OTTAWA – About 10.6% of Canadian households subscribe to a cable telephone or voice over IP service, Statistics Canada reports.
For the first time ever, Statscan’s Residential Telephone Service Survey asked respondents in December 2006 if they had cable or VoIP service, so there’s no comparison from previous periods.
That month, about 90.5% of homes had a land line, while 66.8% had at least one cell phone. Only 5.0% of homes relied exclusively on a cell phone, compared with 4.8% in December 2005.
Among those without a land-line service, 10% said it was because they couldn’t afford the basic local monthly rates and installation charges. About 78% of those without a land line had a cell phone, and nearly 32% had cable or VoIP services. Fewer than 1% of homes said they relied solely on their cable or VoIP service for telecommunication.
About 1.2% of homes didn’t have any telephone service at all, unchanged from the same period the year before.
The highest penetration for cell phones was Alberta, where 80% of households had at least one. New Brunswick was last with 57.5% penetration, while Quebec was second-lowest with 57.9% cell phone penetration.
Cable phone and VoIP services were most popular in Alberta (13.5%) and Quebec (13.2%), but least prevalent in Newfoundland and Labrador (4.9%).
The survey is carried out for the incumbent phone companies and the data are used by the CRTC in making decisions on rate increases and decreases or subsidies.
