Wireless bills will continue to rise in 2015, according to an estimate penned by analysts at Desjardins Securities, a financial services company.
They say Rogers, Bell, and TELUS will collect a 1.3% higher ARPU (average revenue per user) on a monthly basis compared to last year, making it the second-highest annual gain in the past five years, Global News highlights.
You may recall that last year JD Power tried to throw dust in the eyes of Canadians, claiming that wireless bills had dropped by $7 thanks to the CRTC’s Wireless Code implemented in December 2013.
Another report, commissioned by the government, revealed that for some reason incumbent players needed to increase the monthly charge for basic mobile wireless services from $31 (2013) to $36 in 2014. On the other hand, high-volume users saw their prices drop from $94 to $80.
As we highlighted with each quarterly earnings report published by the incumbents, the ARPU is on the rise. In numbers, that means last year ARPU rose 1.7%, according to data compiled by Desjardins.
“While competition remains fierce for subscribers, we believe price competition has receded enough to allow [Rogers, Bell and Telus] to deliver improved profitability,” Desjardins telecom analyst Maher Yaghi said.
When it comes to competition, the government’s “more choice, lower prices” remains only a motto that has little to do with reality: the Big Three dominate the wireless landscape. Users are apparently comfortable with paying higher bills — as they demand more and more data on their phones, according to the carriers.
Although this is only a forecast, there are signs that this could become reality this year: Bell just increased its BYOD price to $45 per month. And this could only be the beginning.
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Surprised? I just moved to the Middle East. For the equivalent of $17 Canadian dollars per month, I receive 3GB of data, and unlimited calling within the country AND to 31 other countries (including USA and Canada). There are no contracts over here. My service is better than when I used Telus back home.
I don’t think we needed an analyst’s estimate for this one ….
Dear Apple,
When you are done building your space ship campus please consider offering your own wireless services.
——————————————————
Dear Canadian Wireless providers,
Please keep adding “another nail” to ease the pain and separation anxiety to be felt upon the day that Apple decides it’s time to finally provide on there own.
Do you really think that Apple has any interest in providing lower cost mobile service to Canadians? If anything they’d have a slogan like “Unlimited mobile browsing that just works! Starting at only $349/week”.
What I think is that a little program called FaceTime audio has the potential for the next big thing that a company like Apple has to offer.
If you had a choice between one of the three that has piled on negative customer experiences for years now or a service direct from the manufactuer of the hardware in your hand what would be more appealing to you?
..also where did my post have anything regarding a lower cost mobile service to Canadians?
Analyst says Canadian wireless prices to increase? Never saw that coming.
Seriously it’s out of hand.
I have 2 lines with Telus
$35 BYOD
$55 SharePlus
$50 6GB Data
$140 + tax. This exact plan now is $165+ tax. 0.o
still paying just $35/month all in everything unlimited with Mobilicity. Where is everyone else???
Nice to know competition is alive and well! Remember when the big 3 cried poverty and said they’d learned their lesson when Verizon was a threat? Now that the threat is gone they’re back to screwing us again. Well done.
I encourage everyone living in a major city to switch to WIND…hit these guys hard.
I have $60 unlimited calling/text/6Gb with all features from Fido which I have been with over 13 years.
Living in Canada is like living in a dictatorship.
Everybody is lying and screwing the customer – who is NOT number one.
You can complain, nobody listens or cares.
Best country in the world – never forget the motto of Mr Harper!