OTTAWA – Thanks to the undeniable and dramatic growth in mobile data consumption as Canadians increasingly buy and use smartphones and tablets, the Canadian wireless sector generated an overall economic benefit of $50.2 billion in 2011, an increase of 16.7% over 2010, says a new report to be released today by the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association.
The report comes to that figure when direct and multiplier effects associated with the industry’s GDP ($38.7 billion) are combined with the consumer surplus generated by wireless voice and data services ($11.5 billion).
CWTA president and CEO Bernard Lord will release the new report, The Benefit of the Wireless Telecommunications Industry to the Canadian Economy, conducted by Ottawa research firm Nordicity, today in Toronto during his keynote at the Canadian Telecom Summit.
“The wireless sector continues to yield significant economic benefits on both the supply-side and the demand-side,” said Nordicity Partner Stuart Jack in the CWTA press release. “The supply-side impacts include the GDP and employment attributable to economic activity within the wireless sector. The demand-side impacts include the consumer surplus generated by the competitive pricing and innovative services available to Canadians.”
Other findings in the report include:
* The Canadian wireless industry generated $20.7 billion in direct GDP in 2011. Direct GDP was up by 15% from $18 billion in 2010. Most of this increase was associated with Canadians’ increasing use of smartphones and wireless data services.
* Out of the wireless industry’s direct GDP of $20.7 billion, $13.4 billion, or 64%, was retained in Canada.
* Canada’s wireless industry supported 280,000 jobs in 2011, including direct, support-staff and indirect employment. The inclusion of induced impact employment brought the wireless industry’s total employment impact to 308,000.
* In 2011, Canadian wireless network operators earned over $19.1 billion in revenue, including $17.5 billion from payments for voice and data services, $1.4 billion from the sale of devices and components and $166 million from consumer payments for mobile content and applications.
* Canadian wireless network operators made capital investment totalling $2.6 billion in 2011.
* More than 99% of Canada’s population has access to a mobile wireless network and 99% of Canadians have access to the high-speed wireless broadband infrastructure, including 3G and HSPA+.
* A rough estimate of the potential economic benefit of the release of additional spectrum in Canada would be CDN$33.33 million per MHz on a national basis.
“With more than 90% of Canadians aged 15 and over now using a wireless device, we are connected like never before,” said Bernard Lord, CWTA president and CEO. “Not only has wireless become essential to the lives of Canadians, it has also become a critical component of our economic prosperity.”
www.cwta.ca
