In Canada, broadband internet service providers (ISPs) are forced by the government to share. Big-name telecom companies with massive fiber-optic infrastructure must license their fiber wholesale to other ISPs. It means more competition, particularly on price, which is a huge win for customers.
That licensing is the lifeblood of some ISP brands. To combat it, the big telcos (namely Bell, Rogers, and Telus) traditionally have side brands to serve other customers in the same market. They also snap up competitors, causing fierce ISP consolidation. The "big three" typically install the infrastructure and thus don’t like the situation—until it suits them.
"Telus and Bell share fiber networks now," says Jonathan Lamont, editor-in-chief of MobileSyrup, "with Telus PureFibre using Bell's fiber in some provinces (namely Ontario and Quebec) while Bell uses Telus infrastructure out west. That's the big change with those two this year."
Outside of heavily populated areas, the ability to install infrastructure falls to smaller players. Some use fiber, others like fixed wireless on towers, and some do both. There are also satellite providers for remote users, namely SpaceX’s Starlink (though Amazon’s competing satellite service is coming).
Despite constant market changes, the big companies—one in particular—continue to dominate. Read on to see which brands are the best and fastest on both the national and provincial levels. For more on the Canadian ISP market, check out Readers’ Choice 2026: The Best and Worst ISPs.
If you're reading this in the States, check out our best ISP rankings for the US.
Help us with the next Best ISPs stories for both the US and Canada. Take our PCMag Speed Test now to contribute data about your provider (Note: The test is provided by Ookla, which was formerly owned by PCMag's parent company, Ziff Davis.)
To start, a little about methodology: We first consider the number of ISPs that appear in our PCMag Speed Test over the past year. Any ISP with more than 1,000 tests, a large subscriber base, and multi-province reach is classified as a "major ISP."
We then factor in stats about each ISP's coverage and pricing from our data partner, Planhub, as well as the score each ISP earned in our Readers' Choice survey earlier this year. Add them together, and we get a cumulative score that can reach 40 (10 max per data point: speed, coverage, price, and satisfaction). The provider with the highest PCMag Cumulative Broadband ISP Index score wins the title of Best ISP.
When we consider the major Canadian ISPs, it's always the same trio at the top, aka Canada's big three: Bell, Rogers, and Telus. Rogers alone has more than twice as many tests as the next competitor (Telus), probably because, when Rogers bought Shaw a few years ago, it doubled in size. (Our speed tests still show Shaw users separately, but we combine them into the Rogers number.)
When you look at our list of majors ISPs, you’ll see the big three multiple times. But it’s their individual fiber services that keep them in the running for the absolute best, thanks to superior speeds and pricing, not to mention pretty excellent coverage.
It's a close race at the top. This year, for the first time ever, Telus PureFibre is the winner, by just over a point in the cumulative ISP index. Note that some bars in the charts below may appear incomplete because we don't have any data or scores for that ISP in that category.
Telus is not only the best, but also the top ISP in Canada this year for speed, achieving a 366.3 Speed Index, driven by the best download and upload numbers. That garners Telus a perfect 10.0 index for speed; it also came very close to having the best price. Telus has been our fastest major ISP on five other occasions, going back to 2020. (Bell was the fastest major in 2024.)
The best price goes to Bell; its Gigabit Fibe service offers 8 gigabits per second (Gbps) for C$130 per month for two years (C$0.016 per Mbps). None of the big three is at the top of the index scores for coverage. The leader here, not surprisingly, is SpaceX's Starlink, by virtue of being a satellite-based ISP that reaches just about everywhere.
The overall ISP list includes the vast majority of providers in the country, as our required-test threshold drops to 100. The thing is, that doesn’t change much. Thanks to a fantastic price coupled with pretty good ratings for speed, coverage, and reader satisfaction, Telus PureFibre finds itself at the top of this list. Bell is again in the second slot, even though it has the better price.
Factoring in other ISPs—a total of 51—yields a different Top 10 from the major ISPs list. Rogers falls to fifth place, and TekSavvy—known for its independent ownership but its reliance on leasing last-mile connections from other providers—jumps to third.
Other ISPs joining the Top 10 include Oxio (owned by Cogeco but operated as a separate brand), Xplore Fiber, and Virgin Plus (owned by Bell, which is phasing out Virgin; the brand is already unavailable for new ISP signups in Ontario).
When it comes to speed, things are significantly different from what they were in 2025. For four years, telMAX in southern Ontario held the title of fastest ISP. Last year, its Speed Index was 510.5. But this year, despite the launch of an 8-gig service in late 2025, telMAX’s speed took a tumble in our tests; the median down/up speeds work out now to only 306.5, putting it in seventh place.
This year's winner is FiberSpeed, also in Ontario. It does some wireline fiber, but is primarily known as a WISP—a wireless ISP. Specifically, it uses Ubiquiti's Wireless LTU technology on towers to deliver ultra-high-speed wireless connectivity, primarily for rural customers in select municipalities. But it also offers 2-gig fiber connections, which contribute greatly to its stellar Speed Index.
Telus comes in second, beating out two of our other previous national fastest ISP winners: telMAX and Beanfield, which won in 2020 and 2021, respectively. It’s hard for a giant telco with a nationwide infrastructure to beat the speeds of such smaller providers, but Telus PureFibre pulls it off.
Last year, Rogers won the Best ISP title in a couple of provinces for the first time. But that streak is already over. Bell dominates most provinces, with Telus a very close second. Saskatchewan’s winner, as usual, is its own local, government-run ISP.
We did not receive enough speed tests from users on Prince Edward Island or in the northern territories (Yukon, Nunavut, and the Northwest Territories) to include ISPs offered there. Below, we break out the best and fastest ISPs in each of the other provinces.
This marks four consecutive years that Telus has been Alberta’s Best ISP. It’s also the fastest, as it was last year. In fact, the overall chart for Alberta looks much like it did last year, with Telus earning the best index for speed and for price.
Starlink, of course, has the highest coverage index; it also has the highest satisfaction rating (8.4) for 2026. But neither number boosts Starlink enough to overcome Telus’s exceptional 10.0 ratings for price and speed.
Last year, Telus PureFibre took both the Best ISP and Fastest ISP awards for British Columbia. This year, Telus PureFibre remains the best, thanks to unbeatable price, great speed, and coverage.
But this year's fastest is Novus, the ISP ranked third-fastest in the country overall. Novus is a fiber-only provider for multi-dwelling units (apartments and condos) in Vancouver. Starlink is once again the top ISP for coverage in British Columbia, but Rogers, following its purchase of Shaw, is close behind.
Last year, the Manitoba winner for best and fastest was Bell MTS, which is now just labeled Bell or Bell Canada in our results. Bell is the top ISP in the province, with the best pricing and coverage ratings; its cumulative score is a full 11 points higher than the next best, Rogers.
The fastest ISP in Manitoba, however, is Valley Fiber, located in the town of Winkler. (It was also our fastest in Manitoba in 2023.) Its Speed Index in the province is well ahead of the next closest competitor, RFNOW.
The winners in New Brunswick, which has few qualifying ISPs, are the same two that won here last year. Best goes to Bell, whose numbers are excellent across the board, particularly for pricing.
Meanwhile, Rogers takes the speed prize for the province, beating Bell by a nice margin.
Last year, Rogers was both the best and fastest in Newfoundland. This year, it didn’t have enough tests to qualify for the results here. Instead, it’s a two-ISP race, and both are winners. Bell is the best by virtue of the highest cumulative score—despite receiving a 1 for its Speed Index rating, it is lifted by a perfect 10 on price.
Fastest is Eastlink, which has a PCMag Speed Index well over double Bell's in the province, thanks to an incredible median download speed of 687.2Mbps.
Halifax, Nova Scotia's Purple Cow launched in 2019 in order to take on the province's big incumbent telcos. But it can’t put up much of a fight against Bell, the province’s best and fastest ISP for the fourth year in a row.
There are plenty of ISPs in Ontario, the most populous province in the country. Bell wins for best here, though it trails Beanfield on price—the latter offers an 8-gig service for an amazing C$90 per month. Beanfield doesn't make the Top 10 because of its small coverage area and lack of satisfaction rating in our reader survey.
The fastest speed goes to the ISP that’s also our national winner: FiberSpeed, with its mix of wireless and wired connections for rural areas. (It’s not in the chart above, since we only have information on the brand's throughput.)
Quebec is a battleground between rivals Bell and Telus. Last year, Bell won for best ISP, with top ratings for coverage and price, and it had better speeds. This year, while Bell still scores a 10 for pricing, Telus PureFibre bests it in speed and coverage. (The two tied for reader satisfaction.)
Telus ekes out a win here to nab the regional best ISP title. And it's ahead of second-place Bell by a nice margin for speed.
Starlink stands out for coverage and has our highest reader satisfaction rating. But those scores still only get it into the Top 10.
For the fourth time, SaskTel, which is owned and run by the province itself, is the best ISP in Saskatchewan, thanks in large part to its coverage (right behind Starlink, naturally), plus good scores for price and satisfaction.
SaskTel, however, doesn't score well for speed. The fastest ISP here is FlexNetworks. In fact, FlexNetworks is so fast that it ranks fourth in the entire nation—behind FiberSpeed, Telus PureFibre, and Novus—in our PCMag Speed Index.
Here are the complete tables for all the charts above, including the ISPs beyond the Top 10 in each location, if applicable. Access each table using the arrows or the dropdown menu at the top; click the top cell for each column to reorder the rows (click again to reorder in the other direction). You can also search for keywords or numbers.
Price is based on the fastest plan for each ISP; speed tier prices and coverage percentages are as reported by PlanHub.ca.
A blank cell indicates we don't have any data or scores for that ISP in that category.
ISPs are to be compared within each table; index ratings are not comparable across tables.
Speeds are based on 116,983 PCMag Speed Test results from Canada-based ISP users received between May 31, 2025, and June 2, 2026. For more, read our methodology.
Click the speed test below to be included in our next full report on The Best ISPs (including The Best Gaming ISPs) for Canada or the US.
In Canada, broadband internet service providers (ISPs) are forced by the government to share. Big-name telecom companies with massive fiber-optic infrastructure must license their fiber wholesale to other ISPs. It means more competition, particularly on price, which is a huge win for customers.
That licensing is the lifeblood of some ISP brands. To combat it, the big telcos (namely Bell, Rogers, and Telus) traditionally have side brands to serve other customers in the same market. They also snap up competitors, causing fierce ISP consolidation. The "big three" typically install the infrastructure and thus don’t like the situation—until it suits them.
"Telus and Bell share fiber networks now," says Jonathan Lamont, editor-in-chief of MobileSyrup, "with Telus PureFibre using Bell's fiber in some provinces (namely Ontario and Quebec) while Bell uses Telus infrastructure out west. That's the big change with those two this year."
Outside of heavily populated areas, the ability to install infrastructure falls to smaller players. Some use fiber, others like fixed wireless on towers, and some do both. There are also satellite providers for remote users, namely SpaceX’s Starlink (though Amazon’s competing satellite service is coming).
Despite constant market changes, the big companies—one in particular—continue to dominate. Read on to see which brands are the best and fastest on both the national and provincial levels. For more on the Canadian ISP market, check out Readers’ Choice 2026: The Best and Worst ISPs.
If you're reading this in the States, check out our best ISP rankings for the US.
Help us with the next Best ISPs stories for both the US and Canada. Take our PCMag Speed Test now to contribute data about your provider (Note: The test is provided by Ookla, which was formerly owned by PCMag's parent company, Ziff Davis.)
To start, a little about methodology: We first consider the number of ISPs that appear in our PCMag Speed Test over the past year. Any ISP with more than 1,000 tests, a large subscriber base, and multi-province reach is classified as a "major ISP."
We then factor in stats about each ISP's coverage and pricing from our data partner, Planhub, as well as the score each ISP earned in our Readers' Choice survey earlier this year. Add them together, and we get a cumulative score that can reach 40 (10 max per data point: speed, coverage, price, and satisfaction). The provider with the highest PCMag Cumulative Broadband ISP Index score wins the title of Best ISP.
When we consider the major Canadian ISPs, it's always the same trio at the top, aka Canada's big three: Bell, Rogers, and Telus. Rogers alone has more than twice as many tests as the next competitor (Telus), probably because, when Rogers bought Shaw a few years ago, it doubled in size. (Our speed tests still show Shaw users separately, but we combine them into the Rogers number.)
When you look at our list of majors ISPs, you’ll see the big three multiple times. But it’s their individual fiber services that keep them in the running for the absolute best, thanks to superior speeds and pricing, not to mention pretty excellent coverage.
It's a close race at the top. This year, for the first time ever, Telus PureFibre is the winner, by just over a point in the cumulative ISP index. Note that some bars in the charts below may appear incomplete because we don't have any data or scores for that ISP in that category.
Telus is not only the best, but also the top ISP in Canada this year for speed, achieving a 366.3 Speed Index, driven by the best download and upload numbers. That garners Telus a perfect 10.0 index for speed; it also came very close to having the best price. Telus has been our fastest major ISP on five other occasions, going back to 2020. (Bell was the fastest major in 2024.)
The best price goes to Bell; its Gigabit Fibe service offers 8 gigabits per second (Gbps) for C$130 per month for two years (C$0.016 per Mbps). None of the big three is at the top of the index scores for coverage. The leader here, not surprisingly, is SpaceX's Starlink, by virtue of being a satellite-based ISP that reaches just about everywhere.
The overall ISP list includes the vast majority of providers in the country, as our required-test threshold drops to 100. The thing is, that doesn’t change much. Thanks to a fantastic price coupled with pretty good ratings for speed, coverage, and reader satisfaction, Telus PureFibre finds itself at the top of this list. Bell is again in the second slot, even though it has the better price.
Factoring in other ISPs—a total of 51—yields a different Top 10 from the major ISPs list. Rogers falls to fifth place, and TekSavvy—known for its independent ownership but its reliance on leasing last-mile connections from other providers—jumps to third.
Other ISPs joining the Top 10 include Oxio (owned by Cogeco but operated as a separate brand), Xplore Fiber, and Virgin Plus (owned by Bell, which is phasing out Virgin; the brand is already unavailable for new ISP signups in Ontario).
When it comes to speed, things are significantly different from what they were in 2025. For four years, telMAX in southern Ontario held the title of fastest ISP. Last year, its Speed Index was 510.5. But this year, despite the launch of an 8-gig service in late 2025, telMAX’s speed took a tumble in our tests; the median down/up speeds work out now to only 306.5, putting it in seventh place.
This year's winner is FiberSpeed, also in Ontario. It does some wireline fiber, but is primarily known as a WISP—a wireless ISP. Specifically, it uses Ubiquiti's Wireless LTU technology on towers to deliver ultra-high-speed wireless connectivity, primarily for rural customers in select municipalities. But it also offers 2-gig fiber connections, which contribute greatly to its stellar Speed Index.
Telus comes in second, beating out two of our other previous national fastest ISP winners: telMAX and Beanfield, which won in 2020 and 2021, respectively. It’s hard for a giant telco with a nationwide infrastructure to beat the speeds of such smaller providers, but Telus PureFibre pulls it off.
Last year, Rogers won the Best ISP title in a couple of provinces for the first time. But that streak is already over. Bell dominates most provinces, with Telus a very close second. Saskatchewan’s winner, as usual, is its own local, government-run ISP.
We did not receive enough speed tests from users on Prince Edward Island or in the northern territories (Yukon, Nunavut, and the Northwest Territories) to include ISPs offered there. Below, we break out the best and fastest ISPs in each of the other provinces.
This marks four consecutive years that Telus has been Alberta’s Best ISP. It’s also the fastest, as it was last year. In fact, the overall chart for Alberta looks much like it did last year, with Telus earning the best index for speed and for price.
Starlink, of course, has the highest coverage index; it also has the highest satisfaction rating (8.4) for 2026. But neither number boosts Starlink enough to overcome Telus’s exceptional 10.0 ratings for price and speed.
Last year, Telus PureFibre took both the Best ISP and Fastest ISP awards for British Columbia. This year, Telus PureFibre remains the best, thanks to unbeatable price, great speed, and coverage.
But this year's fastest is Novus, the ISP ranked third-fastest in the country overall. Novus is a fiber-only provider for multi-dwelling units (apartments and condos) in Vancouver. Starlink is once again the top ISP for coverage in British Columbia, but Rogers, following its purchase of Shaw, is close behind.
Last year, the Manitoba winner for best and fastest was Bell MTS, which is now just labeled Bell or Bell Canada in our results. Bell is the top ISP in the province, with the best pricing and coverage ratings; its cumulative score is a full 11 points higher than the next best, Rogers.
The fastest ISP in Manitoba, however, is Valley Fiber, located in the town of Winkler. (It was also our fastest in Manitoba in 2023.) Its Speed Index in the province is well ahead of the next closest competitor, RFNOW.
The winners in New Brunswick, which has few qualifying ISPs, are the same two that won here last year. Best goes to Bell, whose numbers are excellent across the board, particularly for pricing.
Meanwhile, Rogers takes the speed prize for the province, beating Bell by a nice margin.
Last year, Rogers was both the best and fastest in Newfoundland. This year, it didn’t have enough tests to qualify for the results here. Instead, it’s a two-ISP race, and both are winners. Bell is the best by virtue of the highest cumulative score—despite receiving a 1 for its Speed Index rating, it is lifted by a perfect 10 on price.
Fastest is Eastlink, which has a PCMag Speed Index well over double Bell's in the province, thanks to an incredible median download speed of 687.2Mbps.
Halifax, Nova Scotia's Purple Cow launched in 2019 in order to take on the province's big incumbent telcos. But it can’t put up much of a fight against Bell, the province’s best and fastest ISP for the fourth year in a row.
There are plenty of ISPs in Ontario, the most populous province in the country. Bell wins for best here, though it trails Beanfield on price—the latter offers an 8-gig service for an amazing C$90 per month. Beanfield doesn't make the Top 10 because of its small coverage area and lack of satisfaction rating in our reader survey.
The fastest speed goes to the ISP that’s also our national winner: FiberSpeed, with its mix of wireless and wired connections for rural areas. (It’s not in the chart above, since we only have information on the brand's throughput.)
Quebec is a battleground between rivals Bell and Telus. Last year, Bell won for best ISP, with top ratings for coverage and price, and it had better speeds. This year, while Bell still scores a 10 for pricing, Telus PureFibre bests it in speed and coverage. (The two tied for reader satisfaction.)
Telus ekes out a win here to nab the regional best ISP title. And it's ahead of second-place Bell by a nice margin for speed.
Starlink stands out for coverage and has our highest reader satisfaction rating. But those scores still only get it into the Top 10.
For the fourth time, SaskTel, which is owned and run by the province itself, is the best ISP in Saskatchewan, thanks in large part to its coverage (right behind Starlink, naturally), plus good scores for price and satisfaction.
SaskTel, however, doesn't score well for speed. The fastest ISP here is FlexNetworks. In fact, FlexNetworks is so fast that it ranks fourth in the entire nation—behind FiberSpeed, Telus PureFibre, and Novus—in our PCMag Speed Index.
Here are the complete tables for all the charts above, including the ISPs beyond the Top 10 in each location, if applicable. Access each table using the arrows or the dropdown menu at the top; click the top cell for each column to reorder the rows (click again to reorder in the other direction). You can also search for keywords or numbers.
Price is based on the fastest plan for each ISP; speed tier prices and coverage percentages are as reported by PlanHub.ca.
A blank cell indicates we don't have any data or scores for that ISP in that category.
ISPs are to be compared within each table; index ratings are not comparable across tables.
Speeds are based on 116,983 PCMag Speed Test results from Canada-based ISP users received between May 31, 2025, and June 2, 2026. For more, read our methodology.
Click the speed test below to be included in our next full report on The Best ISPs (including The Best Gaming ISPs) for Canada or the US.