Low-income Canadians spend 9% of annual income on communications services: CRTC

Canada’s telecom regulator says the average household spent nearly $223 every month on communications services, including mobile phones, landlines, internet and cable TV in 2016.

But low-income households are spending exponentially more than higher income earners as a percentage of their income, according to the CRTC’s latest Communications Monitoring Report.

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The snapshot of expenditures shows households with incomes below $32,090 spent 8.6 per cent of what they earned in 2016 on communications.

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That compares to just 1.7 per cent of income for households earning above $130,000.

The report also revealed the amount spent on mobile devices in Canada increased by 8.8 per cent from 2015 to 2016 while telephone landline expenditures declined by the same rate.

Spending on cable and satellite TV services fell by 1.4 per cent during the same period while Canadians spent 6.5 per cent more for internet services.