Media.Knet.Ca

from CBC News Mon, 31 Oct 2005

More than two-fifths of all Canadian households subscribed to broadband internet service in 2004 while the number with slower, dial-up connections fell, the CRTC said Monday.

In its annual telecom market survey, Canada's broadcast regulator said 5.4 million Canadians paid for high-speed broadband internet service. That represents 43 per cent of all households – up 7 percentage points from the 2003 survey. 
 
Two million Canadians had dial-up access. That's down 20 per cent from the previous year.

Taking both dial-up and broadband together, 59 per cent of all Canadian households are now hooked up to the web.

Internet revenues increased 12.9 per cent to $4.2 billion in 2004. The CRTC says that makes the internet "one of the fastest growing segments of the Canadian telecommunications services industry."

The CRTC said 89 per cent of households have access to broadband services. But there is still a wide gap between urban and rural access. Almost all urban Canadians (98 per cent) can access broadband, while only 68 per cent of those in rural Canada can choose high-speed if they want.

Wireless service is the other "engine of growth and innovation" the CRTC identified in the Canadian telecom industry.

Wireless revenues increased almost 18 per cent to $9.5 billion in 2004, the regulator said. Wireless now accounts for 29 per cent of the industry's revenues.

The average wireless subscriber spent $52 a month last year, up from $49 monthly in 2003.

Long distance revenues fell 6 per cent to $5.8 billion even though the number of billable long distance minutes rose by 6 per cent.

"The decline or minimal growth in revenues from local, ... long distance, and data and private line services, collectively, is evidence, not necessarily of declining demand for telecommunications services, but rather, an indication of the deployment of more efficient and effective technologies or platforms to deliver the services," the CRTC said.