Telecommunications statistics

The wireless industry recruited just over 326,000 new customers from March to June of this year, bringing the total number of subscribers at the end of the quarter to 17.2 million, up 10.9% from the end of the second quarter of 2005. With the addition of these customers, the wireless industry realized its highest ever quarterly revenues and profits.

Operating revenues reached $3.1 billion, up 16.4% compared to the second quarter of 2005, and earnings before interest and taxes climbed 35.6% to $996.5 million. The profit margin of 32.0% posted in the second quarter of 2006 was also the highest in the recent history of the industry.

In another first, the profits realized by the wireless industry in this quarter exceeded those of conventional wireline telecommunications.

Indeed, conventional wireline telecommunications continued to lose ground, especially in the residential market where competition has been especially fierce since cable operators came onto the scene.

At the end of the second quarter of 2006, there were 11.5 million conventional residential lines, down 5.8% compared to the second quarter of 2005.

This was the largest year-over-year decline since the downward trend began in 2001. During the five-year period from June 30, 2001 to June 30, 2006, the number of conventional residential lines has fallen by nearly 10%, representing 1.2 million lines. More than half of this loss of customers took place in the last 12 months, a period during which cable telephony grew substantially. At the end of the second quarter, there were nearly 750,000 subscribers to cable telephony, some six times more than a year earlier.

The most recent financial results confirm the marked downward trend in the revenues and profits generated by conventional wireline telecommunications services.

Wireline operating revenues stood at $5.4 billion in the second quarter, down 2.8% from the second quarter of 2005, while earnings before interest and taxes fell 26.1% to $821.7 million.

Despite the downward trend in their revenues and profits, operators of conventional wireline telecommunications services continued to invest sizable amounts in their systems. For the first six months of 2006, those investments reached $1.9 billion, an amount roughly the same as in the first six months of 2005 ($2.0 billion) and 2004 ($1.9 billion).

Operators of wireless systems invested $725 million from January to June of this year, up 14.2% from the first six months of 2005.

Note: The quarterly survey of telecommunications that underlies this release is undergoing a redesign. During the transition period between the old and new surveys, the main results of the survey will continue to appear in The Daily. However, the publication Quarterly Telecommunication Statistics (56-002-XIE) will no longer be produced.

Definitions, data sources and methods: survey number 2721.

For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact Daniel April (613-951-3177; daniel.april@statcan.gc.ca), Science, Innovation and Electronic Information Division.

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