Quebecers continue to lag behind the rest of Canada when it comes to cell-phone usage, according to data released by Statistics Canada on Monday.
Quebec had the lowest rate of cell phone use in the country in 2008, with just 65.5 per cent of households owning a cell phone.
Meanwhile, nearly three-quarters (74.3 per cent) of Canadian households indicated they had a cell phone in 2008.
The highest numbers were reported in Alberta (84.5 per cent), Saskatchewan (78 per cent), British Columbia (77.8 per cent) and Ontario (76.8 per cent).
Improvement
However, cell-phone usage is rising in Quebec, according to comparisons with earlier studies.
A 2006 survey indicated that just 51 per cent of Quebec households owned a cell phone.
Why?
Experts say that Canada's extensive and inexpensive land-line telephone service has meant that people were slower to embrace cell phones than other industrialized countries.
For example, some land-line users in Europe are charged for each local call, whereas Canadians have paid monthly flat local rates for decades.
Cell-phone usage in Canada is not helped by the fact that there's less competition and higher fees than in the United States or Europe.
