Canadian Telecoms Expected to Face Major Revenue Slowdown Amid COVID-19 Pandemic

Market intelligence firm International Data Corporation (IDC) Canada has just issued a press release noting that the country’s telecommunications market is expected to face a significant revenue slowdown in 2020 and beyond amid the global COVID-19 pandemic.

IDC Canada expects the overall revenue of the telecom services market to fall to C$47.9 billion making a negative -0.8 per cent decline from a year earlier. IT spending in Canada is also expected to decline by -5.0 per cent in 2020.

“The impact of the COVID-19 crisis represents the most significant deceleration in ICT spending growth Canada has experienced in modern time” said Lars Goransson, Managing Director at IDC Canada.

IDC Canada developed three forecast scenarios (optimistic, probable, and pessimistic). “The probable scenario assumes the coronavirus is broadly contained by June. The optimistic scenario, which appears very unlikely, assumes the virus is more rapidly contained, and business and investments recover quickly and accelerate in Q3” said Tony Olvet, Group Vice-President Research, at IDC Canada. “Finally, a pessimistic scenario that considers a less controlled, longer-lasting, virus ‘rebound’ effect through Q3 and Q4.”

IDC Canada anticipates the COVID-19 pandemic to have a greater negative impact on the Canadian telecom sector than that of the 2008-2009 financial crisis, due to massive layoffs and challenges for small and medium businesses.