Closer to home, StatsCan published a mess of statistics about the Canadian communications industry last week as well. Highlights:
- In the quarter ending June 30, 2006, Canadian wireless carriers had profits of $996 million, a 36% increase from 2005. This is the first time that wireless profits have exceeded the incumbent telcos’ wireline profits, which were $822 million, down from $1.2 billion a year earlier.
- Wireless subscribers at the end of June were 17.2 million, up 10.9% from a year earlier. Wireless revenues were $3.1 billion, about 35% of the industry’s total revenues of $8.9 billion.
- The incumbent wireline telcos lost 706,000 residential lines in the preceding 12 months, and a total of 1.2 million residential lines in the past five years. That represents a 5.8% year over year decline. Their business line counts grew by 36,000 in the past year, partially reversing a three-year decline (2002-2005).
- Cablecos had 750,000 telephone subscribers at the end of June 2006, six times more than a year earlier.
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Alec Saunders is the Vice President of Developer Relations for BlackBerry make Research in Motion. This is his personal blog, with his personal viewpoints. Prior to this Alec was the CEO and co-founder of Calliflower — the easiest way to hold a meeting, online, on a conference call, or on the go. A double-decade veteran of product management and marketing, he spent nine years at Microsoft where he helped launch Windows 95, the first two versions of Internet Explorer, the Universal Plug and Play initiative, the push into home markets, opt-in email marketing and what might well go down in history as the very first direct email list ever.
