Canadian Cellphone Bills Are Some of the Highest In the World, Says Report (straight.com)

Freshly Exhumed shares a report from Straight: A report released this week by the Ministry of Innovation, Science, and Economic Development (ISED) confirms that Canada ranks among the top three most costly countries for mobile wireless plans. Comparing the U.K, Italy, France, Australia, Japan, and the U.S. on six tiers of pricing -- which looked at talk-time, texts, and data -- the document shows that Canada has the most expensive mid-range and higher-tier plans in the world. "It is unacceptable that Canadians continue to pay ever-rising prices year after year for something as critical as mobile communications services," said Katy Anderson, Digital Rights Advocate at OpenMedia.

Comments

Yes it's ridiculous

[RobinH]

I live in Canada and can't believe what people are willing to pay, but that's just it -- the phone companies charge it and they pay it. Myself, I have a pay-as-you-go plan where I can buy minutes in a $100 chunk which doesn't expire for 365 days, and for several years I've never maxed out that $100 so it keeps rolling over. I think I have about $250 still in there right now. That's the best deal I could find, as it's only $8.33 per month, but I only use it for a few phone calls and maybe about a dozen texts per week with my wife. No data, I just use WiFi everywhere. My wife, on the other hand, with her iPhone 7 is paying around $60/month including data on a Rogers account, I think.

Re:Yes it's ridiculous

[Frederic54]

I do the same thing as you, but with PetroMobility, 25$ for 120 days, so 75$/year, it's 10 per minutes/SMS. I rarely use more than 15$ for a 120 days period.

Re:$ or it didn't happen

[DontBeAMoran]

Here's the three reasons why it costs so much:
Bell
Rogers
Telus

If you want more details, watch the video at this address:
http://theprovince.com/news/ca...

Except Sask

[dentree4]

Cell phones are cheap in Saskatchewan. They have competition (sasktel) I just got new phones the other day and every fucking salesperson told me that there was no difference between carriers because "there's so much competition their pricing is identical" That's collusion.

Don't get too excited

[PopeRatzo]

If you look at the actual report, you'll find the differences between the prices in the US and Canada are not that dramatic. And they don't take into consideration all the lovely fees and service charges that get added to your cellular bill.

Here's a direct link to the report, because the article itself gives almost no useful data:

https://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/...

Re:$ or it didn't happen

[tripleevenfall]

I'm confused. What is Bell Rogers going to Telus?

As a Canadian

[nightfire-unique]

.. I'd like to post a rant, but can't afford the data.

Re:It's dumb

[joelgrimes]

My phone company is Canadian (Ting). They are available all over the US and they're extremely cheap.

Are they not available in Canada?

So, it's in the middle

[Geoffrey.landis]

So, the summary says

...confirms that Canada ranks among the top three most costly countries for mobile wireless plans. Comparing the U.K, Italy, France, Australia, Japan, and the U.S....

As I see it, the phrase "among the top three" means: "third" (because surely if it was the most expensive or the second most they'd say that. First could, of course, also be labelled "among the top three," but you'd just call it first.) And there were six countries compared. So: Third of six is in the middle, not "some of the highest".

Re:Well, duh

[lucasnate1]

That's why I know a lot of people without cellphones.

Sounds fun, wish mobile was more expensive where I live.

Re:It's dumb

[substance2003]

Yes they are located in Canada but none of the Canadian carriers will let them buy bandwidth as I recall which is why we can't get this option out here. If the federal government wanted to get competition going, they should force carriers to provide the possibility for companies like Ting to do here what they can do in the US.

Interesting contrast between Internet and Mobile

[cptdondo]

I live in Canada as a US expat. US allows ISPs to control the last mile so Comcast and such prohibit any competition for service to your house. Ontario, at least, requires Rogers, Bell to lease their lines to anyone. So I contract with VMedia and get cable with a couple of premium packages and 35 mbit down for about CAD$70 a month, much cheaper than what I was paying in the US ($70 a month for 1.5 mbit down. Really. Try living in Qwest territory.)

OTOH the US prohibits telcos from owning cell towers, and the cell tower operators must lease to anyone so competition is fierce. As a result there's lots of competition and mobile prices are reasonable. In Ontario, Rogers owns Rogers towers, and no one else can use them. Each telco has to build its own tower network, decreasing competition and driving up prices.

What the numbers in the report don't show is that in the US you can get family bundles that substantially lower the bill; I have 5 lines and pay about US$120 a month for the service; the first line is $60 and then each additional line is $10. If I was to contract with Rogers, I'd pay CAD$60 PER LINE with no discount. Sure I can share data, but I have to pay full freight for each line.

Re: No service here so it's cheap.

[TimMD909]

Watched a good documentary on rural Canadian life called "Letterkenny" the other day...