US and Canadian wireless networks: Supporting the world’s largest bilateral trading relationship

[Commentary] Americans have good feelings about Canadians -- and for good reason. The US and Canada have the world’s largest bilateral trading relationship, trading goods and services worth $2 billion every day.

American Enterprise Institute’s Jeffrey Eisenach has studied the US and Canadian wireless markets in detail, and his report prepared for the GSMA, the world’s mobile operators’ and standards association, notes the findings. Canadians use twice the voice and data as Europeans, resulting in lower unit costs for mobile. Canadian wireless providers invest 2.3 times more than providers in the EU. Together the US and Canada deploy 4G/LTE wireless networks faster than the EU, resulting in 75% higher speeds. Canadian LTE adoption exceeds the EU by a factor of 8, and the gap is growing.

It’s even more impressive to consider that while the US and Canada comprise just 6% of the world’s 7 billion mobile subscriptions, the two countries have half of the world’s LTE connections. The similarities and proximity between the US and Canada create value for both countries, particularly in the digital domain. A number of American Internet companies leverage Canada’s proximity and language to boost revenue.

[Layton studies Internet economics at the Center for Communication, Media, and Information Technologies (CMI) at Aalborg University in Copenhagen, Denmark]