Traditional landline-only homes continue to slide

Alternative telephony options, such as VoIP and cable telephony, continue to gain traction in Canada as the number of traditional landline-only homes declined significantly in 2007, according to recently released figures from Statistics Canada. The numbers show that approximately 700,000 Canadian homes adopted some form of alternative voice communications service last year, including cell phones (see Report on Wireless article for more details). This marks a drop of more than 5% in landline-only homes: 29.6% in December 2006 to 24% at the end of last year. In real numbers that's a decline from 3.8 million households to 3.1 million. Quebec saw the largest increase in cable/VoIP usage last year, jumping 6.2% from 13.3% at the end of 2006 to 19.5% as of December 2007. Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick also experienced robust cable/VoIP adoption in 2007, each showing an increase of 4.5%. PEI rose from 5.9% to 10.4%, while New Brunswick jumped to 9.9% from 5.4%. BC also saw a solid increase of 4.2%, growing to 13.1% at the end of 2007. On a national basis, StatsCan reports a more than 4% increase in VoIP and cable telephony adoption in 2007. "Between December 2006 and December 2007, the proportion of households that reported using cable or VoIP telephone services rose from 10.7% to 14.9%," reads StatsCan's April 23 The Daily. Vonage Canada and Primus Telecommunications Canada Inc. were among the first to hit the market with voice over Internet services. While they, and others, garnered a fair amount of mindshare and customers in the early years of VoIP, the cable companies blasted out of the gates two years ago and have since captured considerable market share for their digital telephony service. At the end of 2007, Vidéotron ltée counted more than 630,000 telephony customers, Rogers Communications Inc. had more than 650,000 cable phone customers, and Shaw Communications Inc. served slightly more than 490,000 telephony subscribers at the end of February 2008. Table: Provincial comparisons of landline-only homes and those with cable/VoIP services Province Landline only (%) (2006) Landline only (%) (2007) Cable/VoIP with or without other services (%) (2006) Cable/VoIP with or without other services (%) (2007) Newfoundland and Labrador 36.1 31.5 5 7.5 Prince Edward Island 32.8 28 5.9 10.4 Nova Scotia 31.6 26.9 10.9 14 New Brunswick 39.6 31.9 5.4 9.9 Quebec 36.9 30.3 13.3 19.5 Ontario 27.1 22.4 9.7 14 Manitoba 33.4 25 11.6 11.4 Saskatchewan 29 24.8 6.5 7.5 Alberta 17.3 14.3 13.7 15.4 British Columbia 27.8 20.8 8.9 13.1 Canada 29.6 24 10.7 14.9 Source: Statistics Canada, The Daily, April 23, 2008

Traditional landline-only homes continue to slide

News | April 24, 2008

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