Telecommunications Industry in Canada


There are 58 telephone companies in Canada. The largest telephone companies used to be part of a national alliance called Stentor Canadian Network Management, or simply, "Stentor". These companies were:

  • British Columbia Telephone Company (BC Tel)
  • Telus (formerly AGT and ED Tel)
  • Saskatchewan Telecommunications (SaskTel)
  • Manitoba Telecom Services (MTS)
  • Bell Canada
  • The New Brunswick Telephone Company Limited (NBTel)
  • Maritime Telephone and Telegraph Company, Limited (MT&T)
  • The Island Telephone Company Limited (Island Tel)
  • Newfoundland Telephone Company Limited (NewTel),

The remaining telephone companies used to be referred to as independents, because they were not full members of the Stentor Alliance. There are 30 independents in Ontario, 16 in Quebec, one in BC and one in the North-West Territories. These telephone companies provide both local and long-distance telecommunication services, as well as cellular service through affiliates, under tight federal regulation.

The Stentor Alliance was terminated on December 31, 1999. In its place, a consolidation centered around Bell Canada has taken place. Bell Canada owns interests in MTS and the four maritime telephone companies (banded together under the name Aliant), and a new national broadband service company, Bell Nexxia. BCTel and Telus merged and are attempting an eastward expansion to similarly compete with their former Alliance members.

Ownership of the telephone companies is varied. Canada's largest company, BCE Inc. of Montreal, owns Bell Canada, which in turn owns or has interests in most of the telecommunication services east of Saskatchewan. Verizon (through its acquisition of GTE) owns a sizeable fraction of Telus and half of Quebec Tel through a holding company in Montreal. SaskTel is a provincial crown corporation, as were AGT and MTS until they were privatized.

Competitive inter-exchange carriers also exist, but find their profit margins slim due to the geographical nature of the network and strong competition from Bell Canada. These competitors include AT&T Canada providing business voice and data services; Primus providing residential long-distance voice services (the successor to Unitel), Rogers providing cellular and cable service, and several startups.