Wireline access decreasing but still dominant, Industry Canada finds

For the first time in the Canadian telecom sector, the number of wireline subscribers, both business and residential, declined, according to a recently released Industry Canada study. It also notes that wireless subscriber numbers fell in each quarter of 2001. Looking at the years 1994 to 2001, the department discovered that access paths rose by an average annual rate of 7.2 per cent. In 1994 there were an estimated 19.1 million PSTN wireline access lines and wireless subscribers; by 2001 that number had jumped to 31.1 million. The share of residential wireline access lines dropped from 62 per cent of the total lines in 1994 to 41 per cent last year, Tele-communications Service in Canada: An Industry Overview reports. Business lines fell slightly from 28 per cent eight years ago to 24 per cent in 2001. By the same token, wireless subscriptions leapt from 10 per cent in 1994 to 35 per cent in 2001. "The number of access lines for both the residential and business segments peaked in 2000, with 13.2 million and 7.6 million lines respectively," the study says. "By year-end 2001, the number of residential and business access lines decreased to 12.8 million residential lines and 7.4 million business lines. In total, wireline access paths equaled 20.3 million in 2001, an increase of 16 per cent since 1994, but a 2.3 per cent decrease from the end of 2000. Despite the recent decline, growth in wireline access since 1994 has been robust, especially for a mature market segment." A breakdown of wireline access paths for the last quarter of last year showed a total of 20,278,387 phone lines in the country. The vast majority, 15.6 million, are individual lines. Another 74,154 are party lines, mostly allotted to residential subscribers. ISDN accounts for just under a million lines, while there are 2.6 million Centrex lines, 169,626 payphones and 805,521 listed as "Other." Despite a half decade of competition in the local market, the ILECs continue to dominate the sector. CLECs account for only three per cent of the subscribers, representing 600,000 lines. If anything, the figures downplay the dominance of BCE Inc. in the Canadian telecom scene. While Bell Canada holds more than half the market share, another eight per cent is held by BCE subsidiary Aliant Telecom. Under the term "Other ILECs," the department has listed Northwestel, Télébec, Northern Telephone and MTS, all of which BCE has an ownership stake in. The other ILEC cited is provincial Crown corporation SaskTel. (QuébecTel was shifted from this category when it was purchased by Telus and renamed Telus Québec. Its lines are now included in the larger Telus numbers.) Teledensity now at 100 per cent The figures for teledensity have increased each year, so that it now stands at 100 per cent. Teledensity is defined as the number of main lines per 100 inhabitants. Since some people have multiple lines while others have no access at all, it does not necessarily follow that the 100 per cent total represents complete access to telephony. The teledensity quotient in 1994 was 65.8 per 100 population, increasing slightly to 68.6 per cent the next year. It stood in the 70s in 1996 and 1997, in the 80s in 1998 and 1999, and hit 95.9 per cent in 2000. The totals represent residential and business wireline, as well as wireless access. The residential figures are what drove up the teledensity numbers. For each of the eight years surveyed, PSTN residential access lines per 100 households was greater than 100. In fact, last year’s 108 per cent number was the lowest of any year. The highest number reached by business lines (per 100 people employed) was 61.7 per cent in 2000. The lowest was 1994’s 50.8 per cent.

Wireline access decreasing but still dominant, Industry Canada finds

News | November 4, 2002

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