TORONTO – The performance of Canada’s wireless networks remains flat year over year with an average of nine problems per 100 (PP100) connections, says the J.D. Power 2021 Canada Wireless Network Quality Study.
Additionally, 67% of wireless customers agree their carrier’s network is reliable when streaming music and videos, activities that account for a significant amount of time used on devices. In addition, 7% of customers say network speeds are faster than expected, reads the company announcement, which took a negative tone with the numbers it found.
“Despite massive investments in infrastructure and technology, customers remain relatively unimpressed by their carriers’ wireless networks,” said Adrian Chung, director of the technology, media and telecom practice at J.D. Power Canada. “Customers perceive the quality and performance of the wireless networks mainly as fair and meeting expectations. More specifically, network strength is associated with traditional functionality like calling and texting rather than browsing and streaming, presenting a clear reliability gap that carriers need to bridge.”
This reliability gap should serve as a red flag for carriers, especially because browsing and streaming account for nearly half (49%) of the time that customers say they spend on their mobile phones, says the report.
The past year has seen an increased need to stay connected and more customers in Canada are beefing up their wireless plans, notes the research. “Nearly one-fourth (24%) of wireless customers indicate their wireless plan includes 10GB of data or more—up from 20% in 2020. Furthermore, the percentage of customers this year who say they have an unlimited data plan is 17%, up from 11% in 2020. At the same time, 14% acknowledge they exceeded their plan’s data allowance in the past six months.”
When asked about phone usage during the past 48 hours, customers in the survey say they spent an average of 57 minutes browsing and 46 minutes on video and music streaming, a much higher proportion than calling (average of 34 minutes) or texting (average of 31 minutes), reads the release.
When it comes to the carriers themselves, Bell and Telus rank highest in a tie for wireless network quality in Ontario with eight PP100 each.
In the East region, Videotron ranks highest with five PP100. Rogers and Telus rank second in a tie, each with six PP100.
In the west, Telus ranks highest with eight PP100, Rogers (nine PP100) ranks second and SaskTel (10 PP100) ranks third.
The 2021 Canada Wireless Network Quality Study was conducted online in English and French. The study, which measures problems per 100 connections (PP100), includes four wireless carriers in the East Region, four wireless carriers in Ontario, and six wireless carriers in the West Region. The study is based on 9,498 respondents and was fielded in February-March 2021.
For more, please click here.
