OTTAWA – Canada’s wireless industry contributed $27.5 billion to the Canadian GDP in 2017, a 9.1% jump from the $25.21 billion recorded in 2016, says a new report by Nordicity.
Commissioned by the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association (CWTA), the report says that the major contributor to this overall lift was a $1.22 billion increase in contributions from wireless network operators.
The industry’s impact on the GDP includes direct contribution of $14.57 billion, generated through the sale of wireless services, devices and content to end users by network operators, dealers, and distributors; a $6.27 billion indirect impact, which represents procurements by network operators, dealers, and distributors from suppliers of products, equipment, and services; and an induced impact of $6.67 billion, which represents increased spending in other sectors of the economy induced by disposable incomes generated within the wireless ecosystem.
Other key findings include:
– The wireless sector generated 155,550 full-time equivalents (FTE) jobs in 2017, including direct, indirect and induced effects – an increase of 13,500 FTEs or 9.8% from 2016;
– Canadian facilities-based network operators made capital investments in Canada's wireless infrastructure totaling $2.92 billion in 2017, up 13.2% ($0.34 billion) from 2016;
– In 2017, companies in the Canadian wireless telecommunications ecosystem generated $52.28 billion in revenues, an increase of 3.9% from $50.30 billion in the prior year.
"The Nordicity report highlights the critical contribution our industry makes to the Canadian economy," said CWTA president and CEO Robert Ghiz, in the report’s news release. "The billions of dollars of investments in infrastructure and innovation made each year by Canada's facilities-based wireless operators help drive the Canadian economy, create thousands of well-paying jobs and play a critical role in enabling key industry sectors to shift to the new digital and data-driven economy."
The report is available on the CWTA website at www.cwta.ca
