Spending on wireless services up 14% last year: CRTC

Canadians spent 14.1 per cent more on wireless services in 2014 than they did in 2013, while last year also marked the first time there were more Canadian households that relied exclusively on mobile phone service than households that subscribed only to landlines, according to the CRTC. The commission said in its Communications Monitoring Report, parts of which it released Thursday, that 20.4 per cent of Canadian households subscribed to wireless services only, compared to the 14.4 per cent of homes with landlines and no mobile service. The CRTC noted that this was “a significant reversal from a decade earlier when these figures stood at 2.5% and 44.9%, respectively.” The number of Canadian households with mobile phones stood at 84.9 per cent last year, while 78.9 per cent had landlines, stats that the CRTC noted are also “a big change” from a decade ago, when almost 54 per cent of Canadian households subscribed to mobile and just over 93 per cent per cent had landlines. Overall household spending on communications services reached an average of $203.04 a month in 2014, a six per cent or $11.92 increase from the previous year. Average spending on wireless was $79.08 and spending on TV subscriptions was $53.95, while households paid an average of $38.91 for Internet service and $31.10 for landlines. The six per cent overall increase in spending by Canadians was driven partly by the 14 per cent increase in spending on wireless and a 10 per cent hike on spending on Internet services. The CRTC noted that the increase in what Canadians paid for Internet subscriptions “may be driven by a group of Canadians that have upgraded their speeds.” Spending on TV services was down 0.7 per cent, while spending on landlines was down 5.3 per cent. The prices of communications services rose faster than inflation, the commission noted. While inflation was at two per cent in 2014, the price of phone services went up by 3.4 per cent, the price of TV subscriptions rose 2.3 per cent, and Internet service went up eight per cent. Average telecommunications revenues for the industry were up 2.4 per cent to $45.9 billion, while broadcasting revenues were up 1.4 per cent to $17.3 billion, the CRTC said. Wireless services, at $22 billion, accounted for nearly half of all telecom revenues, and, the CRTC noted, “generated more revenues than the entire broadcasting sector.” The CRTC also broke down figures by household income. “Financial resources appear to play a factor in whether households subscribe to wireless and wireline services, or simply one of the two,” it said, noting that 63 per cent of lowest-earning households subscribe to only one service, compared to 16.1 per cent of highest-income households. The report also noted that 66.8 per cent of Canadian households in the lowest income quintile, or those earning an average annual income of $18,582, have a cell phone, compared to 64.4 per cent with a home computer or 59.7 per cent with Internet access at home. “While this may be due to a number of factors, one important factor relates to the fact that these households are choosing to devote their resources to a technology that can provide multiple communications services (voice, Internet), rather than subscriptions for each service individually,” it said. The CRTC noted that households “in the two highest quintiles spend more than twice as much on mobile wireless than those in the lowest income quintile – a pattern that roughly holds for cable and DTH satellite television and Internet services,” while spending on landlines “remains relatively evenly distributed across income quintiles.” The CRTC also looked at TV viewing. It reported that while “the average number of weekly television viewing hours nationally for Canadians 18 years of age or older has remained fairly steady” at 29 hours, down from 29.8, “the viewing habits of younger and older Canadians reveal a stark contrast.” While the number of hours older Canadians spend watching traditional TV went up by 3.5 per cent, that figure declined by more than 12 per cent among 18 to 34-year olds between 2009-2010 and 2013-2014, the CRTC said. — With reporting by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.caand editing by Shruti Shekar at sshekar@thewirereport.ca

Spending on wireless services up 14% last year: CRTC

Broadcast | October 22, 2015

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Spending on wireless services up 14% last year: CRTC

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