Residential Telephone Service Survey

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Fewer than one-quarter of Canadian households now use only traditional land-line telephone service as the nation shifts more and more to cell phones, cable or "Voice over Internet Protocol" telephone services, according to new data from the Residential Telephone Service Survey.

In just one year, technological improvements and increased availability of alternative methods of getting phone service have resulted in large shifts in how households communicate by phone.

In December 2006, an estimated 3.8 million households, or 29.6% of the total, reported using only traditional land-line telephone service.

By December 2007, this had declined to 3.1 million households, or 24.0% of the total.

In general, rates of land-line only households declined from east to west. Households in Newfoundland and Labrador and New Brunswick reported the highest rates of land-line service. The lowest were reported by households in Alberta and British Columbia.

On the other hand, in December 2007, 72.4% of households reported having at least one cell phone, up from 67.1% a year earlier.

Provincially, this proportion ranged from a high of 83.5% of households in Alberta to a low of 63.2% in Quebec.

The proportion of households relying solely on cell phones increased modestly over the previous year. In December 2007, 6.4% of households reported they had only a cell phone, up from 5.1% a year earlier.

For the first time, survey data were able to measure the change in use of two additional telecommunication technologies: cable telephone services and "Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP)" services.

Cable telephone services offered by cable television companies allow subscribers to deliver and receive telephone calls over a cable network. "Voice over IP" or "VoIP" services let customers make and receive calls using the Internet.

Between December 2006 and December 2007, the proportion of households that reported using cable or VoIP telephone services rose from 10.7% to 14.9%.

Overall, 19.5% of households used these services in Quebec and 15.4% in Alberta, compared with 7.5% in Newfoundland and Labrador and Saskatchewan.

Among households that did not use land-line telephone services in 2007, nearly half (47%) said they did not need the service because they had cell phone or VoIP service.

The survey also showed that 0.9% of households did not have any telephone service at all. This rate was slightly lower than the 1.3% reported during the previous year.

Note: The Residential Telephone Service Survey, conducted since the fall of 1998, is now carried out for Bell Aliant Regional Communications, Limited Partnership, Bell Canada, MTS Allstream Inc., Northwestel Inc., Saskatchewan Telecommunications and TELUS Communications Company. It monitors residential phone penetration rates and reasons for non-subscribing to assist the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission in making decisions on rate increases and decreases, or subsidies.

Definitions, data sources and methods: survey number 4426.

The microdata file Residential Telephone Service Survey, December 2007 (56M0001XCB, $535) is now available. Information in this file is from the December survey and refers to telephone service penetration rates in all 10 provinces.

For more information on related products and services, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact Client Services (toll-free 1-800-461-9050; 613-951-3321; fax: 613-951-4527; ssd@statcan.gc.ca), Special Surveys Division.

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