CRTC’s Hearing on Differential Pricing Leaves Some Questions Unanswered

The more than two-dozen testimonials presented during this week at the CRTC’s hearing on differential pricing weren’t enough to answer one simple question: Why do Telus, Rogers and Bell want or need differential pricing? (via Alphabeatic)

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Telus says it’s for wireless service providers to distinguish themselves from each other in the eyes of the consumer, Alphabeatic’s Peter Nowak highlights. That’s rather interesting, because until now these carriers who suddenly want to differentiate themselves have benefitted from sameness.

As an example (as pointed out by Nowak), they all have the same pricing for a smartphone plan with unlimited nationwide calling and texting and 1 GB of data in Ontario. And that’s just one example of price matching.

Also, their market share is similar, just like their revenues (the latest numbers were reported earlier), so Nowak rightfully questions their sudden demand for differential pricing.

Rogers’ position, on the other hand, seems more transparent: Canada’s #1 carrier wants its customers to pay for the bandwidth they use. Still it offers free Spotify subscriptions, which can be considered a differentiating factor compared to other carriers.

The CRTC’s review of zero rating was ignited by complaints against Videotron, which offers Unlimited Music, allowing its subscribers to stream music from certain third-party services without counting the data traffic towards their monthly data cap.

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