I live just north of Toronto and can't get reliable internet
CBC
This First Person article is the experience of Sarah Jestin, who lives in Caledon, Ont. For more information about CBC's First Person stories, please see the FAQ.
"Mom, this is taking forever to load."
"Mom, FaceTime isn't working. Again."
"Mom, the internet's soooooo slow."
"Mom, like, why did we have to move to the middle of nowhere?"
Actually, we're not in a remote area. Far from it. We're in Caledon, Ont., a town in the Greater Toronto Area — the most populous region in Canada and just 45 minutes from Pearson International Airport.
But this is the reality of internet and phone coverage in Canada.
We decided to move in 2013 because we wanted more nature than we could get in the Toronto suburb of Brampton. We found our dream property in the next town over: a cosy open-concept house large enough to accommodate our non-minimalist tastes, and a yard that came with mature trees and a pond. The commute from our rural property to work in Mississauga was 45 minutes and we were five minutes away from the town centre. The proximity to Brampton also meant we could still access our shopping haunts without having to mount an expedition every time we needed to go to Canadian Tire or Home Depot.
We knew some things would change: Our water now comes from a well, and we have a septic tank. The hydro lines aren't buried, so during ice storms or high winds, we're more likely to have power outages, but nothing a power generator can't fix the rare times it happens.
What we didn't expect was the lack of reliable internet access.
We were shocked to learn that the only internet option was satellite and that it had only been made available recently. "Two years ago, we had no internet at all," the previous owner told me during our visit just prior to taking possession of the place.
Huh?
A mere five-minute drive to Caledon East, where both Rogers and Bell are available, how can that be possible? We checked with both companies, because, of course, that nice lady had to be mistaken.
She was not.
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