Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I also wish to thank the members of Parliament who are here today.
I thank all the MPs for enabling us to be here today and I'm looking forward to answering your questions.
I want to start with a few facts and talk about all the good stuff that is happening in wireless, here in Canada, and how that leads to e-commerce. In Canada, we have wireless coverage for 99% of the population. About 97% of the population is covered by 3G or faster. We have more of the fastest networks in Canada than any other country in the world.
We have seen that, in various areas, Canada is progressing very well compared with other countries.
There are more wireless connections in Canada than wired connections. Canada is a world leader when it comes to wireless tablet use, and tablet purchases are expected to grow by 100% in 2012.
Canadians are among the world's fastest adopters of smart phones. We expect 100% penetration by 2014, which means that electronic communication in Canada equals mobile communication, and that electronic commerce equals mobile commerce.
The overall contribution of wireless to the Canadian economy is over $41 billion. This is according to an Ovum study that was done this year, based on 2009 numbers. There are over 261,000 people employed in Canada as a result of the wireless industry.
Massive investments have been made by the wireless sector in recent years—over $10.8 billion since 2008—even though we've been in a severe recession.
What does this mean?
There's significant growth in the wireless sector. A smart phone will consume 24 times the bandwidth of a traditional-feature phone. A tablet or laptop will consume 100 to 500 times more. So we have more users than ever before—more smart phones, more bandwidth.
Some of our networks are growing at 5%—not 5% a year, but 5% a week. One of our networks in Canada has the largest concentration of smart phones of any network in the world. All that is to say that Canadians are using this technology. They want to use this technology—for talk, text, culture, and commerce.
Who is using mobile commerce to reach Canadian consumers? The answer is, basically everyone in Canada.
What are Canadian consumers doing with mobile commerce? Companies such as EnStream are at the forefront of the smart phone payment systems, using leading-edge, near-field communications technology to turn smart phones into mobile wallets. The Google Wallet is expected in Canada in 2012. More than 80% of Canadian industry players feel that mobile wallets will be mainstream in this country within the next four years.
I hope my colleague from KPMG will confirm that.