OTTAWA – Canadians are expected to triple their use of wireless data in the next three years – following their rapid embrace of a range of innovative and affordable mobile data services including wireless e-mail, text messaging and Internet access, said the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association today.
Intercarrier text messaging (which Canadian wireless companies first launched), mobile satellite radio, unlimited music downloads, wireless e-mail and wireless video calling, have spurred a rapid growth in data usage by Canadians, says the wireless lobby group.
Approximately 10% of the average Canadian’s monthly cell phone usage is now related to wireless data, according to figures provided by CWTA member companies.
“With wireless service providers reporting data growth rates exceeding 50% per quarter, CWTA expects spending to triple to more than $3 billion in the next three years as Canadians increase their demand for non-voice wireless services such as e-mail, social networking, Web browsing, music downloads, mobile television, satellite radio and text, multimedia and instant messaging,” says the press release.
A primary contributor to – and beneficiary of – fast data growth in Canada has been Research In Motion, maker of the BlackBerry. Over 20 million have been sold world-wide so far.
“Canada was the birthplace of the BlackBerry platform and Canada continues to generate the highest per capita penetration of BlackBerry smartphones in the world today," said Jim Balsillie, co-CEO of Waterloo, Ontario-based RIM, in the CWTA release (RIM is a member).
"We are fortunate to be located in a country with a thriving wireless industry that continues to offer businesspeople and consumers world-class wireless data services. RIM works with hundreds of carriers internationally and I am proud to say that the Canadian carriers and our collective success are well respected within the worldwide industry."
(Ed note: The release, it should be noted, comes at a time when full-on lobbying is going on in Ottawa as Industry Canada makes up its mind on what the rules will be surrounding 2008’s advanced wireless spectrum auction and whether or not to alter an open auction to make it easier/cheaper for newcomers to buy spectrum.)
“While Canadians continue to be among the world’s top users of wireless voice services, at an average of 400 minutes per month, they are also rapidly increasing their consumption of wireless data services at both the consumer and enterprise level. Whether it’s sharing music, photos and videos with friends and families, mapping meetings and jobsites on the go with GPS, or connecting to corporate Intranets via wireless PC cards in their laptops, Canadians have been quick to utilize the vast array of Third Generation, or 3G, products and services available on the country’s national high speed wireless networks,” adds the release.
“Canadian wireless carriers offer a range of unlimited Internet access and text messaging plans that have helped spur the fast growth of such wireless data services.”
"Canadians are now sending approximately 30 million text messages per day," added Peter Barnes, CWTA president and CEO. "Preliminary numbers for the first nine months of 2007 total almost 7 billion, compared to the 4.3 billion in all of 2006."
