An association representing counties across the province has released a report showing much of rural Alberta can't easily log in, upload or download because of weak Internet coverage.
The Alberta Association of Municipal Districts and Counties (AAMDC) released its rural connectivity gap analysis earlier this month, detailing how rural Albertans access the Internet, assuming they can at all.
Outside the major urban centres, fully 90 per cent of Alberta's land mass has no access to anything other than dial-up.
That area largely includes places where no one lives, lessening the impact. It also includes roughly 430,000 people living in rural Alberta.
Stephanie Betts, a policy analyst with the AAMDC who worked on the report, said it wanted to give association members a starting point when they start thinking about these issues.
She said Internet service is not something that typically comes under a municipality's purview, but some are starting to look at ways to improve service.
"If they know it will bring economic development to the area and increase young people staying in the area, then some municipalities have taken it on as something to encourage."
The report uses data from last fall to highlight the most underserved areas, Betts said. It gives communities a starting point.
"It is hard to encourage or expand or develop programs at all if you don't know where you are starting from," she said. "We aren't asking that they make policy decisions based on this map alone, but that they use it as a starting off point."
Sturgeon at high-speed
A map in the report show Sturgeon County is served relatively well with most parts of the county being able to access some form of high-speed Internet.
Areas between the Alexander First Nation and Alcomdale are the only exceptions, according to the map.
Betts said that's not a surprise, given the county's proximity to Edmonton.
"Where Internet providers will go is where they have density to fulfil a business plan, so the closer you are to an urban area, the more likely they will go."
