Canada’s mobile industry generated US$120 billion in economic value in 2025, or 5.4 per cent of GDP, and the country is now adopting 5G at roughly twice the global rate.
That’s according to the GSMA’s latest Mobile Economy Canada 2026 report. The GSMA is the global industry group representing mobile operators, and all of the dollar figures in its report are in U.S. dollars.
The mobile ecosystem supported almost 200,000 jobs in Canada last year, including about 150,000 direct jobs and 50,000 indirect ones, and contributed US$14 billion in tax revenue. The GSMA expects mobile’s contribution to grow 6.3 per cent a year to reach US$170 billion by 2030, or 6.7 per cent of GDP, well ahead of the 1.7 per cent annual growth it projects for the economy overall.
By the end of 2025, 5G accounted for nearly 63 per cent of mobile connections in Canada, compared with a global average of 31 per cent. The GSMA forecasts that share will pass 70 per cent by the end of 2026 and hit 95 per cent by 2030, which works out to about 45 million 5G connections. 5G coverage reached just over 94 per cent of the population by mid-2026.
Adoption is only part of the story, though. Canada ranked 21st out of 46 countries on the GSMA Intelligence 5G Connectivity Index with a score of 60.2, behind the U.S. in sixth place, and it was 34th on the index’s 5G experience pillar. 5G standalone also lags, making up just under 9 per cent of mobile traffic at the end of 2025 according to Ookla data cited in the report, versus 32 per cent in the U.S.
All three national carriers now offer it, with Rogers launching first in 2020, Telus following in 2024 and Bell switching on its 5G+ Advanced network this year.
Where Canada scores best is affordability. Its score of 96.4 on that pillar is among the highest of the 46 markets, and the GSMA says retail wireless prices have fallen about 25 per cent over the past two years. Anyone still paying for a legacy Big 3 plan may want to read that line twice, especially after Statistics Canada data showed cellphone prices ticking up late last year.
As you might expect from an operator group, the report spends plenty of space warning about underinvestment. It says carriers have lowered their capital spending guidance by 10 to 30 per cent, revenues are flat and spectrum costs have climbed to more than 7 per cent of operator revenues, up from 4 per cent in 2019.
Operator revenues are forecast to grow only from US$24.6 billion in 2025 to US$27.2 billion in 2030, with US$19.5 billion in capital spending expected over that period. It’s a similar argument to the one in the PwC report funded by Rogers, Bell and Quebecor back in May.
The GSMA also casts carriers as key players in Canada’s AI plans. It points to Bell’s 300 MW AI facility near Regina, expected to go live in 2027, and Telus’ Sovereign AI Factory in Rimouski, which Telus plans to grow to 150 MW across three British Columbia sites by 2032. Even so, Canada had only about 1.4 GW of operational data centre capacity as of September 2025, compared with more than 40 GW in the U.S..
To keep networks improving, the GSMA wants Ottawa to commit to a long-term spectrum roadmap, release more mid-band and low-band spectrum, use spectrum caps rather than set-asides and bring in tougher penalties for infrastructure theft. The report cites a Senate committee finding that theft and vandalism incidents rose 200 per cent between 2022 and early 2024.
Do you think Canadian wireless prices have finally come down enough, or is the industry’s underinvestment warning a sign that higher bills are on the way?
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Because Telus 5G+ is so fucking horrible. It drags the global average down.