OTTAWA – A new survey has found that 72% of Canadian households now have access to a wireless phone, and 19% of those respondents said their wireless service will likely replace their landline service over the next year.
The 2008 Wireless Attitudes Study was conducted by Harris/Decima on behalf of the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association.
It found that the average increase of 8% in national wireless household penetration from 2006 to 2008 is fairly consistent across all regions of the country, though Quebec saw the largest jump – from 51% in 2006 to 61% in 2008. Albertans are at the forefront of wireless phone adoption overall with a household wireless penetration rate of 82%.
"Essentially, more Canadians are using wireless phones, usage of wireless phones is deeper within each household and Canadians continue to consider them viable alternatives to their traditional home phone," said Paul Musca, senior consultant at Harris/Decima. "In 2008, we found that 6% of Canadian households report being cell-only. And given that in 2006 approximately 5% of Canadian households had a cell phone exclusively, the value observed in 2008 represents a 20% increase in just two years."
The study also found that text messaging and picture-taking topped the list of the most common activities performed on mobile phones, apart from voice calls. The use of text messaging has grown from 25% of wireless users in 2006 to 44% in 2008, while picture-taking has gone from 15% to 38%; and the use of multimedia messaging has increased from 3% to 13%.
