The Canadian telecommunication services sector matched IDC's previously published 2005 forecast with revenue of C$34.4-billion in 2005 and annual growth of 3.6 per cent from 2004. We believe an annual growth rate of between 3 to 4 per cent will persist through the current 2006-2010 forecast period, and grounding our prediction that Canada's telecom services sector will be a C$41.7-billion market by the end of 2010.

"But two bigger stories in Canadian telecom are revealed in our analysis of the sector's recent performance: the decline of wireline and ascendancy of wireless," said Lawrence Surtees, report co-author and vice-president of communications research at IDC Canada Ltd.

For the first time in Canada, the local wireline services market is no longer the single-largest segment, constituting slightly more than one-quarter (or 26 per cent) of telecom services revenue in Canada last year. And the wireless segment is growing almost three-times faster than the overall Canadian telecom sector. IDC estimates the wireless services segment will account for 42 per cent, or C$17.7-billion, of Canadian telecom revenue by 2010.