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Cellphones are so omnipresent in Canada, there’s really very little room for further market growth in this category, according to the latest Media Technology Monitor (MTM) report.
But while penetration in Canada has reached near-total saturation, there are notable trends in how Canadians use their devices and choose their providers.
“Trends in Cellphone Use” found that 95% of Canadian adults own a cellphone. The pervasiveness of cellphones crosses all age groups in Canada, with the lowest penetration being 85% among those aged 65-plus.
More than half (63%) of the cellphone market is served by the big four service brands – Bell (21%), Telus (19%), Rogers (16%) and Vidéotron (7%) – while others use secondary brands: Virgin, Koodo, Fido and Fizz.
The popularity of service providers varies by region, mainly due to variations in the availability of other communication services such as internet, TV and home phone, although the survey found that bundling of services is not a key selling feature for consumers.
Nearly three-quarters of Canadian households have multiple cellphones. Over 90% of households with three or more people have multiple cellphones, as do 92% of households with teenagers.
Although many providers offer deals for multiple phones on one plan, 39% of households with multiple phones still use multiple providers for their service.
When it comes to how Canadians are using their phones, watching online video – particularly YouTube – is the most common activity, followed by social networking. Online news and online audio are also consumed on phones by roughly 60% of all Canadians. Nearly 70% of streaming audio service listeners and over 60% of podcast listeners do so via a their phones.
The iPhone is the most popular brand of phone among cellphone owners (58%) followed by Samsung at 28%. Google Pixel and other smartphone brands each hold around 5% of the market.
The MTM, a product of CBC/Radio-Canada Research and Analysis, uses a mixed-methodology approach which includes a phone survey and a follow-up survey online to measure Canadians’ media technology adoption in the fall and the spring. The results in this report are based on the spring 2025 survey of 5,272 Canadian respondents, including 2,579 cellphone-only households, across all regions. The interviews were conducted from April 2 to June 16 by Forum Research.
