According to a report by Bank of America Merrill Lynch, average revenue per user at Bell, Rogers and Telus remain the highest in the developed world.

Bell, Rogers and Telus, which control more than 95% of the Canadian market, had earnings (before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or "EBITDA") of 46.7% in the first quarter, a margin that topped 21 developed nations tracked by the bank in its regular Global Wireless Matrix report.

The Canadian industry leads the world in terms of average revenue per user (ARPU), earning an average of US $54.73 US per user per month. While Canadian carriers posted low per-minute revenue, value-added services such as caller ID and voice mail contributed to the high ARPU.

The average margin in the developed world was 38.3%, with U.K. firms posting the lowest result at 22.6%. The Canadian result was closer to the 42.2% average found among the 29 emerging economies in Europe, Asia and Latin America.

Canada placed last among developed nations in penetration, at 69%, which was only three percentage points above the average penetration rate in the developing world, at 66%. Not surprisingly, Canada had the highest landline penetration, at 60%, a reflection of the country’s strong tradition of landline coverage.

Continuing the suspect tradition of double, and sometimes triple counting subscription rates as a result of people having multiple accounts, the average among peer nations was 109%. Sadly, this is poor data when it comes to trying to determine what percentage of people have no account at all.

In Canada data usage only represented 23.9% of ARPU, below the developed world's average of 31.8%. Japanese wireless customers were on top with 49.1% of their bills going to data.

Canada had average revenue of 10 cents per minute, the fourth-lowest rate in the developed world. U.S. carriers had the lowest per-minute revenue among their peers, with four cents.

The average ARPU among developed nations was $42.90. In the United States, ARPU was $49.54 while in the United Kingdom it was $31.63. Greece had the lowest APRU in the group with $19.87.