Canadian data pricing woes

Posted
by
Steve St. Pierre
on April 10, 2007, at 10:00 AM
in News
. Tags: .
Comments: 4 responses
4 Comments

coupland.jpgBreak out the violins, pals. I’m going to depress you with more talk about us Canadians and the battle we’ve got going on with the data pricing available to us. Fellow blogger and fellow Canadian Thomas Purves has just pieced together a nice little package for us to give a once over in regards to what he calls the “travesty of Canadian mobile data rates”.

Canada, as it turns out, is worse than third world countries when it comes to our pricing – and that just blows my mind. Check out these numbers and the coinciding chart after the jump. Maybe some folks will finally understand where we’ve been coming from all this time.

500MB is about 100 minutes of usage at a Canadian Carrier’s maximum (advertised) download speed of 700kB/s (your mileage will vary, International carriers are typically twice or four times faster). 500MB is not a lot of data in the grand scheme of things, a few GB could make a better example but in that case the red bars would be completely off the charts.

If you don’t live in Canada but you or your small business depends on mobile connectivity or net neutrality in general, don’t come here.

canadianmobiledata.jpg

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  • Michael Beiderman

    Finally people are speaking.
    It’s amazing that we don’t even have a blackberry unlimited plan available to us! Rogers and the other boys are rolling along in their monopoly.

  • Michael Beiderman

    Finally people are speaking.
    It’s amazing that we don’t even have a blackberry unlimited plan available to us! Rogers and the other boys are rolling along in their monopoly.

  • Ruth

    It’s not “just” the data rates that are ridiculous here in Canada their “plans” for all services are inferior when compared to other countries.

    Furthermore, Rogers in particular has a reputation for being underhanded with the price gouging. For instance, if you add a feature on their website, such as upgrading your minutes etc. you will automatically be put on the “four hundred dollar buy out plan” This means that now instead of two hundred dollars to get out of your contract it is now four hundred. You are NOT told this when you go to add on that extra few minutes a month. They make the website easy to add on or change your plan but, they certainly do not tell you that you will be canceling out your other contract rules when you do this.

    Another example. I bought a thousand free long distance minutes from them. I was very specific when I went in to add this on that I called ALL of North America and I was most emphatic about which cities I called. I was sold the plan. When I got my first bill it was 1000.00 dollars!!!!!!! I had not used even close to my minutes so I called. I was told that the long distance plan only applied to calls between my son and myself. What?!? My son is already ON my Rogers plan and we live in the same house so why on earth would I switch from unlimited calling between he and I, which is what we had to long distance? They did give me a 700.00 dollar credit when I said I was going to call the CRTC over their dishonest representation of this plan.

    I am NOT the first person to have a product or service misrepresented or out right lied about by them. If you google this you will see others starting to grumble about it too.

    I have family in the states who dont’ even own a landline any longer since their cell phone plans are flat rate for all of North America and service is cheap, I think my niece pays 70.00 dollars a month for unlimited calling anywhere in N.A. any time. One friend in New York pays 45.00 dollars. What the hell is going on here that our calls and data are so high??

    Personally, I would like to get out of my cell phone plan and forget having a cell till this is adjusted somewhat. I certainly won’t be buying that iphone or Blackberry, the Sony 810 I use now has more features than I can afford to use much here.

    I know of one person close enough to the border who has switched to a U.S. phone plan though she lives in B.C. No it’s not just the texting that is a rip off here. Comparatively the cell phone plans are simply highway robbery. I hear Primus now has cell phone service. Let’s see if they are going to think about the consumer a little better than these other rip off artists have. And the CRTC must be aware of this situation. Yet they not only allow this price gouging they encourage it by doing nothing!

    I gave only two examples of Rogers misrepresentation of their service but, I’ve had similar experiences several other times. After googling this and finding many others saying the same thing. I think I am going to gather this evidence and take it to the CRTC and see what they say about this. If they do nothing, I will post it to the newspapers here.

    Texting is outrageously high and so are the calls as well as letting these companies get away with unscrupulous practices? The entire cell phone industry in this country is nothing but a scam.

  • Ruth

    It’s not “just” the data rates that are ridiculous here in Canada their “plans” for all services are inferior when compared to other countries.

    Furthermore, Rogers in particular has a reputation for being underhanded with the price gouging. For instance, if you add a feature on their website, such as upgrading your minutes etc. you will automatically be put on the “four hundred dollar buy out plan” This means that now instead of two hundred dollars to get out of your contract it is now four hundred. You are NOT told this when you go to add on that extra few minutes a month. They make the website easy to add on or change your plan but, they certainly do not tell you that you will be canceling out your other contract rules when you do this.

    Another example. I bought a thousand free long distance minutes from them. I was very specific when I went in to add this on that I called ALL of North America and I was most emphatic about which cities I called. I was sold the plan. When I got my first bill it was 1000.00 dollars!!!!!!! I had not used even close to my minutes so I called. I was told that the long distance plan only applied to calls between my son and myself. What?!? My son is already ON my Rogers plan and we live in the same house so why on earth would I switch from unlimited calling between he and I, which is what we had to long distance? They did give me a 700.00 dollar credit when I said I was going to call the CRTC over their dishonest representation of this plan.

    I am NOT the first person to have a product or service misrepresented or out right lied about by them. If you google this you will see others starting to grumble about it too.

    I have family in the states who dont’ even own a landline any longer since their cell phone plans are flat rate for all of North America and service is cheap, I think my niece pays 70.00 dollars a month for unlimited calling anywhere in N.A. any time. One friend in New York pays 45.00 dollars. What the hell is going on here that our calls and data are so high??

    Personally, I would like to get out of my cell phone plan and forget having a cell till this is adjusted somewhat. I certainly won’t be buying that iphone or Blackberry, the Sony 810 I use now has more features than I can afford to use much here.

    I know of one person close enough to the border who has switched to a U.S. phone plan though she lives in B.C. No it’s not just the texting that is a rip off here. Comparatively the cell phone plans are simply highway robbery. I hear Primus now has cell phone service. Let’s see if they are going to think about the consumer a little better than these other rip off artists have. And the CRTC must be aware of this situation. Yet they not only allow this price gouging they encourage it by doing nothing!

    I gave only two examples of Rogers misrepresentation of their service but, I’ve had similar experiences several other times. After googling this and finding many others saying the same thing. I think I am going to gather this evidence and take it to the CRTC and see what they say about this. If they do nothing, I will post it to the newspapers here.

    Texting is outrageously high and so are the calls as well as letting these companies get away with unscrupulous practices? The entire cell phone industry in this country is nothing but a scam.