What is Digg?202 Comments
- ryanfeeley, on 10/18/2007, -2/+57I calcuated an image search results page to cost $12!
- fightingirish, on 10/18/2007, -0/+51It boils down to lack of competition. Canada has four national cell phone companies: Bell, Rogers, Fido, and Telus. You factor in the fact that Rogers bought Fido and that lowers it down to three companies.
And none of them offer an unlimited data access plan (or at the very least one anywhere near on par with what you get south of the border).
Maybe because in the United States, Sprint has to compete with Verizon - which has to compete with Cingular (now AT&T) - which has to compete with US Cellular - which has to compete with Alltell - which has to compete with T-Mobile - which has to compete with Virgin Mobile - which has to compete with countless local carriers. - Fhionnlaoch, on 10/12/2007, -2/+49It's 'cause cell phone companies in Canada are allowed to rape us in the ass. No kidding. When you go to sign up for a contract, you'd better bend over and bring some lube.
- rewen, on 10/18/2007, -1/+44And this is why I refuse to buy a data plan from Bell, even thought I have a Motorola Q. I'm not letting them ***** me over. I get unlimited data with my internet at home, why would I pay the SAME PRICE for 50mb on a phone. Are they ***** insane? It doesn't make sense - especially since my home internet is through them as well!
- cohman2001, on 10/12/2007, -2/+42Not a chance.
- wonkavsn, on 10/12/2007, -10/+50Yeah but we rule at everything else!
...So there - Mootabolife, on 10/12/2007, -0/+40Northern Canada.
- gsawhney, on 10/12/2007, -1/+39Is there anyplace with worse data rates then Canada?
- bmann, on 10/12/2007, -1/+36For fun, I redid this to just look at Canadian carriers, and changed it to 1GB of data. Rogers and Fido -- $4100 per month.
- cdawzrd, on 10/12/2007, -6/+36US, Australia are 3rd world countries?
- tomi, on 10/12/2007, -1/+31Alright, kid. That joke is dead now.
- gabbercomau, on 10/12/2007, -1/+28@Justin6512
He said one!
Bloody canadians... - speechpoet, on 10/12/2007, -0/+24Darren would have added a smiley at the end of his medicare comment, but it would have cost him eight bucks on his mobile plan.
- stupidbrowner, on 10/18/2007, -6/+28You sir, are an idiot. As a Canadian with many friends in the states who pay for their healthcare, I know how awesome universal healthcare is.
- Justin6512, on 10/12/2007, -4/+24@ theakolyte
HOCKEY! AND BEEER!!!! - dannomac, on 10/12/2007, -1/+20@calbff
"Not entirely true. These four only operate in a few provinces. In Saskatchewan, we have one and only one, and it's actually illegal for anyone else to compete - and it's the same for Manitoba (thank you, die-hard socialist government)."
Huh? What are you talking about? In Saskatchewan, there are several phone companies... SaskTel, Rogers, Fido, Telus, Shaw, and Access (care of MTS Allstream).
SaskTel just happens to have the best coverage of all of them, not the best plans, though. And with the exception of Access, SaskTel is the smallest. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+19What has the size of the country have to do with the wireless prices? No Canadian carriers cover all of the territory, far from it. And lets compare Canada to Australia shall we :
Canada
Size (sq. km) 9,976,140
pop (2002) 31,902,268
Australia 2002
Size (sq. km) 7,686,850
pop (2002) 19,546,792
Asutralia has even less pop per sq. km, and about the same number of carriers (well they might have 1 or 2 more actually, not enough for the wide price margin). How do you explain the *huge* price difference? Its the CRTC's policy that allow the carriers to rape us. Nothing else.
It always amaze me how people are defending Candian carriers... - theojanke, on 10/12/2007, -2/+20"In Saskatchewan, we have one and only one, and it's actually illegal for anyone else to compete - and it's the same for Manitoba (thank you, die-hard socialist government)."
Um, no. In Manitoba we have Rogers, Fido, Telus, as well as MTS (which is pretty much the same as Bell). - ToastPop, on 04/17/2009, -0/+18I used to work at The Source by Circuit City, which is one of the primary dealers for Rogers in Canada. They are definitely have a huge hold on the Canadian wireless market, and it's such a rip-off, so many needless fees, and all they ever advertise are the plans where you lock into a three year contract. It's such a scam.
Also of note, Fido is owned by Rogers, explaining why they are both high up there. They actually used to have one of the most competitive rates.
The smaller guys that not as many people know about offer much nicer rates though, although they don't offer the data plans you would use with a blackberry. Virgin Mobile is rising fast (no data plans yet, but their normal plans are a fraction of the price, and no extra fees or contracts). We also have 7-11 Wireless, President's Choice Mobile where you get unlimited internet access for $5 a month, and Petro Canada Wireless. I'm a happy Virgin customer myself :) Just don't fall for the shiny "free" phones from rip-off Rogers and Bell. - letaalio, on 10/12/2007, -1/+18Yeah and it is actually Rwanda not Rawanda
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rwanda - Nothlit, on 10/12/2007, -1/+17Verizon apparently has pretty good rates in Canada, only .002 cents per kilobyte!
Oh, wait... - alphacoder, on 10/12/2007, -5/+19Calbff,
I'm not sure what you mean by pinning your single carrier issue on what you term a 'socialist government'? You do know that socialist governments can and do allow competitive markets, right? And similarly, some governments that adhere to a socialist philosophy limit competition. That holds true even for fascism - openly declared fascism or not.
I'm not pro-socialism by any means but did want to make the point that socialism or any other '-ism' isn't the problem rather it is the lack of commitment at both the federal and provincial levels for enlarging the competitive field. The reason for that is probably more influenced by lobbyists, political favors and similar non '-ism' (in the macro economic sense) factors. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+16"That's actually a good point. In Canada, the population density is 3.2/km², whereas the in the UK it's 243/km², and Rwanda's is 320/km².
Too bad that Australia with their 2.5/km² pop density completely invalidate that "good point" - Bamborzled, on 10/12/2007, -0/+14What do cell phones have to do with podcasting? Sure you could publish your podcast from a cell phone, but that's just a waste of data anywhere.
- hockeysmurf, on 10/12/2007, -0/+13VERIZON. AT & T. Help Canada, we need you !! TELUS, BELL, & ROGERS are raping us with these insane data rates!!
This is an awesome blog entry. In disgust of Canadian data rates in comparison to US rates, I was also planning to make a blog entry. So I'll save some time and simply Digg this guy.
More evidence that Canadian phone companies are just shafting us: Right now my Telus phone is in a 3 months Unlimited Data transfer because I just signed up with a 3 year contract. After my free 3 months of unlimited, it would cost me $375 per month to keep the same plan....... WTF - zyth, on 10/12/2007, -0/+13Too bad this is incorrect. Your Cellphone has unlimited WAP browsing and such. If you had a PocketPC/Blackberry/Something of similar ilk with real honest to god Internet access, you'd be getting the screw as well. Telus is no better than Rogers or the rest of them.
- realyst, on 10/12/2007, -0/+12Yet another reason to mob the CRTC. I actually consider myself a [very]mild socialist because I believe some order of gov't regulation can be, at times, useful. But the CRTC is horrid. Overly bureaucratic. Awfully out of touch. They basically follow what the FTC does when it comes to regulating medium but never deregulate and always three years late.
We JUST got rollable phone numbers....
They bend over backasswards for big media(the two big media that own all of Canadian media, CBC not included, they be gov't). Do not perform adequate studies about that which they do but don't correct that which they ***** up.
I truly believe this would be a damned better country if the CRTC building was burned down and the department disbanded to work as WalMart employees. - cmearns, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11I call shenanigans on you. I live in Vancouver and use Fido. Show me a link to the plan and free the rest of us from this nightmare.
- wonkavsn, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10Second largest. Russia is bigger.
- joeTaco, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10"Not entirely true. These four only operate in a few provinces. In Saskatchewan, we have one and only one, and it's actually illegal for anyone else to compete - and it's the same for Manitoba (thank you, die-hard socialist government)."
What the hell are you talking about? In Manitoba we have PRIVATELY owned MTS, but also Telus, Rogers, Virgin, and Fido. - GerryDaman, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10The monthly "system access fee" the cell providers in Canada charge is complete and utter BS...just another money grab!
- dbarefoot, on 10/12/2007, -2/+11Also available from willing Canadians: a sense of irony.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9Aug 1, 2006 - TORONTO (CP) - Second-quarter profit at Rogers Communications Inc. (TSX:RCI.B) spiked to $277.5 million from a year-earlier $19.2 million on a strong performance across its units with particularly improved results in the wireless division.
http://www.cbc.ca/cp/media/060801/X080106U.html
According to http://finance.google.com/finance?q=TSE:RCI.B
In 2005, Rogers took a net loss of $75 million CDN.
In 2006, they made a net income of $622 million. - TheIguana, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9Not surprising, cellular companies (particular Rogers imho) are no better than scum in their business practices and ethics.
- hockeysmurf, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8Let this guy think he has unlimited data transfer. It will be funny at the end of the month when he has to go get a loan from his bank to pay for his Telus bill.
- DesolataX, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8Back when 1x was introduced here in Canada, Telus had an unlimited bandwidth trial plan with my company (3 months for $100) and since I was travelling across Canada on a family trip, I decided to give it a try instead of stopping at internet cafe's or looking for open wifi signals. When I received the bill, it would have cost me a few dollars shy of $15,000 in three months. I didn't download any large files (1X was just a bit faster than dial up). I haven't bought a dataplan since, because the prices have not come down.
- SmashSource, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9 If you live in Toronto, you're better off using public WiFi access points with your laptop or a WiFi capable phone. However, if you want to get a WiFi phone in Canada, youll have to buy it from Ebay because if you buy it here WiFi will be disabled.
This is why the iPhone simply won't fly here. Unless Apple launches there own cell phone network here, which would be GREAT. - overkil6, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8Having just moved back to Canada from Ireland I have to agree. In fact I didn't even activate my phone over here. Overseas, mobiles are used extensively. Texting is all the rage all hours of the day. Perhaps this is how they can keep rates so low...
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8"Also available from willing Canadians: a sense of irony."
See Alanis for more info. - eleven, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8Yep - I can confirm that Rogers sucks mega bucks from me if I need to access any "data" content above-and-beyond their own in-house crap.
- heavensblade23, on 10/12/2007, -3/+10That certainly sucks, but in the grand scheme of things it's not so bad. I doubt many people would rather live in Rwanda just to get better data rates.
- Jeffler, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Fido is way more then this. For one view of engadget's front page on iPhone day, they charged me $270 (Around $240 US).
Needless to say, I didn't pay it and since it was my final month with them I think they forgot about it. :P - DarkJC, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8Link to this almighty $5 unlimited data plan and maybe you'll be forgiven, but until then, shut it. Bell is just as bad as the rest.
And btw, this is for connecting to the computer as well, not for just browsing crappy pages on the small phone screen. - evil-doer, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7rogers, bell, etc are all criminals. they rape you for every penny they can get. they are also slowly strangling internet as well. as time goes on you get less and less for more and more.
- lelion, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8CRTC here is a sham, they need to be taken apart and put back together by the people. They let Rogers buy the whole of Fido thus eliminating all GSM competition. That to me is a travesty, they take us for idiots. I'm not even considering Bell... it's years behind with it's crap old technology, the word is now GSM.
- punkas, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6What do you mean owned by rogers and Bell, in BC and AB FOR SURE is owned and operated by Telus, Rogers has there own setup but for Bell and telus, it is Telus in the west, Bell owns the systems in the east
- punkas, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6@350Zeded
Watch your bill, Telus is starting to migrate all the unlimited data plans to the 250MB plan, I know cause I seen the $4000+ bill and when we contacted them they said that they are phasing out that plan as per Terms and Conditions and thats how they are letting people know by giving them a high bill so they will call in, they credited back and that was it, I pay 100.00 for 250MB then 3.00/MB after that, that is also with Telus, in all fairness though, they are all doing the same thing - punkas, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6thats just it, on your phone, a lot of us need to be able to tether to a laptop for business purposes
- Avengelist, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6The Canadian Wireless/Cell industry is at the point where the US industry was 4-5 years ago. We just got number portability. Toronto just got 3G... cheaper data will come... sometime...
- francisidada, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6correct ... am sure he never used his phone for internet, i tried and just to check my mail on my fido phone when i just get it and ran up 13 bucks. I can imagine if i did something else.
This story is very very very very very correct. There is no mobile competition here in Canada (if there is any competition in anything at all). -
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