Telecommunications in Canada

Present-day telecommunications in Canada include telephone, radio, television, and internet usage. In the past, telecommunications included telegraphy available through Canadian Pacific and Canadian National.

History

File:All Red Line.jpg cable for the British Empire. Canada as an interconnection-point {{Circa|1903}}]]

The history of telegraphy in Canada dates back to the Province of Canada. While the first telegraph company was the Toronto, Hamilton and Niagara Electro-Magnetic Telegraph Company, founded in 1846, it was the Montreal Telegraph Company, controlled by Hugh Allan and founded a year later, that dominated in Canada during the technology's early years.

Following the 1852 Telegraph Act, Canada's first permanent transatlantic telegraph link was a submarine cable built in 1866 between Ireland and Newfoundland. Telegrams were sent through networks built by Canadian Pacific and Canadian National.

In 1868 Montreal Telegraph began facing competition from the newly established Dominion Telegraph Company. 1880 saw the Great North Western Telegraph Company established to connect Ontario and Manitoba but within a year it was taken over by Western Union, leading briefly to that company's control of almost all telegraphy in Canada. In 1882, Canadian Pacific transmitted its first commercial telegram over telegraph lines they had erected alongside its tracks, breaking Western Union's monopoly. Great North Western Telegraph, facing bankruptcy, was taken over in 1915 by Canadian Northern.

By the end of World War II, Canadians communicated by telephone more than any other country.{{cite web|title=Canada Says Hello: The First Century of the Telephone|publisher=CBC.ca|date=2012-03-10|url=http://www.cbc.ca/archives/topic/canada-says-hello-the-first-century-of-the-telephone|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160222172555/http://www.cbc.ca/archives/topic/canada-says-hello-the-first-century-of-the-telephone|archive-date=2016-02-22}} In 1967 the CP and CN networks were merged to form CNCP Telecommunications.

As of 1951, approximately 7000 messages were sent daily from the United States to Canada. An agreement with Western Union required that U.S. company to route messages in a specified ratio of 3:1, with three telegraphic messages transmitted to Canadian National for every message transmitted to Canadian Pacific. The agreement was complicated by the fact that some Canadian destinations were served by only one of the two networks.

Fixed-line telephony

File:Bell logo.svg, the nation's largest telephone company]]

Telephones - fixed lines: total subscriptions: 13.926 million (2020)

::* Subscriptions per 100 inhabitants: 36.9 (2020 est.)

Telephones - mobile cellular: 36,093,021 (2020)

::* Subscriptions per 100 inhabitants: 95.63 (2020 est.)

Telephone system: (2019)

::* Domestic: Nearly 37 per 100 fixed-line and 96 per 100 mobile-cellular teledensity; domestic satellite system with about 300 earth stations (2020)

::* International: country code - +1; submarine cables provide links within the Americas and Europe; satellite earth stations - 7 (5 Intelsat - 4 trans-Atlantic Ocean and 1 trans-Pacific Ocean, and 2 Intersputnik - (Atlantic Ocean region)

Call signs

ITU prefixes: Letter combinations available for use in Canada as the first two letters of a television or radio station's call sign are CF, CG, CH, CI, CJ, CK, CY, CZ, VA, VB, VC, VD, VE, VF, VG, VO, VX, VY, XJ, XK, XL, XM, XN and XO. Only CF, CH, CI, CJ and CK are currently in common use,{{Cite web |last=Government of Canada |first=Innovation |date=2011-10-11 |title=RIC-9 — Call Sign Policy and Special Event Prefixes |url=https://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/smt-gst.nsf/eng/sf02102.html |access-date=2022-03-21 |website=www.ic.gc.ca}} although four radio stations in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador retained call letters beginning with VO when Newfoundland joined Canadian Confederation in 1949. Stations owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation use CB through a special agreement with the government of Chile. Some codes beginning with VE and VF are also in use to identify radio repeater transmitters.

Radio

As of 2016, there were over 1,100 radio stations and audio services broadcasting in Canada.{{cite web |title=Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission |url=https://crtc.gc.ca/eng/publications/reports/policymonitoring/2017/cmr4.htm}} Of these, 711 are private commercial radio stations. These commercial stations account for over three quarters of radio stations in Canada. The remainder of the radio stations are a mix of public broadcasters, such as CBC Radio, as well as campus, community, and Aboriginal stations.

Television

As of 2018, 762 TV services were broadcasting in Canada. This includes both conventional television stations and discretionary services.{{Cite report|url=https://crtc.gc.ca/pubs/cmr2019-en.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://crtc.gc.ca/pubs/cmr2019-en.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live|title=Communications Monitoring Report 2019|date=2019|publisher=CRTC|page=191|isbn=|access-date=2021-06-06}}

Cable and satellite television services are available throughout Canada. The largest cable providers are Bell Canada, Rogers Cable, Vidéotron, Telus and Cogeco, while the two licensed satellite providers are Bell Satellite TV and Shaw Direct.

Internet

Bell, Rogers, Telus, and Shaw are among the bigger ISPs in Canada. Depending on your location, Bell and Rogers would be the big internet service providers in Eastern provinces, while Shaw and Telus are the main players competing in western provinces.{{cite web |title=Internet Service Providers in Canada: a guide |url=https://moving2canada.com/internet-service-providers-in-canada-a-guide/ |website=moving2canada}}

Internet service providers: there are more than 44 ISPs in Canada.{{cn|date=February 2025}}
Internet Exchange Points: There are multiple Internet Exchange Points in Canada, the largest of which are in Calgary, Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver. Most ISP's peer at one or more of these Exchanges, except for Bell Canada. The Toronto Internet Exchange ranks as one of the largest internet exchanges in the world.{{cite web |title=TorIX Case Study|url=https://www.cologix.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/TorIX-Case-Study.pdf|publisher=Cologix|year=2018|access-date=2023-10-12}}
Country codes: .CA, CDN, 124
Internet users: 33 million users {{cite web |title=Internet Users and 2017 Population in North America |url=https://www.internetworldstats.com/stats14.htm |website=internetworldstats}}
Internet hosts: 8.7 million (2012–2017){{cite web |title=Countries By Number Of Internet Hosts |url=https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/countries-by-number-of-internet-hosts.html |website=worldatlas}}
Percentage of households with Internet access: 87(2016){{cite web |title=Canada's Internet |url=https://www.statista.com/statistics/183614/us-households-with-broadband-internet-access-since-2009/ |website=cira}}
Total households with high speed connection: 67% (2014){{cite web |title=The State of Broadband Internet in Canada |url=https://hillnotes.ca/2016/05/04/the-state-of-broadband-internet-in-canada/ |website=hillnotes}}
Total users of home online banking: 68% (2016){{cite web |title=Internet use in Canada |url=https://cira.ca/factbook/domain-industry-data-and-canadian-Internet-trends/internet-use-canada |website=cira}}

Mobile networks

The three major mobile network operators are Rogers Wireless (13.7 million subscribers), Bell Mobility (10.29 million{{Cite web |title=Integrated annual report 2022-Who we are-Our financial performance-BCE |url=https://www.bce.ca/2023-integrated-report/financial-performance |access-date=2024-06-15 |website=www.bce.ca |language=English}}) and Telus Mobility (9.5 million), which have a combined 86% of market share.[https://investors.rogers.com/company-information/segment-overview/] - Rogers Investor Relations

[https://mobilesyrup.com/2023/08/03/mobile-subscriber-growth-in-q2-helped-bell-reach-10-million-milestone/] - Mobile Syrup

Administration and Government

Federally, telecommunications are overseen by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission ({{langx|fr|Conseil de la Radiodiffusion et des Télécommunications Canadiennes}})–CRTC as outlined under the provisions of both the Telecommunications Act and Radiocommunication Acts. CRTC further works with Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (formerly Industry Canada) on various technical aspects including: allocating frequencies and call signs, managing the broadcast spectrum, and regulating other technical issues such as interference with electronics equipment. As Canada comprises a part of the North American Numbering Plan for area codes, the Canadian Numbering Administration Consortium within Canada is responsible for allocating and managing area codes in Canada.

References

{{reflist|refs=

{{cite web|url=http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/articles/telegraph |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120316212144/http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/articles/telegraph |url-status=dead |archive-date=March 16, 2012 |title=Telegraph|first=Robert E.|last=Babe|publisher= Historica Foundation|access-date=2012-01-19}}

{{cite journal|last=Light|first=G.G.|date=October 1951|title=Switching to Canada at Gateway Cities|journal=Western Union Technical Review|volume=5|issue=4|pages=131–137|publisher=Western Union|url=https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-Company-Publications/Western-Union/Western-Union-Technical-Revue-1951-10.pdf#page=13|access-date=2023-03-21}}

{{cite web|url=http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/backgrnd/brochures/b19903.htm|title=CRTC Origins|date= 2008-09-05|publisher=Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission|access-date=2012-01-19|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120110203201/http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/backgrnd/brochures/b19903.htm|archive-date=2012-01-10}}

{{cite web|url=http://www.cpr.ca/en/news-and-media/news/Documents/digital-railway-backgrounder.docx|title=From Driving the Last Spike to Driving the Digital Highway|date=2010-11-07|work=Media Kit|format=Office Open XML|publisher=Canadian Pacific Railway|access-date=2012-01-19}}

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External links

[http://www.broadcasting-history.ca/ The Canadian Communications Foundation] – A History of Canadian Broadcasting
[https://crtc.gc.ca/eng/comm/fourprov.htm Find Service Providers in Canada], CRTC (Mobile, Phone, Internet, or free/paid TV) by location
[https://www.planhub.ca Compare Internet & Phone Plans in Canada] – Free Online Comparison Tool