In Canada, cable and wireless hammer the incumbents
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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