink does not have to contend with the same issues, as it is not tied to terrestrial infrastructure.

Examining the regional experience in Canada, FWA and Starlink again prove to be strong complements, with FWA performing better in areas where Starlink scores lower. In Saskatchewan and Manitoba — the only provinces where Starlink outperforms FWA in Consistent Quality — Starlink achieves its highest two scores, while FWA records its two lowest. The trend is even more pronounced for Download Speed. British Columbia is the only province where FWA exceeds 50Mbps, and is the only region where Starlink fails to meet this target.

Covering all of the bases

FWA and satellite broadband are complementary solutions that both have their part to play in helping Canada’s strategy to achieve comprehensive connectivity, bridging the digital divide and allowing rural and remote communities access to vital digital infrastructure. As our analysis shows, both FWA and Starlink offer valuable choices for customers in remote areas. This is particularly important as regulatory measures introduced by the CRTC, such as allowing other internet service providers to access Northwestel's network in the Far North or enabling wholesale access to major fiber networks, may inadvertently discourage providers from investing in further network expansion.

FWA offers an affordable option, typically priced lower than other technologies, including satellite. This makes it an attractive option even in urban markets with fiber and cable availability. However, like mobile networks, FWA is susceptible to issues of spectrum availability. Opensignal's analysis of Canada’s 5G spectrum emphasizes the role of high-frequency bands in enabling faster 5G speeds. In the U.S., FWA has grown dramatically, absorbing all broadband subscriber growth from mid-2022 to Q3 2024, while Canada has been relatively slow to roll out FWA. A recent study conducted by the CRTC found that the most common reason that respondents did not have FWA was its lack of availability, followed by a lack of awareness of its availability.

Low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites’ utility as a last-mile solution for hard-to-reach rural areas has been recognised by the Canadian government — however, due to trade disputes, Ontario’s nearly CAD$100 million agreement with SpaceX to provide network capacity to 15,000 rural customers is currently on shaky ground. This deal would form part of the province’s nearly CAD$4 billion investment to bring access to reliable high-speed internet to all of its communities. Quebec also implemented a similar subsidy program in the past. However, Starlink is not the only satellite provider to receive funding from the Canadian government. Telesat has secured CAD$2.54 billion in loans from the federal and Quebec governments to support the development of its LEO Lightspeed broadband constellation, set to launch commercial service in 2027. If this service gets off the ground (literally), it would foster some competition in an LEO market that is currently dominated by Starlink.

While Starlink may currently be the best choice for many rural citizens, aggressive expansion of FWA infrastructure and investment in emerging alternatives like Telesat Lightspeed will provide long-term connectivity solutions that reduce reliance on foreign providers and ensure sustainable, high-quality internet access for all communities. As a neutral observer, we do not take sides in political disputes; our focus remains on measuring real-world user experience across all technologies.
 

For more insights into the fixed broadband experience of our Canadian users, check out our previous Canadian fixed broadband report. Stay tuned for an upcoming fixed broadband report. To stay updated on all Opensignal insights and articles, sign up for our newsletter.