The CRTC also significantly increased target speeds for broadband Internet, to 50 Mbps download and 10 Mbps upload, 10 times the existing speed targets.

The new rules are part of an overhaul of the country's Internet service regulations that the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) announcedWednesday . The CRTC also declared broadband internet access a basic service across the country, just like current landline telephone service.

Canada's telecommunications watchdog has ordered Internet service providers to offer an unlimited data plan for home Internet access, and to issue easy-to-understand bills.

CRTC chairperson Jean-Pierre Blais addresses the Canadian Chapter of the International Institute of Communications, Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2016 in Ottawa. (Photo: The Canadian Press/Justin Tang)

Currently, about 82 per cent of households and businesses receive that level of service. The CRTC wants that increased to 90 per cent by 2021 and to 100 per cent within 10 to 15 years.

ISPs will also be required to offer unlimited data options for fixed broadband services.

As well, the regulator says mobile wireless service should be made available to all households and businesses throughout Canada, as well as along all major Canadian roads.

"Today, we won it all!" — Consumer activist Josh Tabish, OpenMedia

​

"Access to broadband internet service is vital and a basic telecommunication service all Canadians are entitled to receive,'' said CRTC chairman Jean-Pierre Blais.

"The availability of broadband internet, however, is an issue that can't be solved by the CRTC alone.''

Consumer advocates appeared thrilled by the decision.

“Canadians asked for universal Internet access, support for rural communities, world-class speeds, unlimited data options, and minimum guarantees for the quality of their Internet. And today, we won it all!” Josh Tabish, campaigns director for OpenMedia, said in a statement.

“With this ruling, the CRTC has finally listened to Canadians and agreed that residential and mobile Internet is a basic service required for modern life, as important as the telephone.”

An expensive road ahead

The CRTC acknowledged that ensuring everyone in the country has broadband service will cost billions of dollars.

As part of the decision announced Wednesday, telecom firms will have access to a $750-million industry-sponsored fund over the next five years to invest in broadband infrastructure.

The first $100 million of that, to be spent within the next two years, will come from a fund that currently subsidizes telephone services in isolated regions.