July 1st marks the 40th anniversary of Canada’s first wireless call. It happened at Nathan Phillips Square in downtown Toronto. Art Eggleton, Toronto’s mayor at the time, called Montreal Mayor Jean Drapeau with a 10-pound mobile phone. Company founder Ted Rogers made the first call happen by investing in wireless at a time when no one else believed in it.
In July 1985, mobile networks handled 100 calls per day. Today, Canadians make 100 million calls and use 6.5 billion megabytes of data on Rogers wireless network every day.
“Our wireless journey began with a single call, and it was the beginning of many innovative firsts,” said Tony Staffieri, President and CEO, Rogers. “We’re proud of our legacy of leadership and innovation to connect Canadians on Canada’s most reliable networks.”
Over four decades, Rogers has invested $45 billion in wireless to deliver a series of firsts for Canadians: 1G introduced voice calls, 2G added texting, and 3G offered email and the Internet. 4G brought the smartphone and with it, the on-demand economy, and 5G has unlocked faster speeds, lower latency, and a new era of innovation.
According to Data Reportal, 5.64 billion people or 68.7% of the world’s population were using the internet at the start of April 2025. 62% of the world’s internet traffic is accessed with a mobile phone. As of April 2025, 5.31 billion people are active on social media with an average of 241 million new users each year. As of 2025, 7.4 billion Smartphones are in use globally
2025 marks Rogers 65th anniversary in Canada. Ted Rogers founded the company in 1960 with the purchase of the radio station CHFI in Toronto.