Canadian Cell Phone Rates Throttle Mobile Web Innovation

Posted on August 14, 2009 by Barry Welford

Canadians pay among the highest cellphone rates in the western world, according to a new international report by the OECD that has reignited calls for greater competition and regulation in Canada’s wireless sector.

Any way you slice it, technology consultant Jesse Hirsh said Canadians aren’t getting a good deal from the country’s three large carriers because the trio — Telus, Rogers and Bell — make up an oligopoly that “are all ex-monopolies and they think and act like monopolies. They’re less interested in innovation and more interested in the least amount of effort that they can make to charge the highest price.”

That is why the iPhone was so long delayed here in Canada and you should not expect that the exciting innovation represented by Google Voice will be available in Canada anytime soon.

The Mobile Web is a major sector for technological investment and innovation. It is heart-breaking that Canadian involvement is severely weakened by the dog-in-the-manger attitude of the Canadian cellphone oligopoly. Their short-sighted focus on maximising short term revenues from existing customers does both them and the Canadian economy a major disservice. One can only hope that the Canadian Government puts a high priority on changing this situation. In terms of reward on effort, it would be one of the most important dossiers they have.

Canadian cellphone rates among worst in world (cbc.ca)

Technorati Tags: Bell, Canada, mobile phone, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Rogers, Telus

Canada Text message rates have huge markup

Posted on June 17, 2009 by Barry Welford

: Image via Wikipedia

Canadian text message rates have a huge mark-up according to Srinivasan Keshav, Canada Research Chair in tetherless computing at the University of Waterloo.

In testifying before U.S. senators, he estimated the consumer mark-up on some text messages to be 4,900 per cent. The maximum cost of a text message is “very unlikely” to exceed 0.3 cents. Nevertheless the oligopoly of the large cellphone companies charge pay-per-use texters 15 cents to send a text message and, beginning next month, Rogers will join Bell and Telus with an additional charge of 15 cents to receive a text message. In the United States, carriers recently increased their per-message rate to 20 cents for those without a text plan.

It is unfortunate that the cellphone oligopoly pushes the pricing as high as the market will stand. This is stifling demand and in consequence Canada lags others in the development of the Mobile Web. Thess companies would be very much better off financially with more reasonable pricing multiplied by vastly increased usages.

The new Rogers CEO seems to understand this, but will his view prevail when for so long the dog-in-the-manger price gouging has been the rule.

Technorati Tags: Canada, Rogers Wireless, Telus, Text messaging

Cell Phone Competition Is What Canadian Consumers Need

Posted on December 1, 2007 by Barry Welford

Let’s hope for better Canadian cell phone service

The CBC headlined it as Ottawa opens up wireless industry to more competition. In the Globe and Mail it was Cellphone giants lose stranglehold. The oligopoly of Bell, Rogers and Telus are clearly most unhappy at this turn of events. However what received less attention than it might is the large number of Canadian cell phone customers who were highly delighted by the news.

You can get a measure of that by looking at the large number of comments on the Globe and Mail story or those that were added to a CTV news item on the topic. Of course the fact that Canadian consumers are unhappy with cell phone service is not news. Earlier in the month, the Financial Post pointed out that Canadians Increasingly Dissatisfied With Cellphones. Hopefully this action will turn the situation around.

Technorati Tags: Canada, competition

Real Competition Coming To The Canadian Cell Phone Market

Posted on November 29, 2007 by Barry Welford

Tom Peters suggested that for many big companies the words to the right could be the company motto emblazoned in gold letters over the entrance. He was describing banks but according to a recent survey on customer service the cell phone companies are the lowest on the totem pole.

Politicians like to take popular decisions. So it was no great surprise to hear yesterday’s announcement from Ottawa that it will hold an auction of the wireless spectrum in May 2008. This could mean more competition and lower cellphone rates for Canadians next year. Industry Minister Jim Prentice said that about 105 megahertz of spectrum will be sold to bidders. Forty megahertz will be set aside for newcomers to the industry. Not surprisingly Telus described this as “deeply disappointing” news. I am sure that Bell and Rogers would feel the same way.

The three of them of course form an oligopoly.

An oligopoly exists when a few companies dominate an industry. This concentration often leads to collusion among manufacturers, so that prices are set by agreement rather than by the operation of the supply and demand mechanism.

Canadians pay more to use their cell phones and this is particularly so for broadband data transmission rates. Undoubtedly this has held back the development of the Mobile Web in Canada. This is particularly disastrous for an industry that should be one of Canada’s strengths.

Not surprisingly this news has been greeted with applause by many. What the oligopolists do not realize is that poor customer service creates rebels. After all as someone has suggested, bad news travels 10 times as fast as good news. Many consumers are just waiting to get the cell phone service they deserve. Any well-funded newcomer who can deliver the cell phone goods will find an army of evangelists waiting to spread the word.

Technorati Tags: Canada, Canadian, competition, evangelist, market, rebel

A ?phone for Christmas

Posted on November 1, 2007 by Barry Welford

Comwave owns the iPhone trademark in Canada

Will the iPhone be here for Christmas? If so, what will it be called?

Matthew Ingram spreads a rumour started by The Boy Genius that the Canuck version of the iPhone could be in the shops for Christmas. Supposedly an ad will be appearing from Rogers that promotes the iPhone at a price of $499 with a three-year contract. That’s very steep but is in line with their other pricing arrangements for anything connected with the Mobile Web.

Apparently Rogers and Apple are being very coy about the timing. Since Comwave owns the iPhone trademark in Canada, undoubtedly there is some keen negotiation going on at present to free up the name. It would be a shame to have some other first initial and G may well be taken.

Technorati Tags: Canada, iPhone, mobile Web, Rogers

Mobile Web – O Canada

Posted on September 21, 2007 by Barry Welford

Will Canada ever have a Mobile Web?

if you’re concerned about the lack of a Mobile Web in Canada, two items in the Montr?al Gazette may well deepen your gloom.

Pierre Karl P?ladeau, chief executive of Quebecor Inc., in a speech to a business group in Toronto, said new technology like Apple Inc.’s iPhone is being held back in Canada by the “oligopoly” of the three existing wireless operators owned by Rogers Communications Inc., Telus Corp. and Bell Canada Inc. With the lack of competition, data transmission costs are held at ridiculously high levels. As P?ladeau said,

Canada has to throw off the regulatory yoke and give the private sector the chance to be entrepreneurial. By restricting access to new media, we are condemning traditional media to mediocrity and decline.

Apparently P?ladeau was taken to task after his speech by Wade Oosterman, president of Bell Mobility, who said Bell offers unlimited data transmission for $79 a month, and unlimited Internet surfing for $7 a month. That’s not how Mathew Ingram sees that offer in his bitchy Canadian telecom post yesterday.

It’s all well and good that our dollar officially hit parity with the U.S. greenback today, but it sure would be nice if we could get something approaching real competition in the mobile telecom market in Canada. Then maybe certain carriers who shall remain nameless – but whose names start with a B and rhyme with “hell” – wouldn’t be able to pull stuff like this.
…
Bell is promoting a $75-a-month “unlimited” data plan that uses a wireless PC card – but it has some pretty ridiculous restrictions. Not only does it have an umbrella clause that says you can’t use your connection in a way that “consumes excessive network capacity in Bell’s reasonable opinion,” but it also tells you what you can’t do with your connection.

The Gazette story just below the P?ladeau item outlines another barrier in the march towards a Mobile Web. The iPhone, made by Apple Inc., has been available in Canada in a grey market. Rogers does not prohibit the use of foreign phones in its network, but the company has made it clear that devices acquired outside the company are not eligible for technical support. The device can be sold officially only through U.S. carrier AT&T, but last month a New Jersey student discovered how to hack it so it can work on other networks. According to some independent vendors of Rogers Wireless service, the cellular operator told its network of stores to stop activating accounts on the device, which has not been officially launched in this country. These vendors say Rogers wants to control the availability of the iPhone in Canada until it can sell the device in its own stores and on its terms.

According to the latest news Rogers is not buying Shaw despite the rumours. This would no doubt have given them similar organizational indigestion to that they exhibited in acquiring Sprint Canada. Hopefully they can now put their minds to how they can boldly grow the Mobile Web in Canada. It would be in their and our best interests.

Technorati Tags: Canada, mobile Web, Rogers

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