Understanding Internet Usage Among Broadband Households: A Study of Household Internet Use Survey Data

For more than a decade, the Government of Canada promoted strategies to enable Canadians to become participants in the information society (Government of Canada 1999, Government On-Line Advisory Panel 2003, Industry Canada 1994). As part of these strategies, it was recommended that broadband1 Internet access be made available to all Canadian households (National Broadband Task Force 2001), but there are still many unserved and underserved areas in the country (CRACIN 2005). Although many provincial initiatives are making progress in extending broadband coverage (e.g. Alberta SuperNet 2005; CommunityNet 2006; Ministry of Agriculture Food and Rural Affairs 2007), and the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has ordered an expansion of broadband services in regional areas (CRTC 2008) broadband services are still not yet available to all Canadians.