CRTC Report: Canadians Are More Connected Than Ever

Earlier this week the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) issued its annual Communications Monitoring Report providing an overview of the Canadian communications sector.

While the results aren't necessarily surprising, they do paint Canadians ask a hyper-connected bunch.

Seventy-eight per cent of the 13.4 million households in Canada had an Internet subscription.

Canadians continued to migrate to faster Internet services: the percentage of households with download speeds of at least 5 megabits per second rose from 51% in 2010 to 54% in 2011. The average monthly bill for broadband Internet services increased by $1.80, or from $36.99 in 2010 to $38.79 in 2011.

By the end of 2011, the number of Canadians subscribing to wireless services grew by 6% to 27.4 million. Newer competitors, who offered their services to more than half of the population, doubled their market share from 2% to 4% of subscribers. At the same time, the larger companies introduced faster wireless networks, also known as Long Term Evolution or LTE networks, to 45% of the population. In 2011, Canadians paid on average $57.98 per month for wireless services, which was roughly the same amount as the previous year’s monthly total of $57.86.

The number of subscribers to home telephone services continued to decrease in 2011, falling by 2.7% to 12.2 million. The average monthly bill of a telephone line was slightly lower, from $31.35 in 2010 to $31.23 in 2011.

The number of Canadian households that subscribe to basic television service increased by 2.2% to 11.8 million, equivalent to 89.6% of all households. Cable companies served the majority, or 69.9% of subscribers, while satellite companies served 24.5% and companies that deliver television programming through telephone lines served 5.6% of subscribers. The average television subscriber paid $61.86 per month, an increase from $59.73 in 2010.