Communications Monitoring Report 2019

Link directly to Telecommunications Overview Telecommunications Overview

Link directly to On this page On this page

1. Revenues
2. Telecommunications sectors
   • Revenues – Retail versus wholesale
   • Revenues – Forborne services
   • Revenues – Canadian ownership
   • Revenues – Contribution
3. Financial performance
   • Capital expenditures and capital intensity
   • Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA)
   • Investment in spectrum
4. Sector summaries
   • Retail mobile sector
   • Retail fixed Internet sector
   • Retail wireline voice sector
   • Retail data and private line sector
   • Wholesale
5. Methodology
   • Capital expenditures and capital intensity
   • Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization
   • Wholesale Internet lines and revenues by province/territory and region
   • Definitions

Link directly to i. Revenues i. Revenues

Total Canadian telecommunications revenues reached $53.1 billion in 2018, as Canadians used ever-increasing amounts of data through both fixed Internet and mobile services. (“Data usage” includes the use of data for video streaming services such as Netflix and YouTube, as well as for audio streaming services such as Spotify and various radio applications via mobile devices or fixed Internet services.)

Long description

Sector	2018 revenues	Growth rate 2017-2018 (%)	CAGR 2014-2018 (%)
Mobile	$28.3 B	+9.9%	+6.5%
Fixed Internet	$12.3  B	+7.0%	+8.5%
Local and access	$6.7 B	-5.9%	-4.8%
Data	$3.2 B	+0.8%	-1.1%
Long distance	$1.4 B	-9.9%	-11.1%
Private line	$1.2 B	-3.3%	-3.5%
Total	$53.1 B	+5.5%	+3.7%

Source: CRTC data collection

Total telecommunications revenues is calculated from exact amounts and may appear to differ from total sector revenues due to rounding.

Service providers are divided into two broad categories: incumbent telecommunications service providers (TSPs), which provided local telecommunications services on a monopoly basis prior to the introduction of competition, and alternative service providers, which encompass all other types of entities.

Alternative service providers include cable-based carriers, which are the former cable monopolies that currently also provide telecommunications services; other facilities-based service providers; and wholesale-based service providers, which are companies providing services primarily using other companies’ facilities.

Incumbent TSPs, along with cable-based carriers, own and operate the majority of the infrastructure used by other service providers.

Please refer to the Methodology section for more details.

Long description

Type of TSP	2018 revenue share	Growth rate 2017-2018	CAGR 2014-2018
Large incumbent TSPs	57.2%	+3.7%	+1.7%
Cable-based carriers	33.6%	+4.3%	+5.9%
Other facilities-based carriers	4.6%	+51.9%	+18.3%
Wholesale-based service providers	3.6%	+5.8%	+4.6%
Small incumbent TSPs	1.0%	+3.9%	+3.1%

Source: CRTC data collection

Growth and CAGR are calculated from the revenues in billions of dollars.

Grouping companies in order to include their affiliates, the five largest providers of telecommunications services accounted for 87.4% of total revenues in 2018. These company groups are Bell, Quebecor, Rogers, Shaw and TELUS. They are a mix of incumbent TSPs and cable-based carriers, though all are facilities-based service providers. The percentage of revenues represented by the top five changes slightly from year to year, but more significant changes are usually due to larger factors such as occasional ownership transfers. One recent example is the BCE’s acquisition of MTS in 2017, which contributed to growth in the revenue share of Canada’s largest provider.

Generally, since 2014, the incumbent TSPs’ (large and small) share of revenues has been declining by about two percentage points per year on average, to 58.2% in 2018. During the same period, the revenue market share of cable-carriers grew by approximately two percentage points to reach 33.6% in 2018.

While large incumbent TSPs represented 0.6% of all telecommunications providers ^{Footnote 1} in 2018, they generated 57.2% of revenues. Cable-based carriers made up 7.6% of the total number of companies and generated 33.6% of revenues. With relatively lower barriers to entry, wholesale-based service providers comprised nearly 69.0% of service providers while generating 3.6% of revenues.

Link directly to ii Telecommunications sectors ii Telecommunications sectors

In the Communications Monitoring Report, telecommunications services are divided into six sectors:

Long description

Type	Subtype	Sector	2014	2018
Wireline	Wireline voice	Local and access	17.6%	12.5%
		Long-distance	4.7%	2.5%
	Wireline data	Data	7.3%	6.1%
		Private line	3.1%	2.3%
		Fixed Internet	19.4%	23.2%
Wireless	Mobile voice and data	Mobile	47.9%	53.3%

Source: CRTC data collection

In 2018, eight companies offered services in all six telecommunications sectors, accounting for 86.4% of total telecommunications revenues in Canada. These large, facilities-based entities tend to offer a wider array of services than their smaller counterparts. At the other end, companies providing one to three services generally offered Internet access, local, or long-distance phone services. These smaller entities, often wholesale-based service providers, represented 70.6% of all TSPs and generated 4.4% of telecommunications revenues in 2018.

Link directly to Revenues – Retail versus wholesale Revenues – Retail versus wholesale

Revenues from telecommunications services are derived from sales to residential and business consumers (retail) and to other carriers (wholesale).

Long description

Category	Description of service	Type of TSP	2018
Retail	Services provided directly to the end-user	Retail services are generally provided by all TSPs	92.8% or $49.3 B
Wholesale	Services provided by one TSP to another, then to the end-user	Wholesale services are provided by facilities-based TSPs	7.2% or $3.8 B

Source: CRTC data collection

Retail revenues increased slightly to account for 92.8% of total telecommunications revenues in 2018, having remained constant at 91.8% over the 2013-2017 period. 95.8% of mobile revenues were generated from retail services, compared to 89.3% for wireline. Those numbers have remained virtually unchanged since 2013.

Canadian retail telecommunications service revenues grew 6.5% to reach $49.3 billion in 2018. In Ontario, these services had the largest share (37.5% or $19.9 billion) of all telecommunication revenues amongst the provinces and territories. The prairies (Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba) had the second largest retail revenue share at 18.6% ($9.9 billion), followed by Quebec at 17.3% ($9.2 billion).

The wholesale telecommunications market saw a similar trend, with Ontario leading the provinces/territories at 3.0% ($1.6 billion) of all telecommunication revenues, followed by Quebec at 1.6% ($0.8 billion) and the prairies region with 1.3% ($0.7 billion).

The number of wholesale Internet lines increased in 2018, growing by 8.8% to 1.3 million lines across Canada. Ontario maintained the highest share of wholesale lines with 0.8 million lines (62.6%); Quebec trailed behind with 0.3 million (26.9%), and the rest of Canada totaled 0.1 million (10.5%).

The Atlantic region (Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia) saw substantial growth in the number of wholesale lines, growing from approximately 6,000 to 28,000 lines, over four times as many as the previous year. This increase can be largely attributed to the growth in Nova Scotia, which added over 20,000 wholesale lines in 2018.

Link directly to Revenues – Forborne services Revenues – Forborne services

Over time, the Commission has refrained from regulation when it finds that a service is subject to sufficient competition or where refraining from regulation is consistent with the Canadian telecommunications policy objectives, as outlined in section 7 of the Telecommunications Act. This is referred to as forbearance. Where a service is forborne from regulation, the provider is generally relieved of the obligation to provide the service pursuant to a Commission-approved tariff. For example, the retail rates for mobile services are forborne from regulation, whereas the rates for wholesale high-speed access (HSA) services (i.e. fixed Internet access) are not. HSA rates are based on Commission-approved tariffs.

Since 2014, approximately 95.6% of telecommunications revenues have been generated from forborne services. In 2018, the percentage of revenues derived from forborne services ranged from a low of 83.0% in local and access, to a high of 99.8% in mobile.

Link directly to Revenues – Canadian ownership Revenues – Canadian ownership

Section 16 of the Telecommunications Act addresses the eligibility of Canadian companies to operate as telecommunications common carriers.

Subject to certain exceptions, section 16 requires that telecommunications companies that own or operate telecommunications transmission equipment and have Canadian telecommunications revenues greater than $5.3 billion (10% of total Canadian telecommunications revenues) be Canadian-owned and controlled.

For the purposes of applying the provisions of section 16, the Commission has determined that total annual revenues from the provision of telecommunications services in Canada was $53.1 billion in 2018.

Link directly to Revenues – Contribution Revenues – Contribution

The total amount of subsidies paid to local exchange carriers (LECs) was $87.3 million in 2018, down from $98.0 million (10.9%) in 2017.

This subsidy represents revenue contributions toward the provision of residential telephone service in high-cost serving areas (HCSAs) by TSPs, or groups of related TSPs that have a minimum of $10 million in annual Canadian telecommunications revenues. HCSAs are areas where the cost of providing service is substantially higher than in other parts of an incumbent LEC’s territory. HCSAs are often remote or rural areas. In 2018, 29 companies received subsidies, down from 32 companies in 2017, after taking into account all mergers and acquisitions.

In Telecom Regulatory Policy 2016-496, the Commission stated that in order to help meet the new universal service objective, it would begin to shift the focus of its regulatory frameworks from wireline voice services to broadband Internet access services.

Link directly to iii Financial performance iii Financial performance

This section of the telecommunications overview will focus on metrics such as capital expenditures made into acquiring spectrum, capital intensity, and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA). These are key indicators that can be used to evaluate the financial performance of the Canadian telecommunication industry by showing the amount of capital that is being reinvested back into maintaining and improving telecommunications networks.

Long description

Metric	Category	2014	2018
Capital expenditures	Wireline	$7.0 B	$9.7 B
	Mobile	$2.3 B	$2.7 B
Capital intensity	Mobile providers	10.6%	9.6%
	Incumbents TSPs	31.9%	41.7%
	Cable-based carriers and other facilities-based carriers	33.9%	46.0%
EBITDA margin	Wireline	33.7%	31.5%
	Mobile	40.6%	41.0%
Investment in spectrum	Mobile	$5,257.4 M	$121.0 M

Source: CRTC data collection

Link directly to Capital expenditures and capital intensity Capital expenditures and capital intensity

Capital expenditures, or CAPEX, are investments made primarily to maintain or upgrade telecommunications networks. In 2018, TSPs with over $100 million in revenues spent $12.4 billion on CAPEX, $9.7 billion of which was spent on wireline networks.

Although wireline CAPEX grew at an annual rate of 8.2% from 2014 to 2018, the large incumbent TSPs’ share of CAPEX declined from 67.8% to 59.1% (2014 to 2018). During the same period, the CAPEX share of cable-based carriers increased from 31.8% to 38.0%.

Capital intensity (the ratio of capital expenditures to revenues) was on the rise for both the incumbent TSPs and cable-based carriers, increasing from approximately 32.7% in 2014 to 44.1% in 2018. By contrast, capital intensity for mobile providers was around 9.7% over the 2014 to 2018 period.

At 24.3%, the telecommunications industry ranked fourth in terms of capital intensity, behind the utilities industry; the educational services, health care and social assistance industry; and the mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction industry. This is due to the requirement to maintain and upgrade extensive network infrastructure.

The capital intensity of the Top 5 TSPs, Bell, Rogers, Shaw, TELUS, and Videotron, was 28.5%. These TSPs accounted for 82.2% of the total telecommunications CAPEX in 2018.

Link directly to Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA)

EBITDA margins (i.e., EBITDA as a percentage of total telecommunications revenues) are instrumental in assessing the financial performance of a company or group of companies. Margins are calculated for TSPs with at least 80% of their total revenues represented by telecommunications services.

Over the 2014-2018 period, margins for wireless services were consistently above those for wireline, with the difference widening to approximately 9.5% as wireless margins reached 41.0%, in 2018.

Over the 2014-2018 period, EBITDA margins were stable at around 45.1% for the cable-based carriers and 38.4% for the incumbents.

Link directly to Investment in spectrum Investment in spectrum

Annual investments in spectrum from 2013 to 2018 were $0.28 billion (2013), $5.26 billion (2014), $2.96 billion (2015), $0.15 billion (2016), $0.44 billion (2017), and $0.12 billion (2018), respectively.^{Footnote 2} The amounts reported in 2013 reflect investments made mainly by satellite carriers. Investments made from 2014 to 2018 reflect investments made by mobile carriers to acquire Advanced Wireless Services-3 (AWS-3), Personal Communications Services-GSM bands (PCS-G), and 700 megahertz (MHz), 2300 MHz, and 2500 MHz spectrum.

Link directly to iv. Sector summaries iv. Sector summaries

Total Canadian telecommunications revenues reached $53.1 billion in 2018, growing by 5.5%, which is slightly faster than the five-year average annual growth rate of 3.7%. Total retail telecommunications revenues, which represent the vast majority of telecommunications revenues, totaled $49.3 billion in 2018, growing 6.5% from 2017 to 2018, and, on average, growing 4.0% annually from 2014 to 2018.

Long description

Sector	Local and access	Long-distance	Fixed Internet	Data	Private line	Mobile
Retail revenues	$6.1 B	$1.1 B	$11.8 B	$2.5 B	$0.7 B	$27.1 B
Retail revenue growth	-6.0%	-3.9%	+7.3%	-0.9%	-2.9%	+10.7%

Source: CRTC data collection

In terms of retail revenues, the sources of revenue growth in 2018, and over the 2014 to 2018 period, were mainly the fixed Internet and mobile sectors, which grew by 7.3% and 10.7%, respectively. These sectors accounted for 78.9% of retail revenues in 2018, compared to 69.6% in 2014.

In 2018, fixed Internet and mobile revenues continued to grow, exceeding subscriber growth, as Canadians subscribed to telecommunications services that contained more data in their monthly allowance. Average mobile revenue per subscriber increased from $61.03 in 2014 to $69.61 in 2018 as subscribers used (and paid for) more data, while average residential fixed Internet revenue per subscriber increased from $47.74 in 2014 to $60.39 in 2018 as users migrated to higher speeds and plans with more data.

This section will provide a brief summary of the six retail sectors (mobile, fixed Internet, local access, long-distance, data, and private line) and the wholesale market within the Canadian telecommunications industry. Additional data and descriptions for Fixed Internet and Mobile can be found in subsequent sections of the 2019 Communications Monitoring Report.

Link directly to Retail mobile sector Retail mobile sector

Long description

Retail Mobile	2017	2018
Revenues	$24.5 B	$27.1 B
Subscribers	31.7 M	33.2 M
Annual revenue growth	5.3%	10.7%
Revenue CAGR (5 years)	+4.9%	+6.7%
Canadians with access to LTE	99.0%	99.3%
Major roads and highways covered by LTE	86.2%	87.2%
Canadians with access to LTE-A	92.0%	94.9%
Subscribers with data plans	83.4%	85.3%
Average monthly data usage	2.0 GB	2.5 GB
Monthly ARPU	$65.33	$69.61
Blended prepaid/postpaid average churn rate of Canada’s Top 3 mobile service providers	1.3%	1.3%

Source: Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) and CRTC data collection

Churn is a measure of the number of customers a service provider loses on a monthly basis relative to that service provider’s total subscriber base. It is calculated by dividing the number of customers who have cancelled their service in a month by the total number of subscribers for that service provider.

Mobile wireless became the fastest-growing telecommunications sector in 2018 with revenues of $27.1 billion and a 10.7% growth rate compared to 2017. It also remained the largest sector, representing over 55.1% of all retail telecommunications revenues in 2018.

The exceptional revenue growth reported in 2018 was a direct result of the implementation of new international financial reporting standards (IFRS) that changed the way in which providers recognized mobile revenues derived from contracts with customers. This change in reporting resulted in terminal equipment revenues increasing from $1.9 billion in 2017 to $7.0 billion in 2018, an increase of 267.2%.

The number of mobile subscribers reached 33.2 million in 2018, with mobile networks covering approximately one-fifth of Canada’s geographic land mass and reaching 99.5% of Canadians. In 2018, advanced wireless networks such as LTE-A, continued to deliver higher speeds than previous generation networks. LTE-A was available to approximately 94.9% of Canadians in 2018, compared to 92.0% in the previous year. In 2018, LTE was available to 99.3% of Canadians, compared to 99.0% in 2017.

Average monthly data usage per data subscriber was over 2.5 GB, compared to 1.0 GB in 2014. From 2017 to 2018, there was a 23.4% increase in data usage.

In 2018, the average revenue per user (ARPU) reached $69.61 per month, compared to $61.03 in 2014. In 2018, Alberta recorded the highest monthly ARPU at $77.74, while the lowest ARPU was in Quebec, at $59.53.

The mobile sector continued to be dominated by the three largest mobile service providers (Top 3), Bell Group^{Footnote 3}, Rogers, and TELUS. In 2018, these entities accounted for 90.7% of retail mobile revenues, compared to 90.7% in 2016 and 91.8% in 2017. The Top 3 held the majority revenue share in each province/territory, except in Saskatchewan where the other providers captured 60.3% of the sector, a decrease from 61.8% in 2017.

More data on mobile and other telecommunications services can be found in Open Data and their respective sections of the Communications Monitoring Report.

Link directly to Retail fixed Internet sector Retail fixed Internet sector

Long description

Retail Fixed Internet	2017	2018
Retail fixed Internet revenues	$11.0 B	$11.8 B
Revenue growth rate	+7.7%	+7.3%
Revenue CAGR (5 years)	+9.2%	+8.7%
Retail fixed Internet subscribers	14.0 M	14.5 M

Residential Fixed Internet	2017	2018
Households with a fixed Internet subscription	86.4%	88.8%
Households with access to 50/10 Mbps speeds with an unlimited data option	84.1%	85.7%
Average download speed	66.7 Mbps	126.0Mbps
Subscribers to 50+ Mbps service	38.6%	52.0%
Average monthly data usage	167.2 GB	209.5 GB
Monthly ARPU	$58.49	$60.39

Source: Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) and CRTC data collection

The majority of Canadian households (88.8%) are subscribing to Internet services. Canadians continue to use more data, subscribe to faster, larger packages and allocate more money to Internet access services.

In 2018, fixed Internet revenues grew by 7.3% and subscriptions grew by 3.4%. From 2014 to 2018, fixed Internet grew by an average annual rate of 8.7%.

In 2018, Internet services were provided by a variety of Internet service providers (ISPs), including incumbent TSPs, cable-based carriers, other facilities-based carriers, fixed wireless service providers, and wholesale-based service providers. The number of residential subscribers reached 13.2 million, a 3.5% increase from 2017 and more than twice the population growth rate. Cable-based carriers and incumbent TSPs accounted for the majority of subscribers (85.5%), while other entities accounted for 14.5%, up from 10.7% in 2014.

Canadians are increasingly subscribing to faster Internet services. Subscriptions to services with download speeds slower than 16 Mbps represented 58.4% of the total in 2014 compared to 28.9% in 2018, while subscriptions to services including speeds of 50 Mbps and higher increased from just 9.8% of residential high-speed subscriptions in 2014 to 52.0% in 2018.

Canadians are also using more data. The average monthly data amounts downloaded by residential subscribers increased on average by 30.5% annually from 2014 to 2018, and by 25.4% from 2017 to 2018 to 192.9GB per month. Average upload amounts also increased by 24.9% in 2018, reaching approximately 16.7GB per month.

Fibre deployment continued in 2018, with the availability of fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) increasing from 35.1% to 44.0% (2017 to 2018) of households. These deployments were mainly in large urban areas.

Link directly to Retail wireline voice sector Retail wireline voice sector

Long description

	2017	2018
Retail wireline voice revenues	$7.5 B	$7.1 B
Retail wireline voice subscribers	14.5 M	13.8 M
Revenue growth rate	-4.4%	-5.6%
Revenue CAGR (5 years)	-5.8%	-6.1%

Source: CRTC data collection

In 2018, the retail wireline voice sector reported $7.1 billion in revenues, with a 6.1% average annual decline since 2014. Local revenues (excluding contributions) accounted for 85.1% of retail wireline voice revenues in 2018. Long-distance revenues were approximately $1.1 billion, declining by an average annual rate of 12.0% since 2014.

From 2014 to 2018, residential wireline voice revenues per line decreased by $2.12 to $37.10 per month, while business revenues decreased by $6.09 to $51.75 per month.

The incumbent carriers accounted for 64.8% of the residential sector of retail wireline revenues, a 1.9% increase since 2014, and 79.4% of the business sector, a 6.6% decrease since 2014. Residential revenue shares for facilities-based non-incumbent service providers remained consistent over the same period at approximately 30.6%.

The introduction of access-independent VoIP services^{Footnote 4} has opened the wireline voice sector to non-traditional providers. There were approximately 579,000 subscribers to access-independent VoIP in 2018, representing 4.2% of retail local telephone lines. This percentage has remained constant since 2013.

There were approximately 37,000 payphones in 2018, generating an average of $369 in annual revenues per unit, compared to 74,000 payphones generating $462 per unit in 2014. The number of payphones dropped by 8,800 or 19.3% from 2017 to 2018, while the average revenue per phone decreased by approximately $60 or 14.2%.

Link directly to Retail data and private line sector Retail data and private line sector

Long description

	2017	2018
Retail data and private line revenues	$3.3 B	$3.2 B
Revenue growth rate	-1.8%	-1.3%
Revenue CAGR (5 years)	-2.2%	-2.6%

Source: CRTC data collection

Data and private line services refers to services sold by TSPs to business customers for the transmission of data, video and voice traffic. These services provide private and highly secure communications channels between locations. Data and private line revenues have been in decline since 2014.

Data services are packet-based services that intelligently switch data through carrier networks.  They make use of newer data protocols such as Ethernet and Internet Protocol (IP), or legacy data protocols such as X.25, asynchronous transfer mode (ATM), and frame relay to transmit data^{Footnote 5}. Legacy services make up less than 0.3% of revenues. The subcategory “Other” includes network management and networking equipment.

Private line services provide non-switched, dedicated communications connections between two or more points to transport data, video and/or voice traffic.

Incumbent TSPs accounted for approximately 13.8% of the entities providing either data or private line services and captured 65.4% of retail data and private line revenues.

Link directly to Wholesale Wholesale

Long description

	2017	2018
Wholesale revenues	$4.0 B	$3.8 B
Revenue growth rate	-0.9%	-4.4%
Revenue CAGR (5 years)	+2.1%	+0.4%

Source: CRTC data collection

Wholesale services are services provided by one TSP to another, usually when the latter does not have end-to-end facilities of its own.

In 2018, the wholesale telecommunications sector was worth $3.8 billion, of which 31.0% was for the provision of mobile services and 69.0% for wireline services. From 2014 to 2018, wholesale mobile revenues increased at an average annual rate of 3.5%, compared to a decrease of 0.9% for wholesale wireline revenues.

Independent ISPs^{Footnote 6} frequently depend on access services offered by the incumbent TSPs and the cable-based carriers to connect to their customers. Over the years, sales of cable-based access services, known as third-party Internet access (TPIA) services, to independent ISPs have increased, growing at an annual rate of 6.3% since 2014.

Wholesale voice revenues declined, on average, by 4.8% annually from 2014 to 2018, whereas wireline non-voice revenues increased, on average, by 1.4% annually during the same period.

With 72.2% of wholesale wireline revenues, incumbent TSPs maintained the largest share of the wholesale wireline sector, which has been trending upwards slightly since 2016.

The number of wholesale high-speed Internet access lines and revenues grew in 2018. Ontario had the largest share of wholesale lines (62.6 %) and revenues (65.1%) in 2018.  While Ontario’s overall share of wholesale lines has been in decline since 2016, the province’s share of wholesale revenues has increased year-to-year over the same period.

There were no wholesale lines or revenues reported in the North^{Footnote 7} in 2018.

As mentioned earlier, the number of wholesale Internet lines has reached 1.3 million, growing at an annual rate of 10.9% from 2014 to 2018. Although wholesale lines with download speeds under 16 Mbps continued to have the largest share at 43.4% (0.57 million), this share has decreased by 14.0% from the previous year and has been on the decline since 2016.

Wholesale Internet lines with download speeds of 50 Mbps to 100 Mbps saw the largest growth (114.9%), more than doubling the number of wholesale lines from the previous year. Wholesale lines of 100 Mbps and above also saw substantial growth, growing 90.5% from 2017.

Link directly to v. Methodology v. Methodology

Link directly to Capital expenditures and capital intensity Capital expenditures and capital intensity

Capital expenditures (CAPEX) are the costs associated with procuring, constructing, and installing new assets of telecommunications networks, to replace or add to existing assets, or to lease to others. The capital expenditures metric in this report includes data only from companies which supplied both telecom revenue and capital expenditure data.

Capital intensity is the ratio of capital expenditures to revenues. The capital intensity metric of the telecommunications industry found in this report was derived by dividing the total annual capital expenditures by the annual telecommunications revenues of companies that reported capital expenditures. The capital intensity of the Top 5 TSPs was calculated by dividing the sum of their capital expenditures of the Top 5 TSPs by the year-end telecommunications revenues of these TSPs. These TSPs accounted for 82% of all capital expenditures in 2018.

The capital intensity for all other industries found in Infographic 8.6 was calculated by dividing the industry CAPEX by the full-year industry revenue. Industry CAPEX and industry revenue can be found in Statistics Canada Tables 34-10-0035-01 and 33-10-0007-01.

Link directly to Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) is the operating revenue after having subtracted operating expenses but before subtracting charges for interest payments, taxes, depreciation, and amortization. The EBITDA margins were determined by dividing the total EBITDA by the total operating revenues. The EBITDA margins were calculated for companies for whom at least 80% of their total revenues are represented by Canadian telecommunications services.

Link directly to Wholesale Internet lines and revenues by province/territory and region Wholesale Internet lines and revenues by province/territory and region

All information in the telecommunications overview section regarding provincial wholesale Internet lines and revenues is from data collected through surveying the larger ISPs. These larger ISPs are telecom providers that have historically provided regulated telecom services (such as WHSA, unbundled loops, and Content Delivery Network [CDN] services). They are assigned forms that report details of their wholesale high-speed Internet access lines and revenues.

These ISPs accounted for approximately 67% of total wholesale Internet revenues in 2018.

Link directly to Definitions Definitions

An alternative service provider is any entity that is not an incumbent TSP. Examples of alternative service providers include Rogers, Shaw, Videotron, Distributel, and TekSavvy.

Cable-based carriers are former cable monopolies that also provide telecommunications services (e.g. wireline voice, Internet, data and private line, and wireless services). Examples of cable-based carriers include Rogers, Shaw, and Videotron.

Facilities-based service providers are any entity that has its own facilities. Examples of facilities‑based service providers include Rogers, Shaw, Videotron, Bell Canada, SaskTel, and TELUS.

Fixed wireless service providers are any entity that provides its services over a wireless network that uses either licensed or unlicensed spectrum to provide communications services, where the service is intended to be used in a fixed location. Examples of fixed wireless service providers include Xplornet and Corridor Communications.

Incumbent local exchange carrier (ILEC’s) are incumbent entities providing local voice services. Examples of incumbent local exchange carriers include Bell Canada, SaskTel, TELUS, Sogetel, and Execulink.

An Incumbent Telecommunications Service Provider (TSP) is a company that provides local telecommunications services on a monopoly basis prior to the introduction of competition. These can be further categorized as large and small incumbent TSPs.

An independent Internet service provider (ISP) refers to ISPs that are not cable-based carriers or incumbent TSPs. Examples of independent ISPs include TekSavvy, Xplornet, Distributel, and Verizon Canada.

Large incumbent TSPs serve relatively large geographical areas, usually including both rural and urban populations, and provide wireline voice, Internet, data and private line, wireless, and other services. Examples of large incumbent TSPs include Bell, SaskTel and TELUS.

Other facilities-based carriers refers to providers of telecommunications services that are not incumbent providers but which own and operate telecommunications networks. Examples of other facilities-based carriers include Xplornet and Allstream Business.

Small incumbent TSPs serve relatively small geographical areas. Due to the limited size of their serving areas, these companies do not typically provide facilities-based long distance services. However, they provide a range of wireline voice, Internet, data and private line, and wireless services. Examples of small incumbent TSPs include Sogetel and Execulink.

Tariff services are services whose rates, terms, and conditions are set out in a Commission-approved tariff. Non-tariff services are those telecommunications services whose rates, terms, and conditions are not set out in a Commission-approved tariff. Off-tariff services are those whose prices are filed with the Commission but for which the parties have agreed to an alternate price.

A telecommunications service provider (TSP) refers to any entity providing telecommunications services.

Wholesale-based service providers or non-facilities-based service carriers refers to companies that generally acquire telecommunications services from other providers and either resell those services or create their own network from which to provide services to their customers. A company that owns a small number of facilities but has the vast majority of its operations on leased facilities may also be classified as non-facilities-based. Examples of wholesale-based service providers and non-facilities-based carriers include Distributel and TekSavvy.

A wireless service provider (WSP) is any entity providing wireless services. Examples of wireless service providers include Rogers, Shaw, Videotron, Bell Canada, SaskTel, and TELUS.