Toronto’s Digital Divide

Introduction

All levels of government in Canada have been working to bridge the internet access gap that has long existed across the country. Often this issue is framed as an urban-rural divide, and for good reason. While 95% of urban Canadian households had access to the internet at home in 2022, only 91% of rural households had home internet — and this represents a significant improvement from previous findings.1 

In 2016, the CRTC declared internet as a basic service in Canada,2 and the federal government is now working toward achieving a goal of providing all Canadian households with access to high-speed internet by 2030 (defined as internet with faster than 50 Mbps download and 10 Mbps upload speeds).

The urban-rural lens, however, hides the disparities that can exist at the local level. While, according to Statistics Canada, the Greater Toronto Area as a whole may have 96% overall home internet access, that does not make it acceptable to leave behind those who need access. It also masks differences in both quality and affordability that can exist within the same geographical area. Instead of existing across geographic boundaries, the divide exists across socioeconomic boundaries, with some groups being significantly better connected than others.

In 2020, the City of Toronto partnered with our team to assess the state of the digital divide in the City at the time, with particular attention to how it was intersecting with shifting needs during the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, they have continued their work through ConnectTO to expand access to free Wi-Fi throughout the City, engaged in efforts to use existing fibre assets to contribute to closing the digital divide, and worked to develop a digital equity policy for the City.3 

This project updates past research conducted in 2020, while expanding the scope to better understand issues of affordability and billing.

What is the digital divide?

Reliable internet access has quickly become essential to nearly every aspect of modern life. This rapid increase in the pervasiveness of the internet has created a deep divide between those who are able to effectively access and use the internet and those who cannot. In the past few decades, governments in Canada have deployed a number of strategies to both minimize the impact of that divide while still modernizing their own offerings for the digital age.4

Historically, access to the infrastructure that enables home and mobile broadband has been a major factor in contributing to the digital divide. There are significant differences in access to high-speed internet infrastructure between those living in urban and less populated areas. Rural areas face specific challenges caused by geographic distance, lack of density and, in some cases, both weather and topography.5 

Within urban areas, there still exists a digital divide. Researchers have framed this as a shift from physical access (where the availability of adequate internet is in question) to material access (where it is actual access to both the necessary resources, devices, and subscriptions to have internet access).6 

Current Efforts 

The Government of Canada has introduced the Connecting Families initiative, enabling low-income families with children eligible for the maximum Canadian Child Benefit, as well as lower-income seniors, to receive $20 per month home internet (and in some cases a further discounted rate of $10 for a download speed of up to 10 Mbps).

Internet service providers in Canada both work with the federal government to deliver those low-cost internet plans and often provide their own low-cost packages to support connectivity. For instance, Rogers Connected for Success includes mobile data plans on top of discounted home internet offerings.7 

The Toronto Public Library has its own programs to deliver more accessible home internet. They offer Internet Connectivity Kits, including both Wi-Fi hotspots and laptops, to residents that have unlimited data for the period of the program.8 

Digital Inclusion 

Moving beyond the digital divide means taking a more holistic view of digital inclusion in Canada. This is a multilayered approach that starts with access, followed by ability, and finally benefits.9

Access is the main issue that has been at the forefront of the conversation about the digital divide since its inception, and for good reason. Without the fundamental infrastructure for home broadband and cellular service, having the appropriate skills and institutional support in place would have no impact. That said, Canada, and Toronto in particular, is nearing universal availability of home internet infrastructure — and so the focus needs to expand beyond merely facilitating access. We had recommended in our past work that the City move beyond just access to set a universal digital connectivity objective and regularly measure the proportion of Toronto residents that actually have home internet services at the CRTC’s speed target and the devices needed to connect.10 This report and other supporting research contribute to this goal.

Many of the groups that have faced the largest barriers in getting and affording access to the internet also face barriers to using it once it is in place. The skillset to use the internet for banking, government services, education, and more is new and far from universal. Additionally, online institutions should be developed in such a way that they provide benefits to all those using them, rather than centralizing these only among some groups. These additional lenses on the digital divide collectively constitute digital inclusion and form the next frontier for programs designed to support internet access in Canada.11 

Access

Overall Access

Home internet in Toronto is approaching universal access — 98% of residents have internet service in their home. This is consistent with the results of the 2020 study, when we also found that 98% of residents have home internet access, and similarly consistent (though slightly higher) than the most recent 2022 results of the Canadian Internet Use Survey (CIUS) that found 96% of residents in the City of Toronto have home internet access. However, given the size of Toronto, 2% of the population lacking home internet means that nearly 60,000 Torontonians lack internet at home.

Table 1
Home Internet Connectivity by Household Income

Comparatively, according to the CIUS, 94% of all Canadians have access to the internet at home. Focusing more closely on those living in large urban areas (in this case, either Census Metropolitan Areas or Census Agglomerations), 95% of residents have internet access. This suggests that the City of Toronto has slightly better home internet connectivity than its closest peers.

Connectivity has also improved among older residents of Toronto. In 2020, only 95% of those aged 60 and older said they had home internet access, compared to 97% in 2023. 

Although only 2% of respondents (n=47) indicate that they do not have home internet access, the survey provides a detailed profile of who those residents are and why they do not have internet access at home.

Across all demographic groups, more than 90% of respondents indicate that they have a home internet connection. However, lower-income households are generally less likely to have home internet — in households earning less than $30,000 before taxes, 5% say they do not have home internet. Comparatively, in households earning $100,000 or more, that figure is less than 1%.

Figure 2 depicts the location of households within the City of Toronto without home internet access. Caution is recommended in extrapolating significance from any individual point given the small sample size (n=47). However, there are patterns and particular areas that were of note.

There are nine areas of note with less than 96% rates of home internet access. In most cases, these include either neighbourhoods that are designated as Neighbourhood Improvement Areas or Emerging Neighbourhoods, although some areas encompass neither. These regions are:

• Downtown Yonge East (M5C/M5E)
• Moss Park/Regent Park (M5A)
• O’Connor - Parkview (M4B/M4J)
• Glen Park (M6B)
• Malvern East (M1B)
• Kingsview Village - The Westway (M9P/M9R)
• Humber Summit (M9L/M9M)
• Kingsway/Queensway (M8X/M8Y)
• Kennedy (M1K)

Figure 2
Heatmap of Households with No Home Internet

Reasons for Not Having Home Internet

Among residents who do not have home internet, the most commonly cited reason is the cost of the service: 39% mention it as a reason. While this is not surprising given the relatively high cost of broadband internet in Canada, it underscores the need for Canada to address the cost barrier of internet services for lower-income people.

The next most commonly cited reason is that they can use a mobile data plan instead. With 96% of Toronto residents saying they have mobile cell data, this is a real alternative that many residents have access to. This is consistent with CIUS data for Canada as a whole, that shows 12% of Canadians without home internet use either their cell phone or some alternative form of access. However, cost remains an important factor for cell phone data as well. Similar to home broadband, Canada has very high cell phone data costs, which we explore in more detail in the section on Affordability.

Similarly, many residents without home internet cite their ability to access the internet outside of their home, including places like work, libraries, businesses, and more. As we move out of restrictions resulting from the pandemic, the ability to access the internet at other locations outside the home has increased, as we discuss in the Internet Outside the Home section.

Importantly, Toronto residents without home internet still think they need it. Only 8% say they have no need or interest in the service, slightly higher than we found in 2020, but much lower than other barriers to home internet. Despite being higher than in 2020, this is significantly lower than what was found in the most recent CIUS study — which suggested that, across Canada, 59% of households without internet access say they do not have it because they have no need for it.

Access to Services

Compared to the 2020 survey, our 2023 survey shows there has been an overall decrease in use of home internet to access a range of government, financial, and health services. This study was first conducted in December of 2020, at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic was a major public health emergency and the City of Toronto was taking significant measures to limit its spread.

Table 2
Uses of Home Internet by Household Income

That said, the internet remains a critical way in which Toronto residents access essential services and go about their daily lives. Nearly four in five Toronto residents used the internet in the last six months to access banking services, 63% used it to access government services, and 41% used it to access healthcare services. As Table 2 shows, lower-income households are less likely to use home internet to access work, healthcare, banking and government services, while rates of access to online education are consistent across income levels.

The impact of not having home internet access is felt by Toronto residents on all these fronts. Access to government information is the most cited impact, followed closely by financial services. Most positively, only 14% say that lacking home internet impacted their ability to work. This may be because when residents don’t have home internet due to financial challenges, but they require it for work, it is easier to justify the expense.

Comparing how those with internet access use it to the impacts felt by those without a connection, it seems that, in most cases, residents are able to find alternative ways of accessing the services they need. When it comes to government and financial services, most residents with internet access say they used it to access services in some way. However, fewer than a third of those without internet access say it was a barrier to accessing those services. This suggests that, in both cases, there are alternative pathways to access these services.

Conversely, when it comes to education, it seems to be more difficult to find alternatives without internet access. While 41% of those with internet access have used it for educational purposes, 24% of those without access have felt its impact on their education. That ratio of less than 2:1 is the highest across all areas included in the survey, suggesting it is the most difficult area to find alternatives. 

Internet Outside the Home

While home internet access has become nearly ubiquitous in Toronto, it is not the only way residents access the internet. As discussed previously, cell phone data is nearly as universal in Toronto as home broadband, with 96% of residents having access to cell data. Because of this, nearly 70% of residents report having used their data plan to access the internet outside of their home. However, this is far from the only other place Toronto residents are going online.

Workplaces, businesses like malls or coffee shops, and other people’s homes remain very common places to access the internet. Since 2020, the biggest change in this regard has been the use of the internet at other public locations like airports or subway stations. Now, nearly half of all residents report using the internet at these locations. This is in line with the re-opening of public spaces as restrictions resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic have decreased since December 2020. 

Table 3
Internet Access Locations by Household Income

Somewhat counterintuitively, in most cases, those with home internet are also more likely to access the internet at any given non-home location. The only exception to this is public libraries — 21% of those with home internet have used Wi-Fi from a public library in the last year, compared to 39% of those without home internet. For those without home internet, the library is the third most common location for internet access, only behind cell phone data plans and other public spaces.

Cell phone data also clearly serves as an important stopgap for many without home internet. As noted earlier, many Torontonians without home internet made that choice because they can use their cell phone data instead. Indeed, 85% of those without home internet say they have a cellular data plan, leaving only 0.2% of Toronto residents with neither home internet nor a cell phone data plan.

Affordability

Costs

In recent years, the issue of affordability has quickly become one of the most prominent issues in Toronto. With the cost of everything from food to housing increasing, the already high costs of broadband internet in Canada risk becoming an even greater issue.

A majority of Toronto residents report paying at least $110 a month for their combined home internet and cell phone bills, with 21% reporting that they pay more than $150 a month for these services. 

Table 10
Cost of Home Internet and Cell Phone Service

Among those who pay separate bills, 74% of residents report paying at least $50 a month for their home internet, and 53% report paying at least $50 a month for their cell phones. Only 18% of respondents report paying less than $50 a month for home internet, and 45% report paying less than $50 for their cell phones. 

As expected, there is a relationship between the cost of home internet and cell services, and the actual internet speed that Toronto residents get (0.28 correlation coefficient). However, the correlation is much weaker when comparing the cost of these services and perceived internet adequacy (0.10).

Households with the highest incomes tend to spend more on their combined internet and cell phone bills. Among households that made $100,000 or more, 68% report spending more than $110 a month on these services, compared to only 35% of households making under $30,000. Lower-income houses making under $30,000 instead tend to opt for the cheaper available options — more than a third of households in this group manage to spend under $80 combined on their cell phone and home internet.

Table 11 shows the share of income households spend on home internet and cell phone service at different monthly costs and different income levels. Notably, for those in the lowest income group, spending even $40 a month on these services is nearly the same share of their income as those in the highest income group spending $150 a month.

Table 11
% of Income Spent on Internet and Cell Phone

Table 12
Estimated % of Income Spent on Internet Connectivity by Income Bracket

Bills are also typically higher for those living in houses compared to other types of dwellings. Nearly three in ten (27%) of those living in houses report paying more than $150 across services, compared to only 19% of those living in apartment buildings under 10 stories, and 18% of those living in larger apartment buildings.

Toronto and Canada have existing programs that support lower-income households with the high cost of accessing the internet. As mentioned previously, the federal government provides low-income households with access to discounted home broadband. In total, 4% of Toronto residents have a home internet plan that costs them $20 a month or less, the current cost of these discounted plans.

Table 13
Cost of Home Internet and Cell Phone Service by Household Income

These prices lead to some residents feeling concerned about paying their bills — of those with a home internet bill or a cell phone bill, 13% worry a lot about paying it. Among those who have a single bundled bill, 17% worry a lot about paying it. Overall, these findings are largely stable since 2020, possibly because, although cost of living has been rising, the average cost of home internet has fallen slightly over that period.16

As would be expected, concern about paying phone and internet bills is far higher in lower-income households. More than one in five households making under $30,000 worry a lot about paying both bills. Additionally, those living with disabilities are also more likely to be concerned about paying their bills; for those with a home internet bill, 18% are worried about paying it, compared to only 10% of those not living with a disability.

Figure 14

Extra Billing Impacts

The cost of a cell phone or home internet plan is not the only cost that Toronto residents experience with respect to digital access. There are a myriad of ways that residents can be charged fees, including late bill payments or data overages (both for home internet and for cell phone data).

Table 14
Additional Fees Charged by Household Income

Overall, four in ten residents say they have been either charged an additional fee for their home internet or cell data, or have had it disconnected because they did not pay their bill on time. The most common of these is paying a fee for cell phone data overages: 23% of residents say they have been charged for this.

These impacts are particularly concentrated among younger Torontonians and newcomers to Canada. A majority of those who have been in Canada for less than 10 years (51%) say they have been charged a fee or had their internet disconnected, and similarly 50% of those under 35 have experienced the same. In particular, these groups are also most likely to have had their home internet disconnected because they did not pay their bill on time.

Between home internet and cell phone data overage fees, 28% of households experience either one or the other. Among those who paid these fees, most have paid a modest amount over the last 12 months — 40% say they have been charged less than $25 in the last year. However, some are paying significantly more, with 8% of respondents saying they spent more than $100 in the last year.

Table 15
Data Overage Fees Paid by Household Income

Appendices

Appendix A: Survey Sample

Sample by Forward Sortation Area and Proportion of Total Private Households in 2021 Census

Sample Demographics

Appendix B: Survey Questionnaire

Screening Questions

S1: What is your postal code?

• Input or “No fixed address (e.g., shelter, experiencing homelessness, staying with others)” 

S2: What is your age?

• Input

Core Questions

C1: Do you currently have internet service installed at home?

1. Yes
2. No
3. Don’t know or prefer not to say

C2: Do you currently have cell phone service?

1. Yes
2. No
3. Don’t know or prefer not to say

[IF YES TO C1 and C2]
C3: Are your cell phone and home internet services bundled together in a single bill or do you receive separate bills for each service?

1. Yes I only receive one bill for both services together
2. No I receive separate bills for each service
3. Don’t know or prefer not to say

[IF YES TO C3]
C4A: What is the total monthly cost of your bundled cell phone and home internet services before taxes? Note: exclude any financing for your cell phone device

1. $40 or less
2. Between $41 and $79
3. Between $80 and $109
4. Between $110 and $149
5. More than $150
6. Don’t know or prefer not to say

[IF NO TO C3 and YES TO C1]
C4B: What is the monthly cost of your home internet service before taxes? 

1. $20 or less
2. Between $21 and $49
3. Between $50 and $69
4. Between $70 and $99
5. More than $100
6. Don’t know or prefer not to say 

[IF NO TO C3 and YES TO C2]
C4C: What is the monthly cost of your cell phone service before taxes? Note: exclude any financing for your cell phone device

1. $20 or less
2. Between $21 and $49
3. Between $50 and $69
4. Between $70 and $99
5. More than $100
6. Don’t know or prefer not to say

[IF YES TO C1]
C5A: What is the maximum download speed of your home internet service? If you are at home now, you can use an Internet speed test to check the current speed.
[ONLINE ONLY]

1. Less than 10 megabits per second (Mbps)
2. 10 to less than 20 Mbps
3. 20 to less than 50 Mbps
4. 50 to less than 100 Mbps
5. 100 or more Mbps
6. Don’t know or prefer not to say

C6A: How would you describe the speed of your home internet service relative to your needs? 

1. Very slow
2. Slow
3. Adequate
4. Fast
5. Very fast
6. Don’t know or prefer not to say

C7A: Which home internet service provider are you using? [ONLINE ONLY]

1. Bell
2. Rogers
3. Beanfield
4. Diallog
5. Distributel
6. FibreStream
7. Fido
8. oxio
9. Primus
10. Start
11. Telus
12. TekSavvy
13. VMedia
14. Virgin Plus
15. Other - please specify
16. Don’t know or prefer not to say

C8A: In the last six months, has your household used your home internet service to access any of the following? [ONLINE ONLY]

1. Work from home
2. Education
3. Health care
4. Government services or information
5. Financial services or banking
6. Don’t know or prefer not to say

[IF NO TO C1]

C5B: Why do you not have internet service installed at home? (Select all that apply)

1. Use a mobile phone data plan instead [IF YES TO C2]
2. The monthly cost of internet service
3. No device at home that can connect to the internet
4. Have access to the internet elsewhere
5. Available internet service does not meet your needs
6. Lack of confidence or knowledge to use internet
7. No need or interest in using internet
8. No internet service available
9. Limitation of use due to a disability
10. Other - please specify 
11. Don’t know or prefer not to say 

C6B: In the last six months, has the lack of home internet service impacted your household’s ability to access: (Select all that apply)  

1. Work from home
2. Education
3. Health care
4. Government services or information
5. Financial services or banking
6. Don’t know or prefer not to say

[ALL]

C9: In the last 12 months, where have you accessed the internet? (Select all that apply) 

1. Outside your home using your cell phone data plan [IF YES TO C2]
2. At work
3. At school or an education institution
4. At a public library
5. At another public location (e.g., medical centre, airport, community centre, subway)
6. At a business establishment (e.g., shopping mall, restaurant, coffee shop) 
7. At someone else’s home (e.g., friend, relative)
8. None of the above
9. Don’t know or prefer not to say

C10 - How much, if at all, do you worry about being able to pay for each of the following over the next few months?

[IF YES TO C3] A) Home internet and cell phone bill

[IF YES TO C1 and NO TO C3] B) Home internet bill

[IF YES TO C2 and NO TO C3] C) Cell phone bill

1. A lot
2. Some
3. Not at all
4. Not too much
5. Don’t know or prefer not to say

C11A - Have you ever experienced any of the following? (Select all that apply)
[ONLINE ONLY]

1. Been charged late fees for not paying your home internet or cell phone bill on time
2. Been disconnected from home internet or cell phone service due to lack of payment
3. Been charged fees for going over data limits or caps on your cell phone 
4. Been charged fees for going over data limits or caps on your home internet
5. None of the above
6. Don’t know or prefer not to say

[IF YES TO C11A-C/D SELECT]

C11B - In the past three months, how much have you paid in data overage fees?[ONLINE ONLY]

1. $0-24
2. $25-49
3. $50-74
4. $75-99
5. $100 or more
6. Don’t know or prefer not to say

C12 - How many of the following devices do you currently have in your household? [Drop down/input: 0 to 9] [ONLINE ONLY]

1. Smartphone
2. Laptop or desktop computer
3. Tablet (e.g., iPad)

C13 - Are there usually enough devices to meet your household’s day-to-day needs?
[Drop down/input: 0 to 9] [ONLINE ONLY]

1. Yes
2. No
3. Don’t know or prefer not to say

Demographic Questions

D1: Including yourself, how many people live in your household between the following age ranges? [Drop down/input: 1 to 9]

1. 18 years or older
2. Between 13 and 17 years old
3. Between 5 and 12 years old
4. Between 0 and 4 years old

D2: What was your total household income, before taxes and deductions, last year?

1. Less than $30,000
2. $30,000 to less than $50,000
3. $50,000 to less than $70,000
4. $70,000 to less than $100,000
5. $100,000 or more
6. Don’t know or prefer not to say

D3: How long have you lived in Canada?

1. Born in Canada
2. Less than 10 years
3. More than 10 years
4. Don’t know or prefer not to say

D4: What is your gender?

1. Woman
2. Man
3. Non-binary/third gender
4. Prefer to self describe: 
5. Prefer not to say

D5: What language do you speak most often at home? [ONLINE ONLY]

1. English
2. A language other than English
3. Prefer not to say

D6: Do you identify as a person with a disability?

1. Yes
2. No
3. Prefer not to say

D7: Do you self-identify as: (Select more than one and/or specify, if applicable) 

1. Arab, Middle Eastern or West Asian (e.g., Afghan, Iranian)
2. Black (e.g., African, Afro-Caribbean, African-Canadian)
3. East Asian (e.g., Chinese, Korean, Japanese, etc.)
4. Indigenous, that is First Nations (Status/Non-Status), Métis or Inuit
5. Latin American or Hispanic
6. South Asian (e.g., East Indian, Pakistani, Sri Lankan, etc.)
7. Southeast Asian (e.g., Filipino, Thai, Vietnamese, etc.)
8. White
9. Not listed - please specify 
10. Don’t know or prefer not to say

D8: Which of the following best describes your current housing? [ONLINE ONLY]

1. House (e.g., detached, semi-detached, bungalow, townhouse)
2. Multi-unit or split-level house (including basement apartment)
3. Apartment or condominium in a building of less than 10 stories
4. Apartment or condominium in a building of 10 or more stories
5. Other - please specify
6. Don’t know/prefer not to say

D9: Which of the following best describes your current employment? [ONLINE ONLY]

1. Employed (full-time, part-time or self-employed) and working mostly from home
2. Employed (full-time, part-time or self-employed) and working mostly at my place(s) of employment
3. Retired
4. Currently enrolled student
5. Full-time homemaker or caregiving
6. Unemployed, on a leave or unable to work
7. Other
8. Prefer not to say     

Final: Is there anything else you would like to add about your access and use of the internet? [ONLINE ONLY]