You have to believe that the corner offices in Bell, Rogers, and Telus are not happy places to be right now. I say that because a number of media outlets including The Toronto Star and Global News are reporting that the demands to renegotiate the NAFTA trade agreement between Canada, USA, and Mexico includes demands to allow US telcos to do business in Canada. If that’s the case the result would likely be cheaper cell phone plans for Canadians. After all, Canadians because of the oligopoly of Rogers, Bell, and Telus pay the highest prices for cell phones in the G7. A fact that is highlighted by the Global News article that I linked to.
So, what do I think of this? If you take all of the hysteria that surrounds this out of the mix, I am all for it. Long time readers of this blog know that I have said that Canadians pay way too much for their cell phones which is impossible to escape every time I travel on business to places that have much cheaper prices for cell service. Long time readers will also know that I’ve been saying that we have to let in foreign competition to solve this problem as no “made in Canada” solution exists. It would have to be on the scale of a Verizon or Deutsche Telekom as they’d have to build their own infrastructure from scratch which isn’t cheap. But if they did do that, your wireless bill would nosedive instantly as for the first time, the trio of Bell, Rogers, and Telus would have real competition. If those three carriers were smart, they’d get ahead of this by quickly adjusting the prices of their plans to get into the same universe of what is being offered in the USA and apply it to new and existing customers. But chances are that won’t happen and they’ll likely only do something after changes to NAFTA take place, and when US carriers set up shop in Canada to start scooping up customers by the truckload.
This should be fun to watch.
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This entry was posted on July 19, 2017 at 8:21 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Canada, wireless. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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American Demands For Changes In NAFTA May Bring Cheaper Wireless Plans For Canadians
You have to believe that the corner offices in Bell, Rogers, and Telus are not happy places to be right now. I say that because a number of media outlets including The Toronto Star and Global News are reporting that the demands to renegotiate the NAFTA trade agreement between Canada, USA, and Mexico includes demands to allow US telcos to do business in Canada. If that’s the case the result would likely be cheaper cell phone plans for Canadians. After all, Canadians because of the oligopoly of Rogers, Bell, and Telus pay the highest prices for cell phones in the G7. A fact that is highlighted by the Global News article that I linked to.
So, what do I think of this? If you take all of the hysteria that surrounds this out of the mix, I am all for it. Long time readers of this blog know that I have said that Canadians pay way too much for their cell phones which is impossible to escape every time I travel on business to places that have much cheaper prices for cell service. Long time readers will also know that I’ve been saying that we have to let in foreign competition to solve this problem as no “made in Canada” solution exists. It would have to be on the scale of a Verizon or Deutsche Telekom as they’d have to build their own infrastructure from scratch which isn’t cheap. But if they did do that, your wireless bill would nosedive instantly as for the first time, the trio of Bell, Rogers, and Telus would have real competition. If those three carriers were smart, they’d get ahead of this by quickly adjusting the prices of their plans to get into the same universe of what is being offered in the USA and apply it to new and existing customers. But chances are that won’t happen and they’ll likely only do something after changes to NAFTA take place, and when US carriers set up shop in Canada to start scooping up customers by the truckload.
This should be fun to watch.
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This entry was posted on July 19, 2017 at 8:21 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Canada, wireless. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.