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It was another boom year for wireless and Internet business in Canada even as cord cutting continued to chip away at the traditional television segment, a trend that industry watchers expect will solidify in the final stretch of 2016.

Canada’s top five communications providers – BCE Inc., Rogers Communications Inc., Telus Corp., Shaw Communications Inc. and Quebecor Inc. – gained 626,000 wireless subscribers and 212,000 Internet subscribers in the first three quarters of 2016, according to the most current financial data available.

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Yet over the same period these five players, which controlled approximately 82 per cent of the broadcasting and telecommunications market share as of 2015, lost 157,000 television subscribers. Landline subscriptions fell by more than 471,000.

Analysts expect the final TV cord cutting tally to rise to anywhere between 150,000 and 200,000 subscribers by the end of 2016 compared to an overall loss of approximately 173,000 TV subscribers in 2015. These estimates count results from the entire market including smaller players such as Cogeco Inc.