After news of telecom providers announcing prices increases for wireless, internet and more, Innovation, Science and Economic Development (ISED) Canada says there’s one way to combat rising bills—just look into switching providers.
After we reported Rogers price increases for wireless and Ignite bundles, it later came to light Shaw TV, internet and home phone prices were increasing as well. There was also one unconfirmed price increase from Bell seen on X.
So what should Canadians do if they are sick of telecom price increases? Just look into switching to another provider, says the federal government.
That’s what an ISED Canada spokesperson told CBC News earlier this week.
“Customers could consider switching service providers,” said ISED, when asked about the recent telecom price hikes.
The Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne also told CBC News the recent price increases from Rogers “go against” the federal government’s plans. His rhetoric said telecoms should “consider customers over profits at this time,” without explaining what consequences could happen if the latter did not happen.
The statement from @ISED_CA didn’t directly answer my question about whether the minister would take action. It referenced that Rogers is still subject to conditions for Shaw deal and those will be enforced.
But since this doesn’t violate those… 🤷🏻♂️ (10/x)— Anis R. Heydari (@RadioAnis) January 6, 2024
“At this time, there is no indication Rogers is contravening their transaction agreement. However, Rogers is subject to binding reporting requirements and significant damages of up to $1 billion for noncompliance,” said ISED Canada, referring to the Rogers-Shaw merger, that was approved by the department.
It’s true that flanker brands of Rogers, Telus and Bell (Fido, Koodo and Virgin Plus) offer cheaper plans versus flagship plans from the ‘Big 3’. Even Freedom Mobile is forging ahead with some aggressive plans. The problem? It’s on Canadians to go hunt out these limited-time deals and navigate complex websites that frequently get updated designs, that seemingly confuse users more every single time. Switching carriers also is a time-consuming process that many just don’t want to do.
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Tired of switching providers every couple of years!
Its one of your main responsibilities as a Canadian citizen. Answer the call when we go to war, vote during elections, and keep the telecoms accountable by regularly switching providers :).
when it’s as easy as switching toothpaste brands, if you don’t do than you accepts the prices you are paying. I do agree with you that nowadays switching gains you little in terms any significant financial benefit.
F–K these jokers! Maybe we should be able to switch away from useless governments like they want us to switch providers every time there is a price increase. Stupid Liberal government….
If Canada has a brain when voting time comes, we will. Unless Ontario and Quebec still haven’t found common sense yet….
Fascism isn’t a solution.
Such a ridiculous reply! Are you commenting like this because you actually believe what the liberal media wants you to believe?
Such a ridiculous reply! Are you commenting like this because you actually believe what the fascist media wants you to believe?
remember when the Liberals said they’d bring prices down?
I guess the money to do that went into Arrivescam.
2025 can’t come quick enough. Get rid of these entitled narcicists.
Well, they also said that the price drops would happen organically, meaning not at all.
When you have a government run by spoiled, privileged children, this is what we get.
And all has to do is take his shirt off for a selfie and his groupies will rally around him. Every single time.
You’re not alone, a fact I’ll remind the first Liberal politician that comes to my door next election.
Both my Rogers cellular and Rogers-Shaw have increased by $10 each in the last few months. Not impressed, mebbe I switch.
“I want to switch” isn’t a time consuming process at all but when all brans raise rices at the same time by the same amounts, no amount of switching will stop that behavior.
I actually went online to switch, looking for a new plan for my wife. You can’t find a clear price for current customers, everything is “for new customers” So I have to find the time to call and hopefully they don’t lie as they typically do and yes, I record my calls, they lie. Or they don’t know their product and unintentionally give the wrong information. Either way, it’s fight afterwards.
If you’re a current customer then you aren’t switching
“If you’re a current customer then you aren’t switching”
LOL does that statement make sense to you?
If you are with Roger’s and changing your plan to another plan with Roger’s then you’re not switching. Can you not read? If you’re a current customer then you’re not switching.
You’re making assumptions aren’t you genius? Still working on that reading comprehension without success I see
Some gall. This Liberal wants companies to favour consumers over profits, all while they and the NDP put carbon taxes over Canadians.
I don’t understand the parallel your trying to draw. The carbon tax is a market correction mechanism that’s mostly (90%) paid back to Canadians in the form of quarterly rebates. What Rogers is doing is just increasing prices for their services. These two things are not alike
It takes gall to put a virtue signaling tax on all Canadians that will do nothing and pretend changing carriers will do something, especially when Trudeau promised he’d get carriers to lower prices. Well I haven’t changed plans since and mine and my wife’s prices have gone up. Trudeau lied.
It’s popular to call the carbon tax virtue signaling, but it is actually a prime example of price signalling. The government is increasing the price of something undesirable, through taxation, so that consumers will use less of it. We do the same thing with tobacco and alcohol. Currently, for most, the price is just high enough to be an annoyance, but as the scheduled price increases take effect, people’s behavior will change . It also has the secondary benefit of being a wealth equalization tool, as most low-income Canadians should come out further ahead.
The price of your cellphone plan may have increased recently, but for anyone who was shopping for a plan this holiday season or watching the deals on this site, the cost per gigabyte has never been less in Canada. This is likely more a result of Quebecor taking possession of Freedom and not government edict, but there has been an undeniable price decrease per gigabyte. You should probably switch providers.
The reason and solid argument won’t get you much traction here. Try peppering it with some emotions, preferably hatred.
“the cost per gigabyte has never been less”
That’s the scam, I did the math in early 2023. Nobody needs 50gig so lower the price accordingly If a 50g plan is worth $70 for example, then what is a 40 or 30 or 20 gig plan worth? Where are those plans? There are none, I just looked 2 days ago and couldn’t find anything that reflected lower prices for the gigs I want, in fact I couldn’t find anything for existing customers that gave a straight answer with respect to cost. The plans aren’t lower at all, it’s an optical illusion. Nobody needs 50gb or 70gb plans, they know it. They can offer 1000 gig, it makes no difference, nobody will use that much so it comes back to cost and cost has gone up. It certainly has for my wife and myself and we didn’t even get anything more.
I, too, enjoy complaining, and I would like to pay less for my telecom services, but it has literally never been cheaper for cell phones plan in Canada – especially given the rate of inflation affecting everything else. Prices that are currently on offer were unheard of even a year ago. Currently, there are many plans available that include voice, text, and a sizable amount of data for less than $30/40 per month. Public Mobile is offering $29/month for 30GB, and $24/month for 4GB. Fredom offers several low cost monthly and annual plans, and all the mid tier flankers (Koodo, Fido..etc) are offering some variation of 40/50gb for $34/month. If you’re savvy, as you should be if you frequent this site, there are ways of getting plans that are even cheaper.
It’s not about complaining, it’s about gouging, it’s about collusion, it’s about the government clearly being bought by the carrier’s, it’s about government paper lions. It’s about the carriers misleading by offering more data that costs them nothing, raising prices, and trying to claim prices are lower because they’re giving more data. Well I didn’t ask for more data and if a stated price for a certain amount of data cost this much then where is my lower price if I want less data? It doesn’t exist because the whole thing is a scam. It cost them no more to give me more data but they still get to charge more.
If it’s been cheaper, explain why my wife and I are paying more since Trudeau got into power and our prices keep going up every few months? More data doesn’t translate to paying less. I want to pay less for the plan I have and you literally can’t. I just tried going online to change my wife’s plan and I couldn’t find a way for current customers to change their plan easily. So I have to call and go through that torture. Why? Why are all the offers for “new customers” and all the headaches for current customers? and spare me the Feedom nonsense and Public Mobile option. I’ve tried Freedom, nothing worked and who owns Public Mobile? Right Telus, why the games?
The bottom line is we have carriers violating antitrust laws and the government has allowed it. We have carriers openly colluding and we have a government that will now make it easy for competition to come in. We are paying 2 to 3 times as much as we should be for what we get and when the politicians come to my door I’ll let the hear about it and the first liberal that comes will get an ear full about Trudeau lying.
If prices were lower, they would have been lowered without anyone doing anything but all they’ve done is headfake people with data. I shouldn’t have to change carriers every year and if I do in order to get better deals then it should be a transparent thing done online within minutes. You can’t even see all the plans if you want to stay with your current carrier.
Keep in mind that almost all economists agree that governments don’t impact economics, they just ride them. They might trim a little off the top here and pad a little of the bottom there. But they aren’t the reason the economy does what it does. That’s based on global conflicts, pandemics, supply chain disruptions, natural disasters, and the like.
In Alberta I pay more for rent and make less each paycheque, but that’s not the government (either of them), that’s the oil prices sky rocketing because of Russia, leading to a trickle effect through the economy because energy prices impact everything from food, to driving, to services. And it’s the best example because you’d think high oil prices would be good for Alberta in particular, but it hasn’t been because the government taking in a surplus doesn’t actually impact us peons.
So to topic at hand. You’re angry. Clearly very. And want to hate someone; fine. But you also can’t roll your eyes when there are cheaper options from someone like Public Mobile just because they’re owned by Telus. Switch if it’s important to you to pay less, stay if you want to see the name Telus at the top of your bill. It’s that easy. Prices don’t come down because the majority of Canadians don’t switch ever.
You’re missing my point, the cost has not gone down, Trudeau did not do anything to bring the cost down like he promised he would. Why am I and my wife paying more for the plans we have? If the cost had gone down we’d be paying less for the same plans we’ve been on for 3 years or so, but instead we’re paying more than when we got the plans. Clearly cost hasn’t gone down.
What plan did you have three years ago? What did it cost?
What plan today?
For me I pay significantly less than just a few years ago. Significantly really. And that’s not factoring in inflation but when you do it’s even less.
But I had to switch my plans and my provider. Because there will never be a company in a capitalist economy that will reach out to you to reduce your costs.
I don’t know what it was called but I can tell you I’m paying about $15 more then when the plan began and my wife’s plan increased even more, she’s with Bell. We well be switching of course but again, my argument is the prices have not gone down, they’ve gone up, if they had gone down, they would have gone down on my bill without me doing anything and we’ll see once I look into it what the trade off will be.
Yeah again thats just not how capitalism works. I wish it did, but it doesn’t.
If you buy a house right now your bank won’t call you to decrease your interest rate when rates come down. You have to call around and refinance at lower rates when it is available. Same if I buy a toaster and then in two weeks it goes on sale; if I call them and complain they might give me the lower price but they’d never call me.
If you and your wife have stayed with the same provider and not actually adjusted the plan you are on, then you are right your prices will have increased. Many providers increase the rate plans people are on by a few dollars every few months / years. So yep. But the actual market has definitely come down, you need to go after it. I change my rate plan at least once a year, and sometimes I switch providers at that high of a frequency too. If someone else is selling a toaster for less… I shop there.
But hey the positive news from all of this is it sounds like you can expect to find a plan less expensive than what you currently have!
My bill is half of what it was a year ago for the same thing.
Cost definitely has gone down.
I think it’s BS that carriers are happy to gouge people who stick with their existing plans rather than shop for lower prices. I think it’s shady.
voting with your wallet is THEE best way to bring any price down if the masses do it.
This is mostly true, but government policy has a major role to play as well. There is a limited amount of wireless spectrum in which telecom operators can offer services, and the government has a responsibility to ensure a competitive marketplace by distributing that spectrum amongst a number of competing players. Furthermore, government also sets the rules by which these companies operate – MVNO’s, network sharing, contract durations…etc.
Foreign ownership rules limit competition and should have been changed when Wind was trying to make themselves a real competitor…these large companies have been protected for too long and have lost sight of how to compete in an open market economy.
You’re right about them being protected, but if you open up the market to foreign competition, you’re subject to national security arguments. Is it safe for foreign companies to own / operate major Canadian communications infrastructure? I don’t know enough about how other countries telecom markets operate, but I kinda get the concern. If I’m not mistaken, Wind was mostly funded by a telecom conglomerate out of Egypt. Perhaps if the major backer was from NATO member country, it would’ve all worked out. Oh, what could’ve been.
Foreign ownership rules were removed/loosened back around 2007/08. I’m pretty sure I read somewhere that Verizon assessed the market, realized how few people live here and little opportunity to make money and simply abandoned the idea. Given fifteen plus years passed and how much prices have come down I doubt there is any rational outfit considering Canada being a good place to start a cellphone company.
The problem with this is that switching from the big three to almost any alternative – is that one of them still own the subsidiary/alternative. So it isn’t really a risk of losing revenue…
A couple of years ago I would have agreed cellphone rates in this country are ridiculous. But this last prices have definitely appear to have come down. As I’m writing this multiple carrier ads are popping up offer 30-40 gigs of data for thirty some dollars. And that price is not new, it has been like that for most of last year. Sure, like most Canadians I want to pay as little as possible for anything. Hence this country being one of the highest consumer of chinese made goods. Unhealthy as that may be. When it comes cell data I pay less than a dollar per gig and I even get US roaming included in that. And most of the people I know do not pay more than $2 per gig of data. Which is equal or less to many European places. Should we stop pushing carriers? No, but if I were them at some point I’d say stop investing, lay more people off and raise prices if you can. And then consolidate. Shawgers move is a perfect example. This is just how market dynamics work.
Mine has gone up, my wife’s has gone up. In fact, I don’t know anyone who’s plan has gone down.
Then you are missing out….you should definitely look/shop around.
Who is your carrier? I have far more data than I need, but haven’t had any success at getting a better price. My bill is ridiculous for bringing my own phone and my Apple watch.
we have two in the household. one koodo, one telus.
Unbelievable. Switch to who? There’s effectively 3 choices and they openly collude.
Switching is easy but they do not consider that you cannot get the same discounts for all your devices. For example, I have 2 smartwatches $0/mo. I cannot switch my 2 lines without paying much more for the package.
This is what keeps me with TELUS. I’d have flown to Rogers or whatever just to try a different network if I could bring the watches but they would cost me almost another full line’s worth each month.