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“Customers could consider switching service providers,” an ISED Canada representative wrote Thursday, when asked for a response to price increases at Rogers Communications and reported hikes at Bell.
Switch to who? Another fucking country? Bell and Rogers are the only options, they own all the towers, they own all the fiber.
Honestly, there will be a point when it's cheaper for most Canadian citizens to have a phone with a foreign carrier with a good international plan
Yup. I really regret letting my EU number go when I moved (back) to Canada. My EU number was about 25 Eur per month (a few years ago) including international roaming calls and data in Canada.
I though naaah, I'll get a local number because it makes sense right? No not really... 98% of the calls I get on my local Canadian number are scam calls (someone threatening me in Chinese with deportation over unpaid taxes etc.) so it's not like I would have been inconveniencing anyone local calling me... most of the remaining 2% call me on WhatsApp or Signal...
It is now, you just need to fake an address...
This is the best summary I could come up with:
That message — from Innovation, Science and Economic Development (ISED) Canada — came just hours after the Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne said Canadians "still pay too much and see too little competition" for cellular services.
"Customers could consider switching service providers," an ISED Canada representative wrote Thursday, when asked for a response to price increases at Rogers Communications and reported hikes at Bell.
"That should not be the consumer's responsibility," said Keldon Bester, executive director of the research and advocacy group Canadian Anti-Monopoly Project, who spoke out against Rogers's recent merger with Shaw Communications.
Statistics Canada reported on that same trend late last year, but noted that a bigger "data allowance" can actually make cellular prices appear to be falling due to how they are calculated as part of the inflation rate — even if the total dollar amount consumers pay hasn't gone down
The sector "has been investing billions each year in expanding and enhancing its networks so that subscribers enjoy faster speeds, wider coverage, and larger data allotments," wrote Eric Smith, the group's senior vice president.
One such report, produced last February by Wall Communications for ISED Canada, found the country still had among the highest prices anywhere for cellphone and broadband service in 2022.
The original article contains 643 words, the summary contains 196 words. Saved 70%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
What's the deal with Fizz? Seen a coupleuh recommendations...
Rural coverage can be spotty, when I was with Telus connection was always great. However Fizz is worth that single minor inconvenience for the massive savings in price. My bill is a third of what my Telus bill was after 15ish years of 'loyalty' AND I went from some email data to all day video data. With Telus they would increase my bill for 'competitive' reasons every two years. Fizz emailed me to let me know my plan was a buck cheaper, a little goes a long way. +1 for Fizz if you have the opportunity.
I use Koodo and get 80GB for $50
I don't understand at all what value add the flag ship brands have. Telus, Rogers, and Bell all seem to just be the same offer that is more expensive than their "discount" brands.
I've been using fizz for 4 or so years.
They use Videotrons network. You're covered well in the Ottawa area. Elsewhere in Canada you roam on the other carriers, but you're able to use your plan as you always would. You only get charged more if you roam more than you're at home for 3 months in a row.
Overall I'm very happy with the service. Data rollover is such an amazing thing.
Data rollover should literally be the law + industry-standard
Sasktel’s MVNO, Lum Mobile, has a relatively unique pricing structure where you pay for a bucket of data, and it lasts until you use it. You can have calls and SMS get deducted from that data bucket. Ends up a lot cheaper for me and it’s good for people whose usage might vary month to month since you don’t feel like you need a plan to cover your busy months, and you actually have an incentive to reduce usage rather than just having “unlimited” things.
Downside is to get the best rate you need to pay for the year up front, but for about $425 including taxes and fees I’ve got a whole year of service. Equivalent to about $30/month plus 911 fees and sales tax.
How much data, roughly (in GB)?
1 MB/min for phone calls and 1 MB/10 text messages. It’s regular SMS/voice calls, just deducted from the data bucket. There’s also an unlimited calling/text options but you’d have to be doing more than 1 h of phone calls or 100 SMS per day to make it worthwhile. The top data bucket is $200/95 GB of data.
Years ago, the federal government had a cell phone contract that provided unlimited voice, text, Canada wide LD and 1Gb of data for ~$25/month with no extra fees (no startup, SIM, e911 etc) and with a monthly threshold when using more data which raised the rate JUST for that month in $5 increments capped at $50/month for unlimited data. I would guess their current plan is better