Benchmark wholesale roaming rates

In Telecom Decision 2024-233, the CRTC adopted commercial negotiation with final offer arbitration as its rate-setting approach for wholesale roaming. At the same time, the CRTC committed to publishing the average retail data rate of the national wireless carriers to provide a benchmark for negotiations.

Annual updates

The CRTC publishes the Canadian Telecommunications Market Report (CTMR) annually. This report includes various metrics and indicators on Canada’s telecommunications market, including the mobile wireless market. Specifically, the CTMR includes:

• The weighted average retail revenue per gigabyte (GB) for data from national wireless carriers
• The percentage change compared to the previous year

This information is meant to serve as a benchmark to assist regional carriers, particularly smaller regional carriers, when negotiating wholesale roaming arrangements with the national wireless carriers. The CRTC will continue to publish this information annually to assist regional carriers in future years.

These figures are based on data collected through the CRTC’s annual reporting process, which helps reduce additional reporting requirements.

2024 benchmark rate

The 2024 average retail revenue per GB is below. The rate can also be found in the Canadian Telecommunications Market Report (CTMR)