NAICS 33429Industry · 5-digitinternational market

Other communications equipment manufacturing

This industry comprises establishments, not classified to any other industry, primarily engaged in manufacturing communications equipment. — Statistics Canada, NAICS 2022A

Establishments · CanadaA: 132
Under 10 employeesA: 55%
Establishments · USA: 334
Employment · USA: 12,762
Payroll · USA: $1.0B

Size and shape

How many businesses there are and how small they are. Fragmentation is the first thing an entrant — or anyone selling software into this industry — needs to know, and it is one of the few things that is actually measured.

Canadian establishments by number of employeesA

1–45642%

5–91713%

10–191814%

20–491914%

50–991511%

100–19943%

200–49932%

500+0—

Of 132 Canadian establishments with employees, 55% have fewer than ten — mostly small operators.

Where they areA

Quebec5239%

Ontario5139%

British Columbia1411%

Alberta108%

Largest four provinces by establishment count. Establishments with employees only — sole operators with no payroll are not in this table, so in trades and personal services the true number of businesses is higher.

How many new establishments are still tradingA

Manufacturing, US · opened 2020

86.2%

1 year

70.8%

3 years

58.4%

5 years

45.3%

10 years

opened 2015

Measured, not forecast: the share of US establishments opening in one year that were still active later. It counts good operators and bad ones together, which is exactly why it is the honest answer to “what are the odds”. It is for the whole sector rather than this market, and the ten-year figure comes from an older cohort because no younger one has reached ten years.

How businesses here compete

The structural profile of subsector 334, which every industry beneath it inherits. This is analyst judgment from how the subsector is organised — not research into this industry, and not a measurement.

international competitionhigh capitalUNVERIFIEDinherited from 334 Computer and electronic product manufacturing

Design-led, with manufacturing contracted out. An entry is a product company, not a factory.

Who sets the price: Global component markets and design wins.
The software it runs on: Electronic design automation, product lifecycle and test systems.

Market screens and studies

Market-entry records filed along this branch of the hierarchy. A record at or beneath this code is about this industry; one above it is about something wider that contains it.

Screened one level up. Nothing is filed at this exact code; the screen for 3342 Communications equipment manufacturing covers it.

Operating businessScreenedfiled at 3342

Broadcast and Wireless Equipment MakerStructure decides

binding constraint: entry cost

Canada has real standing here, and it is not a factory story: the product is engineering, and board assembly can be contracted out. Evertz Technologies of Burlington, Ontario, supplies the routing, processing and playout equipment inside television networks worldwide and reported fiscal 2026 revenue of C$515.8M at a 59.3% gross margin [A]. Those are software-like margins on hardware, and the group's shape — 130 of 246 establishments under ten people, but 23 with a hundred or more — says small design houses can exist. The cut is what it costs to have a product a network or carrier will buy. Evertz spent C$148.1M on research and development in the year — 28.7% of revenue, before C$17.0M of investment tax credits [A], after 29.3% the year before, to keep a catalogue current across every format change its customers go through. A broadcaster or carrier qualifies equipment for a facility it cannot take off air; it buys from the vendor whose gear already runs there and interoperates with the rest of the plant, and radio products must be type-approved country by country before a unit ships. The engineering is sunk before the first order, and then re-spent each technology cycle. And when the engineering stops earning a premium, the hardware is worth little: Semtech agreed in August 2022 to buy Richmond, B.C.'s Sierra Wireless at an enterprise value of about US$1.2B, and in August 2026 agreed to sell the cellular module business that came with it for US$62M [A] — a sale it says sharpens its focus on data-centre and LoRa connectivity. A module is this industry's product with the differentiation worn off. An entrant needs Evertz's spending to get in and risks Sierra's outcome if it cannot sustain it. The design software sold to these companies is screened separately.

NAICS 33427 vendors named11 sourced figuresOpen →

Software serving this industry

The vertical software markets filed along the same branch — who sells to these businesses and who they would have to displace — and then the generic categories every business buys whatever it does.

No vertical software market has been recorded along this branch. What the subsector typically runs on: Electronic design automation, product lifecycle and test systems.

Catalogued categories — named, not analysed

Discrete manufacturing ERP SaaS 31-33

And what every business buys · 25 generic categories

Sold to every industry rather than this one, so they are filed against the software industry's own code. The same few vendors recur across most of them.

Who works here

The occupations employed in Manufacturing, most concentrated in it first. The share is measured against the whole sector, not this industry — the published cross-tabulation stops there.

Concentrated in this sectorA

Aircraft assemblers and aircraft assembly inspectors One industry 91.3%

Supervisors, assembly and fabrication One industry 88.3%

Machine operators and related workers in pulp and paper production and wood processing and manufacturing One industry 86.1%

Managers in manufacturing and utilities One industry 84.4%

Machine operators and related workers in chemical, plastic and rubber processing One industry 82.7%

Mechanical, electrical and electronics assemblers and inspectors One industry 82.3%

Machine operators and related workers in food, beverage and associated products processing One industry 79.1%

Machine operators and related workers in mineral and metal products processing and manufacturing One industry 77.7%

Furniture, wood, plastic and other products assemblers, finishers and inspectors One industry 73.9%

Machine operators and related workers in textile, fabric, fur and leather products processing and manufacturing One industry 70.8%

These jobs are mostly done here. An operator in this industry is competing for them against others in the same industry, not against the whole economy.

And the jobs every business has

Other technical trades Across the economy 20%

Technical occupations in electronics and electrical engineering Across the economy 16.3%

Shoe repairers, shoemakers and upholsterers Across the economy 15.2%

Administrative and financial supervisors Across the economy 11.6%

Technical inspectors and regulatory officers Across the economy 10.7%

Administrative services managers Across the economy 9.6%

Legislative and senior managers Across the economy 9.2%

Building maintenance installers, servicers and repairers Across the economy 8.3%

Financial, insurance and related administrative support workers Across the economy 7.7%

Technical occupations in computer and information systems Across the economy 4.8%

Found across at least fourteen of the twenty sectors. In a small establishment several of these are usually one person, or an outside provider.

All 162 occupations →

Inside this industry

1 row sits directly beneath 33429. Each has a base report of its own.

Code	Industry	Establishments · CA	What is known
334290	Other communications equipment manufacturing	132	screened at 3342

Alongside it, under 3342 Communications equipment manufacturing

Code	Industry	Establishments · CA	What is known
33421	Telephone apparatus manufacturing	20	screened at 3342
33422	Radio and television broadcasting and wireless communications equipment manufacturing	94	screened at 3342