There are some interesting new stats in this TNS press release:
One in three Canadians between the age of 16 and 60 is steering clear of themobile phone market, according to new figures from market research firm TNS.What's more, the majority of them have no plans to change that fact anytimesoon.The London-based company's Global Telecoms Insights study, which polled morethan 16,000 participants in 30 countries, says the majority of that third ofCanada's population currently without cellphones have no intention ofbecoming cellphone consumers within the next 12 months, a fact that has ledTNS to dub them "rejecters". Percentage-wise, Canada's rejecter populationis far larger than that of mobile-friendly countries such as Hong Kong andSouth Korea, and is only rivalled by rejecter rates in Mexico and Vietnam.Those Canadians who do have mobile phones also tend to be stingy when itcomes to shelling out cash for handset upgrades, getting an average of 3.5years of service out of their hardware - a year longer than users inAustralia, the U.K. and the U.S.All this may be cause for concern at wireless communications companies,since Canada's 66 per cent mobile phone penetration rate is considerablybelow the 80 per cent average of those 30 countries included in the study.While a July 21 press release from TNS's Canadian operations doesn't cite areason for the lower penetration rate, a look at some of the media coveragedevoted to the story reveals that many Canadians feel victimized bydisproportionately high price plans and poor customer service.There is another piece of news that might make a difference, however: thewireless spectrum auction held by Industry Canada wrapped up on July 21,with a dozen new hopefuls securing chunks of spectrum covering areas rangingfrom a few cities to most of the country. Among the larger and morewell-financed: Globalive Communications Corp., Vidéotron Télécom Ltée, ShawCommunications Inc., Bragg Communications Inc., and Data & Audio-VisualEnterprises Wireless Inc.Many industry-watchers are already predicting that Rogers, Bell and Teluswill have to offer more competitive rates in order to avoid losing customersto the prospective newcomers, but the incumbents clearly intend to standfirm: the Big Three providers topped the bidding for the new spectrumallocation, collectively chipping in more than $2.6 billion, a fulltwo-thirds of the auction's total take.LINKS: TNS press release - http://www.tns-cf.com/news/08.07.21-gti.pdfGlobe and Mail story on spectrum auction -http://www.reportonbusiness.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080721.wwireless0721/BNStory/Business/home