The CRTC has released its annual report [
pdf] on the state of Canadian telecommunications.
In 2000, the government requested that the Commission report annually over a five-year period on the status of competition in the Canadian telecommunications industry. The CRTC decided to continue the annual report beyond the first 5 years in order to allow interested parties to stay informed about the state of the Canadian telecommunications industry.
Some of the quick highlights:
- Total telecommunications revenues increased by 4.5%, rising to $36.1 billion in 2006. Almost half of industry revenues now comes from cellular and internet services.
- Competitors captured 38% of total revenues, an increase of 3% from the previous year. Overall, the revenues of competitors increased by 12% to $13.7 billion, mainly due to the cable companies recording a 17% growth in revenues.
- The cellular telephone market remained the largest and fastest growing sector in the industry. Revenues grew by 15% to $12.7 billion in 2006. Cellular telephone revenues accounted for 35% of the total telecommunications revenues, up from 23% in 2005. Cellular telephones are now in more than two thirds of Canadian households.
- 60% of all households now have high-speed Internet access, up from 51% in 2005. Canada remained number one in the G8 with respect to broadband adoption.
- Capital expenditures rose by nearly 25% to $6.9 billion.
What does all this mean? The industry appears strong and is investing in the future. Consumers are continuing to sign up for mobile and broadband services and they are buying value added applications as well.
I’m sure I will be writing more as I go through the report.
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