NP-Canada’s wireless costs ‘continue to be the highest or among the highest in the world’: Finnish report
Canada cellphone bills have been topping Rewheel rankings for years. In a dedicated 2019 analysis of the Canadian cellphone market, the group put the blame squarely on the country’s lack of telecom competition.
“Significant structural … remedies are required,” it concluded, calling the Canadian system a “de-facto network duopoly.”
Bribing both the liberals and conservatives to look the other way is money well spent for Bell, Rogers, and Telus. I’ll bet they even deduct it as a business expense.
I wonder if MP’s families get free phones and plans?
Not just them. COVID is being used as an excuse to give government employees free iPhones, now it’s clear most have no intention of returning to their desks full time, or at all. At your expense, of course.
The cell providers know their Canadian customers are “the dumbest or among the dumbest in the world”.
Our globalist friends have no problem with “capitalism,” as long as they and their pals control the means of production. They have never actually tolerated free enterprise that was bigger than a village pub or a subsistence farm for long.
And before anyone tries to claim that the Telcos aren’t making money, take the time to look at rogers annual report, even witblt a 9% decline they still did over $4000 million in EBItda
It’s the Canadian way.
As contraire.
Read the article. They choose the most extreme circumstance to find their pre-drawn conclusion.
The fallacy here is attempting equation of services, to countries that are geographically diverse. Canadian cellular will always cost more than US services, just by the scale of the two markets, and yes, competition. American, and foreign companies have indeed been here, and enquired to buy, but stay way, thanks to “government intervention” in the telecom world.
Pointing to third world countries, or small, densely populated countries to use as examples are incorrect, apples and oranges.
Much of the costs in this country are driven by government, direct and indirect, through taxation, fees and regulations. When contractors are charging over $100/hr to build and construct, taxes consist of a large portion of that fee.
As well, not mentioned, we’re the governments Ponzi scheme selling spectrum for cellular, that is double the cost of elsewhere in the world. This happens when the Feds reserve/giveaway preferred band to Shaw and Videotron/Cogeco, with the remainder turned into a bidding war between the big three for what is left. Supply and demand, manipulated by corrupt government. The companies will recoup those costs one way or the other, namely, through cell bills.
Today’s millenials are the most entitled generation ever. They want free cell usage, but will spend $10/day on sugary Starbucks drinks.
Which is more essential? Stupid is as Stupid does.
If you don’t like the bills, then buy shares and reap the dividends. Same advice for banks….we hate them, but, there are gains to be made.
Government created this mess, the companies are just trying to run a business, that by the way, employ thousands of Canadians, paying REAL wages, without being held hostage by unions
Telus, Rogers and Bell aren’t unionized? The things I learn here. They’re being paid real wages because the fng union told them to.
I get the sense you’re trying to make these three look like benevolent business people trying to make a buck in the hard as nails Canadian market.
Mention competition and you’ll have the CEO of Rogers crying his ass off to Trudeau.
The unionized are but a small portion of the companies, and shrinking, dude!
Why not subscribe to a Walmart phone then, and be cheap? Your choice,
DanBC, walmart phones are BELL, bell owns virgin mobile lock stock !100%.and your SMALL DENSELY populated is more BULLSHIT! Get yer facts before posting.
Australia is just as sparsely populated as Canada if not more so and their cellular rates are substantially lower than ours. Try again.
You didn’t read my reply, TRY AGAIN.
Too much government IS THE PROBLEM! Yet here on SDA, there seem to be advocates for MOAR GOVERNMENT!
Get stuffed, off to Rabble with you!
well dan try reading yer own reply!
You raised two points that are completely invalid. One, the “compare to USA or small dense countries”. To which I simply reply, look at Australia. Second you try to let our telcos off the hook with “just trying to run a business”. Horses hockey. The telcos openly collude, their rate plans almost always moving in lockstep to ensure like pricing, their customer service varying levels of crap, with the end goal of divvying up the market between them rather than actually competing. Couple with regulatory capture and vicious, even slanderous PR campaigns against any form of outside competition.
Government is certainly part of the problem, but the telcos are not innocent and the geography / density arguments are hogwash.
If you don’t like the bills, then buy shares and reap the dividends. Same advice for banks….we hate them, but, there are gains to be made.
Yup. And if a different stock comes along that’s more profitable either in increasing price or dividends, park your money there.
Remember when Justine promised Canadians affordable cable/internet?? Yep then someone posted a picture of CRTC official, allegedly, eating with the fella from Bell and boom no affordable internet? I pay my disabled sister’s basic cable bill, no internet or phone, 98:99 a month. Instead of the 29 Justine and the liberals promised.
I’ve been a Telus customer as far back as Edmonton Telephone. (Socialist mayor Jan Reimer arranged to have it sold out from under us to the old Alberta Government Telephones, because it would be “cheaper” for us. Uh-huh….. One more reason why she lasted only one term in office.)
Telus insists on calling me once in a while trying to flog some service- or frippery-du-jour. (The fact that my telephones both here in Edmonton and at my house in Fort St. John are on Telus doesn’t appear to satisfy them.) I’m no longer polite and tell them to get stuffed. Worse yet, I’m a shareholder and, when I tell that to the munchkin on the other end of the line, it’s in one ear and out the other…..
And, no, Shaw Cable (soon to be Rogers?) isn’t much better.
Getting my sim card changed out in Munich…service guy began laughing when he found out I was from Canada. “You guys are crazy over there” an obvious reference to our exorbitant prices to which I could only respond with a “Whaddya gonna do?”
The point was really driven home when I was leafing through a magazine and came across a picture of a dirt poor Masai tribesman on a cell phone somewhere in the middle of nowhere probably talking to his wife or whatever.
It’s a big joke played on Canadian Chuckleheads who are always easy to be sheared and still convinced we have “free health care”.
Reminds me of the myriad of choices we had when satellite dishes were a thing. StarChoice and Bell. That’s it. We’re Canadian, no competition please. Chretien’s son in law having a vested interest in StarChoice at the time was entirely coincidental.
A cousin of mine was in Ukraine 2 years back and while getting a SIM card installed at a kiosk in Lviv, the vendor couldn’t understand why all the Canadian tourists visiting there buy the most expensive cell package available in Ukraine. To which my cousin responded, “Because it’s ONLY $10.00!!!”
Cdn cellphone fees can be outrageous so look around.
For $25/mo there are pre-pay as you go.
The last twisted pair, dial landline we had was $25/mo.
If you don’t have wired cable, internet, then a high data cell plan may make sense.
Yeah it’s a duopoly, so if you must, play the game to your needs/budget.
I was forced to buy a cellphone when the main taxi company in Fort St. John took out its airport courtesy line. I shopped around and settled on Chatr. It’s only $15/month for about 100 min/month.
I hardly use it.
I still have my Telus phones at both my apartment and my house in Fort St. John. It’s more convenient for me that way as I need to conduct personal business once in a while.
US, Mint Mobile, $15 month.
Users need to be smarter to pay less. For well over 10 years our home phone was with freephoneline.ca. Cost was $50 to setup and $0 monthly. 10 year saving about $5,000. We had internet anyway and service was perfect. We still have our 905 # after our move from near Toronto to Eastern ON in 2016. Still free, still perfect. We now also have a 613 # from fongo.ca which cost $70 to setup and $5 per month. (fongo still operate freephoneline.ca for existing but no new users)
We each have a 514# (Montreal area) cell phone for $35 per month. The same plan would be $55 each for a local 613 #. The annual saving for us is $500.
Another example of Justin’s hypocrisy: a few short months ago the Canadian cellphone companies had to pay the federal government $8.91 billion to use the airwaves to offer the latest wireless services. How do you think those companies get that money back? They have to charge cellphone users of course, and yet Justin says prices must be lower.
https://www.canada.ca/en/innovation-science-economic-development/news/2021/07/3500-mhz-auction–process-and-results.html
Yes MJ, correct! That was pointed out above, but, some socialist SDA posters refuse to understand how high rates are caused by GOVERNMENT!
Even worse is that many of those same companies muscle in on other users of the radio spectrum and often take away some of those frequencies. For example, a few years ago, Canadian hams lost a part of the 1.3 metre band (219 – 222 MHz shared allocation, 222 – 225 MHz sole use) to some commerical service because of “lack of use”.
Those frequencies that were abandoned when TV broadcasters converted to digital service became up for grabs for whoever wanted to pay the most for them.
Similarly, part of the 3 GHz amateur bands, which is largely experimental, may be lost because 5G providers want those frequencies.