Another indicator appear to show that Canadian telecom services are affordable, further contradicting the oft-repeated misrepresentations of some critics.
Just last week, a World Bank study showed that Canada’s mobile services ranks among the world’s most affordable, measured as a percentage of income.
Now, the Pew Research Center released a report that shows Canadian adults are among the world’s most connected, with 90% of Canadians affirmatively answering the question “Do you use the internet, at least occasionally?” Only Australia, marginally higher with 92%, had a higher percentage of its adult population reporting online access.
The detailed survey has data from a similar 2007 study allowing a comparison of changes between countries. In 2007, 75% of Canadians had answered the occasional use question “yes”; 78% of Americans said yes in 2007, compared to 87% in the most recent study. Unfortunately, no comparable 2007 data is available for Australia.
Canada and Australia were also among the top countries responding “several times a day” to the question “Overall, how often do you use the internet — several times a day, once a day, at least once a week or less often?”.
Together with last week’s World Bank study, Pew Research provides further ammunition to challenge those critics who repeat tired slogans about the state of Canada’s communications services. Will these studies help inform the CRTC’s upcoming “Review of basic telecommunications services“?