It sure is brutal trying to stay connected if you’re on a very tight budget.
Anyone remember how 6 years ago, it was in the news how American telecoms started offering unlimited full speed mobile data? The only reason that didn’t come to Canada was that “data caps were too lucrative.”
If Canadians weren’t so nice maybe we wouldn’t all just roll over and pay magnitudes more for fractions of what every other developed country in the world gets.
One has to wonder… Why doesn’t a single company just roll in and offer unlimited mobile data and shake things up? Oligopoly is the word you’re looking for, a handful of companies (ie the “big three”) operating together like a single, corporate monstrosity known as a monopoly thanks to the popularized board game
I’ve spent much of my career working for two of the big three, and the reality of this video hits hard. The CRTC is a joke.
A Google Fi plan with unlimited North American roaming is like 20USD on a multi-line plan…
And now with Teksavvy looking for a buyer… I’m really bummed about this to be honest. I’ve been with them for almost ten years now and they’ve been the best.
Every time they raised their rates (because of the shitty policies of the CRTC) they always explained their reasons and apologized profusely. They always campaigned for lower rates and reported on shady dealings at the CRTC… sigh Depressing times.
I hope whoever buys them retains their customer service department. Seriously, best customer service I’ve ever had.
Teksavvy is selling? Dang. I switched to Fizz a couple years ago since it was a lot cheaper, but this is terrible news for themarket as a whole :(
Why doesn’t a single company just roll in and offer unlimited mobile data and shake things up?
Because they can make more money investing the same resources into the existing corrupt oligopoly. The big three are all heavily invested in each other; the reasons why none of them make a big move to try and disrupt the other two are the exact same reasons no other whale comes along and messes up the racket. It is better for capital this way!!
This context should make this all the more obvious: in the end, there is no competition between entrenched capital because it’s all the same capital.
Continue the thought exercise to its logical conclusion:
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A new big player comes in and attempts to disrupt the marketplace
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A price war ensues where two or three major players try to underbid each other with loss leaders and attractive features users demand
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Everyone else is bled to death because they don’t have billions of dollars in their war chests to run at a loss for five or ten years
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Either the war continues until there are is one, or the remaining parties revert to an oligarchy and start cooperating
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The new “big three” exploit their market position to raise prices and strip features so they can recoup all the money they burned to bury their competition and make the whole thing worthwhile
This was a nice vacation for consumers, but what is in it for investors? Why would they piss away all that money trying to claw market share away from Brand X when they can just buy shares of Brand X? They have been working for more than a century to create the market conditions that exist right now, they only stand to lose by disrupting it.
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It’s tricky because if we allowed competition our telcos would get steamrolled by American telcos and many would die, but we would end up with a better/cheaper service for Canadians.
For now I am happy with my $9 a month phone plan and don’t want anyone to take it away from me. I think they are already jacking the price up to $15 for new users.
…what do you get for $9 a month? I’m guessing you’re not in Ontario? Since I was a loyal long term customer I was lucky to get my bill down to 40 minus 10 bucks promotionally (which doesn’t show up in my account or say how long it’ll last) from 60 a month for 15GB of data. And now of course you can get more data for the same price or some shit as a new customer
Opening up to international competition is one option… Honestly we could have Canadian companies be competitive but that would involve work and effort from all levels: government, consumer, and business.
These dare the days of everyone wanting everything for free, but I’m not talking lazy hobos - I’m talking the entitled rich who think they can just keep sucking the rest of us dry indefinitely
I am with public mobile. It is available Canada-wide. The plan is $15 for calls and text + 250 mb data. Autopay, loyalty and other bonuses bring it down to $9. It works for me. Most people probably need at least the $30 ($24 for me with bonuses) plan.
It think that could needs a few more asterisks lol
What are internet speeds like though? Is it fast?
