A new Harris Decima survey commissioned by the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association (CWTA) reveals that more than 98 per cent of Canadians have access to wireless (cell phone) service and more than 21.5 Canadians (67 per cent) actually use cell phones. In urban areas, the percentage of actual users exceeds 70 per cent.

According to the Survey report, one reason that Canadians are so blessed with respect to cell service access is that the vast majority of our population is ranged in the south, close to the U.S. border, a relatively compact area compared to the entire land mass of the country.

The report also notes that Canadians pay less for cell phone service than users in many other developed countries…

Customers in Canada continue to enjoy prices that are below or close to the average wireless prices across the 30-member countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). According to the OECD’s recently published biennial Communications Outlook 2007, Canadian customers fare significantly better than their neighbours in the US and Mexico in almost all usage categories.

Among other key findings of the CWTA survey:

• Canadians send more than 77 million text messages each day.
• Canadians paid more than (C)$12.5 billion, in total, for their cell phone service subscriptions last year.
• Half of all Canadian phone connections are now made on wireless networks.

The entire Harris Decima report is available at the CWTA Web site.