A 2006 Decima Research study commissioned by the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association says 64 per cent of Canadian households report owning or having access to a wireless phone.
This result is a considerable increase since 2000, when only 44 per cent of Canadian households claimed wireless phone access. Other findings:
* Albertans continue to be the leading users with a household wireless penetration rate of 79 per cent, while Quebecers represent the other end of the wireless penetration spectrum at 51 per cent.
* The research estimates that approximately eight per cent of households that currently have access to a wireless phone have replaced their traditional telephone line. This equates to approximately five per cent of all Canadian households. The study reports that 17 per cent of Canadian households that currently have a wireless phone, or plan to have one in the next 12 months, are likely to replace an existing wire-line service with a wireless service.
* The 20-per-cent average increase in national wireless household penetration from 2000 to 2006 for the most part is consistent across all segments of the population. The increase in penetration has, however, been particularly sharp among the following segments: In Atlantic Canada, from 36 per cent to 63 per cent; among 18- to 34-year-olds, from 45 per cent to 74 per cent; among older Canadians (55+), from 24 per cent to 48 per cent; and among university graduates, from 50 per cent to 73 per cent.
* The last six years have also seen an important shift in how Canadians use their wireless phones. Between 1998 and 2000, between 25 and 30 per cent used their wireless phone as much for business purposes as for personal purposes. Results in 2006 suggest a more polarized use of wireless phones - they are being used either mostly for personal (60 per cent) or mostly for business calls (29 per cent), with the proportion using it evenly for personal and business calls diminishing to eight per cent.
* A part of the study also examined usage of specific features among Canadian wireless phone users. Incidence of the most-accessed features include: Text messaging (25 per cent); taking pictures (15 per cent); downloading content (15 per cent); push service (seven per cent); instant messaging (six per cent); send or receive e-mail (six per cent); search information from the Internet (four per cent); multimedia messaging (three per cent); listening to music (two per cent); and downloading music (two per cent).
* Wireless phone penetration is not only widening, in other words spreading increasingly to more households, but also getting "deeper" within each household as 57 per cent of households that have access to a wireless phone report having two or more wireless phones.
* 70 per cent of respondents personally own their wireless phone, while the remaining obtain access through their employer or self-employment.
* With regard to types of wireless devices in the home, nearly all households use cellphones exclusively (91 per cent), whereas eight per cent have a combination of cellphones and wireless PDAs.
* This year's results suggest that the average wireless user is more "mature" or experienced compared to six years ago. In 2000, one in four users had been accessing a wireless service for less than one year compared to only one in 10 today.
