Demand for data explodes
Canadians spend more on Internet access than TV subscriptions for first time: CRTC
Canadians spent more money on Internet access than television subscriptions for the first time last year as the demand for data exploded and the desire for traditional television packages waned, according to a report from the federal telecom regulator.
Revenue grew for Canada’s Internet and wireless providers as data usage increased by more than 40 per cent for both fixed and mobile data in 2015, according to the second part of the 2016 Communications Monitoring Report released Wednesday by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission.
Data intensive activities such as watching videos and streaming music are behind the increase, a trend that’s expected to continue.
“The explosive growth in data consumption clearly demonstrates that Canadians are relying more and more on streaming and real-time communication applications to consume content and communicate with the world,” CRTC chairman Jean-Pierre Blais said in a statement.
The findings come a day after the CRTC reported the broadcasting industry posted declining revenues for the first time in five years.
It’s a different story in telecom, for which revenue grew to $47.8 billion on the strength of wireless and fixed Internet even though 800,000 cut their landlines last year. Nearly 30 million Canadians have wireless subscriptions — an increase of about one million since 2014 — putting wireless in 86 per cent of households compared to 76 per cent for landlines. Of these, 73 per cent have smartphones.
Nearly a quarter of households (24 per cent) only have wireless phones, whereas only 14 per cent of households rely solely on landlines.
Internet is also spreading to more Canadians in rural and Northern areas. Internet with speeds over 5 Mbps is now available to 98 per cent of Canadians, up from 95 per cent in 2014.
But most Canadians are paying for far faster plans. Subscriptions to plans with speeds 50 Mbps or higher doubled to 16 per cent in the past year.
And they’re paying for more data. More than two-thirds of residential high-speed Internet subscribers have plans with more than 100 GB of data per month. More Canadians opted for wireless data, too, with nearly three-quarters (74 per cent) buying wireless data plans in 2015 compared to two-thirds (67 per cent) in 2014.
Canadians younger than 30 spent the most on wireless services at an average of $114.42 per month compared to $33.50 spent by those older than 65.
Driven by spending on wireless and Internet, total household spending on communications, including broadcasting, increased by 1.4 per cent to $214.75 per month in 2014.