...is that these prices are actually *good* compared to the data plans Rogers and Fido offered before.
K, it's aboot the fact that Canada's cellphone market stinks. When I visit back to the U.K. I notice that cellphones (and plans) are about the *only* thing that are cheaper than here.
The Canadian market is basically a cartel. There's two GSM operators - Fido and Rogers. Only problem is, Rogers now owns Fido, so there's really only one. So if you need a GSM phone because you travel to Europe, you're basically in a monopoly.
There's two CDMA operators - Telus and Bell. They tend to offer amazingly similar products and prices, all substantially higher than in Europe, Asia, or even the States (and often fairly outdated hardware).
Telus has some okay data plans - I think something like $99 for essentially unlimited data (there's an AUP limit at 2GB or 4GB or something, but apparently people who use more than that haven't actually been picked up so far). But EVDO coverage is pretty limited to major metropolitan areas, and rev A coverage is even worse. GSM 3G coverage is frankly a joke, and didn't even exist until earlier this year.
It's easy to tell how much profiteering goes on, because if you call up your provider, threaten to cancel, and get transferred to the 'save' people and give them a hard time, you can get some absurd discounts. I pay around $38 a month (after tax and 'system access fee') for my service, which isn't actually terrible, although it's still more than I'd pay for the same (with a bit of data thrown in) in the U.K. If I was paying the list price, though, it'd be somewhere north of $60.
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The sad part...
...is that these prices are actually *good* compared to the data plans Rogers and Fido offered before.
K, it's aboot the fact that Canada's cellphone market stinks. When I visit back to the U.K. I notice that cellphones (and plans) are about the *only* thing that are cheaper than here.
The Canadian market is basically a cartel. There's two GSM operators - Fido and Rogers. Only problem is, Rogers now owns Fido, so there's really only one. So if you need a GSM phone because you travel to Europe, you're basically in a monopoly.
There's two CDMA operators - Telus and Bell. They tend to offer amazingly similar products and prices, all substantially higher than in Europe, Asia, or even the States (and often fairly outdated hardware).
Telus has some okay data plans - I think something like $99 for essentially unlimited data (there's an AUP limit at 2GB or 4GB or something, but apparently people who use more than that haven't actually been picked up so far). But EVDO coverage is pretty limited to major metropolitan areas, and rev A coverage is even worse. GSM 3G coverage is frankly a joke, and didn't even exist until earlier this year.
It's easy to tell how much profiteering goes on, because if you call up your provider, threaten to cancel, and get transferred to the 'save' people and give them a hard time, you can get some absurd discounts. I pay around $38 a month (after tax and 'system access fee') for my service, which isn't actually terrible, although it's still more than I'd pay for the same (with a bit of data thrown in) in the U.K. If I was paying the list price, though, it'd be somewhere north of $60.