Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I'm here with Jim Patrick, vice-president of government affairs for the CWTA. We've provided a short slide deck to help you with this very quick presentation.
Mr. Chair, members of the committee, as Canada comes out of the economic recession, Canada's digital economy will become more important than ever before. That's why we must continue to encourage investment, growth, and innovation to increase productivity and competitiveness. In order to do that, we have come here today to present one recommendation and to focus on one recommendation.
There's a mobile wireless revolution in Canada. It's increasing productivity, it's creating new jobs and opportunities, it's generating new investments, it's enhancing our social lives by connecting our family and friends, and it's making our communities safer. There are currently close to 22 million subscribers for wireless technology in Canada. We expect that number to grow by more than 30% in the next five years to well over 30 million subscribers throughout the country.
Wireless Internet usage in Canada is increasing. In fact, it's reaching a very critical mass: 99% of Canadian households now have access to wireless services, including wireless Internet, and 91% have access to 3G mobile Internet services in Canada.
In June 2009, 21% of mobile consumers were using their cellphones or their mobile devices to browse the web and access their e-mail accounts; that's 21% in June of this year, compared to 16% at the end of last year. You can see the growth.
Canadians sent 16 billion text messages in the first six months. That's close to 100 million text messages every single day. I think my daughter and my son sent one million of those 100 million text messages.
As we move to the next generation of networks and since the introduction of the wireless service in Canada in 1985, wireless carriers have invested over $25 billion in private sector investments in infrastructure. By early next year, Canada will have at least four, and probably five, separate 3.5G high-speed packet access--HSPA--providers with their own networks. This will likely be more than anywhere else in the world.
The next chart is very compelling. You can see that one smart phone uses, on average, 30 times the bandwidth of traditional cellphones and that one mobile wireless-connected computer uses 450 times the bandwidth of a traditional phone. It's expected that mobile data traffic in Canada and around the world will double every year between now and 2013.
What this means is that there's an appetite for more. What can government do? Well, Industry Canada has asked what can be done to make sure we meet these challenges. In 2009 the budget included $225 million over three years for the expansion and improvement of broadband networks in certain geographic service areas. Budget 2009 included accelerated capital cost allowance for desktop and local area network equipment for small businesses.
We believe that budget 2010 could and should close the loop. A temporary accelerated capital cost allowance for the class of assets most closely associated with network equipment would bring forward several years' worth of capital investment into a strategic timeframe.
We're not asking for a handout, we're not asking for a bailout, and we're not asking for any government cheques or any new government program. We're simply suggesting that budget 2010 should build on the forward-looking measures included in budget 2009. It should close the loop by stimulating the supply of broadband, specifically by implementing a temporary--we believe two years would be sufficient--accelerated capital cost allowance for network equipment.
Canadian broadband providers have invested billions to provide fixed and mobile high-speed Internet access, as I mentioned, to over 90% of the Canadian population. The focus should now be on quality, speed, and capacity to meet the growing demand. We believe that an accelerated capital cost depreciation would meet that objective.
This measure would not involve the creation of any new program or cutting of government cheques, and it's a straightforward measure to implement. The fiscal cost depends on the rate of depreciation allowed under the regulation. We are recommending that the government consider raising that rate to between 75% and 100% for a period of two years.
This recommendation is supported by the Canadian Chamber of Commerce and the Information Technology Association of Canada.
We would be pleased to provide any other information. Thank you very much for your time. Merci.