Morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the Rogers head offices, and for those of you on the webcast, thank you for joining us. Welcome to this great new space. I see the rest of you finding seats or some more seats on this side. My name is Edward Rogers, Chair of the Board. On behalf of the Rogers family, the Rogers Board, the Rogers management team, I am pleased to welcome you to this year's shareholder meeting. Rogers is 100 years old on January 23rd, 2020, but that is the corporate shell and not where the story got started. It began with my grandfather, Edward Rogers I. He was a pioneer in radio and founded CFRB, among other businesses. He unfortunately died early in 1939 at the age of 38 when my father, Ted, was only five, and those businesses were sold shortly after.
What we consider Rogers today is 59 years old and started with Ted's purchase of CHFI, a single FM radio station that at the time could only be heard by 5% of the radios that were out in the marketplace. Today, CHFI is the number one radio station in Canada, and Rogers is a strong, formidable national company. We are all so proud of what Ted built until his death in 2008, and I'm equally as proud of what everyone here and countless others have continued to build since that time. Ted named our company to honor his father and to continue the legacy that his father had started of investing in Canada, bringing innovation to Canadians, bringing jobs to Canadians, and giving back to the places that we serve.
I am pleased to see that our family, our board, Joe, our management team, our 26,000 men and women across Rogers, and countless others who work with us every single day are continuing to honor Ted's legacy and building on his vision. In 2018, we generated sales of over CAD 15 billion compared to CAD 11 billion in 2008. Since that time, we've added 2.8 million wireless customers. We've added 850,000 high-speed data customers, improved our presence in business, launched new products and services, and made investments in media and sports. And everyone's hard work is paying off. Today, we pay more than CAD 1 billion in dividends. The per-share dividend rate has grown since 2008 at CAD 1 to CAD 2 today. We've seen shareholders return a 178%, and the company's market value has almost doubled since 2008. While these numbers are impressive, Rogers is more than that.
Rogers has become one of Canada's most trusted brands, and we now reach 98% of Canadians through our wireless, cable, business services, media, and sports brands. We are proud of being Canada's largest and only national wireless network company. And we are thrilled that we're on the cusp of launching one of the fastest and most secure 5G networks anywhere in the world. The networks that Rogers and other Canadian companies build, in my view, in wireless and cable, are second to none. And we all are working hard to bring Canadians the very best. In cable, our services are unmatched with a total home strategy. Rogers works to bring our customers as much content possible over the very best TV platform that is available. We bring all of our customers access to 1 gig high-speed data speeds, voice connectivity, and a smart home product that is second to none.
In sports and media, we have some of the most loved and trusted brands in the country. We give Canadians a voice from coast to coast to coast. And we continue to see a strong future in media and sports. Our success is possible for many reasons, but chief among them is a commitment to investment for the future and innovation, mantras that Ted espoused during his life, and principles that we all still live by today. We will continue to make the investments in capital to participate in spectrum auctions, to invest in our current businesses, and to look for new businesses in the future. In closing, it is a privilege to serve as Chair of such a special company following the leadership of Alan Horn, who is with us here today, Garfield Emerson, and my late step-grandfather, John Webb Graham.
We have a strong and committed board of directors and a very strong management team under Joe, all of us who are committed to making the future even brighter. Joe and Tony will take the stage in a couple of minutes and give you additional insight and commentary. In accordance with the company's articles, I will act as Chair of the meeting, and our Chief Legal and Regulatory Officer, Graham McPhail, will act as the recording secretary of the meeting. I would like to call the Annual General Meeting of our shareholders of Rogers to order. We will now commence with the formal part of the meeting.
After we vote on the motions contained in the meeting materials and consider any other business that might properly come before today's meeting, we will close the formal part of the meeting, and then our President and CEO, Joe Natale, and our Chief Financial Officer, Tony Staffieri, will review the company's recent results and priorities going forward. We'll then open the floor to questions. Following the conclusion of the question and answer period, everyone is invited to attend an informal reception that will be held in the side of the room. Given our commitment to spectrum and capital, we can no longer afford a second room. This will provide you an opportunity to meet and speak with members of the Rogers Board and our management team.
With that, I would now like to introduce my colleagues on the board who are present with us here today and ask that they stand and be recognized as I call their names: Bonnie Brooks, Robert Burgess, John Clappison , Robert Dépatie, Robert Gemmell, Alan Horn, Phil Lind, our Vice Chairman, John A. MacDonald, Isabelle Marcoux, Joe Natale, our CEO, David Peterson, Loretta Rogers, the real boss of the company, and Melinda Rogers, our Deputy Chairman. I also pay tribute to Martha Rogers, who unfortunately could not be with us here today. Moving on, I would now like to appoint Tony Cugliari and Rebecca Prentice of AST Trust Company Canada, Rogers Registrar and Transfer Agent, to act as scrutineers for the meeting. The notice calling this meeting and proxy related to this meeting were mailed on March 18th of 2019 to the shareholders of record as of March 1st.
AST Trust Company Canada has shown proof of delivery to shareholders as required of the notice and proxy related to this meeting, with the meeting materials and the 2018 annual report and financial statements having been made available to shareholders for notice and access under applicable laws. Unless there is an objection, I will dispense with the reading of the notice of the meeting. I've also received a scrutineer's initial report on attendance and today's meeting, and I'm advised that there are sufficient numbers of shareholders and proxy holders in attendance to constitute a quorum.
The scrutineers have also informed me that the number of shares to be voted by proxy against matters to be presented at this year's meeting is less than 5% of shares outstanding, and accordingly, votes on business at this meeting will be conducted by a show of hand unless persons entitled to vote at the meeting ask for a ballot. Notice having been properly given and a quorum being present, I now declare the meeting to be regularly called and constituted for the transaction of business. As noted in the meeting materials, only holders of Class A shares or their proxy holders are entitled to vote on the materials at today's meeting. Holders of Class B shares are encouraged to participate in the question and answer period.
The first item of business is the presentation of the company's 2018 annual report and consolidated financial statements, copies of which were available and made available prior to the meeting. I now formally present those items at the meeting, including the report of the external auditors, KPMG. I would ask that any questions related to the financial statements to be held until after the presentations by Joe and Tony. The board has fixed the number of directors to be elected at the meeting at 15, and we will now proceed with the election of directors, and the nominating committee intends to nominate all proposed members of the board whose names are contained in the meeting material. I now call for nominations.
I nominate the following persons for election as directors of the company: Bonnie Brooks, Rob Burgess, John Clappison , Robert Dépatie, Robert Gemmell, Alan Horn, Phil Lind, John A. MacDonald, Isabelle Marcoux, Joe Natale, David Peterson, Edward Rogers, Loretta Rogers, Martha Rogers, and Melinda Rogers, and move that they be elected directors to hold office until the next annual meeting.
I second the motion.
Are there any further nominations? Given that there are no additional nominations at this time, I declare that the nominations are closed. As the number of nominees is the same as the number of directors to be seated, I hereby declare that all individuals that were nominated have been elected members of the board of Rogers until the next annual meeting. The next item of business is a resolution appointing the external auditors of Rogers. May I have a motion with respect to the appointment of auditors?
I move that KPMG LLP Chartered Professional Accountants be appointed as auditors of the company to hold office until the next annual meeting or until their successor is appointed.
I second the motion.
Having heard the motion, is there any discussion? Would all holders of Class A shares in favor of the motion please raise their right hand? Contrary, if any? Really hope you were scratching your head there, Graham. I declare that the motion has been carried. Is there any other business that may be properly brought before the meeting? Ladies and gentlemen, as there are no other formal business that has properly been brought before this meeting, I declare the meeting has now closed. We will now proceed with some comments from Tony Staffieri, Rogers' Chief Financial Officer, and Joe Natale, our President and Chief Executive Officer. Following these comments, we will take questions. I caution everyone that the presentations and the discussion today will contain forward-looking statements. Such statements are based on assumptions to the future and our management's current expectations and are naturally subject to risk and uncertainties.
As noted on the cautionary slide, you should review the 2018 Rogers annual report and first quarter 2019 MD&A. I'm now pleased to call on our Chief Financial Officer, Tony.
Thank you, Edward. And good morning, everyone. It's my pleasure to report that in 2018, Rogers performed well across all of our core businesses, meeting or exceeding our financial commitments. As we've emphasized in the past, our approach to creating sustainable long-term value creation for shareholders is to deliver consistent and sustainable revenue growth, steady margin improvement, and accelerating free cash flows. I'm proud to say the Rogers team executed in each of these areas, resulting in your company delivering industry-leading performance in key growth and profitability metrics. We generated strong revenue and margin performance and delivered industry-leading total shareholder returns. And our industry leadership and key financial metrics were achieved while we continue to focus on the sustainable fundamentals needed to win and keep our customers, continually improving our products, our service, and our value proposition. Rogers' products and services reach more Canadians than almost any other company.
Continually striving to get our customer formula better every day is not only a focus but critical to driving growth opportunities and value creation for shareholders. We're pleased to see that last year we had more Canadians become new Rogers customers. In fact, we welcomed 1.6 million new postpaid customers to the Rogers organization. Importantly, more customers chose to stay with Rogers than the previous year. Our wireless churn, for example, improved by 10 basis points, the equivalent of more than 100,000 customers. More work to do, but headed in the right direction on fundamentals. On a consolidated basis, overall revenue grew an impressive 5%, driven by growth in each of our divisions and particularly our wireless business.
Our consolidated adjusted EBITDA increased a full 9% as we delivered on our growth in a more efficient manner, continually improving our cost structure with simplicity as the key driver. Overall, we delivered 130 basis point expansion on consolidated adjusted EBITDA margin, coming in at just under 40%, and importantly, both wireless and cable margins improved by 100 basis points each to drive these strong results. In our wireless business, revenue grew 7% and adjusted EBITDA grew 10%. Impressively, there are six major wireless companies in Canada, and Rogers captured 36% share of the industry's total revenue growth last year and 40% share of the industry's profit growth, market share performance that led the industry. Our growth in wireless continues to focus on the fundamentals of growing the subscriber base, but importantly, by growing the average revenue per customer.
As customers demand more and more services, in particular data usage in the home, out of the home, and across our nation's businesses, this growth trend represents a key opportunity for us. While this approach continues to be a delicate balance for us, we're pleased to achieve record-setting subscriber growth. Importantly, the subscriber growth was accompanied by robust average revenue per customer, or ARPU, growth as well. ARPU increased by 2.6%, and ABPU, or average billing per customer, grew by 3.9%. These metrics were industry-leading among our national peers. In our cable business, total revenue grew by 1%, underpinned by a strong 7% increase in internet revenue. Our internet service continues to be our competitive advantage, which led our market and penetration gains throughout the year, and we continue to make investments and deploy all things wonderful that are fueled by the internet.
Our Ignite TV product is becoming a terrific success, and you can count on us to make the right investments to bring to customers more and more products in the home. You can count on continued solid investment to ensure our speed and reliability of our core foundation, the internet, remains our competitive advantage for our entire market. And like our wireless business, our cable operations also delivered solid efficiency improvements, increasing Adjusted EBITDA by 3%. Finally, in our media and sports business, which represents about 14% of Rogers' revenue, we grew 1%, and Adjusted EBITDA grew 54%. Contents and brands that Canadians increasingly value. These healthy results from all three of our core businesses resulted in strong bottom-line performance. Net income increased 12%, and adjusted net income increased 18%.
We also generated substantial free cash flow of CAD 1.8 billion, which enabled us to reduce outstanding debt, continue to make investments in our networks, and return substantial dividends to our shareholders. We finished the year with a strong balance sheet that positions us well for the coming year. We have ample liquidity to support both long-term growth investments in our core businesses while also returning significant capital to shareholders. On the back of these strong company results, we provided a robust outlook for 2019 with continued growth in revenue, profit, and free cash flow, even after making heightened capital investments in key areas such as our networks. As our first quarter results released this morning demonstrate, we are already building momentum on our 2018 performance. Total service revenue and Adjusted EBITDA increased by 3% and 7%, respectively, excluding the impact of certain items related to our baseball operations.
Our wireless business remained strong. Service revenue grew 4%, and Adjusted EBITDA grew 9%. And we continue to focus on profitable loading of new subscribers. Postpaid net subscriber additions were 23,000 in what was a quiet but stable quarter with more rational promotional activities. We also once again delivered positive blended ARPU growth of 1% and ABPU growth of 3%. Finally, we generated healthy free cash flow of CAD 405 million this quarter and delivered dividends of CAD 247 million. And we also spent CAD 155 million on share repurchases, reflecting our positive view of the long-term value and prospects at Rogers. We use the power of our balance sheet to make the critical strategic acquisition of spectrum in the recent 600 megahertz auction, more than any of our competitors, in fact. Through this CAD 1.7 billion investment, we continue to solidify Rogers' roadmap in establishing this country's best 5G network.
Even after this purchase, we have appropriate leverage ratios, low interest rates, and extended maturities on our borrowings and remain an investment-grade credit. We have a clear and disciplined strategy. Our teams are executing well. We have a strong financial position to support our investments in core assets, and we are anchored by a very talented and motivated organization. While Rogers strives to create a brilliant digital future for Canadians, it is just as important to demonstrate our commitment to corporate social responsibility and provide a national leadership role in the way we do business. Your Rogers team wants to work at a company that they know is ethical and transparent. This means we consider the societal, economic, and environmental impact in everything we do. It's the right Canadian thing to do, and it's the right Rogers thing to do.
As disciplined stewards of your capital, we remain committed to a balanced approach of investing in growth opportunities while ensuring our ability to drive sustainable long-term returns for you, our shareholders. Thank you. And now let me turn the podium back to Edward.
Tony, thank you very much. One of Joe's first days on the job was the annual meeting in 2017, and I'm so thrilled at the progress that the company has made since he joined. The company is much stronger, is much more of a competitive alternative, is focused on the right things, and has a far brighter future. Joe, we're thrilled with your leadership and thrilled that you're here. Ladies and gentlemen, Joe Natale.
Good morning, and thank you, Edward. It's a privilege to work with you and the RCI board and the entire Rogers team. As I thought about my remarks today, I thought about our industry and its role in shaping our society and our economy. Very few industries play such a vital role in the livelihood of a nation and its people. And that's what I want to talk to you about today. But first, let's make a few comments on our performance. In 2018, we made meaningful progress toward our plan. We delivered all of our financial commitments. We grew total revenue by 5% and Adjusted EBITDA by 9%. We grew after-tax free cash flow by 5%. We returned nearly CAD 1 billion in dividends to shareholders. Overall, we delivered industry-leading Total Shareholder Return of 12.5%. I'm incredibly proud of our team and all that we accomplished together. Thank you.
Earlier today, we reported our first quarter results, and we delivered strong financials. We achieved the best wireless postpaid churn number in our company's history, a key milestone in our customer experience journey. We repurchased CAD 155 million worth of shares, reflecting our underlying confidence in our long-term plan for growth, and overall, we remain on track to deliver a healthy financial outlook for 2019. We remain relentlessly focused on driving long-term shareholder value. At the same time, we continue to deliver more value for our customers, and prices continue to go down. Over the past five years alone, the cost per gig of data and wireless has dropped 50%, but these results are more than just numbers on a PowerPoint slide. These numbers tell an important story, a story about how we are fueling Canada's economic prosperity, a story about how we are driving Canada's innovation agenda.
That story, our story, begins with Ted Rogers. As Edward said, Ted started this company with one clear purpose: to honor his father's legacy, to restore his father's name. At the age of 27, Ted started our company with one radio station. It is from those modest beginnings that Rogers grew to become a great Canadian company, and Ted, a great Canadian entrepreneur. But Ted built more than a great company. He built a foundation, a foundation upon which other great companies and other great industries were built. From mining and manufacturing to agriculture and automotive, today, more than ever, industries rely on our networks to serve their customers, to grow their businesses, to help our country thrive. Our economic impact is vast. It is far-reaching. A recent PwC study shows Rogers contributed CAD 20 billion to Canada's economic footprint last year.
That's what it would cost to deliver the biggest transit asks collectively in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto, and Montreal. We added CAD 10 billion to Canada's GDP. That's greater than the GDP of almost 50 countries worldwide. We invested CAD 679 million in Canadian content, investment that created thousands of jobs for Canadian artists, Canadian producers telling Canadian stories, and we contributed CAD 65 million to our communities, contributions that helped 225,000 young people achieve their dreams and their aspirations. We employed 26,000 Canadians with high-quality jobs, and through our supplier network, we supported an additional 44,000 Canadian jobs. Today, 85% of our largest suppliers are Canadian or have significant operations here in Canada. Many are small and medium businesses, the heart of our economy, and the heart of our local communities. A good example is Integrated Tower Solutions from Saskatoon. This company started in 2009.
They built broadcasting and cell towers for our company in Western Canada. We were their first major customer. The company started with four employees, and as our needs grew and expanded, they did too. The company now has 21 employees, and these employees fuel their local economy by paying their taxes, buying their groceries, and raising their families. Integrated Tower Solutions is just one of thousands of local Canadian companies that we work with, and we are proud to work with them and drive economic impact and drive innovation. When Ted started our wireless business, he faced many skeptics. In 1983, he asked our board for CAD 500,000 to see this new wonderful technology. Every board member said no and voted against the idea. They said it was too risky. We were flat broke at the time. Back then, we were the little guy, the original new entrant.
We were competing against the big monopolies. In those days, we were known as debt-soaked Rogers. It wasn't that long ago. But despite the risk and the lack of funds, Ted didn't give up. And in 1985, with one historic call, wireless services were launched in Canada. Here's a short video to remind us of how far we have come as Rogers and as Canada.
Good afternoon. I'm Dawn Ritchie for Rogers Cable TV. And I'm down here amongst much of the Canada Day hoopla for the official launch of the Cantel cellular telephone, something that's about to revolutionize our telecommunications system. It's a portable telephone. It is so portable, in fact, that you'll be able to install it in your car or even carry it over your shoulder.
The first phone call officially from Toronto to Montreal over the Cantel network.
Anybody home?
Hello.
Received the phone.
Greetings.
Commence now.
Now.
Good evening. Good evening, America. Good evening to you. I'm delighted to talk with you. In fact, we have several thousand people out here in the nation tonight.
But it's a great day for Canada to have this new high-tech industry start and be pioneered by Canadians. We have, in our company, Canadians from across Canada, our group, Rogers Cable and Broadcasting Group from Ontario. It's a great partnership, and we're delighted you're with us today. And now for the official opening.
I love the line that it's even so portable you can carry it over your shoulder. The original business case for Rogers Cantel said we would get to about 80,000 customers, and customers would pay between CAD 3,000 and CAD 5,000 for a phone, and they would give us about CAD 1,000 a month for that phone service, which were things costed back then. Well, we have about 11 million customers on average. They give us about $50 a month. And they won't pay for the phone. But we built a great industry. It's always fun to look back, especially at the hair and the fashion. But we're always looking forward. Over the past 35 years, we've invested over CAD 30 billion in wireless, 30 billion, taking risks, making bets. For the first 25 years, we didn't make any cash profit. We didn't make one single penny.
Yet this investment propelled Canada through the wireless revolution. And just look at the transformation we've been through. 1G brought voice calls. 2G brought texting. 3G brought email and the internet. 4G brought the smartphone and with it, the on-demand economy. It fueled the creation of new innovations, companies like Amazon, Uber, Airbnb. It fueled the transformation of entire sectors and industries, from education to e-commerce to energy. Our networks have fueled every industry you can think of. Take banking, for example. Before the internet, you had to wait in line, fill out a deposit slip, update your bank book, speak with a teller. It was an activity you planned based on your schedule and your local branch hours. If you didn't want to wait in line, you could, of course, send a check through the mail or make a payment at your retailer.
Now, you can direct and monitor your investments, speak with an advisor, instantly send money to family and friends anywhere in the world. Technology has truly transformed banking from moving it from a 9:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M., Monday to Friday experience to a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week experience. And now we're on the brink of 5G. We're on the brink of more hoopla, to quote the video. It will bring the real-time economy, an economy that will connect smart homes, smart cities, machines, and vehicles. It will connect virtually everything in our lives. And after 5G, there'll be 6G and 7G and many more Gs after that. And it's not just wireless. In cable, we continue to invest in state-of-the-art fiber-fed DOCSIS network. We continue to invest in world-class connected home technology. We continue to invest in live sports and local programming to bind our nation and celebrate our unique Canadian culture.
If you stand back, it's very clear that this is a very capital-intensive business. It's a business that requires constant care and feeding. Our networks are a living, breathing organism, and they need constant growth and investment. Like local transit, you can't build a subway line and walk away. You need to keep up with capacity. You need to keep up with demand. That's why we're always building. That is why we reinvest 80% of our profits every year back into our country each and every year. We're making generational investments that will serve generations to come. And that is what makes us truly unique. We take a long-term perspective. We are a proud Canadian company, and we're here for the long haul. I mean, just last week, we made a CAD 1.7 billion investment to bring 5G spectrum to Canadians.
We've invested billions to build Canada's communications industry, and we will invest billions more because it takes billions. Canada is the second largest country in the world, and it's one of the least densely populated. Yet, we have the second fastest wireless networks in the world, twice as fast as the U.S., and with LTE covering 99% of Canadians. As a nation, we should be proud. We should hold our heads high. Despite our vast geography and our small population, we lead the world. Didn't just happen. Didn't just happen overnight. It required the right policies. It required the right investments. It required the right partnership between industry and government. And this partnership is critical to our future. The race to 5G is not with other carriers. The race to 5G is with other countries. And we want Canada to be first.
We're doing our part to make sure Canadians enjoy the very best of 5G. We're laying the tracks. We're building the foundation. But we can't do this alone. We need the right regulation. We need the right partnership with government. We got here because entrepreneurs like Ted Rogers were able to invest. We got here because regulatory policy supported investment. Regulation will never be a substitution for innovation. At best, it's a key to unlock Canada's digital future. At its worst, it's a barrier that stops innovation, stops investment in its tracks. Let's look overseas. Take a look at Europe, for example, and many different countries. In some markets, the government backs companies that ride on the networks of other carriers at vastly discounted prices, companies who don't invest in their country's national infrastructure. This approach suppresses investment, stifles innovation, sabotages network quality.
In short, it stalls a nation's economic prosperity. As we enter the world of 5G, it's even more critical to invest. It's more critical for Canada to invest given our sheer landmass and sparse population. As a country, we need to spend significantly more than any other G7 country to lead the world. Look at the G7. You could fit five Germanys into Canada, plus five Japans, five Frances, five Italys, and five United Kingdoms, and Canada would still be bigger. Canada's at a crossroads with an ambitious innovation agenda and a vision to lead in the digital economy. We want to help make this vision a reality. As a nation, we need policy that spurs growth and innovation. We need policy that incents Canadian companies with a track record of investing. We need policy that ensures Canada can compete with global players.
We need policy that supports one of our nation's most precious resources, our network technology. To quote, our innovation minister, we need to make sure Canadians and Canadian businesses benefit from the economic opportunities of today and tomorrow. We could not agree more. Technology is the backbone of the digital age. And now, more than ever, we must invest in this backbone. We must invest to ensure our citizens, our communities, and our country benefit from this backbone for decades to come. We owe it to our country. We owe it to our customers to get this right. Thank you.
Joe, that was a fabulous speech and a real insight to Rogers and into where we're going. And thank you very much to both you and Tony. With that, I would now like to open the floor to any questions. If any shareholder does have a question, please rise, wait to be recognized, and identify yourself as either a Rogers shareholder or a proxy holder. And because this part of the meeting will be webcast, please be sure to wait until a microphone is handed. Now, are there any questions? I see one at the back.
Hi.
Harvey, hi.
Okay. My name is Harvey Glatt. I'm from Ottawa. In 1999, I sold, well, we sold a few radio stations to Rogers. I took some shares, and I have to say, overall, I'm more than pleased with the performance, but today, I have a two-part question. After the spectrum auction results came out, Veritas, who I know tend to be negative about Rogers frequently, said that the greater spectrum position has not translated into better quality, and he mentions that Rogers speed has lagged behind TELUS and behind BCE. I have an anecdotal story. I live in Westboro, which is maybe 10 minutes from downtown Ottawa, and for the last few years, LTE is intermittent, if nonexistent, on my street, in my house. 4G, maybe, and in the house, my Rogers router doesn't cover the house.
It's not that big, but I have an extender that allows me to get Wi-Fi. It may have to do with condos and apartments going up in our neighborhood, but it's never been fixed, and so I'm wondering if this is typical in a lot of other areas of Canada, so that's the other thing that happened. I just noticed that the Rogers shares, the B shares, dropped over CAD 2 this morning. Curious to know the reason. Does it have to do with the dividend price? Or maybe somebody can explain that to me, but I'm also curious to know about the signal in many areas. Thank you.
Harvey, I'll let Joe take the question, but I just want to start by thanking you for coming. Thank you for being a partner and owning our shares for many decades now. It's a real privilege.
Harvey, thanks very much for your question. First and foremost, I'll have someone speak to you directly after the meeting about your home and what we can do to actually improve the service in your home directly. I think there's probably an easy solution for that, and we'll figure out how to do it. With respect to network coverage across Canada, we're really proud that our LTE network does cover the vast majority of Canada, 96%-97% of Canada. There will always be some places, for whatever reason, we don't have adequate coverage. Usually, it has to do with our inability to get approval to put a tower close by. So that may be the reason. It may not be the reason. We'll take a close look at it and see if that can be ameliorated in some fashion.
Spectrum is very important because spectrum is what really carries the traffic for us, and more than ever, Canadians are consuming more and more data traffic. The average Canadian uses about 2.5 gigabytes of data per month, and that's growing by about 20%, and we need to continue to deploy spectrum to meet that demand and that need across the country. We look very carefully at reliability of our network and minimal acceptable speeds and everything in almost every geography of the country, and we're pleased to continuously invest. Like this year alone, we'll spend close to CAD 3 billion investing in our network to deliver that performance, that speed, and that capacity. It's the kind of thing where you just have to keep investing. I use the example of my team. I say it's like painting the Golden Gate Bridge.
By the time you think you're finished, it's time to start again. So we're continuously adding capacity in all spots of the country. And we rely on loyal customers like yourself to point out places where you may not have exactly figured it out yet. And we're always deploying our team to some of those specific locations. In terms of the share price, it's very difficult to actually predict how the markets will react to news and to information along the way. We're very proud of our accomplishments and momentum we have in our business. We continue to expand and grow our business as a whole. There are going to be moments where the share price does go up and down. It's just the nature of the markets as a whole. But we have driven great shareholder return.
Last year, we led the industry at 12.5% Total Shareholder Return, strongest among our peers, and we believe we have the right momentum and the right strategy to continue doing that. Okay. Thank you.
I just add, Joe, since you have arrived at our company, one of your focuses has been to put more money into the network, to focus on quality, and to focus on service. And Harvey, I'll make sure your issues get addressed. So thank you. Is there any further questions? Okay. Well, ladies and gentlemen, if there are no further questions, thank you for your attendance today. We now invite you to join our members of the board and our management team for some coffee and biscuits outside of the room. Thank you very much.