Canada’s ‘Big 3’ telcos aren’t adding new customers like they used to, and the reason for the lack of growth? That’s due to immigration cuts, say the telecoms.
According to Bloomberg, Bell, Rogers, and Telus together added fewer than 54,000 new mobile subscribers in the first quarter of 2025. That’s the weakest number in four years.
For the longest time, these incumbents benefited from Canada’s fast population growth, especially from foreign students and temporary workers. In 2022, the country’s population jumped by 3.1%, the highest increase since the 1950s. That translated into huge gains for the wireless companies, with hundreds of thousands of people signing up for new cellphone plans.
But the feds have started tightening immigration after housing and healthcare systems struggled to keep up. Canada now plans to accept about 20% fewer permanent residents and foreign students in 2025 compared to earlier targets. The cuts have already led to a noticeable slowdown.
Newcomers need cellphone plans, which is why a lot of promo plans have included free long distance calling to select countries such as China, Hong Kong, India, Pakistan, Philippines, Taiwan, and the UK, for example.
Take a look at the chart below from Bloomberg detailing net wireless subscriber additions from Telus, Rogers and Bell (BCE). Looking at Q1 of this year, it’s not pretty at all compared to years in the past:
Bell even reported a slight drop in wireless subscribers and pointed to the government’s immigration policies as a factor. Telus said the same thing, and Rogers, which has the most wireless customers, also blamed the reduced number of newcomers.
The drop in international students has been especially steep. After the pandemic, international students and temporary foreign workers were a big part of Canada’s population boom. That surge helped the ‘Big 3′ rake in new customers. But those days are over.
While Rogers, Telus and Bell didn’t see huge wireless growth in Q1, Quebecor (which includes Freedom Mobile, Videotron and Fizz) on the other hand was a different story. The company added 54,400 mobile lines in Q1, the strongest growth rate amongst telecoms in the country. The lower prices from Freedom Mobile that include roaming look to be paying off.
Canada’s population growth rate fell to 1.8% in 2024, down from record highs. If the immigration limits stay in place, Bloomberg says the country’s growth could even go negative by 2026.
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This is why market bubbles are to be avoided. When the bursts, there are consequences to the rest of the economy. You can’t expect to massively inflate the population for a decade, suddenly pull the plug and not expect there to be consequences.
The immigration bubble, especially students, caused entirely predictably growth bubbles in housing need, cell plans, student job seekers, foodbank usage, drivers ed schools, new and used car sales, medical service usage, road usage, etc. Once the immigration levels fall off, those other bubbles also burst, at least the growth rate bubbles. Some of the inflated demand will remain high for years but the growth will fall off a cliff.
I would also blame it on the constant price plan increases along with the cost going up on connection fees, lack of good customer service when you need help etc…
Customer service! They coud care less . I especially hate Bell my subscriber! Once my contract expires I'm done with there bullshit!
Of course nothing mentioned about the collusion between the corps regarding the ripping off of Canadian consumers. This is what happens when we allow it.
We not only allow it, we foster it and even encourage and create it. We are a nation of monopolies and hegemonies. In most cases, these were created by and nurtured by our governments. Banks, telcos, cable, wireless, grocery, air carriers, media and news, healthcare, gas and even booze. Most of these industries started as government monopolies, government granted monopolies or government granted hegemonies to small companies. Government being in bed with and fully entwined with entire industries never ends well but that’s what we get with so many that see gov intervention in all parts of society as a positive.
We not only allow it, we foster it and even encourage and create it. We are a nation of monopolies and hegemonies. In most cases, these were created by and nurtured by our governments. Banks, telcos, cable, wireless, grocery, air carriers, media and news, gas and even booze. Most of these industries started as government monopolies, government granted monopolies or government granted hegemonies to small companies. Government being in bed with and fully entwined with entire industries never ends well but that’s what we get with so many that see gov intervention in all parts of society as a positive.
We not only allow it, we foster it and even encourage and create it. We are a nation of monopolies and hegemonies. In most cases, these were created by and nurtured by our governments. Banks, telcos, cable, wireless, grocery, air carriers, media and news, gas and even booze. Most of these industries started as government monopolies, government granted monopolies or government granted hegemonies to small companies. Government being in bed with and fully entwined with entire industries never ends well but that’s what we get with so many that see gov intervention in all parts of society as a positive.
One reason is the large wireless coverage area to population ratio. US is a lot more densely populated. Another reason is high taxes here including corporate tax, personal tax, sales tax, etc. etc. They all add up. Not allowing private health care is one reason for the high taxes. At present, many Canadians are just flying off to U.S., Turkey, Lebanon, India, etc. for medical procedures and imaging that would take over a year in Canada. Lots of healthcare money being shipped to other countries and we also end up paying higher taxes due to no private health care allowed here. This may have worked when Canada's population was smaller and oil company taxes footed the bill. Now population is bigger, oil becoming more expensive to produce, US tariffing Canadian oil as well, and things are coming apart at the seams. We now have endless waits in ER, people dying in ER waiting rooms, some imaging tests taking over a year, and so on. Adding a private tier to health care would help to stop some flow of healthcare money out of the country, free up more publicly funded resources, and perhaps even lower taxes.
Our carriers focus almost their entire network budget on the narrow strip that is populated and expect and receive government subsidies to cover more remote areas.
Our taxes certainly make us less competitive. Canadians are freaked out by the idea of Trump tariffs making us less competitive, meanwhile we do far worse to ourselves with our insane taxes. Trump is doing no worse to us than we already eagerly do to ourselves.
But, lack of competition is the biggest factor. Just like our system of medical monopolies causes us to have a a horrible and expensive healthcare system, our duopoly in telcos means we have horrible and expensive telco service.
One issue re/ lack of competition is that the entire population of Canada is less than the state of California. So it can not support as many competitors. Other issue is the tax environment here. Kleenex pulled out as they could not compete with the Canadian company Scotties. US companies are not too keen on taking on competition + tax environment + smaller population size. They are used to much greater profits which can be had easier in US and other countries. Best we can do now is to try and reduce the tax environment. One way is to allow a private tier to healthcare.