Continued smartphone adoption led to a 2.5% increase in Canada’s telecommunications revenue – to $45.9 billion – last year according to the CRTC’s 2015 Communications Monitoring Report.
More than two thirds (67%) of Canadians owned a smartphone in 2014, according to the report, up from 62% the previous year.
Tablet ownership increased 10 percentage points to 49%, while the percentage of Canadians with access to fourth-generation wireless networks shot up to 93% from 81% as large telco companies spent approximately $14.7 billion on maintaining, improving and expanding networks.
Wireless data usage increased 15% as Canadians increasingly adopt mobile applications, multimedia services, social networking, internet browsing and other data-intensive activities. The report said Canadians with a smartphone or tablet used an average of one gigabyte of data per month last year.
There were 28.8 million wireless subscribers in Canada in 2014 – a 1.5% increase from the previous year – with the average household spending an average of $79.08 on wireless data. Nearly three quarters of wireless plans including data featured at least 1GB of data usage per month.
Approximately 380,000 households stopped using a landline between 2010 and 2013, with penetration dropping from 89% to 80%. Households spent an average of $31.10 on home telephone services last year.
Broadband internet availability for residential services – not including satellite – was 97% in 2014, including 100% in urban areas and 87% in rural areas. The number of households subscribing to internet services grew 3.4%, to 11.6 million from 11.3 million.
The number of households subscribing to internet services grew 3.4%, to 11.6 million from 11.3 million the previous year, with households spending an average of $38.91 per month.
The rise of streaming services such as Netflix and Shomi has also led to a significant increase in the average number of gigabytes downloaded by residential subscribers, to 67GB per month from 45GB the previous year.
CRTC chairman Jean-Pierre Blais said the report provided a “clear indication” of where the country’s telecommunications system is heading. “As more Canadians are subscribing to faster internet speeds and using smartphones and tablets, they are able to participate more actively in the evolving digital economy.”
