It’s no surprise that Canadians pay some of the highest broadband and cellphone rates in the world. Its these expensive data roaming rates that can result in horrifying $6000 charges for the uninformed user.
The latest report shows Canada leads all Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) members with the highest data roaming rates. In the comparison for 1MB of usage, Canadians pay $24.61. Yes, it’s quite disappointing, but that’s the reality given our mobile climate, consisting of a few dominant carriers that control and dictate pricing.
Here’s the graph showing 1MB of data roaming usage of OECD members:
Now, Canada doesn’t pay the highest charges out of all OECD members in all of the tests done. Here are results from the rest of the report, summed up here:
1 MB in one session – average price by country of origin of the traveller – Canada is highest out of all 34 OECD countries.
1 MB in one session – least expensive destination by country of origin of the traveller – Canada is 4th highest out of 34 OECD countries.
5 MB in 5 sessions in different days – average by origin country of the traveller – Canada is sixth highest.
5 MB in 5 sessions over a week – price of the least expensive destination by country of origin of the.
traveller – Canada is 13th lowest.
5 MB in 1 session – average by country of origin of the traveller – Canada is fourth highest.
5 MB in one session – price of the least expensive destination by country of origin of the traveller – Canada is about halfway least/most expensive.
20 MB in 20 sessions over a month – average price by country of origin of the traveller – Canada is sixth most expensive.
20 MB in 20 sessions over a month – price of the least expensive destination by country of origin of.
the traveller – Canada is seventh least expensive.
20 MB in 20 sessions over a month – average price by country of origin of the traveller – laptop use.
only – Canada is eight most expensive.
100 kB picture MMS sent – average price by country of origin of the traveller – Canada is third most expensive.To sum up:
1. Expensive (values compared to average or mid-point).
2. Expensive
3. Expensive
4. Cheap
5. Expensive
6. Mid
7. Expensive
8. Cheap
9. Expensive
10. Expensive
Regardless of what the data shows, the facts are data roaming rates in Canada are overpriced. There are roaming packages available, but even then it’s very expensive.Â
What do the carriers have to say about this? Telus blames Rogers:
Telus Corp.’s vice-president of mobility marketing Brent Johnston said he “absolutely agrees†with the OECD report’s findings about high prices in Canada, and blamed it on the previous monopoly Rogers had on international roaming deals (because Bell and Telus used a wireless technology that differed from most international carriers, unlike Rogers).
Mr. Johnston said wireless providers could still make a profit by cutting roaming charges considerably. He said Telus would announce a significant price reduction before the summer travel season.
How has your data roaming experience been on the Big 3?
Here’s a link to the full OECD report.
