Canada is where I currently live, and people are going crazy. You see, right now, there is a heavy monopoly of our wireless network by Telus, Bell, and Rogers. That equates to super high phone bills. That could soon change however, if Verizon has its way.

With Canada currently up in arms over the monopoly that the previously mentioned wireless networks have (The three companies currently have almost 79% of the market cornered, leaving the other little guys living off the scraps), the government has decided to open the doors to other International wireless providers, and Verizon could very well be the first.

Canadian’s complain of extremely high prices for their phone bills (I personally pay over $100 monthly for 2GB of Data, 200 minutes of anytime calling, unlimited texting, and the payment of a Samsung S2 on a three year contract – a contract which will have me pay a grand total of $1440 for the Samsung S2 as of November 2014). Up in the Great White North, we also have very rare access to 4G LTE, as well as incredibly poor reception due to lackluster tower placement.

Verizon is hoping to fix this problem by preferably joining the other three aforementioned companies in the war on Wireless, which in turn will hopefully (fingers crossed) reduce the prices and help Canadian’s pay less for phones.

Rumors have also floated about that AT&T may head in after Verizon, should all things work out according to plan for them, and with that, Canadian’s could see an influx of hyper-competitive wireless companies flood into the scene, which in turn could save us hundreds or even thousands on bills per year. As it stands right now, the last time Verizon was on Canadian ice, it barely held steady with Telus in 2004, as a major shareholder.

SOURCE: CNet

8 COMMENTS

  1. Also a Canadian. There’s a few things that should be noted.

    1) They want to buy Wind. Which is currently a regional discount carrier with their own (but very lackluster) network. They are not only a new network, but also use AWS spectrum, making their signal horrible.

    2) 3 year contracts in Canada will cease to exist come December due to the CRTC (our version of the FCC). The cancellation fee can only = to the phone subsidy, which must be divided equally throughout 24 months.

    3) Rates in Canada have already decreased a bit because of discount carriers like Wind a Mobilicity. If you are okay with getting very little subsidy, Virgin for instance (sub brand of Bell, one of the big 3) offers 2GB of data, with unlimited nationwide calling, voice mail and caller ID, Texts, for $60. And expect to see 6GB plans for the back to school season for not much more.

    [I got my 2gb plan in the holidays, so I save $4 and also got picture and video messaging included. -Got it with the Nexus 4 strait from Google Play. 10% of my plan goes towards a “tab” which can be used to buy phones in the future; and they currently sell the Nexus 4 for only $30 more than Google (When Shipping charges are factored in). So I could get the fall 2014 nexus for like $130 less; which will make it cost me about $220.]

    -Our price plans are bad, but not as bad it often sounds.

    Here are two main advantages of mobile in Canada (vs. the United States)

    1) Everyone is on GSM. No CDMA, so phone compatibility is great if you buy an unlocked phone, especially the Nexus 4; works on every Canadian network (Except the smallest regional carrier that’s only available in parts of Ontario, and Quebec).

    2) Our reception. Dropped calls are very rare, and data speeds are really good. In the States I’ve personally tried AT&T and T-Mobile, and I haven’t been impressed with the reception to say the least. I know that sprint isn’t much better either. Verizon is, but their prices aren’t great (And like Sprint are CDMA).
    ____________________

    I used to much prefer US plans to Canadian ones, but Canadian ones have improved (Due to competition and regulation), and US reception is worst than I thought on most networks, to the point that I no longer really envy the American plans.

    I recently compared price plans, and there’s little as good as my plan on a network that works as good as Bell’s. As much as I hate Bell, they do have an amazing network.

  3. I dont know what part of Canada the author lives in but I get great LTE signal where I live in Montreal. My plan is month to month because I bought my phone outright. For 69$ plus tax I get 5 gigs data, unlimited nationwide calling, unlimited text/picture/video messaging, call display and voicemail. This is probably the best deal I have ever gotten from a Canadian phone company….but the plan only exists because Rogers (one of the big three) wants to compete against a regional carrier (Videotron) here in Quebec. If Verizon and perhaps AT&T can come in and offer better deals and do the same thing for the rest of the country I am all for it. The big three have had it too easy for too long, its time for real competition.

  4. I use Koodo and have everything I need for phone with $25. I don’t have those internet browsing and other features, but I have wireless at home, and internet access on my computer at work, and wireless access in the food court. I think that’s enough. If Verizon can beat this, sure. But Koodo also gives us Canada-wide lond-distance calling without any cost.

  6. I too am unsure where in Canada the author lives but we have had LTE in the GTA (Toronto) for quite some time. With Rogers they have very fast LTE (LTE-Advanced?) that they market as LTE Max, but you need a 2600Mhz phone to get that speed (ie. S4). I’m not sure why the author is paying the full non-discounted price either. I’m paying about $53/mth with Rogers. Of that total, $30 is for a 6Gb dataplan (free tethering is the norm in Canada).
    I’m not saying we don’t pay too much in Canada but it looks like the author just jumped at the first offer that came along.
    Rogers has a promotion whenever a new iPhone is released (Data or Data/voice). Keep an eye out when the iPhone 5S is released.

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