Jack Kapica at the Globe And Mail has a new article called Canadian Internet subscriptions hit plateau indicating that we’ve now reached a ceiling on growth in online penetration:
bq.. The annual study says that the usage rate has been steady for about three years, with 73 per cent of Canadians having Internet access, and with 64 per cent of that number enjoying high-speed access.
Several factors were identified as barriers to increased on-line penetration. The main one is profitability, which keeps high-speed Internet providers out of communities where there are not enough subscribers to make service financially viable. Some 72 per cent of people in larger communities – 10,000 inhabitants or more — have broadband access, while only 41 per cent of those in smaller communities do.
p. TNS Canadian Facts press release on their report is “available as a PDF”:http://www.nfocfgroup.com/news/05.08.16-high_speed.pdf and contains some additional data.