The motto of the CRTC, Canada’s telcom regulator is “Communications in the Public Interest”. Right.
If you live in Canada, write to your MP. The CRTC, as an institution, needs to be taken out and shot.*
This chart charts the best rates available from all carriers. And all levels of government say that “ICT” competitiveness is key factor in Canada’s future economic
prosperity. Ya. Right. I would like to say that Canada is a 3rd world country when it comes to Mobile ICT, except you can clearly see from this chart that even *Rwanda* has orders of magnitude better Mobile Data service than Canada.
As I’ve noted in the chart, 500MB is about 100 minutes of usage at a Canadian Carrier’s maximum (advertised) download speed of 700kB/s (your mileage will vary, International carriers are typically twice or four times faster). 500MB is not a lot of data in the grand scheme of things, a few GB could make a better example but in that case the red bars would be completely off the charts.
If you don’t live in Canada but you or your small business depends on mobile connectivity or net neutrality in general, don’t come here.
If see these numbers makes you mad, then Digg this article and spread the word on your site.
(and leave a comment, what is mobile service like where you live? why do you think mobile data is important?)
Here is the complete data table including data speed and Caps for each of the services listed. You’ll notice Canadian carriers lag substantially in every category.
see also on this blog: Bell to charge you $3600 per hour for Wireless Internet access. (the situation has not changed in a while)
supporting links:
www.vodafone.co.nz/pricing_plans/broadband.jsp?st=ourserv…
www.t-mobile.com/shop/plans/default.aspx
powervision.sprint.com/mobilebroadband/plans/index.html
www.terracom.rw/services/internet/evdo/pricing.php
www.telstra.com.au/business/products/internetanddata/mobi…
www.telusmobility.com/on/business_solutions/connect_megab…
www.bell.ca/shop/en_CA_AB/Sme.Sol.Wireless.Internet.Plans…
www.fido.ca/portal/en/domore/options.shtml
www.shoprogers.com/business/wireless/plans_services/busin…
*not literally of course, we are Canadian after all. (the CRTC is the Canadian regulator for radio, television, and telecomumnications). Here’s the Canadian Telecommunications Act that governs the CRTC. I like parts 7 a, b and c.
UPDATE May 2010: While the situation (and competition) has improved significantly in Canada since this post was first published, according to OECD data Canadians still pay among the highest cell phone bills in the world.
UPDATE December2007: For ongoing and more up to date coverage of the Canadian wireless industry, data rates, carriers, spectrum auctions, and mobile startups, I recommend WirelessNorth.ca
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.
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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 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
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!
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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“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.
“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.
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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.
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.
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 😉
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 😉
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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.
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.
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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.
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.
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!
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!
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.
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.
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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!
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!
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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…..!
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…..!
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.
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.
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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.
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.
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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?
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?
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