Doesn’t it seem like Facebook, Google, Apple and Amazon are hogging the monopoly spotlight lately? Everyone loves slamming them, fining them, suing them — US DOJ, state attorneys general, the European Competition Bureau, maybe even The Hague?
But I wish one of these Big Villains would encroach on the coddled Canadian cellphone companies. Maybe then we could see real price competition in the cellphone market, instead of some of the highest rates in the industrialized world.
I was struck by how outrageous our prices are when I bought a SIM card in Europe. In Portugal, my Vodaphone plan was only 20 euros ($30CDN) for 5 gigs data and 500 mins phone calls (including 30 mins international calls!). By comparison, my Canadian plan is twice as expensive for less: $60CDN for 4 gigs data and unlimited nationwide calling only.
I’ve heard the argument that Canada is just so much bigger than Europe and it’s more expensive to build cellphone towers, internet “tubes”, etc. But a friend in Russia has a plan for 500 rubles (about $10CDN) for 20 gigs data. Russia is larger than Canada, so is this really an issue of geography?
I suspect this is just simple economics: Why do Canadian telecoms charge more? Because they can, as Dr. Michael Geist, a law professor at the University of Ottawa, put it succinctly. His theory is that the Canadian wireless market is too concentrated — basically, we need more competition.
But as I look at the good that the Big Villains have done, I wonder if more competition isn’t the only fix. Google dominates in search — it’s the only show in town, really — but search doesn’t suck. Similarly for Facebook, Amazon and Apple. They dominate their fields and there is no competition, but still provide a superior service. While here, we have three Canadian telecom companies which arguably compete, and yet they don’t.
