cell phone companies
you know, now that canada’s wireless auction is complete, i am totally ready to have a total shake up of the canadian cell phone industry, and i think the rest of the country is too. we definitely need it!
what, from ridiculous voice and data packages for the iPhone from Rogers, to getting charged for incoming messages by Bell and Telus, Canadians are being asked to bend over by every cell carrier available.
the best parts about getting billed for incoming messages by your carrier are:
a) they are no longer motivated to block spam from their networks, you’re going to pay for it (in fact, there is now incentive for them to allow it)
b) they have effectively just doubled their profits on text messages because they get to bill you AND the person you send the text too. bastards.
the one positive thing about all this is that the federal minister of industry, jim prentice, has taken notice and is finally standing up for canadians and asking Bell and Telus to justify charging consumers the new text messaging rates.
like my good friend zameer pointed out, how is it that in a country with 1/10th the population of the united states, our cell phone carrier profits are equal to those in the united states? an excellent question i think.
3 Comments, Comment or Ping
andy
Maybe one should consider the population density of the Canada. There is a very large area to provide coverage and not as many people to “split the cost”. Thus the mobile-phone plans have to be more expensive to compensate. Does that make sense?
Jul 10th, 2008
andy
Rogers Wireless has slashed the cost of it’s iPhone data plans following 57,000 potential customers signing an online petition:
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080709/i_phone_080709/20080709/
Jul 10th, 2008
neil
andy, you make a good point about the population density of canada vs. the US, however, using that same argument, you would expect the cell carriers’ costs to be that much higher, which should prevent them from having such high profits.
also, the $30 data plan is a step in the right direction, but still makes for an expensive monthly billed when coupled with any of the current in market monthly plans (plus call display and text messages).
Jul 12th, 2008
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