Faulty metrics

Anyone share their cell phone with a friend or a family member? Didn’t think so.

If you read the Canadian Radio-television Telecommunications Commission’s (CRTC) annual telecom monitoring report, you’d think otherwise.

The regulator, bless its naive heart stated in the report, issued earlier today, that Canadian household wireless penetration is at 66%. (penetration is the industry term used to describe the % of a population per 100 inhabitants that uses a cell phone for example).

Cellular penetration per household is a meaningless metric. Cell phones don’t sit in households tethered to the wall like a landline, they reside in people’s pockets, purses and backpacks.

It’s a highly personal, individual device. To obtain a better view of the wireless market, one must look at wireless penetration, a continuing problem in Canada, on an individual basis.

Why isn’t this obvious to the good folks at the CRTC?

July 27, 2007 | Filed Under News Items and Commentary