Sandvine, a leading provider of intelligent broadband and network solutions for fixed and mobile operators, today revealed the latest Canadian Internet usage trends. The data is being discussed at the second annual event hosted by Sandvine that brings together Canadian communications service providers (CSPs) to share perspectives on global Internet usage trends and discuss the evolution of the broadband data industry.
The data was collected earlier this year as part of Sandvine's Global Internet Phenomena Program which is industry-renowned for revealing the latest facts, fads, and future trends about consumer Internet usage from networks around the globe.
Some of the unique traits found on Canadian networks include:
Fixed Networks
- Netflix continues to be the leading application in Canada, accounting for over 34% of downstream traffic in the peak evening hours. Four years ago, Netflix accounted for just 13.5% of evening traffic in Canada.
- With new streaming entrants such as shomi and CraveTV entering the market, P2P Filesharing continues to see declines, and now accounts for just 11% of total daily traffic, a decline from levels above 15% observed last year.
- Twitch and Valve's Steam store are now among the top-10 bandwidth consuming applications online. Gaming as a whole has become the fifth largest traffic category in Canada.
Mobile Networks
- Canadians are shutterbugs, with photo-focused applications Instagram and Snapchat among the top-5 applications used by Canadians on all networks observed.
- YouTube continues to be the single largest source of mobile traffic, accounting for over 22% of downstream traffic.
Sandvine's solutions are currently being used by 14 CSPs in Canada to provide actionable business intelligence and policy solutions in order to help operators understand network traffic, deploy new services and improve subscribers' Internet quality of experience.
"As a proudly Canadian company, we are excited to once again share the latest Canadian Internet trends with both current and prospective customers," said Dave Caputo, CEO, Sandvine. "Our deployments cover a significant portion of subscribers in Canada so we are in a unique spot to provide unparalleled insight and support to service providers in this country."
