Canada’s Big Three Raise Rates At The Same Time…. Hmmmm
The big three telecoms have always claimed that they are in competition with each other. But Canadian mobile phone users have a different opinion, and that was reinforced over the weekend when it came to light via the CBC that Rogers, Bell and Telus all raised rates by exactly $5 over the last couple of months:
Rogers, Telus and Bell Mobility now all charge $80 per month for new smartphone plans with a new contract, $5 more than those same plans cost when they were introduced last year. The prices for other smartphone plans with more data cost upwards of $145.
The price hikes affect every province except Manitoba and Saskatchewan.
The $80 a month plan includes 500 MB of data, unlimited nationwide calling, unlimited messaging, voicemail and call display.
No reasoning was given for the price increase, and no press releases were issued. Existing plans are unaffected.
Lovely. Now I’m going to guess that some of this is to pay for their participation in the 700 Mhz auction. But I am also thinking that the big three might also think that with no real competition in the Canadian marketplace, they can grab a few extra bucks. Either way, something is really suspicious about the fact that all three of these companies basically have the same pricing at more or less the same time. That highlights why Canada needs a strong fourth option in Canada to compete with these three companies.
March 18, 2014 at 6:02 pm
These companies, have no imtention of competing against one anotheron a price basis, there’s way too much money in Collusion .and they don’t have to worry about the toothless CRTC