Wireless Communications
Make Canada Stronger

Wireless has spawned a communications revolution. And certainly, in a country as large as ours, any technology that brings us closer also makes us stronger. Particularly since Canada has some of the most advanced wireless networks in the world, including more HSPA+ networks than any other country in the G8.
 
But the story doesn’t end there. The economic contribution of Canada’s wireless industry is equally profound. It contributes
$39 billion and roughly 300,000 jobs to the economy. We invest in the country and in our people. A strong signal for a stronger Canada.

Canada’s Wireless Industry

• Canada's wireless carriers now offer coverage to more than
  99 per cent of Canadians.
• Advanced wireless networks that support handsets such as smartphones and Internet sticks are available to 96% of Canadians.
• At the end of June 2010, Canadian wireless phone subscribers numbered 23.4 million.
• Half of all phone connections in Canada are now wireless.
• 75% of Canadian households have access to a wireless phone.
• Canadians send 135 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.
• The wireless sector offers high value employment – it has an average salary level of $59,000, compared to a Canadian average salary of $42,640.
• 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.
• The demand for highly skilled wireless communications specialists is so great that Canadian post-secondary institutions are creating programs specifically geared to the wireless industry.
• Wireless revenues in Canada totalled $16.9 billion in 2009.
• Wireless market sector revenues are the largest component (41%) of total telecommunications revenues