Here’s something that will not come as a shock to Canadian cell phone users. We’re being screwed by cell phone companies when it comes to roaming fees:
Canadians travelling abroad paid an average of $24.06 to use one megabyte of data in a single day if they were Bell and Rogers subscribers during the study period last fall. That’s 2.6 times the OECD average of $9.27, according to the report released Wednesday.
One megabyte is equivalent to the amount of data needed to send 10 photos, the report said.
The OECD compared advertised mobile data roaming offers from the two largest operators in each of the 34 OECD countries between Sept. 7 to Oct. 7, 2010. According to the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association, Rogers was the wireless company with the biggest market share in 2010, with 9.0 million subscribers, followed by Bell and its affiliates with 7.2 million.
Roaming charges were second-highest in the U.S. ($21.58) and Mexico ($19.42) and lowest in Greece ($4.08).
It sucks to be Canadian quite clearly. But there’s more:
The report suggested two possible reasons why prices are so much lower in Greece than in Canada:
- Lower wholesale prices, with savings being passed on to consumers.
- Greater competition in the retail roaming market.
Gee. Canadian cell phone carriers passing on savings to consumers? Until there’s real competition that scares the crap out of Rogers, Bell and Telus, that’s not going to happen.
Here’s something that I didn’t expect though. Telus actually had something to say about this:
Brent Johnston, vice-president of mobility marketing for Telus Corp., said his company agrees wholeheartedly with the OECD study’s conclusion that more attention needs to be paid to international roaming fees and making things simpler for clients.
“This is a consumer pain point. It’s clear,” he said.
He said the timing of the study was unfortunate because he expects Telus’s roaming rates to fall by “well over 50 per cent” within weeks.
That’s because of new competition from new wireless entrants in Canada and recent international agreements signed by Telus and Bell with other carriers around the world since they launched their new HSPA network in 2009. Prior to that, Johnston said, Rogers had a monopoly on international roaming within the Canadian market.
I’ll believe that their roaming rates are going to drop when I see it. Right now you have to take anything that any of the big three wireless carriers say with a grain of salt.
Hopefully the Canadian government who have proven to be willing to shake things up to encourage competition is watching this and is willing to do something about this. Otherwise, you’ll go bankrupt if you use your cell phone or smartphone overseas.
Telus Goes On The Offensive In Terms Of Wireless Rates That Canadians Pay
Posted in Commentary with tags OECD, OpenMedia, Telus on July 18, 2013 by itnerdTelus came out with new rate plans earlier this week and many including yours truly and the Toronto Star commented that even though these were two year plans, Canadians would likely pay more. But the big slap in the face came from OpenMedia who used the latest OECD report on wireless pricing to make the argument that Canadians pay more than they should for wireless. It seems that Telus was stung by that because this blog post has made an appearance on the Telus blog. Titled “Wireless pricing in Canada – a broader look at the facts”, Telus via Brent Johnston who is their Vice President of Wireless Solutions makes this argument:
In its latest blog OpenMedia selectively pulls out a very few data points from the 2013 OECD report on wireless pricing in member countries including Canada to prove its long-standing – and just plain wrong – storyline about Canada having high wireless pricing.
The blog post then goes about making the argument by using the OECD data that Canadians are not as bad off when it comes to wireless pricing and they also make this statement:
Don’t get me wrong – I’m not arguing that Canada has the cheapest wireless rates in the world – that would be no more factual than the oft-repeated mythology that our prices are the highest.
However, if you step back and look at the facts – all the facts – Canadians clearly pay rates that compare well across the developed world for some of the best wireless technology in the world.
There’s a saying: “There are lies, dammed lies, and statistics.” You can likely slice and dice this OECD report and make an argument based on that if you’re good with numbers. I won’t do that to prove who’s right and who’s wrong because I’m a computer nerd, not a mathematician. But having said that, here’s what I will say. I travel extensively to the US and parts of Western Europe. People I interact with, especially in Europe, are stunned by how much Canadians pay for what we get which isn’t a lot by European standards. They’re shocked that our roaming rates are so high and by the fact that our data charges are high by European standards. They see horror stories such as this one where people get billed huge dollar amounts while on vacation and are floored because that sort of thing would not happen in that part of the world. To me, all of that suggests that there’s something really wrong with what Canadians pay for wireless phone service. It is possible that Canadian wireless rates may not be the highest in the world, but they are sure not affordable. That’s something that needs to be fixed sooner rather than later. New legislation. Foreign competition. It doesn’t matter how it’s fixed. It just needs to be fixed.
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