Last week, I mentioned a report by Kazam Technologies that was delivered in April 2006 but has only recently been released by Industry Canada.
According to the report, the Canadian wireless telecommunications market is expected to generate over CAN$15B by 2009, representing an 11.5% growth rates from 2005 to 2009. The report expects that, at that rate, the Canadian wireless market will grow at a faster pace than the US, forecasted at 10 percent.
An interesting point in the report, which was also cited at last week’s CWTA forum, is that Canada’s cost of acquisition (which includes handset subsidies) is among the highest in the world: 75% higher than the US. As a result, it is misleading to only look at per minute rates in determining the affordability of services and the competitiveness of the Canadian market.
Operators are faced with the difficult dilemma of reducing handset subsidies (to offset their cost of doing business) vs. driving adoption of new services, such as Mobile TV, that require users to upgrade handsets.
This report is hardly the last word on wireless – first round comments for the auction rules are due toward the end of May, with reply comments due in late June. We have scheduled a session looking at competition in wireless services at The 2007 Canadian Telecom Summit on June 13.
Rogers released its first quarter numbers after the markets closed last night. Net additions, data consumption, ARPU were all strong and churn was significantly better than the prior year. Rogers President and COO, Nadir Mohamed, will be delivering the opening keynote at The 2007 Canadian Telecom Summit on June 11.
Bell’s results are out this morning and are showing continued challenges in the wireless segment. Net additions on post-paid accounts were only a tenth of what Rogers gained. TELUS results are out later today – watch this space for updates.
Update: [May 2, 11:15 am]
TELUS has released its numbers and it has added 6 postpaid wireless customers for every one that Bell captured – leaving it with a total number of customers (4.136M) just shy of Bell’s (4.254M). At the current pace, TELUS will catch up to Bell in 2 more quarters. Rogers has 5.493M postpaid subscribers. The 3 major carriers added about 165,000 customers in the first quarter: Rogers grabbed 57% of them, TELUS 37% and Bell just 6%.
What will this mean for consumers in the coming months?