In this report, Opensignal has analyzed the real-world fixed broadband experience of our users across Canada and then separately across seven of its regions. To reflect the varying ways in which fixed broadband is used, we have included five different measures of user experience: Consistent Quality, Download Speed, Upload Speed, Video Experience and Reliability Experience.

For our national award tables, we have only included the providers with comparable scale and extent of geographic coverage: Bell, Rogers (which includes customers of Shaw following the merger in April 2023), Telus and Starlink. In our regional assessment, we have further analyzed the experience of providers that have a significant presence in their selected provinces.

With our overall experience awards, we are assessing the real-world experience of our users measured across all broadband technologies. As a consequence, the mix of plans and speed tiers selected by users for any given ISP will influence its scores. Doing so highlights the extent to which they have been able to migrate their users away from legacy technologies and offer high-speed plans at compelling prices.

Canada is committed to providing ‘high-speed internet’ — defined as 50Mbps download speeds and 10Mbps upload speeds — to all of its citizens, recognizing that the internet is a necessity and essential to participate in the digital economy. Canada’s Connectivity Strategy outlines the government’s plan to address challenges that rural communities have with access to affordable and reliable internet services. The plan aims to bring high-speed internet to even the hardest-to-reach Canadians by 2030 through collaboration and investment, such as the Universal Broadband Fund — a CAD$3.255 billion fund to support internet projects across the country.

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), Canada’s telecommunications and broadcasting regulator, has made a number of decisions intending to increase competition and provide greater choice for consumers. The CRTC recently upheld its decision to allow the country’s largest fixed broadband network providers to offer wholesale access to each other’s networks outside of their core serving regions. However, a final decision is yet to be made. Additionally, the CRTC is making it easier for providers to use Northwestel’s network in the Far North to sell services to customers.

Satellite broadband is an attractive solution to last-mile connectivity, where traditional wireline infrastructure is not viable due to infrastructure costs. Satellite’s lack of terrestrial infrastructure allows it to serve remote populations for the same cost as urban centers. Opensignal’s recent insight compared our users’ experience on Starlink against another cost-effective solution, Fixed Wireless Access (FWA). We found that the two technologies complement each other, with Starlink providing better experience in rural locations. Recent American tariffs have caused Ontario to cancel its CAD$100 million contract with Starlink to deliver internet to 15,000 rural and remote homes. However, the Canadian government clearly recognizes the utility of non-terrestrial-networks (NTNs), with the federal and Quebec governments investing a combined CAD$2.54 billion into Canada-based Telesat’s Low Earth Orbit (LEO) constellation — Telesat Lightspeed.