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Canada's Telecom Market is Rigged, says Wind Mobile backer Naguib Sawiris

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Re: Canada's Telecom Market is Rigged, says Wind Mobile backer Naguib Sawiris

#61

Post by phillmv »

maximilianburke wrote: post #57
jbarham wrote: post #50

By way of comparison, I'm living in Melbourne, Australia, and pay $55/month for the Nexus S w/ unlimited calls within Australia (including to other mobile phones), unlimited texts (IIRC) and 500 MB of data. That's for a one-year plan w/ Vodafone, and I didn't pay anything up-front for the phone. Needless to say I'm looking forward to upgrading to the Galaxy Nexus soon. :) My wife has the the same phone and same plan…

BC insurance, from my experience, isn't really a problem. Most quotes I've received in markets where there is a free(r) market for insurance often are considerably higher than what BC drivers pay through ICBC, especially if the driver is under 25. Case in point, I renewed my auto insurance today with ICBC and paid $1470 for 12 months of insurance for a 2007 Mazda 3. The policy includes $2,000,000 liability, collision…

Public insurance has a leg up: because the risk pool is greater it can hedge the risks more efficiently.

Re: Canada's Telecom Market is Rigged, says Wind Mobile backer Naguib Sawiris

#62

Post by phillmv »

zmanji wrote: post #44
snowwindwaves wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

we used to have that, and while the service of providing roads, electricity, or sewerage hasn't changed much in the last 100 years, telecommunications certainly has. while networks might lend themselves to natural monopolies, government sponsored telecommunications monopolies couldn't keep up with the pace of innovation these days and as a result consumers would be left paying high rates for antiquated service.

Right now in Canada I am paying high rates for antiquated service. There is still long distance, I have to pay extra for voicemail + caller id, etc. I agree that government sponsored monopolies probably could not keep up with the pace of innovation. However in industries where natural monopolies occur, I think they are the better solution then private enterprise. In Canada, it used to be that receiving text messages…

Hang on.

There are many aspects which the government should regulate (common carrier status for internet, anyone?) but I think that in this aspect our biggest problem is that the barrier for entry in the Canadian market is too high, and so it's exceedingly difficult to disrupt.

Because there's such a lack of competition the big telcos get to basically collude with each other.

Re: Canada's Telecom Market is Rigged, says Wind Mobile backer Naguib Sawiris

#63

Post by sidek »

matdwyer wrote: post #58
throwaway64 wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

6GB is a few dozen youtube videos, thats pretty far from even "basically"

Seriously? I have yet to meet a single person who has gone over 6GB on a mobile plan (even with tethering). In fact Rogers put out a statistic that something like only 3 people went over 6GB in the first month they offerred it. As I said, I literally have streamed entire leafs (NHL) games and had plenty of space left to do normal things. If I'm not mistaken, Youtube data rate is 300kbps, which is 132 MB/hour. So 6GB…

I'm on Fido with the 6GB plan. I've never gone above before, but might this month; on the 7th of November I received a notice saying I had used 75% of my data for the month.

My circumstances are pretty odd, though. I'm moving and sold my previous home at the end of October and don't get possession of the next till early December, and the space I'm in in the meantime has no internet, so all my internet usage is through my tethered iPhone. So it's possible; just really really hard.

Re: Canada's Telecom Market is Rigged, says Wind Mobile backer Naguib Sawiris

#64

Post by phillmv »

throwaway64 wrote: post #54
matdwyer wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hence why I said "basically". I tether daily (including streaming the occasional leafs game, radio, etc) and haven't gone over 6GB.

6GB is a few dozen youtube videos, thats pretty far from even "basically"

It's a secondary internet connection. I just don't watch that many youtube videos during my morning coffeeshop rounds; I've yet to go past 4gb, and I stream an hour or two of video off the cbc website during the election.

Re: Canada's Telecom Market is Rigged, says Wind Mobile backer Naguib Sawiris

#65

Post by throwaway64 »

matdwyer wrote: post #58
throwaway64 wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

6GB is a few dozen youtube videos, thats pretty far from even "basically"

Seriously? I have yet to meet a single person who has gone over 6GB on a mobile plan (even with tethering). In fact Rogers put out a statistic that something like only 3 people went over 6GB in the first month they offerred it. As I said, I literally have streamed entire leafs (NHL) games and had plenty of space left to do normal things. If I'm not mistaken, Youtube data rate is 300kbps, which is 132 MB/hour. So 6GB…

>In fact Rogers put out a statistic that something like only 3 people went over 6GB in the first month they offerred it.

Rogers has a long history of blatantly lying about stuff like this, to skew the narrative in their favor.

>Youtube data rate is 300kbps

high definition video is far in excess of 300kbs

>You're trying to tell me that that isn't "basically unlimited"?

I think we use the internet in very different ways, if you consider 6GB "basicly unlimited" including tethering.

>basic wired internet in Canada starts with a 25GB cap

another sad result of the ISP oligopoly

Re: Canada's Telecom Market is Rigged, says Wind Mobile backer Naguib Sawiris

#66

Post by snowwindwaves »

teamonkey wrote: post #48
snowwindwaves wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

we used to have that, and while the service of providing roads, electricity, or sewerage hasn't changed much in the last 100 years, telecommunications certainly has. while networks might lend themselves to natural monopolies, government sponsored telecommunications monopolies couldn't keep up with the pace of innovation these days and as a result consumers would be left paying high rates for antiquated service.

This is going to sound like trolling, but compared to the European mobile telecoms services, you in the US are paying high rates for an antiquated service (specifically, non-GSM use is still common, everyday data speeds are slower, dropouts are higher, call quality is lower). Judicious government investment into telecoms infrastructure in certain European countries has led to fast, cheap and stable communications. Go…

Can you provide some examples of these European state owned monopoly telecommunications companies or does government investment signify something else?

Re: Canada's Telecom Market is Rigged, says Wind Mobile backer Naguib Sawiris

#67

Post by matdwyer »

throwaway64 wrote: post #65
matdwyer wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seriously? I have yet to meet a single person who has gone over 6GB on a mobile plan (even with tethering). In fact Rogers put out a statistic that something like only 3 people went over 6GB in the first month they offerred it. As I said, I literally have streamed entire leafs (NHL) games and had plenty of space left to do normal things. If I'm not mistaken, Youtube data rate is 300kbps, which is 132 MB/hour. So 6GB…

>In fact Rogers put out a statistic that something like only 3 people went over 6GB in the first month they offerred it. Rogers has a long history of blatantly lying about stuff like this, to skew the narrative in their favor. >Youtube data rate is 300kbps high definition video is far in excess of 300kbs >You're trying to tell me that that isn't "basically unlimited"? I think we use the internet in very different way…

I don't doubt that Rogers embellishes things like that. I'm still happy with $30 for 6GB.

I'm equal to any "power" user, I work on the road and tether daily while using the iPhone for basically everything. I'm still not getting anywhere near 6GB. You'd literally have to use the iPhone connection as your main internet source to get above 6GB. I'm not torrenting or streaming a TON while on my phone, but I watch mobile streamed hockey (they are at 400 kbps) fairly often.

HD video is indeed more then 300kbs - but are my Youtube videos on the iPhone 1080p? Hell no. Even netflix for mobile is severely compressed and still looks OK.

You may use more then 6GB of mobile data a month, but as I said before, I'm willing to bet you're in an extremely small percentage there.

Re: Canada's Telecom Market is Rigged, says Wind Mobile backer Naguib Sawiris

#68

Post by [deleted] »

teamonkey wrote: post #48
snowwindwaves wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

we used to have that, and while the service of providing roads, electricity, or sewerage hasn't changed much in the last 100 years, telecommunications certainly has. while networks might lend themselves to natural monopolies, government sponsored telecommunications monopolies couldn't keep up with the pace of innovation these days and as a result consumers would be left paying high rates for antiquated service.

This is going to sound like trolling, but compared to the European mobile telecoms services, you in the US are paying high rates for an antiquated service (specifically, non-GSM use is still common, everyday data speeds are slower, dropouts are higher, call quality is lower). Judicious government investment into telecoms infrastructure in certain European countries has led to fast, cheap and stable communications. Go…

[deleted]

Re: Canada's Telecom Market is Rigged, says Wind Mobile backer Naguib Sawiris

#69

Post by throwaway64 »

snowwindwaves wrote: post #66
teamonkey wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is going to sound like trolling, but compared to the European mobile telecoms services, you in the US are paying high rates for an antiquated service (specifically, non-GSM use is still common, everyday data speeds are slower, dropouts are higher, call quality is lower). Judicious government investment into telecoms infrastructure in certain European countries has led to fast, cheap and stable communications. Go…

Can you provide some examples of these European state owned monopoly telecommunications companies or does government investment signify something else?

I'm not sure about European tel-cos, but i can tell you of a north American telco that is a virtual government monopoly (no other private company has comparable rates and service), Sasktel, they have an interesting history.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sasktel

They were the first, or one of the first companies in north america to offer: Video-On-Demand, Fiber to the home, IPTV, HDTV over IPTV, HSPA, ADSL, etc.

This is while servicing a province with roughly half a million people and is larger than every American state minus Alaska and Texas. While at the same time serving hundreds of small communities with full speed access.

This is at the same time as offering plans and service that is much better than what you can get in the surrounding provinces that have cities that have more people than the whole province.

In some ways, privately owned companies that only have to compete with 2 or 3 other entities is far worse than a government monopoly.

Re: Canada's Telecom Market is Rigged, says Wind Mobile backer Naguib Sawiris

#70

Post by a3camero »

zmanji wrote: post #43
freejack wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IIRC, there are only a few commissioners who don't come from Canada's media/telco industries. i.e. the commission is mostly populated by insiders from the industries that the CRTC purports to oversee and regulate. Fox, henhouse, etc. http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/about/commissioners.htm

The question that I always have is, how can we find people who have the knowledge to regulate the telco industry but who have not worked in the telco industry in a large capacity before?

Research in Motion employees, other electronics companies. How about just business people? People who've worked for foreign cell/telecom companies who want to move back to Canada. IT experts who've worked with the infrastructure. Lawyers in the industry who work for private law firms (biased, but less so probably).

There are plenty of people who would be a better choice than someone who's worked for an incumbent player.

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