Wireless Communication Market in Canada Market Intelligence

Industry Outlook & Drivers

Wireless Communication Market in Canada

• Canada's three largest providers of wireless services: Bell, TELUS, Rogers, hold more than 90 percent of total market revenue and subscribers
• Wireless sector contributes to 51 percent of telecom retail revenue in Canada, which translates to about 7 percent increase over 2014
• Retail telecom sector services 12 million households and 1 million businesses and constitutes to 92 percent of total telecom revenue in Canada
• Wholesale services are provided by telecom service providers to internet service providers, resellers, and other telecom entities that contributes to 8 percent of the total telecom revenue

• Wireless market in Canada is dominated by three suppliers: Bell, Rogers, TELUS, which indicates that the market has not experienced any competition to benefit customers for competitive pricing
• In 2015, the Government of Canada released 50 MHz of spectrum in an auction for advanced wireless services (AWS-3) to encourage greater competition in the wireless market
• Further, in order to enable the new entrants in the wireless space, telecom regulator (CRTC) has introduced a policy to regulate rates that major telecom service providers, such as Bell, Rogers, and TELUS, charge other wireless carriers for domestic GSM-based wholesale roaming services
• These regulations are expected to facilitate sustainable competition and benefit customers by providing reasonable prices and innovative services

Enterprise Mobility - BYOD

With enterprises starting to adopt BYOD/BYOM policies, the demand and dependency on wireless services is higher than ever. In order to meet this demand, suppliers are introducing data intensive plans with a pooling features.

• Wireless data usage increased to 44 percent in 2015, due to the increase of device ownership and high data consumption
• Approximately 70 percent of wireless data subscribers utilize plans for at least 1 GB of data usage per month
• In 2015, the smartphone and tablet ownership have increased to 7 percent and 52 percent, respectively
• In 2015, 55 percent of Canadians streamed music videos on YouTube, 23 percent streamed AM/FM radio online, 20 percent streamed personalized online music, and 22 percent listened to podcasts, thus utilizing more data