I have lived 10 of the past 24 years in China and their cell rates are about the same as my brother-in-laws in Sweden - between 8 and 11 dollars a month for (a not-as-good) service that costs me over $ 50 a month here in Canada; and the overage charges for extra minutes/long distance are four times higher here in Canada. By the way, that cheap $ 70 phone Bell, Rogers or Telus will only sell to you along with their two or three year contract plan, costs about $ 30-50. on the street in China. The fight with Rogers over the Iphone rates, where Apple has been stymied in its push for a basic all-in $ 40 a month service to all Canadian customers, underlines how fat Canadian service providers have become - Rogers, etc. are preventing the Iphone from coming into the Canadian market until they get to extract more from Canadian consumers.

Your only defence is to become a more demanding consumer, by complaining to the regulator of telecoms in Canada - the CRTC. Complaints in English are started at http://www.crtc.gc.ca/RapidsCCM/Register2.asp?lang=E . If you are serious about getting rates down so your Iphone is only $ 40 a month, there needs to be sufficient complaints from consumers to the regulator, so that the senior decision-making levels are aware not only of telecoms providers desires, but also of complaints and what users who pay for this system truly think. The absence of complaints about the inflated price paid last year for the BCE takeover, means the CRTC will allow BCE to increase its charges to pay for the debt taken on to pay for the takeover by the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan, US and Canadian buyout experts, and Canadian banks.

The only way to prevent these increasing costs being imposed on you, apart from moving elsewhere, or not using the service, is to let the regulator know it is unacceptable to consumers and for Canadian competitiveness to approve the highest telco rates in the world, or even in the OECD. At worst, the telco burden our businesses and consumers should be set at no more than middle of the OECD telecom rates, but preferably lower, so Canadians can continue to compete in a globalized world, and maintain the standard of living we enjoy today. As a suggestion, perhaps Alex Sauders might compile the feedback from his blog into a submission for the CRTC, since they will have to respond publicly and within a short time frame to a serious pricing service complaint. It is only by complaining that you can slow the costs increases of the high-cost Canadian telco system that the CRTC currently favours, or at least permits.

In addition, the telephone service providers were forced last fall to participate in the hearings of a new independent telecommunications consumer agency, which will have transparent decisions to all complaints listed on their website (the CRTC decision is at http://www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/Decisions/2007/dt2007-130.htm). While I do not anticipate an early change in Canada’s current bias for rent extraction by protected service providers (how do you think Mr. Rogers could afford to affix his name on the Roger’s Centre?), the CRTC submission might be the basis for a complaint to this new agency - and by forcing these rates to be publicly defended and justified in any agency decision, it likely will lay the basis for a stronger consumer reaction….which will in turn generate the political pressure necessary to get Canada’s costs back in line with the rest of the world, and allow you and me to get an Iphone (or our Blackberry, or our Nokia, LG, etc.) at about the same price price as our US, European and Asian friends and competitors. Your failure to join in the complaints will only ensure the current high rates continue.
Alec, what think you?

If you stick with a cell company for the term of your contract, you are called a “best customer”. This entitles you to:

- None of the “freebies” that new subscribers get when you renew.
- Attempted theft if you try to unlock your phone for use in other countries.
- Data rates that are orders of magnitude greater than those found in Asia, Europe, and even in the US. (4 cents/KB here, 0.2 cents/KB from Helio for pay-as-you-go, unlimited data for $25/month more.

As for Canadian market penetration being equal only to that of Botswana and Gabon, there is a simple explanation for that: Canada has long history of well-established land lines that is absent in the developing world. In some ways, widespread cel phone ownership makes way more sense in developing countries than in the developed world.

Moreover, it’s my personal number. It’s not shared with anyone else. You wouldn’t have a shared email address, so why a shared phone number? It’s a legacy of the old telecommunications network.

Why does everyone need to carry cel phones? How come more Mexicans carrying cels is unquestionably a good thing? (I know your point is that lower rates make them more accessible, but I still think don’t get why more cel phones — just, apparently, for the sake of having more cel phones — is a good thing.) And if Canadian market penetration is poor, man oh man, I’m not sure I want it to improve. They’re everywhere here in Vancouver. If people could get their dogs to use them they would. Really. “Just a sec. It’s Fluffy on the line. I said she should call if she couldn’t find her chew toy, or if her water got stale.”