If Canadian wireless prices are going down, why is my bill still so high?

A brand new report from Value Waterhouse Coopers (PWC), commissioned by a bunch of Canadian telecoms, examines the Canadian market and reiterated the declare that costs have dropped by 65 per cent since 2020.

This can be a declare we’ve seen argued to the CRTC before and led to the CRTC changing how it tracks wireless pricing. 

It also needs to be famous that this study was commissioned by the Canadian Telecommunications Affiliation (CTA), which contains all of Canada’s main carriers and infrastructure firms like Nokia and Ericsson. PWC independently carried out the research, however some components really feel like they have been purposely omitted of this report back to make the carriers seem in a extra beneficial mild. As an illustration, there may be no mention of roaming prices or latest developments by the CRTC to increase competition.

In the event you really feel such as you’ve managed to save lots of even 50 per cent in your invoice since 2020, I’d love to listen to how within the feedback. I paid around $50 for 10GB back then, and now I pay about $50 for 40GB and U.S. roaming. So whereas the value per gigabyte has gone down, the value I’m paying to the carriers has remained constant.

Have costs actually gone down?

The report says that the typical month-to-month value for 10GB in Canada is $28, however this calculation entails some difficult math. It seems to be averaging the cost-per-gigabyte throughout all plans, not what most Canadians truly pay.

Trying throughout the three main Canadian carriers and the sub-brands they personal, the most cost effective 10GB plan I discovered was $30 at Public Cellular. Nonetheless, Fortunate Cellular had a 15GB plan for $29. These low-cost plans can be found from two carriers that almost all Canadians don’t know exist, and even fewer know they’re owned by Telus and Bell, respectively.

Whereas not an excellent correct illustration of subscribers, Lucky Mobile’s Android app has been downloaded 500,000 instances, whereas Bell’s has been downloaded over 10 million times. There’s quite a lot of nuance to this, together with Bell’s major app being round longer and providing TV/residence web companies, nevertheless it does illustrate how rather more common the primary manufacturers are in comparison with their sub-brands.

The most cost effective plans on Bell, Rogers and Telus’ web sites often price round $60 for round 120GB of knowledge. Whereas these are beneficial costs for that quantity of knowledge, the true drawback is that the main carriers don’t supply something cheaper. Canadians exterior the tech sphere don’t know the way the telecoms and flanker manufacturers work, in order that they usually go for the massive three.

All of those are technically Bell plans, however relying on the web site you purchase from, they provide numerous speeds, information, and costs.

Whereas it is a drawback with how individuals analysis and purchase telephone plans, it’s additionally an issue with how these lower-cost plans are marketed. I may very well be fallacious, however strolling round Toronto, I see a number of Bell, Rogers, and Telus adverts and only a few for Fortunate Cellular. There’s additionally no point out of the flanker manufacturers on the primary carriers’ web sites, a minimum of within the purchasing sections.

For instance of an everyday Canadian, my mother makes use of round 2GB of knowledge per thirty days, however when she acquired a brand new telephone two years in the past, she was solely Bell and Rogers for plans. I needed to persuade her that switching to Fido could be nice, and well worth the decrease price per thirty days because it was nonetheless utilizing Rogers’ community. Even with the decrease price, she was hesitant to modify as a result of she didn’t know anybody in her space utilizing Fido. She’s been fully nice on the community since then, however she has referred to as me twice to ask what provider she’s on, as a result of she forgets the title when she tells individuals about her whole lot.

That is to say that whereas the value per gigabyte is dropping, many of the plans being supplied are nonetheless out of contact with what the Canadian public wants, a minimum of on the huge three telecoms. The flanker manufacturers and Freedom Cellular all supply rather more approachable pricing. Nonetheless, it’s annoying to test 9 web sites to see all of the plans supplied by any of the massive three telecoms.

How will we repair this?

This report states that the typical Canadian makes use of solely 9GB of month-to-month information. So, we merely want plans that precisely replicate Canadian utilization. If the price per GB is so low, why aren’t there extra 10-15GB plans for underneath $30 in the marketplace?

The primary quantity usually omitted of stories like these is the price per particular person for his or her telecom invoice. That is often expressed as common income per consumer (ARPU). While you have a look at this quantity, the telecom pricing in Canada has remained much more constant.

In a 2020 CRTC report, the typical income per cell phone consumer (ARPU) at a Canadian telecom was $66.70. The same 2023 CRTC report places that quantity at $70.23.

Bell/Rogers/Telus’s most up-to-date monetary stories put their wi-fi ARPUs at round $58 for 2024, and the determine has hovered across the $60 mark for a minimum of the final a number of years. The CRTC doesn’t but have information for 2024, however its information from 2020-23 present a rise in ARPU, not a lower just like the PWC report suggests.

It’s attainable the CRTC’s ARPU calculation consists of the price of financing a tool, which could clarify why it’s increased than what the telecoms report, nevertheless it’s not totally clear the place the distinction is coming from.

Whatever the discrepancies, the precise common value for Canadians hasn’t dropped 65 per cent within the final 5 years. The worth per gigabyte has modified, however the telephone plans supplied by the core telecom companies in Canada are basically the identical.

Taking a step again

Taking a step again from this report, it actually looks as if telecoms try to make use of the present financial uncertainty, the commerce battle, and local weather change as marketable challenges for the telecom sector to assist promote fewer laws or extra investments.

There are even full sections in the course of the report inspecting the E.U. (excessive laws) and the U.S. (low laws). In the long run, the tone of the report appears to push for fewer laws just like the U.S. has concerning telecommunications. Nonetheless, the positives of the E.U. laws, equivalent to lower prices, and substantial consumer benefits, are not mentioned.

Different components strategically omitted of this report embody the sentiment in direction of increasing roaming charges, which has been a hot debate in Canada. The telecoms even wanted to current a case to the CRTC in late 2024 about it, but it’s not talked about within the report in any respect.

Alongside that, extra just lately, the CRTC has been working to implement extra competitors in Canada in an effort to cut back costs naturally. One space the place it’s been doing that is forcing the massive telecoms to sell their network infrastructure pathways wholesale to competitors. This implies Telus can run web on Bell strains and vice versa. Since that was applied, 1000’s of Canadians have had elevated decisions in relation to residence web, and in retaliation, Bell has promised to reduce its infrastructure investments going forward.

For context, this PWC report claims that every of the massive telecoms had, on common, $6 billion in free money move in 2024.

Picture supply: Shutterstock

Supply: PWC/Canadian Telecoms