New data from Statistics Canada says Canadians are increasingly accessing the internet via mobile devices, even from home.
The new report, Canadian Internet Use Survey, 2012, said that the proportion of connected households using wireless handheld devices such as an iPhone, tablet or BlackBerry to go online from home has increased from 35% in 2010 to 59% in 2012. The amount of households accessing the internet via game consoles also increased, from 20% in 2010 to 27% last year.
Laptops, meanwhile, have supplanted desktop computers as the device of choice for home internet access, growing from 64% of Canadian households in 2010 to 74% in 2012. The percentage of households using desktop computers to access the Internet fell from 71% to 62% in that time.
Eighty-three per cent of Canadian households had internet access in 2012, up from 79% in 2010. Household access was highest in British Columbia and Alberta at 86%, followed by Ontario at 84%. Access in lowest in the Atlantic Provinces of New Brunswick (77%) and Prince Edward Island (78%), as well as Quebec (78%).
Among homes that did not have home Internet access, 61% reported that they had no need or interest for it, while about 20% cited the cost of the service or equipment.
Nearly all of households with home internet access (97%) had a high-speed connection. Nearly all homes with an annual household income of $94,000 or more (98%) had home internet access, compared with 58% of households with an annual household income of $30,000 or less.
