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Canadians hooked on cable Internet: Twice as many people surfing the Web on cable in this country than in the U.S., survey finds Saturday May 13, 2000 - Canadians lag behind Americans in using the Internet but lead the world in cable Web surfing, a recently released poll shows. Commissioned by the federal government, the survey is the first publicly available study that measured Canadian and U.S. Internet penetration at the same point in time, using the same technique. It revealed that 37 per cent of Canadians five years of age or older use the Internet, compared with 48 per cent of Americans. Comparing households, 40 per cent of Canadian homes have at least one person using the Internet, while 45 per cent do in the United States. The survey also showed that one-quarter -- 26 per cent -- of Canadians enjoy their own e-mail address compared with 35 per cent of Americans. But when it comes to cable hookups to the Internet, Canadians are world leaders with about 10 per cent of households -- twice as many as in the U.S. -- surfing with the speedier connection. As well, once Canadians start using the Internet, the Web becomes a greater part of their life than in the United States. Among those individuals in Canada who use the Internet, 48 per cent use it daily, while only 41 per cent of Americans say the same thing. Paul Pierlot, a spokesman for Industry Canada, said the country's competitive cable market partly explains Canada's growing Internet cable audience. He said one cable company in Canada is offering a subscription rate of $29.95 a month. The CRTC has mandated third-party access to cable, creating a competitive environment among Internet cable providers that does not yet exist in the U.S. The move has forced cable companies to provide access to Internet cable providers and increased cable penetration. The high-speed access to the Internet is preferred by many using the Net for such things as multi-media and music. The $22,000 poll, which was carried out by Toronto-based ACNielsen/DJC Research in March 1999, was only released by the government this week. A total of 1,400 people -- 700 households in each country -- were surveyed during a seven-day period. The margin of error of a sample of 700 is plus or minus 3.8 percentage points. The pollsters said they adjusted the results to reflect the difference between Canada and the U.S. with respect to household penetration of telephone service. Mr. Pierlot said while Canada may lag slightly behind American use of the Internet, it is still one of the top users in the world. He said there is continuing rapid growth in the number of users in the past year, and the margin between the two countries may be have been reduced. One reason often given for the Canadian lag in integrating the Web into their life is Canada's francophone population. Survey after survey has found that Quebec users lag behind the rest of the country in using the Internet, with one recent survey showing 46 per cent of Canadians outside of Quebec were using the Net, while only 35 per cent were surfing in Quebec. The main language of use on the Internet is English. Canada virtually tied the U.S. in two categories in the survey. It showed that 21 per cent of Canadian and Americans use the Internet both at home and away from home. And the percentage of households in both countries with at least one subscription to an Internet service provider is about 33 per cent. Jack Aubry The Ottawa Citizen Copyright 2000 Ottawa Citizen janet paterson 53 now / 41 dx / 37 onset 613 256 8340 / PO Box 171 Almonte Ontario K0A 1A0 Canada come visit my website "a new voice" at: http://www.geocities.com/janet313/