Communications

 

Monitoring Report Communications Monitoring Report

Link directly to Highlights of the Telecommunications Sector Highlights of the Telecommunications Sector

Link directly to On this page On this page

1. Market composition
2. Revenues
   • Retail versus wholesale
   • Forborne services
   • Canadian ownership
   • Contribution
3. Financial performance
   • Capital expenditures and capital intensity
   • Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA)
   • Investment in spectrum
   • Churn
4. Sector summaries
   • Retail mobile sector
   • Retail fixed Internet sector
   • Retail wireline voice sector
   • Retail data and private line sector
   • Wholesale
5. Datasets Available on Open Data
6. Methodology
   • Capital expenditures and capital intensity
   • Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization
   • Wholesale Internet lines and revenues by province/territory and region
   • Definitions

Link directly to i. Market composition i. Market composition

Total Canadian telecommunications revenues reached $54.1 billion in 2019, as Canadians used ever-increasing amounts of data through both fixed Internet and mobile services. (“Data usage” includes the use of data for video streaming services such as Netflix and YouTube, as well as for audio streaming services such as Spotify and various radio applications via mobile devices or fixed Internet services.)

Long description

Sector	2019 revenues	Growth rate 2018-2019 (%)	CAGR 2015-2019 (%)
Mobile	$28.8 B	+1.8%	+5.1%
Fixed Internet	$13.5 B	+9.5%	+8.3%
Local and access	$6.1 B	-7.6%	-5.6%
Data	$3.2 B	-2.0%	-1.2%
Long distance	$1.3 B	-3.2%	-9.2%
Private line	$1.2 B	-1.6%	-3.1%
Total	$54.1 B	+2.0%	+3.2%

Source: CRTC data collection

Total telecommunications revenues is calculated from exact amounts and may appear to differ from total sector revenues due to rounding.

Service providers are divided into two broad categories: incumbent telecommunications service providers (TSPs), which provided local telecommunications services on a monopoly basis prior to the introduction of competition, and alternative service providers, which encompass all other types of entities.

Alternative service providers include cable-based carriers, which are the former cable monopolies that currently also provide telecommunications services; other facilities-based service providers; and wholesale-based service providers, which are companies providing services primarily using other companies’ facilities.

Incumbent TSPs, along with cable-based carriers, own and operate the majority of the infrastructure used by other service providers.

Please refer to the Methodology section for more details.

The five largest providers of telecommunications services (including affiliates) accounted for 87.3% of total revenues in 2019. These company groups are Bell, Rogers, Telus, Shaw, and Quebecor. They are a mix of incumbent TSPs and cable-based carriers, and all are facilities-based service providers. The percentage of revenues represented by the top five changes slightly from year to year. Significant changes are usually due to factors such as ownership transfers.

Generally, since 2015, the share of large and small incumbent TSPs’^{Footnote 1} revenues has been declining by about one or two percentage points per year on average. During the same period, the revenue market share of cable-carriers grew by approximately two percentage points to reach 3.0% in 2019.

While large incumbent TSPs represented 0.6% of all telecommunications providers^{Footnote 2} in 2019, they generated 56.7% of revenues. Cable-based carriers made up 7.3% of the total number of telecommunication providers and generated 35.3% of revenues. With relatively lower barriers to entry, wholesale-based service providers comprised nearly 68.2% of service providers while generating 3.7% of revenues.

Link directly to ii. Revenues ii. Revenues

In the Communications Monitoring Report, telecommunications services are divided into six sectors:

Long description

Type	Subtype	Sector	2015	2019
Wireline	Wireline voice	Local and access	16.2%	11.4%
Wireline	Wireline voice	Long distance	4.0%	2.4%
Wireline	Wireline data	Data	6.9%	5.8%
Wireline	Wireline data	Private line	2.9%	2.2%
Wireline	Wireline data	Fixed Internet	20.5%	24.9%
Wireless	Mobile voice and data	Mobile	49.5%	53.2%

Source: CRTC data collection

In 2019, eight companies offered services in all six telecommunications sectors, accounting for 86.3% of total telecommunications revenues in Canada. These large, facilities-based entities tend to offer a wider array of services than their smaller counterparts. At the other end, companies providing one to three services generally offered Internet access, local phone service, or long-distance phone services. These smaller entities, often wholesale-based service providers, represented 71.9% of all TSPs and generated 4.9% of telecommunications revenues in 2019.

Link directly to Retail versus wholesale Retail versus wholesale

Telecommunications services revenues come from both retail sales (i.e., sales to residential and business consumers) and wholesale sales (i.e., sales to other carriers).

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Category	Description of service	Type of TSP	2018	2019
Retail	Services provided directly to the end-user	Retail services are generally provided by all TSPs	92.8% or $49.3 B	93.3% or $50.5 B
Wholesale	Services provided by one TSP to another, then to the end-user	Wholesale services are provided by facilities-based TSPs	7.2% or $3.8 B	6.7% or $3.7 B

Source: CRTC data collection

Retail revenues increased slightly to account for 93.3% of total telecommunications revenues in 2019, hovering around 92% to 93% over the past five years. 97.1% of mobile revenues were generated from retail services, compared to 88.9% for wireline. Those numbers have remained virtually unchanged since 2013.

Mobile roaming^{Footnote 3} revenues represented approximately 4% of total retail mobile revenues. Roaming revenues were largely generated from subscribers who used mobile services in the United States. Short Message Service (SMS) and Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) revenues were excluded from the data revenue component of this figure.

Canadian retail telecommunications service revenues grew 2.5% to reach $50.5 billion in 2019. In Ontario, these services had the largest share (37.8% or $20.5 billion) of all telecommunication revenues amongst the provinces and territories. Quebec had the second largest retail revenue share at 17.4% ($9.4 billion), followed by British Columbia at 12.8% ($6.9 billion) and Alberta at 12.4% ($6.7 billion).

The wholesale telecommunications market saw a similar trend, with Ontario leading the provinces/territories at 2.9% ($1.6 billion) of all telecommunication revenues, followed by Quebec at 1.6% ($0.8 billion) and the prairies region with 1.0% ($0.6 billion).

The number of wholesale Internet lines increased in 2019, growing by 0.8% to over 1.3 million lines across Canada. Ontario maintained the highest share of wholesale lines with 0.8 million lines (60.3%); Quebec trailed behind with 0.4 million (28.1%), and the rest of Canada totaled over 0.1 million (11.7%).

The Atlantic region (Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia) saw significant growth in the number of wholesale lines, growing from approximately 28,000 to 37,000 lines (32.8%). This increase can be largely attributed to the continued growth in Nova Scotia, which added over 6,000 wholesale lines in 2019.

Link directly to Forborne services Forborne services

Over time, the Commission has refrained from regulation when it finds that a service is subject to sufficient competition or where refraining from regulation is consistent with the Canadian telecommunications policy objectives, as outlined in section 7 of the Telecommunications Act. This is referred to as forbearance. Where a service is forborne from regulation, the provider is generally relieved of the obligation to provide the service pursuant to a Commission-approved tariff. For example, the retail rates for mobile services are forborne from regulation, whereas the rates for wholesale high-speed access (HSA) services (i.e. fixed Internet access) are not. HSA rates are based on Commission-approved tariffs.

Since 2015, approximately 96.5% of telecommunications revenues have been generated from forborne services. In 2019, the percentage of revenues derived from forborne services ranged from a low of 75.5% in private line, to a high of 99.9% in mobile.

Link directly to Canadian ownership Canadian ownership

Section 16 of the Telecommunications Act addresses the eligibility of Canadian companies to operate as telecommunications common carriers.

Subject to certain exceptions, section 16 requires that telecommunications companies that own or operate telecommunications transmission equipment and have Canadian telecommunications revenues greater than $5.4 billion (10% of total Canadian telecommunications revenues) be Canadian-owned and controlled.

For the purposes of applying the provisions of section 16, the Commission has determined that total annual revenues from the provision of telecommunications services in Canada was $54.1 billion in 2019.

Link directly to Contribution Contribution

The total amount of subsidies paid to local exchange carriers (LECs) was $71.4 million in 2019, down from $87.3 million (18.2% decrease) in 2018.

This subsidy represents revenue contributions toward the provision of residential telephone service in high-cost serving areas (HCSAs) by TSPs, or groups of related TSPs that have a minimum of $10 million in annual Canadian telecommunications revenues. HCSAs are areas where the cost of providing service is substantially higher than in other parts of an incumbent LEC’s territory. HCSAs are often remote or rural areas. In 2019, 25 companies received subsidies, down from 29 companies in 2018, after taking into account all mergers and acquisitions.

In Telecom Regulatory Policy 2016-496, the Commission stated that in order to help meet the new universal service objective, it would begin to shift the focus of its regulatory frameworks from wireline voice services to broadband Internet access services.

Link directly to iii. Financial performance iii. Financial performance

This section of the highlights of the telecommunications sector will focus on metrics such as capital expenditures made into acquiring spectrum, capital intensity, earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA). These are key indicators that can be used to evaluate the financial performance of the Canadian telecommunication industry by showing the amount of capital that is being reinvested back into maintaining and improving telecommunications networks. Looking at churn, despite the different lens of retail and business subscriptions, also provides an interesting perspective.

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Metric	Category	2015	2019
Capital expenditures	Wireline	$8.2B	$8.9B
Capital expenditures	Mobile	$2.2B	$2.9B
Capital intensity	Mobile providers	9.5%	10.3%
Capital intensity	Incumbents TSPs	35.0%	42.2%
Capital intensity	Cable-based carriers and other facilities-based carriers	43.6%	37.0%
EBITDA margin	Wireline	35.0%	36.8%
EBITDA margin	Mobile	44.6%	44.2%
Investment in spectrum	Mobile	$3.0B	$3.5B

Source: CRTC data collection

Link directly to Capital expenditures and capital intensity Capital expenditures and capital intensity

Capital expenditures, or CAPEX, are investments made primarily to maintain or upgrade telecommunications networks. In 2019, TSPs with over $100 million in revenues spent $11.9 billion on CAPEX, $8.9 billion of which was spent on wireline networks.

Although wireline CAPEX grew at an annual rate of 2.0% from 2015 to 2019, the large incumbent TSPs’ share of CAPEX has seen an increase from 59.1% in 2018 to 63.8% in 2019. During the same period, the CAPEX share of cable-based carriers has decreased from 38.0% to 33.2%.

Wireline capital intensity (the ratio of capital expenditures to revenues) was on the rise for both the incumbent TSPs and cable-based carriers, increasing from approximately 37.9% in 2015 to 40.9% in 2019. By contrast, wireless capital intensity for mobile providers was around 21.9% in 2015 compared to 10.3% in 2019.

At 23.2%, the telecommunications industry ranked third in terms of capital intensity, behind the utilities industry and the educational services, health care and social assistance industry. This is due to the requirement to maintain and upgrade extensive network infrastructure.

The capital intensity of the Top 5 TSPs (Bell, Rogers, Shaw, TELUS, and Videotron) was 23.5%. These TSPs accounted for 92.6% of the total telecommunications CAPEX in 2019, a slight increase from the 2018 figure of 92.2%.

Link directly to Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA)

EBITDA margins (i.e., EBITDA as a percentage of total telecommunications revenues) are instrumental in assessing the financial performance of a company or group of companies. Margins are calculated for TSPs with at least 80% of their total revenues represented by telecommunications services.

Over the 2015-2019 period, margins for wireless services were consistently above those for wireline, with the difference narrowing to approximately 7.4% as wireless margins reached 44.2%, in 2019.

Over the 2015-2019 period, EBITDA margins were stable at around 45.3% for the cable-based carriers and 39.0% for the incumbents.

Link directly to Investment in spectrum Investment in spectrum

Annual investments in spectrum from 2014 to 2019 were $5.26 billion (2014), $2.96 billion (2015), $0.15 billion (2016), $0.44 billion (2017), $0.12 billion (2018), and $3.5 billion (2019) respectively.^{Footnote 4} Investments made from 2014 to 2019 reflect investments made by mobile carriers to acquire Advanced Wireless Services-3 (AWS-3), Personal Communications Services-GSM bands (PCS-G), and 700 megahertz (MHz), 2300 MHz, 2500 MHz, and 600 MHz spectrum.

Link directly to Churn Churn

The average churn rate is a measure of subscriber turnover. A high churn rate suggests that customers are leaving their existing providers for a number of reasons, including dissatisfaction with the service, pricing issues or a desire to take advantage of competitive offers. Conversely, low churn rates suggest that customers are not switching providers, which may indicate that customers see value in remaining with their current provider or that there are a lack of incentives motivating them to switch providers, including a lack of alternatives. Mobile churn rates have been steadily decreasing over the past four years, going from 1.5% in 2015 to 1.3% in 2019. Similarly, business Internet subscription churn has decreased from 1.5% in 2015 to 1.3% in 2019. Residential Internet subscription churn has been fairly consistent over the past four years at 1.8% (2015-2019).

Link directly to iv. Sector summaries iv. Sector summaries

Total Canadian telecommunications revenues reached $54.1 billion in 2019, growing by 2.0%, which was slower than the five-year average annual growth rate of 3.2%. Total retail telecommunications revenues, which represent the vast majority of telecommunications revenues, totaled $50.5 billion in 2019, growing 2.5% from 2018 to 2019, and, on average, growing 3.6% annually from 2015 to 2019.

Long description

Sector	Mobile	Fixed Internet	Long distance	Data	Local and access	Private line
Retail revenues	$28.0 B	$12.8 B	$1.0 B	$2.4 B	$5.6 B	$0.7 B
Growth (2018-2019)	+3.2%	+9.0%	-7.8%	-3.9%	-8.3%	-0.8%

Source: CRTC data collection

In terms of retail revenues, the sources of revenue growth in 2019, were mainly the mobile and fixed Internet sectors, which grew by 3.2% and 9.0%, respectively. These sectors accounted for 80.8% of retail revenues in 2019, compared to 72.4% in 2015.

In 2019, fixed Internet and mobile revenues continued to grow, exceeding subscriber growth, as Canadians subscribed to telecommunications services that contained more data in their monthly allowance. Average mobile revenue per subscriber increased from $64.07 in 2015 to $69.00 in 2019 as subscribers used (and paid for) more data, while average residential fixed Internet revenue per subscriber increased from $51.19 in 2015 to $61.76 in 2019 as users migrated to higher speeds and plans with more data.

This section will provide a brief summary of the six retail sectors (mobile, fixed Internet, local access, long-distance, data, and private line) and the wholesale market within the Canadian telecommunications industry. Additional data for Fixed Internet and Mobile can be found on Open Data.

Link directly to Retail mobile sector Retail mobile sector

Long description

Retail Mobile	2019
Revenues	$28.0 B
Subscribers	34.4 M
Annual revenue growth	3.2%
Revenue CAGR (5 years)	+5.6%
Canadians with access to LTE	99.5%
Major roads and highways covered by LTE	88.8%
Canadians with access to LTE-A	96.0%
Subscribers with data plans	90.0%
Average monthly data usage	2.9 GB
Monthly ARPU	$69.00
Blended prepaid/postpaid average churn rate of Canada’s Top 3 mobile service providers	1.4%

Source: Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) and CRTC data collection

Churn is a measure of the number of customers a service provider loses on a monthly basis relative to that service provider’s total subscriber base. It is calculated by dividing the number of customers who have cancelled their service in a month by the total number of subscribers for that service provider.

Mobile wireless continues to remain one of the fastest-growing telecommunications sector with revenues of $28.0 billion and a 3.2% growth rate compared to 2018. It remained the largest sector, representing over 55.5% of all retail telecommunications revenues in 2019.

The number of mobile subscribers reached 34.4 million in 2019, with mobile networks covering approximately one-fifth of Canada’s geographic land mass and reaching 99.7% of Canadians. In 2019, advanced wireless networks such as LTE-A, continued to deliver higher speeds than previous generation networks. LTE-A was available to approximately 96.0% of Canadians in 2019, compared to 94.9% in the previous year. In 2019, LTE was available to 99.5% of Canadians, compared to 99.3% in 2018.

Average monthly data usage per data subscriber was over 2.9 GB, compared to 1.4 GB in 2015. From 2018 to 2019, there was an 18.8% increase in data usage.

In 2019, the average revenue per user (ARPU) reached $69.00 per month, compared to $64.07 in 2015. In 2019, Alberta recorded the highest monthly ARPU at $76.06, while the lowest ARPU was in Quebec, at $58.72.

The mobile sector continued to be dominated by the three largest mobile service providers (Top 3), Bell Group^{Footnote 5}, Rogers, and TELUS. In 2019, these entities accounted for 90.2% of retail mobile revenues, compared to 91.8% in 2017 and 90.7% in 2018. The Top 3 held the majority revenue share in each province/territory, except in Saskatchewan where the other providers captured 59.0% of the sector, a decrease from 60.3% in 2018.

More data on mobile and other telecommunications services can be found in Open Data and their respective sections of the Communications Monitoring Report.

Link directly to Retail fixed Internet sector Retail fixed Internet sector

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Retail Fixed Internet	2018	2019
Retail fixed Internet revenues	$11.8 B	$12.8 B
Revenue growth rate	+7.3%	+9.0%
Revenue CAGR (2015-2019)	+8.7%	+8.7%
Retail fixed Internet subscribers	14.5 M	15.3M

Residential Fixed Internet	2018	2019
Households with a fixed Internet subscription	88.8%	91.6%
Availability of 50/10 unlimited	85.7%	87.4%
Average download speed	126.0Mbps	176.9Mbps
Subscribers to 50+ Mbps (any data)	52.0%	61.6%
Average data usage	209.5 GB/month	265.3 GB/month
ARPU	$60.39/month	$61.76/month

Source: Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) and CRTC data collection

The majority of Canadian households (91.6%) are subscribing to Internet services. Canadians continue to use more data, subscribe to faster, larger packages and allocate more money to Internet access services.

In 2019, fixed Internet revenues grew by 9.0% and subscriptions grew by 5.7%. From 2015 to 2019, fixed Internet revenues grew by an average annual rate of 8.5%.

In 2019, Internet services were provided by a variety of Internet service providers (ISPs), including incumbent TSPs, cable-based carriers, other facilities-based carriers, fixed wireless service providers, and wholesale-based service providers. The number of residential subscribers reached 13.8 million, a 4.7% increase from 2018 and more than three time the population growth rate. Cable-based carriers and incumbent TSPs accounted for the majority of subscribers (85.1%), while other entities accounted for 14.9%, up from 12.0% in 2015.

Canadians are increasingly subscribing to faster Internet services. Subscriptions to services with download speeds slower than 50 Mbps represented 80.8% of the total in 2015 compared to 38.4% in 2019, while subscriptions to services including speeds of 100 Mbps and higher increased from just 8.0% of residential high-speed subscriptions in 2015 to 41.7% in 2019.

Canadians are also using more data. The average monthly data amounts downloaded by residential subscribers increased on average by 27.5% annually from 2015 to 2019, and by 27.4% from 2018 to 2019 to 245.6GB per month. Average upload amounts also increased by 17.8% in 2019, reaching approximately 19.6GB per month.

Fibre deployment continued in 2019, with the availability of fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) increasing from 44.0% to 44.7% (2018 to 2019) of households. These deployments were mainly in large urban areas.

Link directly to Retail wireline voice sector Retail wireline voice sector

In 2019, the retail wireline voice sector reported $6.5 billion in revenues, with a 6.7% average annual decline since 2015. Local revenues (excluding contributions) accounted for 85.0% of retail wireline voice revenues in 2019. Long-distance revenues were approximately $970 million, declining by an average annual rate of 10.4% since 2015.

From 2015 to 2019, residential wireline voice revenues per line decreased by $4.06 to $33.19 per month, while business revenues decreased by $4.67 to $53.62 per month. This is, however, a slight increase from 2018 when business revenues were $51.75.

The incumbent carriers accounted for 66.8% of the residential sector of retail wireline revenues, a 2.0% increase since 2018, and 77.3% of the business sector, a 2.1% decrease since 2018. Residential revenue shares for facilities-based non-incumbent service providers represented 27.8% of residential retail wireline revenues, in 2019.

The introduction of access-independent VoIP services^{Footnote 6} has opened the wireline voice sector to non-traditional providers. There were approximately 570,000 subscribers to access-independent VoIP in 2019, representing 4.2% of retail local telephone lines. This percentage has remained constant since 2013.

There were 31,500 payphones in 2019, generating an average of $374 in annual revenues per unit, compared to 67,000 payphones generating $413 per unit in 2015. The number of payphones dropped by over 5,000 or 13.9% from 2018 to 2019, while the average revenue per phone increased by $5.60 or 1.5%.

Link directly to Retail data and private line sector Retail data and private line sector

Data and private line services refers to services sold by TSPs to business customers for the transmission of data, video and voice traffic. These services provide private and highly secure communications channels between locations. Data and private line revenues have been in decline since 2014.

Data services are packet-based services that intelligently switch data through carrier networks. They make use of newer data protocols such as Ethernet and Internet Protocol (IP), or legacy data protocols such as X.25, asynchronous transfer mode (ATM), and frame relay to transmit data^{Footnote 7}. Legacy services make up less than 0.4% of revenues. The subcategory “Other” includes network management and networking equipment.

Private line services provide non-switched, dedicated communications connections between two or more points to transport data, video and/or voice traffic.

Incumbent TSPs accounted for approximately 11.7% of the entities providing data and private line services and captured 63.4% of retail data and private line revenues.

Link directly to Wholesale Wholesale

Wholesale services are services provided by one TSP to another, usually when the latter does not have end-to-end facilities of its own.

In 2019, the wholesale telecommunications sector was worth $3.7 billion, of which 23.2% was for the provision of mobile services and 76.8% for wireline services. From 2015 to 2019, wholesale mobile revenues decreased at an average annual rate of 6.9%, compared to little or no change for wholesale wireline revenues (despite fluctuations between 2015 to 2019).

Independent ISPs^{Footnote 8} frequently depend on access services offered by the incumbent TSPs and the cable-based carriers to connect to their customers. Over the years, sales of cable-based access services, known as third-party Internet access (TPIA) services, to independent ISPs have increased, growing at an annual rate of 4.1% since 2015.

Wholesale voice revenues declined, on average, by 3.1% annually from 2015 to 2019, whereas wireline non-voice revenues increased, on average, by 1.7% annually during the same period.

With 70.8% of wholesale wireline revenues, incumbent TSPs maintained the largest share of the wholesale wireline sector, which has decreased slightly from 72.2% in 2018.

The number of wholesale high-speed Internet access lines and revenues grew in 2019. Ontario had the largest share of wholesale lines (60.3 %) and revenues (64.6 %) in 2019.

There were no wholesale lines or revenues reported in the North^{Footnote 9} in 2019.

Information in the above figures regarding high-speed Internet wholesale lines and revenues is from a sample of the larger ISPs. They reported approximately 76% of total wholesale Internet service revenues in 2019.

As mentioned earlier, the number of wholesale Internet lines has exceeded 1.3 million, growing at an annual rate of 5.9% from 2015 to 2019. Although wholesale lines with download speeds under 50 Mbps continued to have the largest share at 59.4% (0.79 million), this share has decreased by 20.0% from the previous year and has been on the decline since 2017.

Wholesale Internet lines with download speeds of 200 Mbps to a gigabit saw the largest growth (510.0%), more than six times the number of wholesale lines from the previous year. Wholesale lines of a gigabit and above also saw substantial growth, growing 305.0% from 2018.

Link directly to v. Datasets Available on Open Data v. Datasets Available on Open Data

There are four Excel workbooks and CSV zips related to this report that have been published on the Open Data portal. They contain the data found in the figures and tables in this section of the CMR, in addition to supplementary datasets (T-S1 to T-S5, W1 to W18, LLD1 to LLD13 and DPL1 to DPL9) that originate from earlier editions of the CMR.

Instructions: Use the table below to search for datasets available on Open Data that are related to this section of the CMR. When you have found the dataset, go to the Find a CMR Dataset page and download the workbooks Data - Telecommunications sector, Data - Wholesale (telecommunications), Data - Local and long distance, and Data - Data and private line. Search for the ‘tab name’ in the Excel workbook tabs to locate the data.

Link directly to vi. Methodology vi. Methodology

Link directly to Capital expenditures and capital intensity Capital expenditures and capital intensity

Capital expenditures (CAPEX) are the costs associated with procuring, constructing, and installing new assets of telecommunications networks, to replace or add to existing assets, or to lease to others. The capital expenditures metric in this report includes data only from companies which supplied both telecom revenue and capital expenditure data.

Capital intensity is the ratio of capital expenditures to revenues. The capital intensity metric of the telecommunications industry found in this report was derived by dividing the total annual capital expenditures by the annual telecommunications revenues of companies that reported capital expenditures. The capital intensity of the Top 5 TSPs was calculated by dividing the sum of their capital expenditures of the Top 5 TSPs by the year-end telecommunications revenues of these TSPs. These TSPs accounted for 92.6% of all capital expenditures in 2019.

The capital intensity for all other industries found in Figure 2.9 was calculated by dividing the industry CAPEX by the full-year industry revenue. Industry CAPEX and industry revenue can be found in Statistics Canada Tables 34-10-0035-01 and 33-10-0007-01.

Link directly to Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) is the operating revenue after having subtracted operating expenses but before subtracting charges for interest payments, taxes, depreciation, and amortization. The EBITDA margins were determined by dividing the total EBITDA by the total operating revenues. The EBITDA margins were calculated for companies for whom at least 80% of their total revenues are represented by Canadian telecommunications services.

Link directly to Wholesale Internet lines and revenues by province/territory and region Wholesale Internet lines and revenues by province/territory and region

All information in this section regarding provincial wholesale Internet lines and revenues is from data collected through surveying the larger ISPs. These larger ISPs are telecom providers that have historically provided regulated telecom services (such as WHSA, unbundled loops, and Content Delivery Network [CDN] services). They are assigned forms that report details of their wholesale high-speed Internet access lines and revenues.

These ISPs accounted for approximately 61% of total wholesale Internet revenues in 2019.

Link directly to Definitions Definitions

An alternative service provider is any entity that is not an incumbent TSP. Examples of alternative service providers include Rogers, Shaw, Videotron, Distributel, and TekSavvy.

Cable-based carriers are former cable monopolies that also provide telecommunications services (e.g. wireline voice, Internet, data and private line, and wireless services). Examples of cable-based carriers include Rogers, Shaw, and Videotron.

Facilities-based service providers are any entity that has its own facilities. Examples of facilities‑based service providers include Rogers, Shaw, Videotron, Bell Canada, SaskTel, and TELUS.

Fixed wireless service providers are any entity that provides its services over a wireless network that uses either licensed or unlicensed spectrum to provide communications services, where the service is intended to be used in a fixed location. Examples of fixed wireless service providers include Xplornet and Corridor Communications.

Incumbent local exchange carrier (ILEC’s) are incumbent entities providing local voice services. Examples of incumbent local exchange carriers include Bell Canada, SaskTel, TELUS, Sogetel, and Execulink.

An Incumbent Telecommunications Service Provider (TSP) is a company that provides local telecommunications services on a monopoly basis prior to the introduction of competition. These can be further categorized as large and small incumbent TSPs.

An independent Internet service provider (ISP) refers to ISPs that are not cable-based carriers or incumbent TSPs. Examples of independent ISPs include TekSavvy, Xplornet, Distributel, and Verizon Canada.

Large incumbent TSPs serve relatively large geographical areas, usually including both rural and urban populations, and provide wireline voice, Internet, data and private line, wireless, and other services. Examples of large incumbent TSPs include Bell, SaskTel and TELUS.

Other facilities-based carriers refers to providers of telecommunications services that are not incumbent providers but which own and operate telecommunications networks. Examples of other facilities-based carriers include Xplornet and Allstream Business.

Small incumbent TSPs serve relatively small geographical areas. Due to the limited size of their serving areas, these companies do not typically provide facilities-based long distance services. However, they provide a range of wireline voice, Internet, data and private line, and wireless services. Examples of small incumbent TSPs include Sogetel and Execulink.

Tariff services are services whose rates, terms, and conditions are set out in a Commission-approved tariff. Non-tariff services are those telecommunications services whose rates, terms, and conditions are not set out in a Commission-approved tariff. Off-tariff services are those whose prices are filed with the Commission but for which the parties have agreed to an alternate price.

A telecommunications service provider (TSP) refers to any entity providing telecommunications services.

Wholesale-based service providers or non-facilities-based service carriers refers to companies that generally acquire telecommunications services from other providers and either resell those services or create their own network from which to provide services to their customers. A company that owns a small number of facilities but has the vast majority of its operations on leased facilities may also be classified as non-facilities-based. Examples of wholesale-based service providers and non-facilities-based carriers include Distributel and TekSavvy.

A wireless service provider (WSP) is any entity providing wireless services. Examples of wireless service providers include Rogers, Shaw, Videotron, Bell Canada, SaskTel, and TELUS.