Website Availability in Canada
Submarine cables, ISP health and blocking risks that decide whether a website loads in Canada. Checked against live measurement data.
Wondering whether a website is down for everyone or just unreachable from Canada? The answer usually hides in the physical layer of the internet. Canada 🇨🇦 connects to the global network through 21 submarine cable systems that come ashore at 155 landing stations, and its national domain zone is .ca. Every request from a user in Canada to a foreign server, and every request from abroad to a site hosted in Canada, physically travels over these systems or their terrestrial backhaul.
This page summarizes what our measurement network knows about internet connectivity in Canada: which cables serve the country, how its leading internet providers are performing, and what can make a website appear offline for users there while it works everywhere else.
Current connectivity status in Canada
As of our latest hourly measurement cycle, the national internet signal of Canada is operating normally (BGP visibility and active probing dip: 0% against the 24-hour baseline). National-level signals catch large events; an individual website can still be unreachable for local reasons, which is what the availability checker above is for.
Connectivity for most users in Canada is provided by a small group of networks:
| Provider | ASN | Share of users | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| BACOM - Bell Canada | AS577 | 19.9% | No recent anomaly |
| ASN852 - TELUS Communications Inc. | AS852 | 15.1% | No recent anomaly |
| ROGERS-COMMUNICATIONS - Rogers Communications Canada Inc. | AS812 | 12.7% | No recent anomaly |
| SHAW - Shaw Communications | AS6327 | 11.9% | No recent anomaly |
| VIDEOTRON - Videotron Ltee | AS5769 | 11.8% | No recent anomaly |
If a website fails to load only for customers of one of these providers, the problem is almost always local: DNS resolution inside that network, ISP-level filtering, or a routing issue, rather than the website itself being down.
Submarine cables that connect Canada to the internet
The following systems land in Canada. Cable length is a rough proxy for how much of the world a system reaches: long trunks connect continents, short ones link neighbors. Our monitors registered no significant latency anomalies on these systems in the last 30 days.
| Cable system | Length | In service since |
|---|---|---|
| EXA North and South | 12,200 km | 2001 |
| EXA Express | 4,600 km | 2015 |
| Greenland Connect | 4,580 km | 2009 |
| EAUFON 1 | 1,175 km | 2022 |
| EAUFON 3 | 900 km | 2027 |
| Persona | 800 km | 2008 |
| EAUFON 2 | 675 km | 2024 |
| COGIM | 438 km | 2005 |
| St. Pierre and Miquelon Cable | 200 km | 2018 |
| KetchCan1 Submarine Fiber Cable System | 167 km | 2020 |
| AmeriCan-1 | 140 km | 1999 |
| Sunoque III | 130 km | 2027 |
Plus 9 more systems, mostly regional links. Live health data for every cable is available on the linked pages.
How resilient is Canada to cable failures?
With 21 cable systems across 155 landing stations, Canada has a well diversified set of routes. A single cable fault is usually absorbed by the remaining systems, although latency to some regions can temporarily increase. Repairs at sea typically take one to several weeks, because a specialized cable ship has to locate the fault, lift the cable and splice it on deck.
Why a website may not load in Canada
When a site works in other countries but fails in Canada, the usual suspects are, in order of likelihood: a DNS problem inside a local ISP, a content delivery network misrouting users in Canada to an unhealthy edge node, a routing or peering issue between local networks and the site's host, and finally a submarine cable incident affecting the whole region.
Our DNS measurements have not flagged systematic national filtering in Canada, although individual ISPs and corporate networks can still block specific resources.
Neighbors on the same cables
These countries share submarine cable systems with Canada, so a major cable incident can affect them together:
🇺🇸 United States (4 shared) · 🇬🇧 United Kingdom (2 shared) · 🇯🇵 Japan (1 shared)
See the full list on the website availability by country hub.
Frequently asked questions
How do I check if a website is down in Canada?
Enter the URL into the free Global Availability Checker on this site. It compares measurement data from 80+ countries, including probes relevant to Canada, and shows in seconds whether the site is down everywhere or only unreachable from specific regions.
How many submarine cables connect Canada?
Canada is served by 21 submarine cable systems landing at 155 coastal stations. The longest systems are EXA North and South, EXA Express, Greenland Connect.
Why does a website work in other countries but not in Canada?
The most common causes are DNS failures inside a local ISP, CDN edge problems, routing issues between Canada and the hosting network, national filtering, and submarine cable faults. Testing the URL from multiple countries immediately narrows down which one it is.
Who are the largest internet providers in Canada?
The leading networks by user share are BACOM - Bell Canada, ASN852 - TELUS Communications Inc., ROGERS-COMMUNICATIONS - Rogers Communications Canada Inc.. Together they carry the majority of consumer traffic, so a problem inside any of them affects a large share of users in Canada.
Can a single cable failure disconnect Canada?
Very unlikely. A single fault is absorbed by the remaining 21 systems, though latency may rise.
Does Canada block websites?
We have not detected systematic national filtering in Canada, but individual ISPs and corporate networks can still block specific sites.
Data: GeoCables submarine cable telemetry, RIPE Atlas measurements, IODA national signals, APNIC user estimates. Numbers refresh automatically; last update July 11, 2026.