OTTAWA – With over 294,000 Canadians employed in the wireless industry in Canada, added to myriad other benefits, wireless communications generates about $39 billion in value to the Canadian economy says a new report from Ovum Consulting.
Done on behalf of the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association, the report notes that over $16 billion of direct contribution to the gross domestic product of Canada is generated through the sale of wireless goods and services (which is close to the $20 billion GDP of the province of Newfoundland & Labrador).
That $16 billion compares pretty well to the Canadian automaking business ($20 billion), farming ($16.6 billion) and food processing (18.2 billion).
We get to $39B with an additional $14 billion in benefit from economic flow-through to contributing suppliers in the chain and $9 billion in consumer surplus (the additional benefit or satisfaction Canadians get from wireless services, beyond what they actually pay).
The report also notes that employment in the wireless industry is generally high-wage employment, with an average salary of $59,000, compared to the average Canadian salary of $42,640.
Other data includes:
• Canada’s wireless carriers invest more than $1 billion in mobile phone communications infrastructure each year.
• The members of CWTA pay licence fees in excess of $150 million each year – more than two-thirds of the total fees collected by Industry Canada from all spectrum users.
• Canada’s wireless carriers now offer coverage to more than 99% of Canadians.
• Advanced wireless networks that support handsets such as smartphones and Internet sticks are available to 96% of Canadians.
• At the end of December 2010, Canadian wireless phone subscribers numbered 24.5 million.
• Mobile broadband subscriptions in Canada totalled 5,668,142 as of June 2010, which represents 24.2% of total wireless subscriptions.
• Of the total mobile broadband subscribers, 86% were subscribers with a smartphone voice/data plan, and 14% were subscribers of data plans exclusively with a mobile Internet stick.
• Half of all phone connections in Canada are now wireless.
• 75% of Canadian households have access to a wireless phone.
• Canadians send 163 million text messages per day.
• Each year, Canadians place more than 6 million calls to 9-1-1 or emergency numbers from their mobile phones.
• Wireless market sector revenues are the largest component (41%) of total telecommunications revenues.
