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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

#2
I doubt anyone who has ever had to deal with one of the big 3 in Canada (Rogers, Telus, or Bell) would argue against this point. Canadians really need to push for an open system that allows foreign competition to enter the marketplace. Until we do, the status quo is simply going to continue to press the advantage they have at the expense of the Canadian consumers.

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

#5
new zealanders have a rough go with their telecommunications as well. I recall seeing the vodafone CEO on the news saying they made 3-4x as much profit in new zealand as anywhere else (per customer probably). The only competion was the ex-public telecom.

canadians don't have it quite so bad as the new zealanders, but they get a worse deal than the americans for sure.

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

#7
It's almost as terrible as the car insurance market in BC:

http://ihateicbc.com/icbcs-dirty-little-secret.html

BC only has one car insurance provider so they're free to set the prices as they see fit. They even try and pretend that they're doing it to help keep prices low as competition would only raise the prices for everyone (yes, they really said this).

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

#8

new zealanders have a rough go with their telecommunications as well. I recall seeing the vodafone CEO on the news saying they made 3-4x as much profit in new zealand as anywhere else (per customer probably). The only competion was the ex-public telecom. canadians don't have it quite so bad as the new zealanders, but they get a worse deal than the americans for sure.

Canada has BY FAR the most expensive cell phone rates in the world. New Zealand is 19th according to this list. See:

http://www.mobilemag.com/2010/08/27/canadians-have-the-most-...

That graph doesn't even give justice to the true cost. Canada plans are almost always regional, so to call another city, even one nearby is a long distance call. VOIP phones are also rare because numbers are restricted, Skype and Google Phone do not exist here.

Canada's telecom industry can accurately be described as a mafia-style public cartel.

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

#9

new zealanders have a rough go with their telecommunications as well. I recall seeing the vodafone CEO on the news saying they made 3-4x as much profit in new zealand as anywhere else (per customer probably). The only competion was the ex-public telecom. canadians don't have it quite so bad as the new zealanders, but they get a worse deal than the americans for sure.

I'd argue against that - the required plan for the iPhone 4 starts at 50CAD/month, and the phone isn't free either.

That's for a plan with: 200 minutes + 500 mb of data.

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