Regina Regina:
Benn Benn:
Lack of competition really isn't the point though. They sign a contract they stick to it or find another company, there are more than one, if they don't like any contracts then don't use a cell phone, it is possible to live without them if one is so disgusted.
I you live in a large city there are more than one. If you live in a rural area in Canada you may be lucky to have one and they can treat you however they like. I live in a larger city and only have two carriers to choose from. Depending on the cell tower coverage needed, you may only have one to choose from. My Rogers phone doesn't work outside my city limits and I can't get cell service without driving 5 hours west or 6.5 hours east. That leaves me with the other if I want the "spotty" coverage outside the city.
They want people locked into contracts so they don't have to compete with their rivals month to month, so that makes it a contract to unfairly keep you out of the competition for a longer period. My friend lives in Florida during the winter and pays $20/month no contract and unlimited calling. My wife who rarely has her phone turned on never mind actually use it pays $45/month and had to sign a 2 year contract.
Canadians are getting screwed by their cell phone providers..........but haven't figured it out yet.
I don't think it's about the lack of competition, Regina. Canada has three major providers (Telus, Rogers, and Bell), and a bunch of smaller companies like Virgin, Solo, Fido, etc (some of these are owned in whole or in part by the big three).
Canadians get screwed mostly because the country is so big and the population is so small. Most other countries with more affordable rates either have larger populations or much smaller countries (or both), which means people are more concentrated and it's far cheaper and easier to roll out new technologies.
Think about it, in the late 80 the first gen (analog cell phones came out), then in the mid-90s, second gen (digital) arrived. In the past few years, the 3rd gen technology has popped up. So that means cellular providers have had to upgrade their entire networks at least twice times in the past 15 years,which costs a lot of money. And it's not like Tokyo, where you can put up a few hundred towers and have access to 30 million in population, here a similar sized city (like say Toronto) has four or five million. Then you've got to build up towers all along our highways, in smaller cities like Edmonton or Moncton, etc. all the while, all this technology is used by far fewer people than in China, or the US or Europe, so of course it's going to cost more and take more time.
Don't get me wrong, I hate Canadian cell companies as much as most people, and refuse to buy a Blackberry or iPhone simply because I won't shell out $199 for a phone and $60-75 a month for the privilege of having a 'cool' phone. I agree that the contracts they all expect you to sign are brutal and refuse to sign one myself and just use a pay-as-you-go phone from Solo. It's not a cool phone, but it works when I need it to.
No, Canadians are screwed by the huge size of our country and the small population base living here. If we had the same population as the US, rates would be far lower, because they could spread the cost of all these improvements and maintenance) over more people. That's why your buddy in Florida pays less than you do, because there are far more people in Florida than in Saskatchewan. If you don't believe me, call someone in Montana and ask them what they pay for cellular coverage (and how crappy it is). Most of the big US carriers don't even have their own towers there (at least AT&T didn't a couple of years ago when I worked at one of their call centres) and just have their members roam on the tiny carrier company that owns the towers there (Mountain Wireless I think).
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