Canada Worse than 3rd World Countries when it comes to Mobile Data Access

Cheaper now Yes, but theri back bones ??? Slow access to their towers, just borng...Lovely roaming fess in Europe from Aliant and Bell, I do name Aliant the "Alone Ant" once connected to the hub you are alone for sure. 1 MB of Data with Bell and Aliand cost me 50 Dollars of Roaming fees. Europe implemented a by law to not charge more than 2 Dollars per MB, also there is a bylaw in place not to charge more than 50ct per minute call received. So whats the mark up. 1000% and more. Alexander Graham Bell would turn in his grave if he would knew about this scam. Canadian Companies never do invest money to improver the services, none of all. You can start with Bell, Rogers, Alian, Starchoice, and so on. Please do not forget to add mid size companies too....Forget them, the less you need, the less they can rob you...a soul from Europe

I hate Canadian telecome corps more than anyone they have screwed me and my company out of $$$$$$$$ of dollars so far. But i must say, for the US residents that are commenting here please F off this is not your country to discuss. You dont' understand the taxing system here and you refuse to learn it. We pay more taxes so we get more services like healthcare so when my dad has cancer he can get treated without us selling out home. #2 everything is more expensive and the reason is very simple, our salaries are very high in this country. Any average joe can make a good living here. #3. no we don't need any American companies in Canada to suck up our wealth that is a ridiculous statement. and last of all yes the government should step in and change the laws governing the telecom companies. The CRTC is garbage and they should all be fired out of a cannon.

Thanks for the useful info. I love to read your topic and it is very interesting.

Shareem, I am with you. I am now shopping around for a U.S. carrier to switch to. It's not only the data plans that are higher, all cell phone service plans are a rip off here. Rogers is simply a scam! The misrepresentation of service and what you will be liable for ought to be against the law.

If you are with Rogers do NOT use their website to "add" on features. When you do you will be put on a higher priced buy out without being told! It used to be two hundred dollars a phone to buy out of their plan and as long as you do NOT add any features it will stay that way, if you do it's now four hundred dollars and nowhere are you told this. Even when you call to add services they rarely mention it. I added on a few more minutes to my long distance plan and was automatically put on the higher priced buy out without being notified. I would NOT have changed my service in any way at all had I known as I wanted out of this so called "contract" or rather choke hold as soon as possible.

This is not the only time I've had a similar situation with them and if you google this you will see many people complaining that they are very good a misrepresenting what they are selling you.

High rates, terrible service and manipulating the facts to trap consumers into their plans. I've had enough of it. I am writing the CRTC and the newspapers here. And to the person who said we can solve this ourselves. I agree whole heartedly. However, I do not personally have the resources to do this. Rogers currently has all my money!

I"m SERIOUSLY considering suing them. Next time I call them I am recording the call for "customer satisfaction" or some other reason and will catch them selling something and hiding the fact that I will end up being switched without my consent to another plan pricing. This is similar to "slamming" and is against the law for landline providers and ought to be illegal for wireless services too.

I tried to complain to my mp, but this is the 3rd time I have been ignored by him.

Just stumbled across this now. The iPhone is out and Canucks are bemoaning the fact that it hasn't been released in Canada.

Good thing, eh? (Sorry about that “eh”, I didn't want to disappoint the American readers.)

Rogers will be the carrier, or so the rumour goes, although it would be possible for Apple to make a hardware change to support other carriers' networks.

With the gouging that the Canadian carriers do for data, it's a moot point, as the data plans as they stand now will be unaffordable for most people. Assuming you've got the bucks to cough up for the ultra-expensive iPhone, the data charges will push the total cost of ownership through the roof.

As for the CRTC, don't make me gag. I've had first hand experience with how they handle telephone solicitors and they don't even enforce their own tariffs against telcos who let the solicitors violate the terms of the tariff at will.

The CRTC is absolutely impotent. Don't complain to them, complain to your MP about them.

I've started up a petition to complain about lack of rate plans for the Deaf in Canada - we are forced to pay for voice/talk plans that we actually and physically cannot use. At all.

CBC Montreal is getting in touch with me tomorrow to explore this topic further.

Meanwhile, you can complain uselessly or hit the wireless carriers where it hurts - their pocketbooks. I suggest that for just one day every month, everybody shuts down their cellphone. Just for one day a month. I think the "deafening" silence of cellphones across the country will cost them dearly and make them realize that yes, we mere consumers, do have power to say no. Imagine their reaction if we did that. They'd be freaking out in their boardroom meetings.

What do you all think? Can we collectively decide on one day every month like every first Tuesday of the month, we shut down our cellphones? And use it only if absolutely absolutely absolutely necessary? Like emergencies, as an example.

Hmm....maybe I should start up a blog on just this topic alone - the One Day a Month Protest.

I've recently moved to the American south from Ottawa. I had always suspected that phone costs and service quality was quite different between our two countries. I subscribe to MetroPCS (a metro area only service provider) and get *unlimited* day and night minutes for a fixed monthly USD$52 (all fees included). This includes free long distance within the US, and unlimited text messages to both US and Canada, and 2cents a minute to call back home in either Ottawa or Toronto. It is true that the price difference is quite striking for all manner of things. Perhaps even more striking with the two dollars being almost at parity. I value the diversity and differences between our two nations but the cost of services and good shouldn't be one of them.

I always love how Canadians who've never lived abroad try to explain our high wireless data costs by saying we're a bigger country than US with less people to service the costs. I've lived in Australia and they have 10million less people than Canada and are just as big and if you look at what Telstra charges, it's still less than Fido/Rogers. Businesses will charge what the market will bear. If it were a truly free market/free trade in Canada they'd let in international competitors and then we'll see how Rogers/Fido deals with the situation. The fact is the executives at Cdn carriers know they have a good thing as long as they're protected ... and of course they know they're not smart enough to deal with bigger and more innovative companies coming in (those companies didn't get bigger and more successful from just government protection).

No need for the iPhone here in Canada.

[…] had a great post a couple of months ago detailing our fate as Canadian mobile data consumers. It’s not […]

The Inukshuk network isn't mobile. It runs on the cellular backbone, however the "portable" modem is anything but portable. You cannot use it while in a vehicle as the connection is not handed from one tower to another. It is geared more towards rural areas where it would cost the telcos to put in a wired high speed network. Even then it sucks.

Here's what I think I know:

Federal government employees get unlimited data for $34.95/month. Talk about a conflict of interest!

Another tidbit: I understand Telus is actually "unable" to track data usage on their MIKE network, so it's virtually unlimited at the lowest data plan ($25/4mb). I'll best your ass they haven't fixed this on purpose because the big companies using MIKE phones would scream if they started getting charged for what they were actually using. And THEN they would have to answer to OTHER big businesses.

"Here's your phone, sir. Please bend over."

Nevermind. Bell, Telus & Rogers say we already have enough competition in Canada.

I am surprized on this wonderful discussion. Being a Professional Engineer in Ontario working in ICT industry, I would like to take stand at the level of professional and political bodies.

I hope we can make difference together. Please start sending email/faxes to Bell/Rogers/tellus/ MPs/Feds.

I will defintely raise this issue on number of platfroms.
Hopefully, it creates a pressure lobby.

The solution in my opinion is for the Canadian government to make it easier for foreign companies to set up shop in Canada. Bell, Telus and Rogers are sitting rather comfortably content to "swap" their customers around. If Rogers loses a customer Bell gains a customer and visa versa. But lets say Verizon and AT&T as an example could start expanding their coverage north that would spur more competition and drive prices downwards. At the end of the day no matter what the consumer wins. This problem is also paralleled in Canada's banking industry as well as television broadcast providers.

Additionally I would be willing to play up to $100 a month to get highspeed wireless access right to my laptop if any of the big three are genuinely listening. Until that happens I will abstain from being F'd with my pants on.

Thats my $0.02

I would like to introduce you to a new grass-roots Canadian Telecoms
Oligopoly information and protest site at TeleGopoly.com.

What is TeleGopoly?

Telegopoly = Telecom + Oligopoly

A market scenario where there are minimal, dominant, major telecoms
companies serving the wireless (cellphone) market. Due to their
oligopolistic nature and 'coopetition', the wireless telcos act like
monopolies in a 'competitive' market. Side effects are minimal
innovation and high service fees.

An example of this market situation is Canada where there are only
three network based wireless carriers (which created tightly
controlled MVNOs to create illusion of competition) serving the
wireless market.


The Telegopoly.com objective is to educate Canadians about the
Advanced Wireless Spectrum (AWS) Auction.

Next year, Industry Canada will hold the AWS Auction. Industry Canada
set up a call for comments which ran from mid-February to May 25,
2007. Unfortunately the Call for Comments was not well advertised and
the only time the press spoke about the process in any really visible
manner was near the end of the process. It is now too late to make
commments.

The Department will also provide interested parties with the
opportunity to reply to comments from other parties. Reply comments
will be accepted until June 27, 2007. We as consumers must be heard!
It is important to rebutt comments made by business organizations
which are acting as defacto lobby groups for the incumbent carriers.

The carriers want "free market" open auctions via which the incumbent
carriers will be able to outspend potential market entrants which
could bring innovation and competition to the Canadian market.

Visit the site and let us know what you think.
Please forward this email to your colleagues

Sincerely,

Markus and the Telegopoly.com team

Regarding Shawns reply #113: You, so far have come closest to actually explaining what I'm still trying to find an answer for. I know of a young lady that worked at a local Canadian Tire, and I asked her one time, "how come I cannot get help from an associate when I'm obviously wandering aimlessly looking for whatever it is I'm looking for?" She replied that they are in fact discouraged from actually greeting a customer in that fashion. In her words, as long as a customer is wandering aimlessly, they are in fact still in the store. Once you direct them to the product they are looking for, they purchase and leave.
There seems to be a general attitude that " if you want it, your going to pay" and that goes for the telecom market as well.
People used to tell me that it has to do with currency exchange. Well, that theory hold no water. The currencies at the moment are virtually equal, and prices here have not reduced at all.
#119......I agree fully.
#120.....We do the same. We drive to Detroit to fly out. Would you believe that you can drive from S.W. Ontario to Detroit Metro and fly BACK in to Alberta or Sask cheaper than you can fly direct from London or Toronto?

A bit off topic so just apologizing in advance
Re: comment #113
Toronto(Pearson) is the worst airport to fly from in terms of flight cost - Here is a piece of advice for anyone that is thinking about travelling anywhere in the USA - Instead of flying from Toronto just drive the extra hour or so to the Buffalo Niagara International Airport and you'll end up saving hundreds of dollars on a flight even with the exchange rate - I do alot of travelling to mainly Jacksonville, FL and I imagine I saved alot flying from Buffalo

All I gotta say is screw Canada!!!! Am an Ontario resident here - its sad to say but its true, seems like everything here is double, even triple the price of goods and services in other countries...Even the whole tax bit, I mean come on who else has heard of a 14%(Ontario example) tax on services and most products found in other countries - Canada seems to be just catering to Big Business and screwing the general public

Glad I'm not from canada. I mean it is obviously so much better and all, too bad it still sucks.

Re: RB's comments

As a Canadian, one who has travelled through the states, I have to say no offence taken. I have observed for a long time the difference in the way American and Canadian businesses treat customers. In the US there seems to be the burning drive to 'get them in the door' when it comes to customers. In any given field there is a great deal of competition and price wars are not un-common.

In Canada the creed seems to be "Get them coming and going...and get them good". There is very little competition and if you are the One person in your town who HAS to buy Digtal Camera type X you are going to pay a $300 markup (per your comment). In the US, every store will carry that model and charge just enough to make a profit ($500 versus $800 in Canada).

Take for example the cost of flights from Toronto to places like Sudbury or Thunderbay. Historically they have been 2 -3 times the cost of a flight to Florida and as expensive as a flight to Europe... who the heck pays that? The 10 people who HAVE to fly there that day. If you HAVE to go there, you are going to pay.

And so it is no big surprise that Wireless Providers have taken the same approach to Wireless Data. If you HAVE to check your email via their network, you are going to PAY.

What saddens me as a person in technology is they are holding back the advancement of technologies. No one is going to develop a 'killer app' for a Canadian Business worker with wireless data prices like this. Applications for 'road warriors' will not been seen in Canada for another 5-10 years because of this pricing strucutre. Meanwhile, what is the rest of the world doing?

Overall, everyone suffers because of the greed of the wireless companies.

Great peice Tom - the telcos argue that they have to service all these underpopulated markets that hardly sustain enough business to operate...yet quarter after quarter this part (consumer services) of their very diverse businesses are profitable. Oligopolists rule Canadian communications and financial services sector.

You know, I hate to blast Canada, but I've lived here now for 6 years having come from the U.S. and EVERYTHING here is priced completely out of market averages. Digital cameras, Air compressors, Wendys! I have never seen such a tolerant society to over priced merchandise and I've been to a few places.
I'm by no means an economics major, but could someone kindly tell me why a digital camera that costs roughly 500 dollars in the States will easily cost 800 here.
I have never received an explanation for this. Nor can I find viable information regarding the subject.
I mean, if a bucket of nasty KFC Chicken costs 12 dollars in the States, in no way should it cost 25 here.
By the way, I do agree with mobile bandwidth charges. I'm a bell subscriber, and I dare not hit the web button on my phone.

It certainly feels like the Canadian mobile operators are in the cohoots to keep their prices obscenely high & to maximize their profits. I have no problems with companies turning reasonable profits, but Rogers/Fido, Bell & Telus are reaping obscene profits due to our lack of options. Look at what they have done: "SAF fees"; charges for options like voice mail, call display, etc. that are typically included with operators outside of Canada; 3 year contracts; shrinking of evening hours; and the on-topic mobile data charges.

I signed up with Verizon to use in Canada. How sad is that, it's significantly cheaper to use a US plan in Canada & worth the hassle of using a US billing address & shipping.

Yes!!! I agree completely!

The Canadian providers do not feel any competition. Fido used to have unlimited data plan for $50. Not any more... (it is $38 in Verizon right over the board...)

Also do not forget the taxes. I have $20 plan but I really pay $40 EVERY MONTH. What is that?

Thank you for your post. I am glad there are other people feeling the same.

If you can't beat them join them with a callback service. Use itokk and bypass the wireless charges. Let's see what the wireless providers say about this service. They should celebrate as this will increase data usage by leaps and bounds, and where are the next revenues coming from??? Yes data.

http://www.itokk.com

Shaheem: yes. this is part of what I am calling "the problem" with the CRTC. Their mandate is clueless and out of date. Tell your MP.

As an online consultant, information like this always stresses me because connectivity is one the foundations of my firm's business. With costs rising, I cannot but think that we have to figure other ways of connecting to our customers more reasonably because we will not push this back to our client so we'll end up eating up the costs which of course affects the bottom line. I think its time to open a shop in NZ.

The New Zealand prices are not only the lowest, but also take into consideration that the Telecom New Zealand network is an EVDO Rev A network so it is the fastest AND the cheapest. Welcome to Godzone!

From CRTC's website - we may be barking up the wrong tree

CELLULAR SERVICES
You may not be aware that the CRTC does not regulate the rates, quality of service or business practices of cellular (wireless) service providers and cannot pursue complaints on these matters on your behalf. For information on where to lodge a complaint, read our Fact Sheet about Cellular (Wireless) Telephone Services.

We Canadians have a better chance lobbying US wireless carriers to come up with unlimited North American data plan for Blackberry users.
I am seriously considering switching to US wireless carrier that can accomodate us Canadians. Let me know if anyone finds such a plan with T- Mobile or Cingular etc.

Whether we are a corporate or personal user - managing communication expense means cash flow that can be better spent somewhere else.

The excuse always used is the cost factor: Canada is such a big country with very low population density, so it's not "worth it" and they're charging for extra cost.

However, Australia has a lower population with a population density of 2.6 people per square km, versus Canada's 3.2 people per sq km (granted, Australia is 2 mil sq km smaller!).

The remote areas that aren't even getting high-speed Internet (although it's becoming more prevalent) can hardly be expecting internet through their phones, so providing the network for that there would be neither expected nor viable anyway.

Neal Mac: let me get this straight -- you're suggesting that there is more competition in Rwanda? Do I read that correctly?

More realistically: Is there any possibility that the 3rd world rates are being subsidized somehow? Or is it simply because we are tied down to a huge as-yet-unamortized legacy albatross of landlines whereas all the rest are either working off long-ago paid-off copper (in the US for example) or never got into that trap in the first place? Bucky Fuller observed that the railroad infrastructure is also still largely unamortized, and in nations such as Brazil they were able to see immediate gains from air transport precisely because they didn't have all those thousands of miles of railway track holding them back.

And that then begs the next future question: As we rush to roll out all this wireless infrastructure, do we really have any hope of paying for it all within the useful lifetime of the technology? Or will cellphones be the albatross of 2010?

I signed up with Fido back in 2000 when I first came to Canada, first pre-paid than on a monthly plan.

The plan I currently have dates back to 2003 when I made the brief mistake of being a Rogers customer, I gladly paid the $160 early termination fee to go back t Fido.

Having said that, Fido is literally losing it since Rogers took over.

- The $50 / all you can eat Data plan is gone, instead the best "bang" you can find is 200MB/$100.
- New phones are crippled by Fido, in the past the phones were relatively open
- New call packages have gotten severely more expensive.
- Instead of being able to get a new phone every few years you now have to "save" Fido Dollars. The biggest kick on it? If you decide get reeled in for a three year contract with them (for a new phone) your Fido Dollars are worth ZERO. "This offer cannot be combined".
- Customer service has gone down the shitters. In the past when you called Fido you actually got a human being that was willing to help, even when it es something that only indirectly had something to do with Fido. These days? You're lucky if you get someone on the phone who can tell you your current account balance.
- Technical reliability seems to suffer too. For the last four months I am fighting with Rogers / Fido's customer support over the fact that I occasionally get a fast busy signal when dialing out or people can't reach me because, guess what, they get a fast busy signal.First they blamed it on my non-Fido cell phone, then they blamed it on my voice mail set up, now it is with their "networking group". I am not really holding my breath.

The problem is that there is no real competition in Canada. Bell & Telus are sort of slugging it out, but the Cellphone isn't the main battle ground, much less via price.

The third one, Rogers, is just freaking money grabbing. No wonder Ted Rogers has spent so much money and the only thing that REALLY rolls in the dough is the cellphone business.

Yeah, the CRTC is not regulating it, but maybe the competition bureau can get into the fray, this is starting to get utterly ridiculous. I am honest to god thinking about picking up a phone from the US. And I am saying this knowing full well that Mobile phone technology in the US lacks Europe or Japan by at least five years.

The mandate of the CRTC isn't simply to 'regulate'; that's too broad of a term to use. As far as the wireless industry goes, the intent of the CRTC is to encourage competition to the benefit of the consumers.
Evidently, there isn't enough competition these days. The CRTC and Joe Consumer all agree with this fact. That's why we hear so many complaints about what Canadians perceive as an oligopoly in the wireless industry.
I don't believe bringing in foreign investment is the answer. Why do we need to bring in corporations from around the world to solve the problem for us? Why can't we solve it ourselves? We're intelligent people here, and we certainly have the skill, ability, and the money. Bringing in Verizon, Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone etc. will increase competition, yes, but foreign ownership means a big chunk of all that money you pay in your monthly bill will leave the country. That doesn't help our health care or education system.
We Canadians are smart enough, let's do it ourselves. What we need are new startup Canadian telecommunications companies to increase the competition. Take a look at this board; the demand is obviously there. Let's do it. Who's with me.

This is Data. Ever wondered how much does it cost to call North America from South Asia; India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka etc. as low as FIVE cents per minute.....!

Being a person that actually sees real wireless data billls for Vodafone T-Mobile and O2.UK, Cingular, Sprint, Bell, Telus, and Rogers, I can say in reality that the costs for power users isn't so starkly different. Sometimes the rate seems good, until charged for a different data service - then suddenly the costs double or triple (e.g. email only vs. tethered modem vs internet access). You'd also better make sure you are on the right plan, otherwise you'll get charged 6 pounds/3MB per Vodafone UK rates on internet access (ie low an behold, the same as Canadian rates of $5/MB for Fido and Rogers).

Trying to be a fair broker, I have to say that the chart above is quite misleading; The acid test is measuring the costs of real users using the same services under optimized price plans.

I do think that it must have been some kind of marketing genius who invented limited or capped "unlimited" plans - please!

Canada has a case of the classic wireless "walled garden" that plagued (and still does) the UK wireless industry back in the late 1990s. Customers are tied in to 3 year contracts with sub-standard handsets and are trapped, as if they would flee like wild animals from competitor to competitor given half the chance. With a slow uptake because of high prices and long terms, services will never come down in price. At present, the only way for the networks to make any money is to get new connections and trap the customers for 3 years. Once a higher % of the population are wireless and the process of "churn" starts, networks will have to lower their prices in order to make any money. A few new connections won't sustain their business models anymore. Data services and add-ons will. Whether or not they will lower their prices is another question.

Also the Canadian (and the USA) wireless marketplace is very different to the highly discussed UK model. In the UK local calls are chargeable on landlines meaning that most teens do not have phones in their rooms, hence the high uptake of cellphones amongst the younger demographic. Even if you are working full time in London, most rental apartments, apart from the insanely expensive, do not come with a land line phone connection, hence the sole reliability on cellphones.

I am surprised that text messaging hasn't taken off in Canada as much as it has in Europe, however again other factors could be contributing to this. Canada has an excellent and long established and cheap broadband internet network compared to Europe. The UK has only just started to move broadband services into homes with prices comparable to Canada. The lack of internet access for most homes has turned cellphones into instant messaging where MSN Messenger and ICQ were only present on dialup. Cellphones in the UK have been used along the same lines as i-mode in Japan, as a replacement for an internet connection, email and instant messaging. If you don't have a cellphone in the UK you are considered a little strange.

In the meantime, as long as Canadians continue to act as a passive nation and just put up with the charges of what seems to be a "luxury" item, then the wireless operators will continue to treat consumers like second class citizens.

Canadian data wireless is abysmal. Even though I am based in Canada I deal with our US business unit quite extensively and have seen this unfold in the past couple of years.
It is actually cheaper to get an EVDO (Rev.A) card in the U.S. from a vendor and use it up here in Canada. For example: Sprint has a North American roaming plan that includes unlimited data transfer (no cap even while roaming!) that ranges I believe between $99 (USD) to $129 (USD) per month depending on the contract term.
Bell, Roger's and the other Canadian players need to go to an unlimited model. If they did I think they would see a lot of people jumping on board with this service offering. I know our traveling people in the U.S. love it!

Rob, if you honestly think that political elbow room has nothing to do with CRTC decision-making, then you have spent very little time dealing with the CRTC. The formal reasoning: weeeeell, it's new and it's competitive. The undertone: and we'd get crucified if we went anywhere near it.

Thanks to folks like Thomas, who muses that it might be a problem that the CRTC *doesn't* regulate. Uh, duh -- but between the deafening sounds of people calling for the CRTC to be shot, and the deafening silence when it comes to actually wanting the CRTC to regulate something like, I don't know, the pricing for oligopolized telecom services that have become less competitive than they used to be, it's not bloody likely.

Rob, if you have a point, make it -- and, if you disagree, you might try saying whyl it's not obvious tyou have any clue what you are talking about. Re: 69, it is, in fact, precisely up to the CRTC. Or, more specifically, up to someone to put the point forward in an application to the CRTC.

I made a long blog entry a month or so back about this same subject.

Much less scientifically I did the same thing - comparing the cost of mobile data in Canada (across all the carriers) to the USA.

How badly we are being raked over the coals is half laughable and half depressing.

We need more competition. If it means opening up the borders to foreign companies to accomplish it, then I'm whole heartedly behind the move. I'd personally love to see the Canadian carriers have to finally deal with reality.

PS - maybe don't actually post 66 and this post but now that you've read it perhaps you have a news story on your hand if you fix your article a bit ;)

Re: 65

It is a problem, but you've sent people to scream at the wrong people. Its not up to the CRTC, MP's might be able to do something, but not soon. The only people who can make this better quickly are the carriers themselves and they'll only do something if a big enough spectacle is made of the issue - basically embarass them into action. As it is right now its a flavour of the moment, to make this something that actually has positive results, people should be talking to their local newscasters, with enough people mentioning this article, perhaps one station will pick it up. Once one station picks it up, it will spread across the rest of the stations like it did here on the internet.

"As a result, the CRTC backs off". This is, of course, precisely not why the CRTC doesn't regulate wireless.

Empower the government? Spare me.

"Idiotic"? Idiotic.

So if the CRTC *doesn't* regulate wireless then this is not a problem? Seems like a pretty big gap to me in their mandate.

The analysis is reasonable, if sensationalist. The comment on shooting the CRTC, on the other hand, is under-informed. Hell, it's idiotic.

The CRTC doesn't regulate wireless. Any time the CRTC does try to regulate something, cranks like you whinge on about shooting the CRTC. As a result, the CRTC backs off, and doesn't regulate things like wireless.

Hence the bliss of Canada's unregulated wireless market. Shoot the CRTC? Spare me the nose-in-the-air sophistry. What we need to start doing is empowering the CRTC. For instance, by giving them the political support to actually get out there and do something, rather than bringing out the big cannons of wall-to-wall condemnation from all sides.

Sorry for the angry tone. I guess I'm pretty sick of hearing this attitude, though. It seems the problem is always the CRTC. News flash: it ain't that simple.

Darcy (#60) - sure, Rwanda may seem unfair. But then how about NZ which is even cheaper? Spring and T-Mobile are also cheaper, and that's US.

Maybe we're just getting a rotten deal.

Hey Thomas, great post. After reading your article from a friends' blog, I posted my experiences with traveling internationally and my mobile phone plans over at OneDegree.ca.

Great post!

I am not really a phone person but I always wanted a PDA cell phone. I had hold off on such purchase simple because of the limitation that had existed with mobile browsing, Google Map and other application. Since last year the mobile industry heats up, at least for me, with the release of few zippy Smart Phones. Instantly I knew that I had to get me one. However, when I look at the price tag for one of the new PDA Smart Phone, I quivered. A 3 years contract easily run you over three grand, ridiculous, … and now the waiting cycle continues, I’ll continue keep on waiting and waiting until the gouging is under control, at least that all I can hope for

I'm not going to disagree with how much Canadian data service sucks. It sucks. I'm not going to use it.

However, comparing Canadian prices with Rwandan prices is a little disingenuous without taking cost of living into account. $74 is a lot of money in Rwanda.

raiseaglass, you are confused. Canada does have a small population, but it has the world's most urbanized population as well. With coverage in 6 cities, you have 50% of the country.

The phone people here are as lazy as everyone else. I love the great schools and free medical care, but crap like this just drives me bonkers.

The solution, of course, is to end local ownership of Telcos. Get Verizon and Cingular and Deutsch in here and stuff will be fixed tout de suite.

It's why I will forever drool over the iPhone. It's just irrelevant here.

It's not just the cost, there is a big problem with the quality of the service too. When I got my current phone it was my first with direct internet access, so I pressed the browser button and waited. A minute later there was still no sign of anything appearing so I hit cancel. I then tried again an hour later and the same. Then at the end of the month when my bill came in it had two $5 charges for data transfer!! They did cancel those charges when I phoned up to 'comment' on the service but as others have said above, I now make sure to never even accidentally startup the browser on my phone.

Thomas, I suggest you put this up at the top of this thread, maybe as an update to the original post.

It's easy to take action. So please do it. Here's who you write to:
Email Maxime Bernier, Minister of Industry Minister.Industry@ic.gc.ca
Email the Prime Minister: pm@pm.gc.ca
Find and email your member of parliament.

In addition my two cents: Historically, things were MUCH better. Only a few years ago you could get unlimited data for about $20/mo from Fido. This is gone. It was also available via Hiptop, as mentioned above. The interesting thing is that as the 3 (or 2 depending on how you look at it) companies that control all of Canada's wireless communications realized they had an oligopoly they raised prices. Even SMS is 15 cents/message, while everywhere else in the world it averages 5 cents/message. We pay three times as much here as well. Please write your MP as well as the others above and let's see if we can change things.

Ive been travelling worldwide now for about 6 years. I have kept a phone in Canada that entire time. I HATE rogers. I tried to cancel and plan with them for 8 months, all the while they were sending me new bills and referring it to collections. I have had them change my plans about 3 times without my consent to try to manipulate more money out of me. If you travel within Canada and need to use the phone even 15 mins a day, be prepared for no less than 500 dollar phone bill, its happened to me several times now. I have the biggest plan they offer and I still get these huge bills. Working in Afganistan I would be on the phone to the US and Canada as well as thousands of minutes locally and never have bigger than a 300 dollar bill. This goes for ANY 3rd world country I have travelled or worked in. Thats my RANT.

I'm tired of being nickel-and-dimed to death on my cell plan. Now that WNP is here, the Cell companies will have to compete for my business. I'm currently on Telus. They don't allow me to do simple things like transfer my photos from the phone using a USB cable. I have to IM them to my email. I'm switching to Bell because my bill will drop by about $40/mo for similar services. Plus the signing bonus makes it all worthwhile.

#42 hits the nail on the head. Being a Canadian in the 'boom' province Alberta, It is widely known that the Cellular companies have the prices jacked because the corporates will pay and pay and pay then write it all off,. The taxpayers pay in the end, and these telecom's almost went Income-trust! We have a province full of dumb tradesmen who equate wireless data transfer with Merlin's magic. The oil barons will pay huge amounts for their service in remote locations even though we have one of the best hardware infrastructures, I work for a company that does just that $56,000 in one month for less than 500 users. Its obscene. I have seen teenaged girls rack up 2000$ monthly bills. Every time I read the New-York times and see the mobile adverts I cry, because the Americans have it good and cheap! BTW I refuse to cancel my mobile contract from the year 1999 because it was a better contract than what TELUS is offering now, even though they are my provider, the contract was through Clearnet, a company they bought out. ITS SICK! THAT WAS 8 YEARS AGO! TELUS, YOU JUST POSTED 6 BILLION $$$ GIVE ME A BREAK!!! This is an obvious case where privatization has failed ~ once again.

Great post, but what are we poor Canadians to do?

I'm currently using a Fido-branded hiptop, which has an unlmited data plan (in Canada only) for $20/month. But the data goes through a special proxy server and lately there have been lots of outages.

I fear that Fido's parent company Rogers is starving hiptop users with bad service in the hopes that we'll jump to another more expensive device :-(

This article hits the nail on the head. The carriers give us the crappiest phones (look at any other western countries line up of available models and try not to drool), and the worst in terms of data, their attitude seems to be "Shut the f*@k up, take what we give you and be happy we don't charge you more for less". It;s not as if our networks aren't up to snuff if they could supply us that amount of data at an exorbitant price than they can do it for less as well (I mean they aren't renting equipment for each time you download data). As telecommunication customers we are expected to just roll over and take it in the a$$ like good little peons, well I have had enough CRTC get off your collective behinds and star doing something about this price gouging. I am sick and tired of paying 15 dollars a month for 250 kbps

Hi all. I pay USD 20 for unlimited bis data, Movistar Chile.

Best,

I completely agree, I bough t a BlackBerry Pearl for my wife on the black market (we're on Rogers) and I was amazed at the costs of the data/email packages they are selling. In the end she's just SMS'ing with it. paying 15 cents a pop. But the problem is that there is no consumer blackberry package in Canada. They all targeted at business users, who don't mind paying that much cause if you're a contractor it becomes a tax write off. And lets not talk about taxes in the Socialist Republic of Canada

what 3rd world r u talking about. canada is the 3RD WORLD. haha

when it comes to both home/cellphone internet access. canada is terrible. anybody resides in canada would tell you the same thing.

high price & low service quality

The "Unlimited" Browser feature for $7 on Bell Mobility is for Mobile Browser only, eg. using your phones web browser feature, not true data that you can use on your laptop, etc.

I was just in Romania, one of the cellular providers there that I saw ads for offered 1GB/month for USD$35.00.

Would certainly be nice to see something like that here...

The CRTC does not regulate the cellular phone industry. How that slipped under their radar in the 1980's I'm not too sure.

http://crtc.gc.ca/RapidsCCM/warning.asp?page=cellEng.htm&lang=E

Unless you've got an NDP MP, you're unlikely to get much action on this issue from them. The Liberals and Conservatives are very pro-business, which isn't all bad, but unfortunately it seems to make them anti-consumer as well. As though the two were incompatible. (I think the NDP doesn't have to worry about offending big telecom giants because they'll never get into government federally!)

Apollo, that is good news. sort of. Clearly the Rogers/Fido rates are not sustainable with an HSDPA offering. That said the rogers site as of currently today lists the HSDPA card as not yet available and these are still the best available posted rates.

Note that this plan would take Rogers rates from 40x New Zealand prices to "only" 5x as expensive. hooray...

Rogers also just announced (last week) a new Video phone package with great fanfare and wait for it... 10MB of included internet datatransfer in the base plan.

Rogers has added a new data plan with the launch of its HSDPA network that is $210 for 500 MB. Not $1600. I can't imagine trying to use 500 MB of data on the EDGE network (unless you're using a PC card or something). It's just not fast enough. Perhaps with HSDPA it's possible.

I have 50 MB of data on my BlackBerry plan and have yet to crack the 2 MB mark. I use the mobile browser a fair bit, too. For the most part the data plans that are offered are quite sufficient. I just happened to go overboard with mine.

To #11 (Brad), you should have been informed when you signed up for your data plan how much data usage was included. If you know you have 2 MB, you know what the cost per KB is and you know you want to download a 3.2 MB file, you should not be surprised by your bill. I would NEVER download such a large file over the mobile internet, even though I have a tonne of data usage to spare. I have always used bluetooth or IR, which are completely free. If you really NEEDED that 3.2 MB file then it was worth it to spend $40 to get it.

On a similar note, WIFI hotspots can also be pretty damn expensive. If you're with Rogers, you can pay quite a bit for WIFI. If you're with FIDO, it can be cheaper.
http://www.fido.ca/portal/en/domore/hotspot.shtml
http://www.shoprogers.com/business/wireless/plans_services/hotspot.asp

For Fido, if you're sipping a cup of coffee at a Second Cup and just want to check your email, an $8 charge is mighty expensive. The only way to justify Fido's payment plan is to get the monthly and just live in the coffee shop and kill your home plan. At least you'll have more bandwidth..

It's getting so expensive to communicate in Canada. Broadband download/upload bandwidths seem to be getting smaller and smaller too..
http://www.bell.ca/shopping/PrsShpInt_Int_Chart_Dsl.page

CANADA IS A RIP OFFFFFFFF!!!!!!!! WHEN it comes to mobile data or Cell phones!!!

Learn from the 3rd world countries how to Price Service!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You didn't mention Aliant Mobility (Bell's partner in Atlantic Canada).

To transfer 500 MB of data (non-mobile browser) costs $200.

http://productsandservice.aliant.net/PS/ns/english/productsandservices/ps_2.jsp?section=26&subsection=5&bodycont=productsandservices%2fcellular5.jsp&curbody=26

I don't believe wireless rates are regulated by the CRTC in Canada, though. The rates are determined by the carriers, of which there are really only three now (Telus, Bell, Rogers) since Fido was bought out by Rogers and Virgin Mobile is running on the Rogers network as well.

Having said that, I think we'll see a dynamic shift in this market space over the year or two in Canada. All three wireless carriers have local broadband internet access available, and I expect we'll see bundling of the wireless data services with those local services (in the interest of protecting their incumbent territories).

This is not shocking. The CRTC is known (at least to those I've discussed it with) as a bureaucratic organization created mostly to benefit the producers and distributers, not the consumers, of content. This has been only ramped up in recent years, and you hear guys like Cory Doctorow speaking up about it and making predictions all the time.

Social implications, John? As (someone who seems like) a reasonable person, are they that hard to see? The basic framework for the argument as I see it is:

Everyone being able to access and use the same services via their cellphone for a low fee = good. Why? Because the field's more fun when everyone can play.

Only certain people being able to afford and use said services because of their high price = bad.

If the cost of these services is inordinately expensive and thus out of reach of Joe Blow, Jane Doe, or whoever, then I consider that to be a bad thing.

I just think that in the digital age, we can take steps to eliminate the mentality of haves/have nots and make these services available to people who need or would like to use them, and not just the people who have the money to foot the bill.

If they can make something happen in Rwanda, we can make it happen in Canada.

Keep in mind that Canada JUST got number portability. The competition in the marketplace caused the rates to go down quite a bit in other countries when it came in.

Canadians do need to fight back; our cost of doing business is massive when compared.

Why would the companies in Canada do anything different, there are only 3 wireless carriers, Rogers bought Fido when Microcell started the Fido City Plan (all you can eat phone for $45) The other 2, Telus & Bell which share infrastructure, so the argument can be made that there are only 2 carriers. Rogers key to success is to operate in a regulated market and lobby. Canada is a country where the citizenry gravitates towards protectionism and government regulation, people need to wake up and realize that the Canadian government regulators are so asleep at the wheel, the interest of Canadian consumers is the last thing on their minds. I live in Canada, but I have an active Cingular / AT&T account as Rogers roaming charges are crazy, calling from Kingston to Toronto is considered long distance, however with Cingular I can call San Diego from Kingston and that is included in my calling package. For data I hear T-Mobile is the way to go for around $70 US / Month you can get unlimited data worldwide. It is a sad commentary on the state of Canada's wireless providers that for robust mobile services the answer is to obtain an account from a carrier in the United States that has a deal to use Bell's or Rogers' networks at a price you could not come close to with one of those carriers native Canadian plans.

Canada is home to two large, competing 1x/EVDO CDMA networks, soon to go Rev A, so speed is not the issue so much as price. Price remains prohibitively high due to the geography and population density. In a country much larger than the US and a population roughly 1/10th the size, and very spread out, it is extremely expensive to roll out infrastructure for a high speed network and provide adequate coverage. Telus and Bell Mobility are both at approx $100 for 250 MB. The demand for more than this is low across Canada except in major cities (which in Canada is anywhere with population >1 or 2 million, which is few). In these cities the proliferation of publicly accessible WiFi is widespread so I don't think you're going to see major changes in cellular data pricing in Canada anytime soon.

I live in NYC and my data plan options are outstanding, although the company with the best network (Verizon) is also the most expensive, but that is to be expected.

THANK YOU!
More people need to know this and know how cheated us (as Canadians) are!
Have these mobile carriers ever heard of Opportunity Cost?
Lower the rates and more people will hop on, make it a higher volume product and cheaper to produce. (someone correct me if I'm wrong and this doesn't scale to data, although I don't see why not)
We need to protest for consumer rights more in this country and get things moving.
Make the customer right again.

note: I do alot of work in Africa (Zambia, Malawi, Kenya) and Asia (Philippines, Thailand) -- and it costs us 2x the amount to send a SMS message via Telus through most of the Bulk SMS dealers (clickatell, etc). Check out the rates -- and then ask yourself why from Canada does it cost me 2x the amount to send a SMS message to Canada compared to Kenya or the Philippines! Scam!

This is exactly what is stopping me from getting a Moto Q and such. I want cheaper data rates before I sign up as I know I'll be using it through out the day and to it's fullest.

No wonder we can't get face to face video conversations on our mobiles over here.

If any bigwig is reading this I say Chop the Rates and forget the Debate! Bring Canada into today's world in terms of data rates!

I actually have the $50/unlimited Internet access add-on that Fido used to offer.

Last summer, a few months after they stopped offering it, Fido sent me a bill with the unlimited add-on removed. The bill was over $6,000!

Thankfully when I complained that they'd removed the unlimited package they put it back on and credited my account.

Thank goodness for grandparenting! And with the new UTMS support through Rogers I can even stream shoutcast streams. Evil, I know. :)

Check out - Vodem fees catch out unwary

http://www.stuff.co.nz/4012139a11275.html

I live in BC, Canada, and I have a data package added to my cell plan with Bell Canada. unlimited internet usage and 75 text messages cost me $10/month in additino to my plan fees... just unlimited internet would be an extra $7 to my plan. I'm not really sure which plan costs $850, but mine costs me $10... ... ...

I completely agree with this article. I was just charged almost $40 for going over my 2MB limit in a month by 1.2MB.

I was just testing things out and thought I would sign up for a data plan with Rogers, so I pay $5 for 2MB data transfer in a month and my first bill I sent no email or anything, but I had to FTP 1 file that was 3.2 MB on my PPC Phone...so I went over my 2MB limit by the 1.2MB... and the charge was almost $40!!

I couldn't believe it, what an absolute rip off...so I did what most people would do...canceled my data plan and will NEVER get a data plan with Rogers or any other Canadian plan until they get their acts together! I mean I have friends in the US that paid $20/month for unlimited and I get a $40 for 1.2MB? CRAZY

Yep, Canada's wired internet is quite decent (except for Rogers), but our wireless is still in the dark ages. There is great demand for fast and cheap wireless internet access, but no one's stepping up to provide it because the current system is far too profitable. Just surfing a few web sites on a mobile device, for example looking up movie showtimes or gas prices, ends up being a 3 or 4 dollar affair for less than 2 minutes of light surfing. Do it a few times a week and you'll easily double your bill for the month. It's pretty sad when telecoms charge more than hookers.

The Vodafone New Zealand data is actually even cheaper. You can get a 1GB (gigabyte) plan for $49/month or $59/month for 2GB.

This fine and dandy, however if I am to present it to my MP, I'd prefer there was a little more information/detail regarding social implications, cause and effect. Would you consider beefing up the story a bit?

You think those rates are crazy - you should see what these crooks charge you for data when you are "roaming" in the US. It's ridiculous.

I absolutely agree with the majority of your assessment, however you have forgotten the highly limited Inukshuk network. I was part of the initial Fido test group and while pre-WiMax, the transfer rates hovered around 2.0mpbs and the cost was roughly $40 a month for something like 25gb of download.

I'd like to see more information about this, it could be quite interesting. I live in Ontario and work for a medium business where our employees are constantly on the move. I would have thought that data-access over cellular networks would have been important to them, but none of them seem to care.

It's somewhat ironic, in a sense. Canada can be quick to take on new technologies [such as debit transactions... it was years before the US decided to go for that] and slower for others. This, however, screams a supply/demand question.

I know in our case, the use of the blackberry has totally overridden any interest in data-carrying services from the telecos. I'd like to know more about the statistics, such as of a poll of all cellular users would actually use data services. I wouldn't' be surprised if it was a very small percentage.