How absurd are Canadian phone plans?!

[moevsworld]

I'm on vacation in England right now and needed to get a phone plan. I went to a kiosk and got 300 mins, 3000 texts and unlimited data for 15 pounds! Now there's no way in hell I can get a plan that good here. Even unlimited data with wind is HSPA and doesn't work on my iPhone. So if companies in the UK can offer such great plans for that cheap how badly are we getting *****ed in Canada ?!

[uber_shnitz]

They're pretty damn absurd.

We've always been behind on telecom in Canada because of restrictive practices.

[brunes]

That's what happens when you have true competition instead of a government-protected duopoly.

Remember all the ruckus when Wind came in, because of them being financed by an Egyptian? Now, look at how much they have forced down prices, even though not everyone uses them they make the market better FOR ALL. Imagine how much better off we would be if there had been true competition for the past 15 years, instead of only the past two.

[psyko514]

Compare the size & population of Canada to that of England. Canada has ~33M people over nearly 1 billion km sq whereas England has ~51M over 130000 km sq. That means more infrastructure to service fewer clients. That also plays a role along with the above.

[DealHunter777]

Compare the size & population of Canada to that of England. Canada has ~33M people over nearly 1 billion km sq whereas England has ~51M over 130000 km sq. That means more infrastructure to service fewer clients. That also plays a role along with the above.

That is true but the overpriced phones plans we have here has much more to do with collusion and corruption between the government and the few big cells company than with the cost of their infrastructure (that are also paid in good parts by the government with our taxes btw...)

We have the most expensive cell Phone Plans in the world. We are getting screwed big time by those company and they slow down all innovation in the country at the sametime. It really sucks imo.

[arclite]

I'm on vacation in England right now and needed to get a phone plan. I went to a kiosk and got 300 mins, 3000 texts and unlimited data for 15 pounds! Now there's no way in hell I can get a plan that good here. Even unlimited data with wind is HSPA and doesn't work on my iPhone. So if companies in the UK can offer such great plans for that cheap how badly are we getting *****ed in Canada ?!

Phone plans in North Korea are much better.

[Jimboski]

Only the Big 3 I have problems with as to how absurd their plans are.. But "they are" the Big 3 so they monopolize It basically so they have free reign on what the prices are!

[bylo]

Compare the size & population of Canada to that of England. Canada has ~33M people over nearly 1 billion km sq whereas England has ~51M over 130000 km sq. That means more infrastructure to service fewer clients. That also plays a role along with the above.

The comparison is misleading because most Canadians live in the southern 10% of our land mass. That's not to say that Britain's (and other European countries') population density isn't higher than ours, but rather that the advantage isn't quite as high.

In central Europe you can get a SIM card plus 1GB or more data for around €10 per month, no contract, BYOM.

There's no excuse for Canadian carriers to rip us off as badly as they do (other than unbridled greed aided and abetted by the CRTC.)

[george__]

It's freaken expensive.
In Korea, the plans that cost $60+ cost cheap as crack down there. Canada is so damn expensive especially for DATA!

This country has some sort of price fixing going on, I swear.

[psyko514]

The comparison is misleading because most Canadians live in the southern 10% of our land mass. That's not to say that Britain's (and other European countries') population density isn't higher than ours, but rather that the advantage isn't quite as high.

True, but 10% of our land mass is still 800x bigger than than England. Our most densely populated province is PEI at 24.7 per sq km. New Brunswick is roughly half the size of England and has a density of 10.5 per sq km. England's density is over 400 per sq km.

I'm not discounting other factors, just pointing this out as something people rarely take in to account.

[Xiaohaibao]

Didn't Bell or Rogers commission some study recently that "proved" Canadians get very competitive phone/internet rates?

[Xiaohaibao]

True, but 10% of our land mass is still 800x bigger than than England. Our most densely populated province is PEI at 24.7 per sq km. New Brunswick is roughly half the size of England and has a density of 10.5 per sq km. England's density is over 400 per sq km.

I'm not discounting other factors, just pointing this out as something people rarely take in to account.

I hear this argument made lots, and it is used by the big 3 to justify our high telecom costs, and it is nonsense. It's sad some people believe it.

[bylo]

Didn't Bell or Rogers commission some study recently that "proved" Canadians get very competitive phone/internet rates?

Oh well then, if Bhell or Robbers published a study then it must be true

Case closed. We should be grateful to Bhell and Robbers for not charging us even more

[gman]

Oh well then, if Bhell or Robbers published a study then it must be true

Case closed. We should be grateful to Bhell and Robbers for not charging us even more

I guess you can't see he double quoted "proved".

[bylo]

I guess you can't see he double quoted "proved".

I guess you can't see I'm just riffing off his sarcasm.