Find Telecommunication expertise in Canada

The telecommunications sector in Canada is amongst the most sophisticated in the world. Telecommunications infrastructure in the country is well-established and developed. In 2008 telecommunications contributed 2.52% of GDP in Canada, an increase of 0.03% from the previous year, but down 0.1% overall since 2003 (World Bank, 2008). The potential opening up of the Canadian telecommunication market to foreign competition in the near future is likely to have a significant impact industry in terms of growth.

Three big players dominate the telecommunications sector in Canada: Rogers Communications, Telus and Bell Canada enterprises. The mobile branch of Rogers Communications is Canada’s top mobile phone service provider, with approximately 9.3 million mobile subscribers across the country in 2013. The company also supplies landline, television, and internet services. Bell Canada Enterprises (BCE) is the main provider of long-distance and local telephone services in Ontario and Quebec. BCE’s mobile phone subsidiary Bell Mobile had approximately 7.6 million subscribers in 2013. BCE also provides internet and television services. Telus is Canada’s third-largest telecom service provider; the company served 7.7 million mobile subscribers in 2013, as well as offering landline and internet services.

Canadian telecommunications sector is privatised, with 90% of the telecoms sector being owned by the ‘big three’ – Rogers Communications, Telus and Bell Mobility (2013). With this in mind, industry ministers have begun focusing on encouraging more competition in the telecommunications sector, including the possibility of international firms entering the Canadian market.

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) is an independent public body responsible for the regulation and supervision of the Canadian broadcasting and telecommunications sectors. The CRTC serves to ensure that the sectors serve the needs of Canadian citizens, industries, and the government. The CRTC reports to Parliament, and uses the objectives outlined in the Broadcasting Act and the Telecommunications Act to guide it policy decisions.

The Belinda Stronach Foundation (TBSF) is a Canadian organisation which specialises in developing programmes to confront global challenges caused by factors including poverty and disease. The One Laptop per Child (OLPC) initiative is one of the core programmes of the TBSF. OLPC Canada helps to supply aboriginal youths with access to learning centred information and communication technology (ICT), in the hope of achieving the aim of one laptop per child. In 2013 the initiative provided 3600 laptops to aboriginal adolescents aged 6-12 years in Canada’s rural and urban communities.

The World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Report reported moderate numbers of mobile phone subscriptions in Canada compared to other developed countries; in 2014 there were 830 mobile telephone subscriptions for every 1,000 people in the country. Fixed telephone landlines in the country are high compared to the rest of the world, with 466 fixed telephone lines per 1,000 people for the same year. Internet usage in Canada is high, with results for 2014 showing 871 internet users per 1,000 people.

Broadband internet subscriptions in the country are also high; there were 32.9 broadband internet subscriptions, and 50 mobile broadband subscriptions per 100 people in 2013. The international internet bandwidth speed in Canada is fast by world standards. In 2013 the average internet speed was 101 kilobytes per second per internet user, giving Canada a rating of 18 out of 148 countries included in the WEF Report (WEF, 2013).