Communications — A Canadian technological achievement

The Canadian telecommunications/telephone system is internationally acknowledged as one of the finest in the world and yet Canadians take it for granted. The system has been created without government support and largely on the technological innovations that have come from Bell-Northern Research Limited, Canada´s largest privately owned industrial research organization. BNR accounts each year for more than 10 percent of all the industrial research done in Canada. This technological superiority has permitted Northern Telecom to establish a secure Canadian market and to become one of the world´s leading multinational telecommunications equipment manufacturers. However, problems such as higher wages and lower productivity in Canada than in competing nations; lack of a national R&D and science and technology strategy; and excessive amounts of national income consumed by governments, endanger continued growth and the future of the Canadian telecommunications systems and industry.