A Statistics Canada survey found that the majority of Canadians still prefer land lines for phone service, but two-thirds of consumers also use a cellphone. "As of December 2006, about 90.5% of households reported having a land line, while 66.8% reported having at least one cellphone," the federal agency said in a release. Albertans led the country with about 80% of households using cellphone services while New Brunswick and Quebec households had the fewest number of mobile phone users, with 57.5% and 57.9%, respectively.
About five per cent of households reported using a cellphone exclusively, nearly matching 2005 figures of 4.8%. Of those respondents, 10% said they had dropped their land-line service because monthly charges and installation fees were too steep and another 10% of Canadians said they use VoIP or cable telephone services, with Albertans once again having the highest rates in the country at 13.5%. At the other end of the spectrum, less than five per cent of residents in Newfoundland and Labrador used the new technologies. People who did not have telephone service at all held steady with last year"s figures at 1.2%.