Telecom industry revenues up 3.7 per cent at 2017 year end: CRTC

The CRTC released new data Thursday for the fourth quarter of 2017 that shows wireless service accounted for more than half of telecom industry revenue, which was up 3.7 per cent from the same quarter the previous year. That’s an acceleration from between 2015 and 2016, when overall telecom revenues grew two per cent, which suggests “overall telecommunications service revenues were strong in 2017,” the quarterly report outlined. For every dollar in telecom revenue, mobile made up $0.57 and wireline internet service $0.21, while landline calling still accounted for a significant chunk of revenues, at $0.16 out of every dollar. However, the CRTC noted that the “growth came exclusively from mobile and Internet services, while legacy wireline services such as local long distance ... continue to report decreasing revenues and number of lines.” Mobile revenues in the last three months of 2017 grew by seven per cent, while internet revenues increased 7.1 per cent in the quarter, compared to the same time period a year earlier. Last year’s quarterly reports from Canada’s publicly traded telecoms outlined a hot streak in wireless that has continued into 2018. Subscriptions followed the same trend, with mobile customers up by 3.3 per cent and internet subs by 2.7 per cent over that time, the CRTC said. Revenue from local landline calling was down 7.1 per cent in the last quarter of 2017, with the CRTC noting “pressure from technological substitution such as wireless services, video calling applications, and instant messaging.” Meanwhile, long distance calling fell 16.6 per cent, with the CRTC saying that “much more pronounced decline ... could be attributed to, among other things, the availability of unlimited long distance calling offered by mobile wireless carriers over the past few years.” It added those revenue losses appear to be accelerating, from 11 per cent between Q1 of 2016 and 2017 to an average of 17 per cent between the three last quarters of those two years. The CRTC also noted that the broadcasting distribution sector continues to exhibit an overall decrease in revenues and subscribers, with TV service revenues down 3.4 per cent. Landlines were down by 4.6 per cent and TV subscriptions fell by 1.4 per cent. At the end of the year, there were 31.5 million mobile subscriptions in Canada, dwarfing the 13.4 million landlines, 11.8 million internet subscriptions and 10.7 million TV service customers, the report outlined. The internet figures are in line with a recent Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) report, which found that subscriptions to a fibre-based fixed-broadband service in Canada increased 27 per cent between 2016 and 2017. But the OECD pegs mobile subscriptions lower, at 26.4 million. The CRTC said the data was based on reporting from 20 “reporting entities” that account for 93 per cent of retail telecom revenues. The regulator hasn’t previously released quarterly data, but will be doing so going forward, CRTC spokeswoman Patricia Valladao said in an email. The CRTC’s annual Communications Monitoring Report for all of 2017 will follow, she said. — With reporting by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca and editing by Ahmad Hathout at ahathout@thewirereport.ca

Telecom industry revenues up 3.7 per cent at 2017 year end: CRTC

Broadcast | July 5, 2018

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Telecom industry revenues up 3.7 per cent at 2017 year end: CRTC

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