Canadian mobile customers grew 10.9% in the 12 months to 30th September 2006 to reach 17.98m at the end of the period, taking penetration in the market to 54.2%, compared to 49.3% at the end of Q3 last year. GSM was the fastest growing technology with a 23% uplift in customer numbers year on year thanks to its sole Canadian exponent, Rogers.
By contrast CDMA, which is the dominant standard in the market, saw a 14.8% increase in customers to just top 10m by the end of September 2006. Customers on legacy AMPS/TDMA networks halved in number between September 2005 and September 2006 to 0.8m.
Net additions in Q3 2006 amounted to 485k, down on the 505k net new customers added in Q3 2005. The Canadian mobile market is exhibiting the usual acceleration in growth from the first through to the last quarter of the calendar year, with net additions up from 221k in the first quarter and 355k in the second. However, at 1.765m annual net additions for the 12 months to 30th September fell to an 18 month low, as the market refuses to stray from its well established path of largely linear but occasionally unstable progress.
As the chart above shows, there has been relatively little movement in market share over the last year, with less than three quarters of a percent changing hands. Telus has been the biggest winner over the 12 month period, gaining 0.68pp, with regional players MTS and SaskTel also picking up small gains of 0.03pp in aggregate. It follows, therefore, that Bell Mobility and Rogers Wireless lost out, and so they did, with annual decreases of 0.54pp and 0.17pp respectively in their national market share positions. Q3 2006 represented something of a recovery for Rogers, slowing the progress of Telus and adding noticeably to the slide at Bell Mobility.
This article was extracted from The Mobile World Briefing, the weekly newsletter from The Mobile World. To download a sample issue of the Briefing in PDF format, please click here. For more information including full subscription pricing, please visit www.themobileworld.com"
Posted to the site on 15th November 2006
Posted to: www.cellular-news.com/story/20428.php