NAICS 5179Industry group · 4-digitnational market1 market record

Other telecommunications

SoftwareTelecom BSS/OSS & Revenue Management 517

This industry group comprises establishments primarily engaged in providing telecommunications and/or video entertainment services over network facilities operated by others and establishments primarily engaged in operating telecommunications networks or providing telecommunication services not elsewhere classified. — Statistics Canada, NAICS 2022A

Establishments · CanadaA: 3,019
Under 10 employeesA: 85%
Establishments · USA: 5,166
Employment · USA: 67,169
Payroll · USA: $6.0B

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

1–41,29643%

5–91,25842%

10–1933111%

20–491053%

50–99181%

100–19970%

200–49940%

500+0—

Of 3,019 Canadian establishments with employees, 85% have fewer than ten — an industry of very small operators.

Where they areA

Ontario1,22941%

Quebec51617%

British Columbia45215%

Alberta44015%

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

Information, US · opened 2020

79.6%

1 year

59%

3 years

45.7%

5 years

30%

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 517, 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.

national competitionhigh capitalUNVERIFIEDinherited from 517 Telecommunications

Facilities-based telecom is closed. Resellers and regional internet providers exist on regulated wholesale access and thin margins.

Who sets the price: An oligopoly, under a regulator.
The software it runs on: Billing and operations support 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.

Operating businessScreened

Wholesale-Based Internet & VoIP ResellerOne thing must be true

binding constraint: incumbent vulnerability

The pre-screen called this a genuine small-operator entry, and on the counts it is the most populated corner of telecom: 3,019 establishments, 2,554 of them with fewer than ten employees and none above 499 [A]. A reseller needs no network — it buys regulated wholesale access from the telephone or cable company, puts its own brand and support on top, and sells home internet or business voice. The screen tested that and the pre-screen does not survive. The reseller's largest cost is a tariff paid to the company it competes with at retail, and the record of the last five years is what happens under that arrangement. Reporting of the CRTC's 2025 market report puts independent wholesale-based providers' share of home internet at 8.4% in 2020, 8.0% in 2021, 6.1% in 2022, 5.0% in 2023 and 4.2% in 2024 — halved in four years [B]. Over the same period the larger independents stopped being independent: Bell bought EBOX and Distributel in 2022, and Quebecor, Videotron's parent, bought VMedia the same year [B]. The incumbent can discount its own flanker brand below the wholesale rate plus the reseller's costs, contest every rate decision for years, and then buy whoever is left; the reseller can do none of those things back. Hosted business voice is the same shape with a different supplier — the platform behind a white-label VoIP service also sells direct. An incumbent that sets your input price, competes for your customer and is the natural buyer of your business is not vulnerable. The 'all other telecommunications' tail of this group was not examined. Billing software for the sector is screened separately at 517.

NAICS 51794 vendors named6 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.

Sold across the wider branch

Vertical softwareScreenedfiled at 517 Telecommunications

Telecom BSS/OSS & Revenue ManagementExecution decides

binding constraint: distribution

Incumbent Amdocs (NASDAQ: DOX)

The single most concentrated buyer set in this research: a few dozen carriers per continent, each running procurement cycles measured in years with incumbent systems integrators embedded for decades. Top five vendors take 54–60% of revenue. Fast growth (13.95% CAGR) that a new entrant has no path to reach — there is no SMB tier of telecom carriers to start with.

NAICS 5175 vendors named6 sourced figuresOpen →

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.

Companies in this industry · 3

Every company this research names that is filed here or beneath — the operators, and the vendors that sell to them — largest disclosed revenue first. The rank is within the company’s own six-digit industry.

Company	Filed under	Revenue	Rank
CogecoTSX:CGO	Other telecommunications5179	—	1/3
QuebecorTSX:QBR-B	Other telecommunications5179	—	2/3
TekSavvyPrivate	Other telecommunications5179	—	3/3

Who works here

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

Tagged to this industry

Managers in communication (except broadcasting)

Concentrated in this sectorA

Managers in communication (except broadcasting) One industry 77.8%

Librarians, archivists, conservators and curators One industry 74.8%

Technical occupations in motion pictures, broadcasting and the performing arts Mostly one sector 43.1%

Library, correspondence and other clerks Mostly one sector 41.3%

Photographers and support occupations in arts and culture Mostly one sector 31%

Managers in art, culture, recreation and sport Mostly one sector 30.4%

Technical occupations in libraries and public archives Mostly one sector 29.5%

Support occupations in art and culture Mostly one sector 23.6%

Graphic and interior designers Mostly one sector 14.1%

Computer, software and Web designers and developers Mostly one sector 10.3%

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

Technical occupations in computer and information systems Across the economy 12.8%

Customer and information services representatives Across the economy 6.1%

Technical occupations in electronics and electrical engineering Across the economy 4.3%

Survey, statistical and data entry occupations Across the economy 3.9%

Legislative and senior managers Across the economy 3.1%

Shoe repairers, shoemakers and upholsterers Across the economy 2.9%

Administrative and financial supervisors Across the economy 2.2%

Administrative services managers Across the economy 2.1%

Financial, insurance and related administrative support workers Across the economy 2%

Administrative, property and payroll officers Across the economy 1.1%

Found across at least fourteen of the twenty sectors. But note the shape of this industry: 85% of establishments have fewer than ten employees, and at that size most of these roles are one person wearing several hats, or bought in from outside.

All 162 occupations →

Inside this industry

1 row sits directly beneath 5179, and 3 in all once every level is counted. Each has a base report of its own.

Code	Industry	Establishments · CA	What is known
51791	Other telecommunications	3,019	screened at 5179

Alongside it, under 517 Telecommunications

Code	Industry	Establishments · CA	What is known
5173	Wired and wireless telecommunications carriers(except satellite)	1,777	Regional Facilities-Based Internet Provider
5174	Satellite telecommunications	79	Satellite Connectivity Reseller & Remote Networks