OTTAWA—Two-thirds of Canadian households either own a wireless phone or have access to one, according to a new study from Decima Research commissioned by the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association.
The province of Alberta boasts the highest household wireless penetration rate at 79 percent, while the province of Quebec reports the lowest household wireless penetration at 51 percent, said the study. Six years ago, only about 44 percent of Canadian households said they had access to a wireless phone.
The report further estimates that about 8 percent of the households that have access to a wireless phone have cut the cord on their traditional telephone line, representing about 5 percent of all Canadian households.
In addition, the study found text messaging was the most popular wireless data feature used by Canadian subscribers at 25 percent, followed by picture taking at 15 percent, downloading content at 15 percent, push-to-talk service at 7 percent, instant messaging at 6 percent, e-mail at 6 percent, Internet searches at 4 percent, multimedia messaging at 3 percent, and listening to music and downloading music at 2 percent.
