Canada’s mobile data demands need telecom network boost: report

The findings indicate Canadian providers will need to increase their capital expenditures for 5G and fibre networks by two per cent per year to meet growing mobile data demand.

While Canada’s largest telecom company is set to slash spending on its fibre network expansion, industry stakeholders say phone carriers will need to boost their network investments amid forecasts that data consumption could double by 2027.

The findings by PwC’s Canadian Telecom Outlook, presented Tuesday at the Canadian Telecom Summit in Toronto, indicate Canadian providers will need to increase their capital expenditures for 5G and fibre networks by two per cent per year to meet growing demand for mobile data use.

“Telecoms must make heavy investments in the cost of infrastructure that enables them to serve customers across all of these networks,” said John Simcoe, partner and national media and telecom leader for PwC Canada.

He cautioned the projections were calculated before the CRTC released a much awaited partial decision on Monday amid its ongoing review of third-party access to fibre networks.

That decision allows independent internet providers to use large telephone companies’ fibre networks in Ontario and Quebec. It is meant to stimulate competition for internet services in the two provinces, where the CRTC said independent internet providers now serve 47 per cent fewer customers than they did two years ago.

The ruling requires BCE Inc. and Telus Corp. to provide competitors with access to their fibre-to-the-home networks within six months.

But BCE subsidiary Bell Canada responded by announcing it would cut network investment plans by more than $1 billion in 2024-25, including a minimum of $500 million next year. It noted this comes on top of Bell having already decreased its 2023 spending plans by $100 million in anticipation of the CRTC’s decision.

Telus has not indicated how it might respond. However, during a panel discussion Tuesday afternoon at the conference, its vice-president of telecom policy and chief regulatory legal counsel Stephen Schmidt said the decision is “part of a 25-year trajectory of the CRTC doing things that no other regulator on earth is left doing.”