About one quarter of Canadian teens own cell phones: Decima Research

New survey findings from Decima Research Inc. show that about one-quarter of Canadians teens between 13 and 17-years-old have access to a cell phone. "We’ve got a quarter of kids that have access to cell phones and the vast majority of them own their own phones," Decima Research senior VP Bob Murphy says. According to the research, 23% of this demographic own their own cell phone, 2% share with a sibling and an additional 1% share a parent’s cell phone. "These numbers pretty well jive with other research that we’ve done...these numbers make sense," Murphy tells Report on Wireless. These device ownership and access levels shouldn’t come as much of a surprise since wireless carriers in Canada have been saying for a few years now that the youth market – typically considered to be those under 24 years of age – represents about half of all new net additions. It only stands to reason therefore that the under-17-year old age group would make up a significant portion of those net subscriber additions. Murphy explains that this particular snapshot doesn’t identify the emerging trend of greater cell phone ownership and access among the under 17-year old age category, but, he says, "the marketplace generally accepts this as true." With nearly three-quarters of this market untapped, the 13-to-17-year-old demographic represents a significant opportunity for wireless carriers. The traditional Big Three – Rogers Wireless Inc., Telus Mobility and Bell Mobility – will find themselves in tough competition for a piece of this market against a couple of mobile virtual network operators. CHUM Ltd.’s MuchMusic cell phone service and the soon-to-launch Virgin Mobile Canada are expected to fight hard for a large share of this market. The MuchPhone service, launched last fall (RoW, Nov. 19/04) is targeted at the youth demographic, and it is expected that Virgin Canada will compete for much of the same customer base.

About one quarter of Canadian teens own cell phones: Decima Research

News | February 8, 2005

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