In case you didn’t know, Canadians currently pay one of the highest mobile phone rates of any developed nation. Heck, it wouldn’t surprised me at all if someone somewhere in the world that barely has running water pays less for their monthly cell phone plan than me. Why? Because for some reason, Canadian companies are allowed to have a monopoly in this market.
Of course, they might argue that there are actually four, five or six companies splitting the pie but since Fido and Rogers are actually the same company and Virgin Mobile doesn’t actually do anything anywhere, there are seriously only three. Couple that with the fact that Rogers is the sole GSM provider in our country means that there is essentially no competition anywhere so they can charge whatever they feel like.
This is about to change as Telus and Bell announced recently that they are building a GSM network to compete with Rogers. Add the ongoing rumors that T-Mobile or Vodafone or something might be entering the Canadian market and we might actually see some changes in terms of pricing. Competition can only bring good things for us, the consumer. Despite our G8 status and such, we are just so far behind when it comes to telecommunications.
Maybe I won’t be paying $70 a month this time next year.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I wouldn’t count on prices dropping too much until other big carriers enter the market as well. I suspect a big reason Telus/Bell are rushing to get their GSM network up is so they can cash in on all the visitors from around the world coming in for the 2010 Olympic games (with their GSM handsets) to rake in the roaming revenue.
i agree with kenny, insofar as the prices, but i’m hoping something does happen though. the fact that rogers took over/bought out/whatever fido, i was a wee miffed. i almost wanted telus/bell to buy it over, and that could have been a good step towards the olympics, but no one had the foresight for that…
however, there are cdma networks in parts of asia and europe. although it probably means squat when they bring it here as no one wants killer roaming bills…