Canadian media has reported that the country’s three dominate wireless carriers have slowly increased the price of wireless services over the past couple of months by around $5, roughly in line with the recent completion of a nationwide spectrum auction that failed to generate new nationwide competitors.
CBC noted that the price changes have been consistent across Bell Canada, Rogers and Telus, with those three operators now charging around $72 per month for unlimited nationwide calling, messaging and 500 megabytes of data from a smartphone. International Business Times reported that increased prices have also trickled down to those carriers’ discount brands, including Koodo (Telus), Fido (Rogers) and Virgin Mobile (Bell Canada).
Those operators last summer made changes to their convoluted pricing structures in an attempt to simplify pricing options for consumers in the wake of government regulators announcing plans to roll out a code of conduct designed to ease the burden on current customers. The changed mimicked moves by U.S.-based operators in offering up plans with unlimited calling and messaging with consumers then selecting the amount of data they want to use.
The Canadian government has been looking to bring new competition into that country’s wireless market, hoping to use the recently completed 700 MHz spectrum auction as a means to enticing new entrants. While the auction raised a country record $4.8 billion in winning bids, the country’s three dominate players all gained spectrum licenses across most of the country, while most regions witnessed just one bidder outside the large three pick up a license. Industry Canada, which conducted the auction, tried to put a positive spin on the outcome, proclaiming: “First and foremost, at least four wireless players in every region of the country now hold high-quality spectrum.”
However, the CBC story found analysts were not surprised by the moves.
“In one sense, they’re [raising prices] just because they can get away with it,” Michael Geist, E-Commerce lawyer and technology law columnist, told IBT. “Until we get more competition in the marketplace, I don’t think there’s any doubt we’ll see fees continue to increase in the future.”
“What the big three are saying, in essence from a high level, is that they’re seeing increasingly less competition,” added Ronald Gruia, a telecom expert at Frost & Sullivan.
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