Bell scoops up more than 70 per cent of government spending on phone lines: data

Bell Canada is the go-to service provider for the Government of Canada, accounting for 70.5 per cent of federal phone line spending in 2024-25. The feds spent $172.8 million on traditional and wireless phone lines during that period; the BCE Inc. subsidiary’s share of the pot was almost $122 million. The only other service provider that took home a significant portion was Telus Corp., left in Bell’s dust at 24.2 per cent, or $41.9 million. Together, the two service providers accounted for 94.7 per cent of spending, while the last third of Canada’s ‘Big Three,’ Rogers Communications Inc., was commissioned for only $1.6 million – less than one per cent (0.92) of the total phone line budget. Coming in above Rogers on the finance sheet was Saskatchewan Telecommunications Holding Corp. (SaskTel) at just under $3 million. A $3.8 million chunk of Bell’s payments went to Northwestel, the primary service provider for Canada’s north. Currently a Bell subsidiary, Northwestel is in the process of being sold to Sixty North Unity. Data on traditional and wireless phone line spending was revealed in a government response to a question on the Order Paper from Tory MP Adam Chambers (Simcoe North, Ont.). As of Dec. 1, 2025, the government was paying for an estimated 427,595 fixed lines and 351,151 cell lines. Shared Services Canada (SSC), which manages lines for almost every government department, oversaw roughly 774,000 of the 778,746 total lines, according to data the department collected in October. Chambers’s submission also queried how many lines were dormant, redundant, or were active but went without activity for 12 months, as of Dec. 1, 2025. According to the government submissions, 321 cell lines were considered dormant between 23 departments outside the scope of SSC, which. said it does not categorize phone lines as dormant and therefore had no data. Of all government departments, at least 4,221 lines were active but did not receive any activity in the last year. Only nine of those lines were identified as landlines, but SSC said it does not have access to landline activity data, due to the nature of traditional lines. The Wire Report sent media requests to each department whose lines are managed under SSC; more than half confirmed only the service provider could access landline usage activity. The departments outside the scope of SSC identified 61 redundant cell lines and 48 redundant fixed lines as of Dec. 1. SSC did not provide data on redundant lines, saying it does not have direct visibility into individual usage. However, data obtained by The Wire Report between March and April 2026 show, during that period, at least 1,186 redundant cellular and fixed lines across departments managed by SSC. Several departments said they do not know how many lines are redundant, or refused to answer questions related to redundancy. The data from that period also show at least 3,608 cellular lines under SSC have not been used in the last year, which is less than the count from the end of 2025, although some government departments refused to provide data on usage activity. As of March 30, 3,091 of those unused lines belonged to the Department of National Defence. A spokesperson told The Wire Report most of those lines are in a suspended state and incur minimal costs while remaining readily available to be activated as needed. The fixed phone lines initiative, led by SSC, aims to trim down the number of government-issued landlines by transitioning employees to softphones, which allows users to make and receive phone calls over the internet using their computer or smartphone. Earlier this year, a spokesperson for SSC told The Wire Report the initiative has eliminated 181,738 nonessential fixed lines since December 2020, and has resulted in $63.7 million in cost avoidance from 2021 to 2025. Nonessential mobile phone lines are also being phased out in exchange for softphones, and are only being assigned to employees whose roles require a cell line for their job functions. Most departments told The Wire Report they are still in the process of implementing the SSC initiative and phasing out any unnecessary lines. As for usage activity, many departments said they monitor their cell line usage closely, suspend them after three months of no use, and cancel them after six. In fiscal 2024-25, SSC’s cell lines were managed only by the Big Three, but the department broke its landline data up into 61 total providers (some of which were divisions under the same parent company). Aside from Canada’s main telcos, the list of landline providers also included bodies such as the Corporation of The City of Belleville, Lansdowne Rural Telephone, the Alaska Power & Telephone Company, the Halifax Regional Municipality, the University of British Columbia, and the corporation responsible for operating the Quebec City international airport. In 2024, total spending on traditional and cellular lines was $267.6 million – nearly $95 million more than fiscal 2024-25. Rogers and Telus posted similar numbers in terms of how much the government spent. Telus raked in $41.8 million, and Rogers came in just shy of $2 million. However, each of them accounted for 15 per cent and 0.73 per cent of spending, respectively. Bell claimed just shy of 80 per cent of the market with a whopping $212.5 million payout. Despite the SSC fixed line reduction initiative, the major spending cuts for the department between calendar 2024 and fiscal 2024-25 weren’t in the landline sector – which saw a reduction of just over $7 million. The biggest hack came for SSC’s cell lines, where spending plummeted by $87.6 million. Nearly all of that spending was ripped away from Bell. SSC said it aims to remove another 280,000 fixed lines by March 31, 2029 to help reach the three year savings target of 15 per cent outlined in Budget 2025. mcollins@thewirereport.ca

Bell scoops up more than 70 per cent of government spending on phone lines: data

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By Maria Collins
|July 15, 2026

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Bell scoops up more than 70 per cent of government spending on phone lines: data

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